Third-quarter drought dooms Hawks

Basketball Betting Lines

02/21/2007 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta went through the definition of futile in the third quarter, ending the period without a field goal, as the Chicago Bulls widened a halftime edge and rolled to a 106-81 rout of the Hawks at the United Center.

Atlanta made eight free throws during the period, not making a field goal for 14:06 spanning three periods. Chicago outscored the Hawks 28-8 in the decisive period, and opened a 76-51 lead at the stanza's conclusion.

"In the third quarter, we couldn't make a shot," Hawks head coach Mike Woodson said. "I thought we had good looks, but they got on a nice roll and we continued to not make shots."

The Bulls have owned the Hawks of late, winning their 10th straight in the series. Atlanta's last victory occurred on April 9, 2004 at the United Center, but a Chicago victory in the last season meeting would result in three straight season sweeps.

Chris Duhon scored a game-high 17 points with seven assists, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng added 16 points apiece and Malik Allen donated 12 points for Chicago, which snapped a brief two-game losing streak.

Josh Childress scored 16 points with seven boards and Marvin Williams added 12 points with six rebounds for the Hawks, who have lost two of three.

Atlanta was positioned nicely entering the third quarter, trailing just 48-43, before going the entire period without a basket from the floor. The Hawks finished the stanza 0-for-16 from the field.

"We were good (on defense) and they just missed some shots," said Chicago head coach Scott Skiles. "When they had opportunities, we fouled them and they weren't able to get the shot off."

P.J. Brown's free throws capped 10 in a row out of the halftime gates for a 58-43 edge, then a Ben Wallace tip-in made the score 70-47 with 2:15 on the clock.

The Bulls cruised to victory from there.

Chicago led 26-19 after one quarter before Atlanta cut into the deficit. It drew within two points multiple times in the second quarter, the last coming at 34-32 on Childress' jumper with 6:29 remaining.

Game Notes

Ben Gordon left the game with a left thigh bruise and could have returned if the game was close. Gordon finished with six points on 3-of-11 from the floor...Chicago improved to 21-7 at home this season, while Atlanta fell to 12-17 on the road...The Bulls held a 51-40 edge on the glass.

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NFL ODDSTop Football Betting Free Agents to Change Teams

NFL Betting

It’s time to see how the biggest NFL free agent signings will perform for their news teams. Some will work out and could be the difference that makes a difference in the win column.

We look at the best off-season signings and if they should influence your NFL betting this season. Julius Peppers – Peppers was the biggest prize available on the 2010 NFL free agent market and the Chicago Bears opened the bank to bring his talents to the south side.

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Betting on the Bears is a good option this season because of Julius Peppers and to a lesser extent Taylor. Antonio Bryant and Terrell Owens – The Cincinnati Bengals signed two former number one wide receivers to line up with Chad Ocho Cinco. Antonio Bryant had a huge season in 2008 catching 83 passes for over 1200 yards but regressed last season. Playing for the Tampa Bay Bucs last season was a large part of the regression, everyone was bad in TB last season.

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NFL bettors should be wary of laying their money down on what could potentially be the biggest gong show in the league in 2010. Karlos Danby – The Miami Dolphins have a great running back tandem in Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, a good young QB in Chad Henne and now the Bill Parcells regime is building a solid defense. They signed away the Arizona Cardinals top linebacker Karlos Danby. In the past two seasons, Danby has totaled 228 tackles, 5 sacks, 3 interceptions and 3 forced fumbles. The Dolphins are the forgotten team of the AFC East with the second longest odds to win the division but with the addition of Karlos Danby and a trade for WR Brandon Marshall makes the Miami Dolphins legitimate contenders in the AFC East and in the NFL’s Eastern Conference.

The Dolphins will make NFL wagering fans a lot of money this season, get in early and enjoy the cash.

NFL Wagering

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.