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Home court proves to be no advantage in NBA FinalsBasketball Betting Lines06/09/2010 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - I'm starting to believe the sixth man is a bit overrated. No, I'm not talking about my column, Lamar Odom or Tony Allen, I'm talking about the crowds that are supposed to mean so much in an NBA game. The Los Angeles Lakers came into the 2010 NBA Finals with home-court advantage, a precarious position for the Boston Celtics since the Lakers came into the championship series 8-0 at Staples Center this postseason after going 34-7 there in the regular season. LA managed to extend its postseason run in Hollywood with a Game 1 win last Thursday but premature visions of a sweep came crashing down three days later thanks to the record shooting of Ray Allen, a superlative fourth quarter by Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant's trouble with the officials. Boston certainly wasn't awed by the Lakers success at Staples Center. The feeling was that LA was exceptional on its home floor because of its players, not because of a fan base more interested in watching Jack Nicholson play shadow coach or cheering a touching Dustin Hoffman-Jason Bateman Kiss Cam moment. The intricacies of a great team playing a beautiful game are lost on the Hollywood elite. In fact, Paul Pierce, a Los Angeles native, was the first to post bulletin board material in the series, downplaying the fans in his hometown before things even got underway. "Our fans are a little bit more knowledgeable to the game," Pierce said. "I think a lot of celebrities come here to get out of the house (rather) than to watch a game -- to see the other celebrities. It's an interesting crowd, whereas I think our fans really come to watch the actual game." The series shifted to Boston Tuesday and the gritty East Coast crowd that was expected certainly showed but it didn't matter. The Lakers won 91-84 at TD Garden and ensured that if the Celtics win this series, they will do it in LA. It's wicked loud at the Gah-den. The drunks sporting masks of Odom's wife, Khloe Kardashian, chants of "Ugly Sister" for poor Khloe, "Beat LA" and "Kobe Sucks" along with House of Pain telling me to "Jump Around" all morph into a perfect storm of noise pollution that could rival a jet engine. The Southies really don't care about any movie stars. OK, maybe Nicholson and Leo DiCaprio get a bit of a pass since they both starred in Martin Scorsese's brilliant film "The Departed," the movie that has given Beantown a new theme song, "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by Dropkick Murphys. This is no wine and cheese crowd. It's 18,624 strong dressed in green, all Irish for 48 minutes, giving it to the Lakers whether their team is winning or not. The big celebrity here was New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady although Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad and Role Models fame did get a nice little cheer, probably because he was wearing a Beat LA t-shirt. Lakers coach Phil Jackson certainly knew what he was in for. "The early momentum is what we are going to have to check," Jackson said. "Come out and absorb the crowd energy and whatever that fuels into the game. Once that's over and the adrenaline is burned you see what goes on in the game." What went on was a 12-5 spurt by the C's featuring a series of easy baskets to start the game before the Lakers steadied themselves after Jackson called a timeout and finished the first quarter with a 26-17 edge as Pierce and Allen combined to shoot 0-for-10. "We were playing so poorly, it was a necessity to call time out to slow things down," Jackson said. "We seemed to gather some strength and change the course of the game right there." Pierce finally knocked down a three in the second quarter but LA led by as many as 17 points before settling for a 52-40 halftime edge. On cue the fans erupted when Boston cut the lead to five with under two minutes to go in the third quarter but Bryant quieted them with a step-back three. To their credit the Celtics never went away in the fourth but the Lakers came up with big shot after big shot down the stretch. Bryant, Odom and the villain in Game 2 for LA, the defensively challenged Derek Fisher, just wouldn't miss. Meanwhile, Allen, the hero of Game 2, ended up missing all 13 of his attempts from the field, including all eight from beyond the arc. . A chance for Boston to earn a record 18th NBA championship without seeing LAX again, a scenario Pierce placed on that same bulletin board in capital letters when he told Lakers fans "We ain't coming back to LA" after the Game 2 win, is now just a dream. Jackson responded to Pierce by saying his team would prove him to be a liar. If he's incorrect now, it's the Lakers that will be NBA champions after three straight wins in Beantown. The history of the finals says LA is in the driver's seat. The league's championship series has been tied at a game apiece 32 different times. The winner of Game 3 has taken 28 of those sets. The 2-3-2 format certainly does Boston no favors. Beating a team like the Lakers three straight times in any venue was going to be a tall task. After all, even if they are playing poorly on a consistent basis, LA always has Bryant in its hip pocket, a player that can take over any game at any time. Thinking Boston couldn't win in LA was folly. The Celtics were one of the NBA's best road teams this year and had already won five games away from TD Garden in the playoffs before the Game 2 win. Doc Rivers' club also compiled a 26-15 mark as the visitor during the regular season, one of the NBA's best. Thinking LA couldn't right the ship and get this back to the left coast was equally as specious.
