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Nuggets continue homestand in matchup with PacersBasketball Betting Lines03/05/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets are one of the best teams in the NBA at home and will resume a three-game residency Friday night versus the struggling Indiana Pacers at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets posted their third straight win as the host with Wednesday's 119-90 blowout of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the opener of this homestand. Carmelo Anthony netted 30 points and Nene added 20 for the Northwest Division- leading Nuggets, who pushed their outstanding home mark to 26-5. "[Oklahoma City] is a playoff team right now and for us to go out there and do what we did tonight, it just boosts our confidence," Anthony said of the big win. J.R. Smith ended with 18 points to help Denver end a two-game drought, while Chauncey Billups and Chris Andersen chipped in 13 points apiece. Anthony Carter had a game-high 12 assists and Kenyon Martin pulled down 13 rebounds for the Nuggets, who will also host Portland on this homestand. The Nuggets are third in the Western Conference standings, just a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 2 spot. Indiana will resume a four-game road trip Friday and has lost the first two legs of the trek. It suffered a 102-79 loss at Portland its last time out Wednesday in the Rose Garden, where Danny Granger was the only scoring threat for Indiana after netting 30 points in the club's fifth loss in six games overall. T.J. Ford posted nine points for the Pacers, who have lost four in a row on the road and are 7-25 away from Indianapolis this season. "I think they are a heck of a defensive team," Pacers head coach Jim O'Brien said of the Blazers. "I think they took us out of a lot of our plays. We had a difficult time getting the ball into the low post." The Pacers will also visit Phoenix on the current road swing. Denver defeated Indiana, 111-93, back on November 3 at Conseco Fieldhouse behind a 24-point effort from Billups. The Nuggets have won nine of their last 11 matchups with the Pacers.
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Betting the NFL preseasonRule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games." When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night. The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine. “I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.” The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark. “We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.” The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long. “It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.” Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play. “You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt." So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps? “Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says. Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins. Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet. Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter. “If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says. Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider. The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason. “We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003. Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
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