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02/05/2012 - Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There was nothing wrong with Nicolas Batum's left knee on Saturday.
Batum returned from a brief two-game absence and nailed a franchise record nine three-pointers en route to a career-high 33 points as the Portland Trail Blazers routed the Denver Nuggets, 117-97.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 29 points and nine rebounds while Marcus Camby pulled down 20 boards for the Blazers, who moved to 11-1 at the Rose Garden this season.
Danilo Gallinari netted 20 points while Kosta Koufos finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets, who have lost four of their last five games.
Batum's three-pointer late in the first quarter capped a 10-4 Blazers run as the hosts took a 33-24 advantage before taking a 33-26 lead into the second.
Back-to-back Batum treys gave Portland its largest lead of the half, 50-34, with 7:24 to play in second.
But the Nuggets closed the stanza on a 10-2 run, cutting the margin to 59-53 heading into the locker room. Batum had five treys and 17 points in the first half.
The Blazers pulled away in the third quarter.
Koufos' reverse layup pulled the Nuggets within 68-63, but the Blazers responded with a 17-4 run to make it 85-67 with 1:20 to go in the third. Aldridge had eight points during the flurry, which Batum capped with his sixth three-pointer. Portland led, 85-71, after three.
Batum buried three more treys in the final quarter as the Blazers led by as many as 27, cruising to the easy win.
Game Notes
The Blazers scored 24 points off 17 Denver turnovers...Seven of Camby's rebounds were offensive boards...Gerald Wallace added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists for Portland...The Blazers were 15-of-33 from beyond the arc...Portland dished out 30 assists.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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