Jazz return home to face hapless Wizards

Basketball Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Utah Jazz hope a return to Salt Lake City against a hapless Washington team will get them back on the winning track as the postseason approaches.

The short-handed Jazz dropped the final two games of a four-game road trip, the latest of which came last night in Oklahoma City when Russell Westbrook poured in 30 points and dished out 11 assists, as the Thunder took down Utah 119-111.

Wesley Matthews finished with a career-high 29 points for the Jazz, who ended the four-game trip with a 2-2 mark and are now just a half-game ahead of the Thunder for the fifth seed in the Western Conference standings.

Deron Williams battled through a sore shoulder and wrist to record 27 points and 14 assists before fouling out. Carlos Boozer tallied 18 points and 11 boards for Utah, which lost back-to-back games for the first time since a three-game skid from December 31-January 4.

"That was about as physical a basketball team as we're going to face," Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said of the Jazz. "It's great for our guys to experience it and compete against a very veteran, physical, playoff-tested team."

The Jazz were without center Mehmet Okur (back) and forward Andrei Kirilenko (calf) on Sunday and both players are listed as questionable for tonight's game.

The Wizards, who are opening up a four-game road trip tonight, continue to falter down the stretch and dropped their season-high seventh consecutive game on Saturday against Orlando. Dwight Howard put up 28 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and even dished out five assists in that one, as the Magic overcame a sluggish start to upend Washington, 109-95.

Andray Blatche posted 32 points for the Wizards, who actually led by 15 before stumbling to yet another loss. Shaun Livingston provided 18 points and eight assists, and Al Thornton chipped in 15 points in defeat.

"Unfortunately the game's are 48 minutes and not 12," joked Wizards head coach Flip Saunders.

Blatche has been the lone bright spot for Washington, averaging 24.5 points and 9.8 rebounds in 14 games since joining the starting lineup.

The Jazz have won 18 of their last 21 home games against the Wizards.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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