Harris, Nets crush Nuggets by 44 points

Basketball Betting Lines

02/07/2009 - East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Harris tallied a game-high 28 points to lead New Jersey to a 114-70 blowout over the Northwest Division- leading Denver Nuggets, tying the second-largest margin of victory in Nets history.

New Jersey won its season-high fourth straight game thanks to a 32-for-41 mark from the foul line and a defensive effort that held the Nuggets to 35.6 percent shooting.

Ryan Anderson recorded 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Brook Lopez dominated down low with 15 points and nine boards for the Nets, which owned a 54-30 rebounding edge. Vince Carter finished with 12 points and eight assists, and Jarvis Hayes chipped in 14 points off the bench in the win.

Denver had won four straight games and was coming off a lopsided, 124-103 victory over the lowly Wizards on Friday. But Carmelo Anthony was the only Nuggets player to finish in double figures with 15 points, while Chauncey Billups and Nene each had just nine points in the loss.

The Nets scored the final six points of the first quarter to take a 24-19 lead and jump ahead for good.

Denver's J.R. Smith scored the first bucket of the second quarter, and New Jersey answered with a 15-4 run, capped by Keyon Dooling's three-pointer for a 39-25 lead with about six minutes left in the half.

The margin moved to 59-39 at the break, and the Nets slammed the door on the visitors with a 13-2 run to end the third frame. Harris closed the surge with a three-ball for a 92-55 New Jersey advantage.

The Nets cruised to the finish in the fourth quarter as both teams emptied their benches.

Game Notes

The Nuggets will visit the Heat, Magic, 76ers, Bulls and Bucks during their current eight-game road trip...The Nets had lost their previous three to the Nuggets...New Jersey's largest margin of victory in franchise history came on January 9, 1993 in a 124-79 victory over Washington...Trenton Hassell deposited 11 points and seven boards for the Nets.

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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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