Nuggets visit Wolves without Karl

Basketball Betting Lines

03/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Without their head coach patrolling the sidelines, the Denver Nuggets will start up a four-game road trip tonight against a Minnesota Timberwolves team hoping to end a string of six straight losses when it takes the Target Center court.

The Nuggets enter this late-season trek, which also includes stops in New Orleans, Memphis and Houston, with George Karl remaining in Denver to undergo treatment for neck and throat cancer. The accomplished head coach hopes to be back behind the bench when the Nuggets visit the Hornets on Friday.

Denver will also be without leading rebounder Kenyon Martin due to a bout with tendinitis in his left knee. The former No. 1 overall pick has sat out the team's last two contests with the condition, but the Nuggets didn't seem to miss a step in either game, backing up a 122-114 home victory over Indiana on Friday with Sunday's 118-106 decision over Portland at the Pepsi Center.

Carmelo Anthony led the way with 30 points against the Blazers and J.R. Smith added 22 for Denver, which shot a sizzling 58.9 percent from the field to cap a perfect three-game homestand. Chauncey Billups contributed 21 points to the winning effort.

"To beat a team like [Portland] with basically having an 8-to-10 point lead most of the night is a great win for us," said Karl afterward.

The win kept the Nuggets at the top of the Northwest Division, with Utah lurking just one game off the pace in second place. Denver also trails Southwest leader Dallas by only one game for the No. 2 playoff seed in the Western Conference.

Denver will also likely be without rookie point guard Ty Lawson for a fifth straight outing because of a bruised left shoulder, while assistant coach Adrian Dantley is expected to take over Karl's duties for tonight's tilt.

The Nuggets may not need their full complement of players to handle the lowly Timberwolves, who occupy the basement of the West with a 14-50 record and extended their current slide with Monday's 125-112 setback to Dallas.

"Too many turnovers against a great team like that," said Minnesota's Al Jefferson in reference to his club's 26 giveaways. "They feed off turnovers."

Jefferson was one bright spot for the Timberwolves, with the standout forward racking up 36 points on 15-of-21 shooting while pulling down 13 rebounds. He had sat out Minnesota's previous two games due to a suspension for a recent DUI arrest.

The Timberwolves continue a four-game homestand that began with Saturday's 112-98 loss to Houston. Minnesota has lost its last six tests as the host and is just 9-23 at the Target Center this season.

Denver has won 11 of the last 12 meetings between these teams, including two of three matchups held this season, and is 5-0 over its last five trips to Minneapolis.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

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

Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.