Parker, Spurs fend off Pacers

Basketball Betting Lines

02/17/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Parker poured in 28 points to help the San Antonio Spurs fend off the Indiana Pacers, 90-87, at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Parker returned to the lineup after missing last Thursday's win at Denver with a left hip flexor strain. The three-time All-Star also had three rebounds for the Spurs, who improved to 4-2 on an eight-game road trip.

Manu Ginobili added 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds for San Antonio, which won despite shooting just 35.4 percent from the floor. Richard Jefferson chipped in 13 points and six boards, while Tim Duncan scored eight points and pulled down 26 rebounds for the victors.

Danny Granger finished with 23 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who have dropped three in a row. Roy Hibbert and T.J. Ford each donated 14 points. Hibbert also grabbed seven rebounds for Indiana, which shot 42.2 percent from the field.

Trailing 66-52 with less than 4 1/2 minutes left in the third, Indiana bridged the final two quarters with an impressive 23-3 run. Ford had eight points during the flurry that Earl Watson ended with a layup for a 75-69 edge with 9:44 to play.

The Spurs fought back with a 19-7 surge to go in front for good. Jefferson's trey had San Antonio ahead 85-82. Following a Hibbert miss, Ginobili recorded a three-point play to cap the spurt, making it 88-82 with over 1 1/2 minutes remaining.

A Granger three-pointer had Indiana within 90-87 with 30.2 seconds to go, but the Spurs used some good rebounding at the other end to run the clock out. Ginobili's driving layup was partially blocked by Hibbert, and Duncan grabbed the offensive board. George Hill then threw up a desperation three-pointer with the shot clock about to expire. The shot hit off the rim and Duncan pulled down another board to secure the victory.

The Pacers led by as many as 10 in the first quarter and took a 28-24 edge into the second.

Trailing 35-32 with 8 1/2 minutes left in the second, the Spurs went on a 19-4 run. Ginobili tallied seven points during the spurt, which Keith Bogans capped with a trey for a 51-39 lead with 1:45 to go until half.

Indiana scored the final six points of the frame to get within 51-45 at the break.

Ahead 57-50 with over 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the third, San Antonio ripped off seven consecutive points to build a 64-50 margin on Duncan's jumper with less than five minutes left.

Game Notes

The Spurs have beat the Pacers six straight times...San Antonio outrebounded Indiana, 56-47.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

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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