Richardson's hot shooting leads Orlando over Milwaukee

Basketball Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Richardson made 9-of-11 from long range, including four in the last five minutes of the game, to lead the Orlando Magic with 31 points as they defeated Milwaukee, 99-94, at the Bradley Center.

Richardson's nine threes ties him for second-most all-time in Magic history behind only Dennis Scott, who knocked down 11 on April 18, 1996.

Hedo Turkoglu added 19 points and Dwight Howard contributed a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Magic, who have won five of their last seven.

Drew Gooden scored 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Ersan Ilyasova had 17 points and 16 boards as Milwaukee had its two-game winning streak snapped.

With the Bucks down 78-75, Carlos Delfino hit a triple to spark a 13-0 run that gave Milwaukee a 88-78 advantage with just under six minutes to play in the game.

Orlando answered with a 16-0 swing of its own that included four treys from Richardson to give the Magic a 94-88 lead with 2:06 left in the contest.

The Bucks got back-to-back threes from Gooden and Ilyasova around a Turkoglu trey as Milwaukee trailed 97-93 with 57.3 seconds to play.

Turkoglu went 2-of-4 from the charity stripe down the stretch as the Bucks held on to a glimmer of hope, trailing 99-94 with 17.3, but Gooden's last two field goals were off the mark to seal the victory for the Magic.

Orlando jumped out to a 7-0 lead but Milwaukee quickly countered with an 11-0 run to take an 11-7 lead midway through the first.

Mike Dunleavy ripped off eight straight in the last three minutes of the quarter to give the Bucks a 21-16 lead after one quarter of play.

J.J. Redick scored 10 of his team's 12 points over a 3 1/2 minute stretch in the second but the Magic were unable to chip away at the deficit as they trailed 49-43 heading into intermission.

The Magic knocked down five three-pointers in the third quarter as they trailed by one, 73-72, heading into the final frame.

Game Notes

The Magic have won 11 of the last 13 meetings with Milwaukee...The Magic will begin a three-game home stand against Minnesota on Monday, while The Bucks will host the Heat on Monday...Both teams shot 40 percent from long range.

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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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