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01/28/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Before starting a brutal seven-game stretch Monday, the Philadelphia 76ers had to take care of business against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night.
On his 28th birthday, Andre Iguodala recorded his eighth career triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists as Philadelphia routed Detroit, 95-74.
Lou Williams added 17 points for the Sixers, who moved to 10-2 at home this season. They have outscored their opponents by double-figures in each of those victories.
Greg Monroe finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Pistons, who have lost four straight and eight of their last nine.
The Sixers sit atop the Atlantic Division at 14-6, but rank near the bottom of the NBA in strength of schedule heading into a tough stretch that will give them an opportunity to disprove some of their skeptics.
It begins with home games against the Magic, Bulls and Heat, then a road game in Atlanta. The Sixers will return home to play the Lakers, Spurs and Clippers after that. Those seven teams had a combined 90 wins entering play Saturday.
While on a fastbreak midway through the first quarter, Iguodala dribbled into the paint and leapt while looking to pass. Before his toes hit the floor, Iguodala passed to himself off the backboard and emphatically put through his own alley-oop with a two-handed flush.
The play ignited a 14-0 Sixers run, pushing their lead to 21-8 late in the opening quarter before it was 24-14 going into the second. Williams and Jodie Meeks both hit a pair of three-pointers in the period.
The Sixers took a 42-31 lead into the break. Williams netted 10 first-half points to pace Philadelphia while Detroit shot just 33.3 percent.
Philadelphia continued to hold its double-digit advantage in the third before taking a 69-53 lead into the final quarter. Elton Brand and Iguodala netted six points apiece in the stanza.
The Sixers led by as many as 29 in the fourth, cruising to the easy win.
Game Notes
Iguodala last recorded a triple-double on March 6, 2011, against Golden State when he had 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists...Austin Daye had 12 points for the Pistons...Brand had 14 points and three blocks while Jrue Holiday finished with 13 points for Philadelphia...The Sixers are 10-3 against the Eastern Conference this season...Ben Gordon did not play for the Pistons due to a sore left shoulder.
<< Chara breaks his record again in hardest shot
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zdeno Chara broke his own record in the hardest
shot challenge at the NHL SuperSkills competition.
Coming into the event with a record 105.4 mph blast in 2011, his first shot
was a blistering 108.8 to shatte
<< Oklahoma upsets No. 22 Kansas State
Manhattan, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steven Pledger poured in a game-high 30
points and pulled down five rebounds as Oklahoma squeezed past No. 22 Kansas
State, 63-60, on Saturday.
Cameron Clark finished with 11 points on 5-of-9 shootin
<< Team Alfredsson sweeps skills challenge relay
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Team Alfredsson won all three points
available in the skills challenge relay at the NHL SuperSkills competition.
Consists of one-timers, target shooting, passing, puck control and
stickha
<< Benn wins accuracy competition
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars, who had an
appendectomy on January 15, won the accuracy shooting challenge at the NHL
SuperSkills competition.
Shooting for Team Chara, he had the fastest score in the q
Virginia holds on to down North Carolina State >>
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With Sammy Zeglinski and Jontel Evans draped
all over him, Lorenzo Brown's three-pointer at the buzzer from the right wing
fell short and No. 19 Virginia held on and escaped Raleigh with a 61-60 win
over No
Rockets roll past skidding Knicks >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chase Budinger had 19 points and Goran Dragic
added 16, as the Rockets cruised past the reeling Knicks, 97-84, on Saturday.
Neither team was with its leading scorer. Kevin Martin was out with a foot
injur
Chara breaks his own record, but Team Alfredsson wins >>
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zdeno Chara's record-breaking blast was part
of the highlights at the NHL SuperSkills competition on Saturday.
Chara was captain of his own team that eventually lost to Team Alfredsson,
21-12.
In the
Baylor routs Kansas >>
Waco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brittney Griner scored 28 points and added seven
rebounds to help No. 1 Baylor rout Kansas, 74-46.
Kimetria Hayden added 10 points, five boards and four assists and Odyssey Sims
had eight points and six assist
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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Kansas City, MO - Kansas City has not officially named Matt Cassel its starting quarterback, but there can be no doubt now.
NFL Betting
After praising his leadership and work ethic through spring workouts, the Chiefs announced Tuesday they had signed the 27-year-old Cassel to a multiyear contract. Terms were not disclosed, but he will almost certainly be one of the highest-paid members of the team.
"We are excited to be able to reach a long-term agreement for Matt Cassel to be a Kansas City Chief for many years to come," owner and board chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement. "His proven leadership on and off the field will be a tremendous asset to the organization."
Patriots made him their franchise player, meaning his salary for this season will be about $15 million.
New head coach Todd Haley, taking over for Herm Edwards after a 2-14 season, refused to name a starter at any position during offseason workouts. But it was obvious to everyone the team belonged to Cassel.
"I go out there each and every day with that focus that I'm the starter," Cassel said during a June minicamp. "Competition brings out the best in everybody."
The signing will come as welcome news to Cassel's new coaches and teammates. Amiable and hardworking, online football betting he appeared to win over everyone at minicamp.
"I think he's got some unique leadership qualities. I think his teammates like him and have respect for him. I think he's doing a pretty good job on the field, too," Haley said last month. "He's doing everything that I'm asking him, that our coaches are asking him to do. I don't have one single complaint how he's carrying himself."
After one workout, wide receiver Devard Darling declared Cassel "a breath of fresh air."
"He has a lot of swagger, a lot of confidence. It's good for us," said Darling. "We trust in him that he's going to go out there and lead us all the way."
nse to accommodate his specific abilities.
Trapped on the bench behind Heisman winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC and then unable to unseat Super Bowl MVP Brady at New England, Cassel seemed destined to be a backup all his life. As Brady was helped off the field last September, Cassel seized the opportunity he'd been waiting for since high school.
In his only sustained action since his teens, he hit 349 of 555 passes for 3,949 yards at New England. He had 23 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions as the Patriots, who had gone unbeaten through the regular season the year before, finished 11-5 and out of the playoffs.
Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, who had been Bill Belichick's assistant in New England, engineered the trade after the Patriots became convinced that Brady would recover fully from his knee operation.
"Since Matt arrived in Kansas City, he has embraced the team and the community," Pioli said. "His work ethic, his ability and competitive presence is what we expect from our players."
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
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