Mavs win franchise-best 14th straight game

Basketball Betting Lines

03/02/2007 - Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dirk Nowitzki continued his push for the league's MVP and the Mavericks equaled a franchise-record with their 14th straight win, escaping a pair of missed three-pointers from LeBron James in the final few seconds for a 95-92 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Nowitzki had 24 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, as the Mavericks nearly blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead before holding on for their 21st consecutive home win, extending a franchise record.

Jason Terry ended with 20 points and Josh Howard contributed 17 points and 10 boards for Dallas, which tied the 14-0 start of the 2002-03 team for the longest winning streak. That mark can be broken Saturday night at home against Orlando.

Dallas has won 10 of the last 12 meetings against the Cavaliers, but this victory wasn't secured until the final seconds. The incredible string by the Mavericks, which includes wins in 35 of their last 37 games, moved their record to a league-best 49-9.

Cleveland nearly won despite being without two of its players. Larry Hughes was out with the flu, and Damon Jones missed the game with back spasms. That meant LeBron James had to pick up the slack, and he did to the tune of 39 points on 17-of-27 shooting, but the All-Star missed two free throws and a pair of threes in the final 13.7 seconds, as the Cavs lost for the third time in four games.

Donyell Marshall's driving layup cut Cleveland's deficit to 94-89 with 1:52 left, but he and Sasha Pavlovic both missed three-point tries moments later.

Marshall was then called for a loose-ball foul on Howard, who made one free throw with 46.8 seconds left.

James, though, completed a three-point play with 41 seconds left before Terry missed on a drive to the basket, and James was fouled on a drive to the bucket with 13.7 seconds to go. James missed both foul shots, but the Cavs got the ball back when Dallas tipped it out of bounds with 10.3 showing.

James then missed a long three from the top of the circle, but the ball caromed off the front of the rim back to him. He then pump-faked before missing his second try off the back of the rim as time expired.

Erick Dampier added 10 points and nine rebounds for Dallas, which also got 10 points from Jerry Stackhouse.

Marshall scored 14 and Pavlovic 11 for the Cavaliers.

The Mavs led 27-23 after one quarter and were in front 52-42 at the half. They remained ahead by double digits most of the third, carrying a 74-62 cushion going into the fourth. That margin grew to 89-75 following two Nowitzki free throws with 6:21 left before Cleveland rallied.

Game Notes

Cleveland has lost seven straight and nine of its last 12 at Dallas...Dallas' last loss at home was on December 7th against the Detroit Pistons. The Mavs last loss overall was January 25 at Chicago...This was the first of two meetings between the squads this season. Cleveland is scheduled to host the Mavericks on March 21.

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Terrell Owens could return for Cowboys next game
A bye week will allow Terrell Owens broken hand to recover just in time for the next game the Dallas Cowboys are slated to play, according to reports. MySportsbook.com, an football sportsbook, has posted football betting lines on TO playing.

Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger Sunday night and had a plate surgically attached to it Monday. Although Owens' hand was swollen and aching Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said he's optimistic the receiver will be back at work next week and catching passes a week from Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

MySportsbook.com online sportsbook listed Terrell Owens with odds of 7-2 (or $7 paid out for every $2 bet) to return back for the game against Tennessee.

"I certainly wouldn't rule it out now," Parcells said, referring to Terrell Owens immediate return. "Maybe five days from now I might, but I wouldn't rule it out now. ... I know we're looking to try to get him moving around pretty good in the next day or so. So we'll see where we are."

Owens did not speak with reporters Wednesday, but said Sunday he'd be out two to four weeks. A return against the Titans would be 13 days after the surgery. The Cowboys were listed as an early -7 1/2 favorite vs. the Tennessee Titans for Week 4 at MySportsbook.com

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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