Memphis continues road streak with win over Chicago

Basketball Betting Lines

03/04/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Randolph poured in 31 points and pulled down 18 rebounds, and Memphis dominated the fourth quarter to beat Chicago, 105-96, and extend its franchise-record road winning streak to six games.

O.J. Mayo scored half of his 20 points in the last quarter for the Grizzlies, who are 6-0 on the road since the All-Star break, but have been winless at home (0-5).

Rudy Gay had 17 points, while Mike Conley contributed 14 points and eight assists for the Grizzlies.

Luol Deng had 23 points for the Bulls, who lost their third in a row. Derrick Rose ended with 20 points. Brad Miller and Kirk Hinrich had 14 and 13 points, respectively.

The Bulls pushed their lead to six at the start of the fourth quarter as a Hinrich layup moved the margin to 82-76, but the Grizzlies later scored eight in a row to take command.

Randolph started the flurry with a free throw, tying the game at 90 with 5:05 remaining. Marc Gasol's layup and subsequent free throw gave Memphis the lead at 93-90, and he added another bucket before Mayo capped the flurry with a layup with 3:50 to play. The Bulls, who went 6-of-20 from the field in the final quarter, never got closer than five points after that juncture.

Chicago scored 15 in a row in the first quarter for a 26-10 lead and held a comfortable 32-19 advantage after 12 minutes.

Memphis was within 51-45 at the half, and scored 10 straight in the third to tie the game at 65 with 4:33 left.

Game Notes

Before Thursday, the last time the road team won in this series is was when the Bulls defeated the Grizzlies, 96-88, on Dec. 15, 2004 at FedExForum...Deng missed the previous game due to a swollen left knee...Gasol had 12 points as Memphis shot 52.6 percent from the field...The Bulls were 3-of-14 from three- point range and were dominated on the glass, 46-31.

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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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