Nuggets top Kings in OT on Afflalo's jumper

Basketball Betting Lines

02/02/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arron Afflalo poured in 12 points, including the game-winning jumper with 18.4 seconds left in overtime, as the Denver Nuggets stayed hot at home with a 112-109 victory over the Sacramento Kings at the Pepsi Center.

Kenyon Martin ended with 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Nuggets, who have won nine in a row at home. Chauncey Billups finished with 23 points and nine assists, Ty Lawson donated 15 points off the bench and Nene chipped in 14 points and six boards for Denver, which has won two straight and 10 of 11 overall.

The Nuggets played their fifth consecutive game without All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony, who is still nursing an ankle injury.

Spencer Hawes tallied 23 points and seven rebounds for the Kings, who have lost three in a row and 10 of 11 overall. Kevin Martin ended with 22 points, six assists, and five rebounds, while Omri Casspi chipped in 14 points for Sacramento, which has lost 10 consecutive road games.

The Nuggets ripped off six straight points early in overtime and went ahead 107-102 on a pair of Afflalo free throws with 3:11 remaining.

The Kings then responded with seven consecutive points, as Hawes' trey gave Sacramento a 109-107 edge with about 1 1/2 minutes to go.

The back-and-forth battle continued as the Nuggets scored the final five points of the extra session to claim victory. Nene's layup made it 109-109 and, following a Kevin Martin turnover, Afflalo made a baseline jumper with 18.4 ticks left to make it a two-point tilt.

Kevin Martin missed a jumper at the other end, and Billups made 1-of-2 from the line with 0.7 seconds remaining to seal the win.

The Nuggets started the fourth on a 14-3 run to take the lead. Afflalo's layup had Denver in front 87-81 with seven minutes remaining.

A Hawes jumper and pair of Kevin Martin free throws cut the deficit to 89-87 with less than 5 1/2 minutes to play in regulation.

Billups' layup had Denver ahead 99-95 with 55 seconds to go, but the Kings scored the final four points of the fourth to send the contest into overtime.

Casspi made a short jumper at the other end to cut the gap to two. Nene then turned the ball over at the opposite end of the floor, giving Sacramento a chance to tie or go in front.

Casspi's jumper was off the mark, but Hawes was there for the tip-in to tie the tilt at 99 with 27.9 seconds remaining.

Billups and Hawes each missed shots in the final seconds to send the game into OT.

The score was tied at 26-26 following 12 minutes of play. A pair of Lawson free throws have the Nuggets a 38-37 edge with 8:44 left in the second, but the Kings responded with a 27-10 run to build a large lead. Kevin Martin's trey had Sacramento ahead 64-48, and the score was 64-50 at the half.

Trailing 72-55 with 6 1/2 minutes remaining in the third, Denver closed the period on an 18-6 burst to get within five. Billups made two three-pointers during the flurry, which Lawson capped with a jumper to make it 78-73 heading to the fourth.

Game Notes

The Kings turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 25 Denver points...Sacramento outrebounded the Nuggets, 48-33...The Kings had won the first two games of the season series.

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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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