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Pistons welcome Hornets to The PalaceBasketball Betting Lines02/04/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of also-rans get together tonight at The Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Detroit Pistons will host the New Orleans Hornets. The Hornets have lost four in a row and 13 of their last 14 games, including Thursday's 93-81 setback in San Antonio. Carl Landry netted 17 points and Greivis Vasquez added 16 for the Hornets, losers of five straight on the road and owners of a 2-8 record away from the Big Easy. "The guys we were counting on to step up tonight just didn't have it," Hornets head coach Monty Williams said. Marco Belinelli had 11 points off the bench in a losing cause. New Orleans, which is last in the Southwest Division, played well in defeat and shot 44.6 percent from the field. Jarrett Jack missed the game with a balky knee and should be back in the lineup tonight. He has scored in double figures in 11 straight contests and is averaging 15.8 points and 6.8 assists this season. After visiting the Pistons, New Orleans will return home for a four-game residency versus the Kings, Bulls, Blazers and Jazz. Detroit is last in the Central Division and was able to snap a seven-game losing streak with Friday's 88-80 victory versus Milwaukee. Rookie Brandon Knight had a career-high 26 points, while Greg Monroe added 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons, who were coming off an 0-4 road trip and got 13 points and nine rebounds from Tayshaun Prince. Jason Maxiell pulled down 12 boards in a winning effort. "We played for a full 48 minutes tonight," said Monroe. "Everybody that was in the game played hard. Everybody played with energy." The Pistons improved to 4-8 at home this season and haven't won back-to-back games since Dec. 31-Jan. 2. Prior to the game, the Pistons announced that forward Charlie Villanueva will miss at least a few weeks due to continued soreness and discomfort in his right ankle. After visiting with multiple foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons, Villanueva was diagnosed with a resolving posterior tibial tenosynovitis with small talotibal spurs. It was recommended that the ankle be partially immobilized. He will be re-evaluated in a few weeks. After hosting the Hornets tonight, Detroit will visit New Jersey before returning home for a three-game residency versus the Nets, Wizards and Spurs. The Pistons and Hornets split a home-and-home series a year ago, with each team holding serve as the host. New Orleans has won four of the past six meetings between the teams, but has lost six of eight visits to The Palace.
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook BettingNFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal. A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon." It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed. The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha. So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games." Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs. |
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