Lin, Knicks aim to bounce back vs. Hawks

Basketball Betting Lines

02/22/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sudden New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin was brought back to reality when New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams took him to school in a recent contest at Madison Square Garden.

Arguably one of the fanciest point guards in the NBA, Williams racked up 38 points in New Jersey's 100-92 victory in New York on Monday, leaving the Knicks with two losses in their last three games following an inspirational seven-game winning streak. Lin and the Knicks look to bounce back tonight versus the Atlanta Hawks in the finale of a five-game homestand.

Lin led the way with 21 points and Amare Stoudemire scored 17 for New York, which welcomed the return of injured forward Carmelo Anthony. Anthony had missed seven straight games with a groin injury and posted 11 points and six assists in 37 minutes. Landry Fields had 10 and 11 rebounds in defeat.

"I think any time you have three new players, people coming back your identity as a team is going to change with the personnel," said Lin, who fouled out for the first time in his career. "We are not in panic mode because it is not like people show up and you have great chemistry. We have to work through some struggles but as long as we are all committed we will be fine."

Lin is averaging 24.6 points as a starter (9 starts) and has scored 20-plus points nine times this season. Meanwhile, Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert sat out with a left knee injury and will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break. He is expected to compete in the dunk contest Saturday night and is listed as questionable for this evening.

New York is 2-2 on the residency and owns a 9-9 record in the Big Apple this season. After hosting Atlanta in the finale of the homestand, the Knicks will play five of six on the road, including Thursday's matchup in Miami.

February hasn't been too kind for the Hawks, as they sport a 3-7 mark through 10 games this month. The Hawks will close out a five-game road trip tonight against the Knicks and dropped to 1-3 on the swing following a 90-79 loss at Chicago on Monday night.

The Bulls welcomed back reigning MVP Derrick Rose and the All-Star guard posted 23 points in over 34 minutes of action. Rose had been out for quite some time with a lower back issue. Jannero Pargo had a season-high 19 points off the bench and Josh Smith added 17 and 12 rebounds for Atlanta, which got 12 points from Joe Johnson.

Johnson, however, is expected to miss a week of action because of left knee tendinitis. Johnson, the team's leading scorer at 17.6 points per game, left Monday's game after just 21 minutes because of the problem.

Atlanta expects to have forward Marvin Williams back for Wednesday's game after he missed the 90-79 loss to the Bulls to attend the funeral of a family member. He is averaging 9.6 points and 5.4 rebounds in 28 games this season.

The Hawks, who are 10-8 as the guest, will return to Georgia for a four-game homestand versus the Magic, Warriors, Bucks and Thunder after visiting the Knicks. New York and Atlanta split four meetings a year ago and the Knicks have won seven of the past 10 matchups between the teams.

Atlanta has lost seven of 11 and 17 of its last 22 at New York.

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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.

Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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