Mavs get back on track with win over hurting Bulls

Basketball Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Caron Butler scored 27 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 26 as the Mavericks ran past Chicago, 113-106, sending the short-handed Bulls to their ninth consecutive defeat.

J.J. Barea registered 15 points for Dallas, which won for the 14th time in 15 games. Shawn Marion scored 12 and Rodrigue Beaubois tallied 11 for the Mavs, who bounced back from a shocking 34-point home loss to New York on Saturday. They moved into a tie with Denver for the second-best record in the Western Conference.

The Mavericks also saw the return of Jason Terry. The veteran guard, who had missed the last five games due to facial surgery, had nine points in nearly 25 minutes of court time.

"When you come back from two weeks and able to hit your first shot and get right into it offensively, that's great," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "Conditioning is going to be a bit of a factor here for a few games until he really back into 100 percent."

Acie Law scored a career-best 22 points for the Bulls, who haven't won since February 26 at home against Portland. This is the longest skid for Chicago since opening the 2004-05 campaign with an 0-9 record.

Chicago fell 2 1/2 games behind Toronto for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls played without their top three scorers as Derrick Rose (sprained left wrist), Luol Deng (strained calf) and Joakim Noah (left foot) all missed the game.

"We've got to tighten up some things defensively," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "That's how we won early in the season. We can't control the paint and we're not controlling penetration as well as we'd like. We just have to keep trying to find ways to improve in a lot of areas, and it makes it tough when half your team is new."

The Mavs got off to a blazing start, shooting 11-of-16 from the field in the first quarter. Butler scored nine in the period as the home team grabbed a 32-20 lead after 12 minutes.

Dallas continued to expand the lead in the second with Beaubois' driving layup moving the cushion to 57-33 with 3:06 left in the quarter. The largest lead was 25, at 60-35, following a Barea three-pointer at the two-minute mark.

The lead stood at 64-44 at the half and it never dipped under 15 in the third, with Law banging in a three-pointer for an 88-72 difference at the end of the period.

Chicago actually got within single digits, closing the gap to 100-93 on a Brad Miller three-point play with 5:34 remaining. Barea, though, stemmed the tide with a three-ball and he then added a layup and another three-pointer for a dominating 108-93 margin. Chicago got only as close as the final score.

"J.J. really stepped up big in the fourth quarter and saved us," Nowitzki said. "He made some big shots, two big threes, two pull-up jumpers behind the screens because they left him open and he really used the screen and knocked some shots down."

Game Notes

Dallas has won eight of 10 and 21 of the last 24 meetings...Chicago has lost five in a row at Dallas...Butler went 14-of-16 at the foul line...The Bulls went 0-4 on their road trip and will return to the Windy City to host Cleveland on Friday...The Mavs, who host Boston Saturday, are now 19-1 when shooting at least 50 percent. They ended at 52.6 percent in this game.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Cassel Signs Contract

Kansas City, MO - Kansas City has not officially named Matt Cassel its starting quarterback, but there can be no doubt now.

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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."

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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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