Spurs resume lengthy trek vs. Pistons

Basketball Betting Lines

02/14/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs are starting to pick up their game on the road and will resume a nine-game Rodeo Road Trip tonight against the lowly Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Spurs have won seven in a row overall and improved to 3-0 on the annual trip following Saturday's 103-89 triumph at New Jersey. Gary Neal scored 18 points off the bench, Tim Duncan finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks and Tony Parker added 12 points for the Spurs, who improved to 6-8 away from the Alamo City.

"For some reason he plays like this on the road," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said about Neal. "He shoots the ball well on the road. He enjoys it."

Tiago Splitter and Danny Green each contributed 10 points in the win. Manu Ginobili made his return to the Spurs after missing 22 games with a fracture in his left hand and finished with seven points and four assists. San Antonio will also visit the Raptors, Clippers, Jazz, Blazers and Nuggets on the nearly 8,000-mile trek.

San Antonio, which is 1 1/2 games ahead of Dallas for first place in the Southwest Division, is currently in the midst of playing 16 of 21 games on the road and is 10-5 so far during that stretch, having played 10 games on the road and five at the AT&T Center.

The Spurs' seven-game winning streak is the longest since winning eight consecutive games between Jan. 7-21, 2011.

Detroit had won a season-best four straight games until dropping a 98-77 decision to Washington on Sunday in the middle test of a three-game homestand.

Greg Monroe had 27 points and six rebounds, while Rodney Stuckey and Tayshaun Prince scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Pistons, who shot a season-low 32.6 percent from the field and committed 19 turnovers.

"From the beginning of the game, we didn't have that same sort of effort and intensity that we had in some of these prior games," Detroit head coach Lawrence Frank said.

The Pistons were averaging 96.2 points over their previous five games and are 6-9 as the host this season. Last in the Central Division, Detroit will visit Boston Wednesday.

Detroit was swept by San Antonio in last year's home-and-home series and has lost four of the previous five meetings between the teams. Monroe averaged a double-double against the Spurs last season, recording 15.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. Parker averaged 21 points and seven assists against the Pistons in 2010-11.

San Antonio leads all-time series by a 47-30 margin and owns a 20-18 advantage as the visitor in this matchup.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.