Mavs visit T-Wolves, shoot for 12th straight win

Basketball Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Dallas Mavericks will try to stretch their season-high winning streak to 12 games when they close out a short road trip tonight against the woeful Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center.

Dallas kept its longest winning streak of the season intact with a 122-116 victory at Chicago on Saturday, as All-Star Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points and Rodrigue Beaubois had a career-high 24. Over his last three games, Beaubois is averaging 21.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 29.3 minutes.

"Our defense wasn't getting any stops, that's for sure," Nowitzki said. "It was good the way we moved the ball on offense. We shared the ball and made big shots."

Caron Butler also scored 24 points for the Mavericks, who last ripped off 11 victories in a row during a franchise-best 17-game run from January 27-March 11, 2007. Shawn Marion totaled 18 points to push Dallas' road record to 21-12 this season. The Southwest Division-leading Mavericks have won four in a row on the road and sit three games behind the slumping Los Angeles Lakers for the top seed in the Western Conference.

The last time Dallas tasted defeat was on February 16 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Meanwhile, the T'Wolves are on the opposite side of the spectrum and have dropped five straight games, including a 112-98 decision versus the Houston Rockets on Saturday in the opener of a four-game homestand.

Kevin Love ended with 20 points and 11 boards, while Ryan Gomes added 17 points for the Timberwolves, who are winless in their last five home games and 9-22 in the Twin Cities this season.

"It was a fairly typical game for us," Minnesota head coach Kurt Rambis said. "Pockets of playing really well and pockets of playing really poorly. Turnovers once again hurt us...But [Houston] does a good job of playing together as a team. They move the ball, they keep the basket clear and they read defenses really well. They did a good job out there. They deserved to win. They earned the win."

The Wolves will also play host to Denver and San Antonio on this residency. They are 1-11 over their past 12 games since a season-best four-game winning streak.

Minnesota's Al Jefferson served the second of his two-game suspension for a suspected DWI in Saturday's loss and is probable for Monday.

Dallas has won two of its first three meetings with Minnesota this season and 14 of the past 15 contests between the teams. The Mavs will shoot for their eighth consecutive victory at the Target Center.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.