Wizards try to pick up road victory in Houston
Basketball Betting Lines
01/27/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards have had trouble the past two seasons playing well on the road and look to avoid an 0-8 start as the guest tonight against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center.
The Wizards will play two straight and four of their next five games on the road and are off to their worst start away from home (0-7) since losing the first 25 road games last season. They are coming off a home win over the Charlotte Bobcats, a 92-75 triumph Wednesday at the Verizon Center in the debut of interim head coach Randy Wittman.
Nick Young scored 20 points and Andray Blatche posted 17 and 10 rebounds, a day after head coach Flip Saunders was fired in the midst of a 2-15 start. Wittman was a lead assistant for Saunders, who was just 51-130 in two-plus seasons as the team's head coach.
"I can't honestly say we needed a new voice. We just needed somebody to actually check us like Wittman did. That's what we needed," said Blatche.
John Wall netted 12 points and JaVale McGee posted six and 10 boards in a winning effort, helping the Wizards halt a three-game slide and improve to 3-15 on the season. It was Washington's second win in nine tries. The Wizards lucked out that Charlotte was minus leading scorers Gerald Henderson and D.J. Augustin.
The Wizards will also visit Charlotte before hosting Chicago, then will hit the road again for back-to-back contests in Orlando and Toronto. They didn't post their first road win of the 2010-11 campaign until Feb. 13 at the Cavs.
Houston will try to get back on track after having a season-high seven-game winning streak cut short with Wednesday's 105-99 loss versus Milwaukee in the opener of a four-game homestand.
Kevin Martin pumped in a game-best 29 points and Samuel Dalembert recorded a double-double with 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Rockets, who had also won five in a row as the host and fell to 7-2 in Space City.
"We gave up 63 points in the second half. There's no excuse for that," said Rockets coach Kevin McHale. "We had a great second quarter followed by a poor third quarter and then we couldn't ... we just never got any momentum in that game until late but when we started defending again it was too late."
A 20-0 burst bridging almost five minutes in the third and fourth quarters proved to be the difference for the Bucks, as they turned a 70-66 deficit into an 86-70 lead with 8:55 to go in the fourth. Houston, which got 18 points and eight boards from Luis Scola, dropped its first home game to Milwaukee since November 2, 1999 and was riding its longest winning streak since a 22-game run back in the 2007-08 campaign.
The Rockets will also host New York and Minnesota on the residency. The Rockets will try to keep Washington under the 90-point mark since they have won 18 straight games when doing so.
Houston defeated Washington, 114-106, on Jan. 16 this season in D.C. and got 25 points and eight assists from Martin. Dalembert had 20 points and seven rebounds for the Rockets, who are 11-2 in the last 13 matchups in this series. Washington has lost two straight, 15 of 17 and 18 of its last 21 road encounters with the Rockets.
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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.