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03/06/2008 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Al Thornton scored 27 points and Corey Maggette added 25 as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings, 116-109, in two overtimes.
Dan Dickau scored a season-high 20 points and Chris Kaman had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers, who snapped a six-game losing streak. Josh Powell contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds for Los Angeles, which rallied from 17 down.
Beno Udrih scored 25 points and Mikki Moore 20 for Sacramento, which has lost six of its last seven.
In the second overtime, two Powell free throws put the Clippers ahead 108-105 with 1:28 remaining. After a defensive stop, Thornton made the first and missed the second of two free throws but Powell grabbed the offensive rebound. Dickau then made a driving layup giving Los Angeles an 111-105 with 28 ticks to go.
Quincy Douby's layup five seconds later pulled the Kings within four but Thornton's dunk on the other end pushed the Clippers lead back to six, 113-107 with 19 seconds remaining.
The Kings led 25-24 after an evenly played first quarter.
A Dickau three-pointer with 9:54 left in the second gave the Clippers a 29-27 lead. Sacramento, though, responded with a 23-11 flurry. Douby sparked the run with a four-point play. The rookie out of Rutgers drilled a three and was fouled with 9:20 left in the quarter giving the Kings a 31-29 edge.
Moore's jumper with 3:01 left in the half put the Kings up 50-40. Sacramento took a 54-43 lead into the intermission.
Sacramento scored the first six points of the second half, taking a 60-43 lead on Moore's jumper with 9:33 left in the third quarter. The Clippers then worked their way back to within single-digits with an 11-2 surge.
Brevin Knight's driving bank shot pulled Los Angeles within 62-54 with 7:07 left in the third. The Kings held a 74-66 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Dickau's triple with 1:02 left in the fourth pulled the Clippers to within 91-89. After Udrih missed a jumper, Thornton made one tying the game at 91 with 18 seconds remaining.
Sacramento had a chance to win it in regulation but Miller's driving layup was blocked by Powell at the buzzer.
In the first overtime, Powell's jumper with 18 seconds to go knotted the game at 97. The Kings then had a chance to win it, but Udrih turned the ball over with 2.3 seconds left giving Los Angeles time for a shot.
Out of a timeout, Dickau received the inbound and misfired from the top of the key sending the game to a second overtime.
Game Notes
The Clippers outrebounded the Kings 49-38...Thornton scored 13 points after regulation...This was the third of four meetings between the squads this season. The Clippers have won all three and have five of the last six games in the series...The Kings have lost three of their last four at the Clippers.
<< No. 19 Wildcats claw Jayhawks, clinch share of Big 12 title
Lawrence, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shalee Lehning poured in a career-high 29
points and pulled down 17 rebounds, earning the 19th-ranked Kansas State
Wildcats a 61-50 win over the Kansas Jayhawks and at least a piece of the
regular
<< Browns sign Rogers to new deal
Berea, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns ripped up the final three
years of defensive tackle Shaun Rogers' Detroit contract and substituted a new
six-year, $42 million deal on Wednesday.
According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer,
<< Playoff-hopeful Coyotes edge Dallas
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shane Doan's second-period goal turned out to be
the game-winner as the Phoenix Coyotes defeated the Dallas Stars, 2-1.
Peter Mueller lit the lamp and Ilya Bryzgalov got the win after stopping 20-
of-21 shots
<< No. 15 Utah squeaks by Colorado State
Fort Collins, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Morgan Warburton scored a game-high 25
points to lead 15th-ranked Utah past Colorado State, 63-58.
Leilani Mitchell added 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Utes
(26-3,15-0 MWC), who have won 21
Dougherty goes low for Malaysian Open lead >>
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Dougherty fired a 10-under-par
62 on Thursday to grab the first-round lead of the Malaysian Open at Kota
Permai Golf Club.
Despite the 10-under score, Dougherty is only two ahead. Con
War Pass and Pyro top second Kentucky Derby Future Pool >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eclipse Award winner War Pass is the 5-2
morning-line favorite for the second of three Kentucky Derby Future Wagers.
Pyro, winner of the Risen Star Stakes, is the 6-1 second choice in the field
of 24.
Streaking Tigers take on Yellow Jackets in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Back in the Top-25, the 24th-ranked Clemson
Tigers invade Alexander Memorial Coliseum to face off against the Georgia Tech
Yellow Jackets in an ACC affair tonight.
The Tigers have played well down the stretch,
Spartans battle Illini in Champaign >>
Champaign, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 17th-ranked Michigan State Spartans are
set to do battle with the Illinois Fighting Illini in a Big Ten clash from
Champaign.
Michigan State is 23-6 overall and 11-5 in conference, and while the goal of
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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