Cavs start strong, rout Knicks

Basketball Betting Lines

03/01/2010 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James scored 22 points, dished out seven assists, and pulled down seven rebounds, as the Cleveland Cavaliers continued their recent dominance over the New York Knicks with a 124-93 rout at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Cavaliers have won eight in a row against the Knicks, who haven't won in the series since a 108-90 victory in New York on December 19, 2007. Cleveland has won 10 of the last 12 meetings between the clubs.

Antawn Jamison added 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who have won four in a row since a three-game skid. J.J. Hickson donated 17 points and nine rebounds. Delonte West and Anderson Varejao tallied 15 and 14 points, respectively, off the bench for Cleveland, which shot 56.7 percent from the field.

The news was not all good for the Cavs on Monday, as the team learned center Shaquille O'Neal is expected to be sidelined for the next eight weeks after undergoing surgery for an injured right thumb.

Bill Walker poured in a career-high 21 points off the bench for the Knicks, who are just 2-13 in their last 15 games. Al Harrington chipped in 18 points, while Danilo Gallinari ended with 17 points in defeat.

Tracy McGrady's long jumper within the first 30 seconds of the game proved to be New York's lone lead of the entire night. The Cavaliers ripped off the next nine points and were ahead 27-15 on an Anthony Parker layup with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. James' 14 points in the first period helped Cleveland take a 38-26 margin into the second.

Cleveland pulled away in the second to turn the tilt into a rout. The lead grew to 20, 61-41, on a West slam with 4 1/2 minutes to go. The Cavs closed the half on an 11-2 run to take a 74-48 lead into the locker room.

The Cavaliers made the game a laugher in the third, closing the frame out on a 10-2 spurt to make it a 101-59 game heading to the fourth.

Game Notes

The Cavaliers improved their NBA-best home record to 26-4...The Knicks dropped to 8-19 on the road this year...New York shot 40.9 percent from the field...Cleveland's largest lead of the game was 49. This was the Cavs' largest margin of victory of the season...McGrady was limited to six points and five assists.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.