Road-weary Hornets visit Nuggets

Basketball Betting Lines

03/18/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sole possession of second place in the Western Conference is on the line for the Denver Nuggets tonight as they get ready to host the reeking New Orleans Hornets.

Denver is currently deadlocked with idle Dallas for the No. 2 seed in the West, four games behind the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Most recently for the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on Tuesday, as Denver battled back to upend the Washington Wizards, 97-87, at the Pepsi Center.

The game marked the return of Nuggets head coach George Karl to the bench. Karl missed the team's four-game road trip over the past week as he continued chemotherapy and radiation treatments for neck and throat cancer. Denver was 3-1 on the trek under lead assistant Adrian Dantley.

"We know it's a tough task for him to go through," Anthony said of Karl's condition. "For him to come in and see us and uplift his spirits, it makes us feel good."

J.R. Smith added 17 points off the bench against the Wizards and Nene chipped in 16 for the Nuggets, winners in seven of their last eight overall.

Denver has been playing well despite the absence of two key contributors, starting power forward KenyonMmartin and rookie guard Ty Lawson. Martin has been sidelined since March 5 with a balky left knee and Lawson has been struggling with a bruised left shoulder. Both will remain on the sidelines tonight while big man Chris Andersen, who sprained his ankle in a loss at Houston on Monday, will be a game-time decision.

The Hornets, meanwhile, continue to falter, falling to 1-2 on a five-game road trip last night in Oakland. Anthony Tolliver registered a career-high 30 points in that one, as the Golden State Warriors rallied from down 21 late in the third quarter for a 131-121 triumph over New Orleans.

The Hornets were led by David West's 36 points and season-high 15 rebounds, while rookie Darren Collison added 20 points and 14 assists to help build a seemingly comfortable 87-66 lead with 5:36 to go in the third before dropping their fourth game in the last five.

New Orleans is a dismal 8-15 since losing All-Star point guard Chris Paul to a knee injury and is now an almost insurmountable eight games behind Portland for the final playoff spot in the West with just 13 left to be played.

Denver has topped New Orleans in two of the three contests between the two clubs this season, including a 116-110 overtime win in the Rockies on Jan. 23.

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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.