Suns down free-falling Hornets

Basketball Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Amare Stoudemire scored 36 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and sank all 14 of his free throw attempts, as Phoenix ran past the New Orleans Hornets, 120-106, at US Airways Center.

Jason Richardson had 20 points, while Steve Nash tallied 13 points and 12 assists as the Suns won for the ninth time in 12 contests. They moved a half- game ahead of San Antonio, into sixth place in the Western Conference.

"We definitely wanted to set the tone early," Stoudemire said. "It was a very important game for us and we came out with the intensity from the start and we've just got to keep the momentum going and keep improving as a unit."

Jared Dudley also scored 13 and Robin Lopez had 10 for Phoenix, which is 2-2 on a season-long seven-game homestand.

Marcus Thornton scored 28 for the Hornets, who have lost three straight and seven of their last eight games. David West ended with 24 points and seven rebounds in defeat. Emeka Okafor chipped in 15 and 12, while Darren Collison contributed 13 points with 10 assists.

"It's tough. Amare took over the game in the third quarter," Thornton said. "We made some silly turnovers and that's like giving them two points every time. We just have to work through it and be professionals."

Phoenix, which shot 57.5 percent for the game, hit 15-of-22 field goal tries in the opening quarter, racing to a 34-22 lead after 12 minutes. Included in that was a 16-2 burst. Nash and Richardson hit three-pointers during the flurry, which ended on Stoudemire's jumper for a 27-11 cushion.

The Suns led by double digits for the majority of the second quarter until the Hornets whittled the margin to four, the last time at 50-46 on a West short jumper with 1:11 left. It was 55-49 in favor of the Suns at the half.

New Orleans took a brief 57-55 edge, but the Suns scored the next seven and didn't trail the rest of the way. Richardson's reverse layup extended the lead to 69-59 with 7:09 remaining in the quarter, and the difference stood at 83-71 moving to the fourth.

A dunk from Stoudemire extended the lead to 94-74 with 10:23 to go, and the double-digit margin remained until the final horn sounded.

Game Notes

The Suns have won four of the last five games against the Hornets following a six-game series losing streak. Phoenix (3-1) secured a win in the series for the first time since 2006-07...The Suns have won seven of their nine home games since the All-Star break...Nash played in his 1,000th career regular season game. He is the 10th active player to reach the mark...This was the start of a five-game road trip for the Hornets, who have lost their last seven away games...James Posey (flu) and Peja Stojakovic (lower abdominal strain) sat out for New Orleans.

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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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