Hawks edge Pistons in OT

Basketball Betting Lines

01/27/2012 - Auburn Hills, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Johnson scored 30 points, including a game-tying three-pointer in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 107-101 overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Marvin Williams added 22 points and eight rebounds, while Josh Smith had 19 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks in the Hawks' third win in four games.

Greg Monroe paced the Pistons with 22 points and 11 boards in Detroit's 13th loss in its last 15 games. Brandon Knight contributed 20 points and a career- high eight assists, and Jason Maxiell scored a season-high 19 points off the bench in defeat.

Atlanta trailed 68-63 entering the fourth quarter, but opened the frame with a 7-2 swing to knot the game at 70.

The Pistons, though, scored the next eight points to jump ahead again.

Detroit held at least a three-point lead over the next seven minutes until a pair of Austin Daye free throws put the Pistons up 85-76 with 1:47 to play.

After the teams traded buckets, Williams sank a shot from beyond the arc to cut the deficit to three with 33.5 seconds left on the clock.

The Pistons' Rodney Stuckey then had the ball roll out of bounds off his arm after a scramble on the ground, giving the ball back to the Hawks.

Johnson took the ball and set up on the top of the key on Atlanta's ensuing possession. He then turned his back to the net before throwing up a turnaround jumper that dropped into the net for the game-tying shot with 1.9 seconds left.

Knight's three-pointer at the buzzer bounced wide high off the glass to force overtime.

The extra period belonged entirely to the Hawks, as Atlanta opened overtime with a 12-2 run capped by back-to-back treys by Williams and Smith to jump out to a 99-89 lead.

Detroit could not get any closer than six points from there and the Hawks made enough free throws down the stretch to hold off a late push by the Pistons.

Detroit made just 6-of-23 shots from the floor in the first quarter, but held a 17-15 lead as the Hawks committed nine turnovers in the opening frame.

The Pistons never trailed in the second quarter and after five consecutive points by Williams tied the game at 29, Detroit closed out the half on a 17-6 run to take a 46-35 lead into the break.

Atlanta battled back with a 17-6 run to get within one, 56-55, with 4:00 to play in the third, but Detroit scored 12 of the next 20 points and took a 68-63 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Game Notes

Atlanta guard Jeff Teague left the game late in the third quarter after rolling his ankle on a shot attempt...Atlanta held a 49-44 advantage on the glass...Detroit finished the game shooting 40.9 percent, while Atlanta shot 48.8 percent.

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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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