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Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derek Fisher scored 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Los Angeles Lakers to a 91-84 win over Boston in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Kobe Bryant poured in 29 points and Pau Gasol added 13 points
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALKNFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing). Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion. Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site). Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com. Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season. The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation. What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill. Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies. But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply. In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Super Bowl 2009 BettingSuper Bowl 2009 Betting propositionsUnderdog bettors love the Super Bowl and, history suggests, the underdogs love them back. And the big dogs bite harder. Even so, there is a warning in store for Super Bowl gamblers who must love dogs: The Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl betting lines might not be enough of a Cinderella to make it worth your while. Although the Cardinals were widely panned as one of the worst division winners and least playoff-worthy teams in recent memory, their trip to Super Bowl XLIII Jan. 31 in Tampa against the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl betting lines comes with a little more respect from the oddsmakers than you might imagine. They are a 7-point underdog at most sports books. If you count yourself among those who covet the big dog in the big game, this isn’t exactly great news. You should have been hoping for more points. This is because the facts show that the bigger the dog, the better the bet in the Super Bowl. Case in point: Over the past 13 seasons, double-figure underdogs in the Super Bowl are 4-0-1 ATS and have won the past three outright. In fact, the last double-digit chalk to do the deed for bettors was the 1995 San Francisco 49ers, who managed to beat the astounding 19-point spot afforded backers of the San Diego Chargers in the 49-26 romp in Super Bowl XXIX. By contrast, 7-point favorites are 2-1-1 ATS in the same span, the last such contest resulting a cover grinded out by the Colts in their 29-17 win over the Bears two seasons ago in Super Bowl XLI. In 2004, the Patriots failed to cover the number in their 32-29 triumph over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl props while the Rams and Titans gave everyone a refund in 2000 after the Rams posted a 23-16 win as a seven-point favorite. So while Arizona’s run has included impressive upsets as a 10-point road underdog to the Carolina Panthers and Sunday’s 32-25 win in the NFC championship game to the 4-point favored Philadelphia Eagles, their long-shot story lacks a bit of the David vs. Goliath storyline of past Super Bowl underdogs. While the seven-point spread represents a significant gap in the perception of strength between the two teams, it is far from monumental. For example, last season the Giants were the wild-card afterthought turned road-warrior buzzsaw, with stunning wins over the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers to earn their place in the Super Bowl. There, they played spoiler to New England’s bid to become the first 19-0 team in NFL history and cemented their place in sports betting lore with a 17-14 win as a 12.5-point underdog. In other words, the Cardinals appear to have their work cut out for them as a mid-range underdog. But in homage to the spread beaters who have come before them, here is a brief look back at recent colossal upsets in the Super Bowl: SB XLII -- 2008 -- New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14 (Giants +12.5) – Eli Manning’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in the final minute clinched the historic upset for the Giants, who used a masterful defensive plan to slow down Tom Brady and the previously undefeated New England Patriots. XXXVI -- 2002 -- Patriots 20, Rams 17 (Patriots +14) – This was the coming out party for the aforementioned Brady, who went from obscure sixth-round draft pick to Super Bowl hero in one fell swoop. He led the game-winning drive in the final minute – eschewing analyst John Madden’s advice to take a knee and play for overtime – leading to Adam Vinatieri’s memorable 48-yard field goal that split the uprights as time expired. XXXII 1998 Broncos 31, Packers 24 (Denver +12) – The first of John Elway’s two consecutive Super Bowl titles to put an end to his Hall of Fame career was an upset for the ages. The Broncos used the determination of Elway and a 157-yard, three-touchdown performance from Terrell Davis to turn back Brett Favre and the heavily favored Packers. Get free 2009 Super Bowl Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online Super Bowl betting VISA Mastercard |
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