Mavs get back on track with win over hurting Bulls

Basketball Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Caron Butler scored 27 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 26 as the Mavericks ran past Chicago, 113-106, sending the short-handed Bulls to their ninth consecutive defeat.

J.J. Barea registered 15 points for Dallas, which won for the 14th time in 15 games. Shawn Marion scored 12 and Rodrigue Beaubois tallied 11 for the Mavs, who bounced back from a shocking 34-point home loss to New York on Saturday. They moved into a tie with Denver for the second-best record in the Western Conference.

The Mavericks also saw the return of Jason Terry. The veteran guard, who had missed the last five games due to facial surgery, had nine points in nearly 25 minutes of court time.

"When you come back from two weeks and able to hit your first shot and get right into it offensively, that's great," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "Conditioning is going to be a bit of a factor here for a few games until he really back into 100 percent."

Acie Law scored a career-best 22 points for the Bulls, who haven't won since February 26 at home against Portland. This is the longest skid for Chicago since opening the 2004-05 campaign with an 0-9 record.

Chicago fell 2 1/2 games behind Toronto for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls played without their top three scorers as Derrick Rose (sprained left wrist), Luol Deng (strained calf) and Joakim Noah (left foot) all missed the game.

"We've got to tighten up some things defensively," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "That's how we won early in the season. We can't control the paint and we're not controlling penetration as well as we'd like. We just have to keep trying to find ways to improve in a lot of areas, and it makes it tough when half your team is new."

The Mavs got off to a blazing start, shooting 11-of-16 from the field in the first quarter. Butler scored nine in the period as the home team grabbed a 32-20 lead after 12 minutes.

Dallas continued to expand the lead in the second with Beaubois' driving layup moving the cushion to 57-33 with 3:06 left in the quarter. The largest lead was 25, at 60-35, following a Barea three-pointer at the two-minute mark.

The lead stood at 64-44 at the half and it never dipped under 15 in the third, with Law banging in a three-pointer for an 88-72 difference at the end of the period.

Chicago actually got within single digits, closing the gap to 100-93 on a Brad Miller three-point play with 5:34 remaining. Barea, though, stemmed the tide with a three-ball and he then added a layup and another three-pointer for a dominating 108-93 margin. Chicago got only as close as the final score.

"J.J. really stepped up big in the fourth quarter and saved us," Nowitzki said. "He made some big shots, two big threes, two pull-up jumpers behind the screens because they left him open and he really used the screen and knocked some shots down."

Game Notes

Dallas has won eight of 10 and 21 of the last 24 meetings...Chicago has lost five in a row at Dallas...Butler went 14-of-16 at the foul line...The Bulls went 0-4 on their road trip and will return to the Windy City to host Cleveland on Friday...The Mavs, who host Boston Saturday, are now 19-1 when shooting at least 50 percent. They ended at 52.6 percent in this game.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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