Billups leads Pistons past Bucks

Basketball Betting Lines

02/21/2007 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chauncey Billups scored 19 points, as the Detroit Pistons held on for an 84-83 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Milwaukee's Mo Williams missed a driving layup in the final seconds of regulation, and the Pistons slapped away the rebound to preserve the win.

Charlie Bell scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Bucks, who fought back from a 15-point first-half deficit, but still fell for the fifth straight game, and for the 15th time in 17 games. Michael Redd returned from a knee injury and contributed 17 points, and Ruben Patterson added 18 points off the bench for the Bucks.

Andrew Bogut scored 15 points for Milwaukee

Rasheed Wallace scored 16 points and pulled down 11 boards for the Pistons, who have won eight of nine. Antonio McDyess added 15 points and seven boards off the bench, and Richard Hamilton finished with 12 points and seven boards for Detroit.

"It was ugly, but I'll take it," said Hamilton.

A Bell layup pulled the Bucks to within 84-83 with 34.7 ticks left, and a Wallace airball on the ensuing possession gave Milwaukee a chance at the win. Williams pushed his running shot hard off the backboard, though, and no one on the Bucks could come up with the rebound in time to get off another shot before the buzzer sounded.

"It was tough," said Bell of the loss. "It's just tough to keep losing this way, on last-second shots."

The Bucks had finally scratched their way into the lead with a 14-6 run to start the second half. A Redd trey kicked off the stretch, and a Bell layup closed it, posting Milwaukee to a 54-53 lead with 7:04 left in the third.

The Bucks led, 64-63, entering the fourth quarter.

The Pistons stretched out an early lead with an 8-0 run midway through the first quarter, capped by a Billups three that put Detroit ahead 16-6 with 6:46 left. The Pistons pushed their lead to 12 points later in the quarter, and led 28-18 entering the second.

Detroit's lead maxed out at 15 points late in the second quarter, at 47-32 with just 2:31 left, but a late Milwaukee run gave momentum to the home team entering the break. The Bucks scored eight straight to close the first half, five points from Bell, who sank a free throw with four seconds left that pulled Milwaukee to within 47-40 at the intermission.

Game Notes

Milwaukee has lost nine straight against Central Division opponents...Bell has scored in double figures in 15 straight games...Detroit outrebounded the Bucks, 48-38.

Wwnytimes Basketball Betting News

<< Third-quarter drought dooms Hawks
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta went through the definition of futile in the third quarter, ending the period without a field goal, as the Chicago Bulls widened a halftime edge and rolled to a 106-81 rout of the Hawks at the United

<< No. 23 Louisville explodes in second half to crush St. John's
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Angel McCoughtry scored 21 points and ripped down 14 rebounds as 23rd-ranked Louisville crushed Big East foe St. John's, 91-62. Helen Johnson also scored 21 points while Jazz Covington tallied 17 for t

<< Stastny and Avs down Calgary
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Stastny scored two power-play goals during a high-powered first period and Peter Budaj made 33 saves, as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Calgary Flames, 4-3, at Pepsi Center. Milan Hejduk tallied

<< Kruger leads UNLV past No. 14 Air Force
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Kruger scored 14 points and added 10 assists to help the UNLV Rebels to a 60-50 victory over the 14th-ranked Air Force Falcons at Thomas & Mack Center. Joel Anthony added 10 points and nine re

<< Williams advances to quarters in Memphis
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seventh-seeded American Venus Williams advanced into the quarterfinals of the $175,000 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Denmark

Happy Returns: Nash leads Phoenix over Clips >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Nash scored 13 points and dished out 12 assists before spending a large chunk of the second half enjoying his return to the lineup from the bench, as Phoenix cruised from the outset in a 115-90

Sedin leads Canucks past Ducks in OT >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Sedin scored 2:19 into overtime, as the Vancouver Canucks won their fifth straight game with a 3-2 decision over the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center. Kevin Bieksa and Markus Naslund also scored fo

Kings edge Celts >>
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Martin scored 22 points as the Kings held off a late Boston rally to beat the Celtics, 104-101, and continued their domination in the series. Ron Artest contributed 18 points, eight rebounds a

Red Wings put home streak on the line against Blackhawks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings shoot for their 13th consecutive victory on home ice when the rival Chicago Blackhawks enter Joe Louis Arena tonight for a matchup between Central Division foes. Detroit has been tremendous in the Mot

Sharks hope to end skid vs. struggling Caps >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of struggling teams meet this evening in the nation's capital, where the Washington Capitals host the San Jose Sharks at the Verizon Center. The Capitals have dropped four games in a row, while the Sharks come into

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.