Heat resume homestand vs. Spurs

Basketball Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams battling for playoff positioning get together tonight in south Florida, as the Miami Heat continue a six-game homestand versus the San Antonio Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat have won the first three tests of the homestand and are coming off Sunday's 104-91 triumph over Philadelphia in which NBA star Dwyane Wade recorded 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting to lead the victors.

"Coming out of the All-Star break we expected to go on a run," said Wade, who is averaging 30.6 points and 7.9 assists over his last seven games. "We looked at our schedule and we understood that the toughest part was behind us."

Udonis Haslem added 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Carlos Arroyo chipped in 12 points with 10 assists for the Heat, who have won six of seven overall and six in a row as the host.

Miami will also welcome the Magic and Bobcats to town and is 20-14 in its own backyard this season. The Heat are currently tied with Charlotte for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

In injury news for the Heat, forward Michael Beasley has missed back-to-back games because of a bruised thigh and is questionable for Tuesday.

San Antonio will begin a brief journey through Florida with upcoming matchups in Miami and Orlando, and is 15-15 away from the Alamo City this season. It has won three straight and seven of eight games, including Saturday's 118-88 blowout of the Los Angeles Clippers at the AT&T Center.

Matt Bonner had a team-high 21 points, Richard Jefferson added 18 points and nine rebounds and both Manu Ginobili and George Hill scored 14 points for the Spurs, who are seventh in the West standings -- just a half-game behind Phoenix and a half-game in front of Portland.

"Sometimes it's good to let the players do some of the coaching," Popovich said of Hill taking over coaching duties in the final stanza. "It makes them think a little bit and gives them confidence in what we are doing as a group."

In the 13 games since All-Star Weekend, Ginobili has scored in double figures 11 times and has posted 20-plus points on six occasions.

San Antonio defeated Miami, 108-78, back on December 31 this season and has won 14 of the past 19 contests in the series. These two clubs have split the previous 10 meetings in south Florida.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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