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Bobcats welcome hapless Nets to Charlotte

Basketball Betting Lines

02/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats will try to keep up their outstanding home play this season at Time Warner Cable Arena tonight versus a New Jersey Nets club that hasn't won on the road in over two months.

The Bobcats come out of the All-Star break having won 10 of their last 12 at home, helping them post a 19-6 mark as the host this season. They bested the Wizards in their most recent game in Charlotte last Tuesday, then secured a thrilling 93-92 victory at Minnesota on Wednesday.

Nazr Mohammed clinched the victory on a dunk with 5.3 seconds left after securing the rebound off a Boris Diaw missed jumper. Mohammed posted a double- double with 21 points and a season-high 20 rebounds, while Diaw ended with 15 points and five assists.

"We came out really aggressive at the beginning of the game," Tyson Chandler told NBA.com. "But in the second half we got a little lax, had a few turnovers and they were able to build confidence. And when you give a young team confidence, they were able to stay in the game. They made it close."

Stephen Jackson led the club with 33 points, while D.J. Augustin made his first start of the season and posted 12 points and seven assists. Augustin was playing in place of Raymond Felton, who sat out due to a sprained right ankle. He is questionable for tonight's game.

Gerald Wallace shot just 1-for-9 versus the Timberwolves, ending with five points and nine rebounds for Charlotte, which is sixth in the Eastern Conference, 2 1/2 games back of Toronto. Wallace, the Bobcats' lone and first- ever All-Star representative, shot 1-for-3 in the East's 141-139 victory on Sunday, adding three boards in 15:32 of action.

The 6-foot-7 Wallace has been a terror on the glass versus the Nets this year, as he has a career-best 20 rebounds in both meetings with New Jersey this year. He had 24 points and 20 boards in a 79-68 home win over the Nets on November 2, but he wasn't able to rebound his club to a victory in New Jersey on December 4.

That 97-91 win by the Nets snapped their season-opening 18-game losing streak and the club will try to end another lengthy skid this season tonight versus Charlotte. New Jersey dropped a 97-77 decision to Milwaukee on Wednesday in its last game before the break, its eighth straight loss and 19th in its last 20 games.

The Nets have won five of their last seven versus the Bobcats, as well as eight of the last 10 meetings at Charlotte. They hope that past success will help them halt a 15-game road skid tonight and give them their first victory as the visiting team since their only road win this year (1-27) on Dec. 8.

Devin Harris had 27 points and nine assists versus the Bucks, but he also accounted for five of the Nets' 17 total turnovers. Yi Jianlian added nine points and 12 boards, as New Jersey played in front of just over 1,000 fans due to a snowstorm in the northeast.

"I'm not sure exactly what happened, but this is the first time in I think eight or nine games where we didn't compete in the second half," interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe told NBA.com. "I'm not sure exactly what happened...people looked very tired to me."

The Nets are just 4-48 on the season and their goal following the All-Star break will be to avoid breaking the NBA mark for the worst single-season record held by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who went 9-73 that year.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

  • Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
    OR
  • Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.

  • 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.

    For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically

    Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:

  • Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
    OR
  • Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score

    Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?

    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.