NBA's elite meet in Phoenix for 58th annual All-Star Game

Basketball Betting Lines

02/13/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NBA's elite take center stage in the Valley of the Sun on Sunday as the league's best from the Western Conference and Eastern Conference clash in the 58th annual All-Star Game at US Airways Center in Phoenix.

This marks the third time that the mid-season classic has emanated from the desert. In 1975 former New York Knicks standout Walt "Clyde" Frazier took home game MVP honors as the East edged the West 108-102 in the Suns former home, Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Twenty years later, Sacramento's Mitch Richmond paced the West in a 139-112 blowout during the 1995 game.

In the 2008 annual event, Cleveland superstar LeBron James barely missed a triple-double with 27 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists, and his go- ahead driving jam with 55.5 seconds left boosted the East over the West, 134-128, in New Orleans.

James, who was named the game's MVP for a second time, shot 12-of-22 from the field. Boston's Ray Allen buried a trio of three-pointers down the stretch and scored 14 of his game-high 28 points in the final quarter for the East, who have won three of the last four All-Star games.

Chris Paul elicited plenty of cheers playing for the hometown Hornets last year and led the effort for the West with 16 points and 14 assists. Denver's Carmelo Anthony, Portland's Brandon Roy and Phoenix's own Amare Stoudemire each scored 18 points.

This year's game will feature a lot of familiar faces. James, Orlando's Dwight Howard, and Boston's Kevin Garnett were voted in by the fans as the starting Eastern Conference frontcourt for a second straight season, while Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Detroit's Allen Iverson make up the backcourt.

Howard led all players with 3,150,181 votes in the fan balloting, becoming the first player in history to receive more than three million votes. A veritable double-double machine, Howard is averaging 20.5 points and 14.1 rebounds per game this season, and will make his third All-Star game appearance and second start.

James was right behind Howard in the voting with 2,940,823 tallies. The King of Cleveland's 28.5 points per game lead the league and have helped the Cavs start the season with a gaudy 40-11 record, establish themselves as a serious contender for the Eastern Conference crown.

Garnett, who led all vote-getters for last year's All-Star contest, earned his 12th honor by making this year's squad. A former MVP of the game in 2003, Garnett missed last season's contest with an abdominal strain.

Wade, who is second to James in the NBA in scoring with 28.3 points per game, will make his fourth straight All-Star start and fifth appearance overall. Iverson, meanwhile, is headed to his 10th career contest, but first with the Pistons after he was traded to Detroit by Denver earlier this season.

The bench for the East features plenty of firepower. Atlanta's Joe Johnson is making his third straight appearance and Boston's Paul Pierce and Allen are All-Star veterans compared to first-timers Devin Harris of New Jersey, Danny Granger of Indiana and Cleveland's Mo Williams. Forward Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic completes the team.

Lewis' teammate in the Magic Kingdom, point guard Jameer Nelson, was originally slated to make his first All-Star appearance but had to bow out after tearing the labrum in his right shoulder during a February 2 loss to Dallas. Nelson was having a break-through season, averaging a career-high 16.7 points and 5.4 assists before suffering the injury. Magic general manager Otis Smith told the local Florida media on Thursday that Nelson likely will undergo season-ending surgery sometime soon. The former Saint Joseph's standout was replaced on the team by Allen.

Meanwhile, Toronto's Chris Bosh was also originally selected as an Eastern Conference reserve but dropped out earlier this week with a sprained right knee. Williams was Bosh's replacement.

Johnson leads the Hawks with 21.6 points per game and 6.1 assists, while Pierce paces the Celtics with 19.9 points and Allen is next on the defending champs at 17.9 points per contest.

Granger is sixth in the league with a 25.4 scoring average for Indiana, Harris has slashed to the basket to the tune of 21.8 points per game and Williams has played a great "Robin" to James' "Batman" by netting 17.6 points and dishing out 4.1 assists per game.

On the Western side, the NBA's reigning MVP, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, led all vote-getters with 2,805,397 votes, beating San Antonio forward Tim Duncan (2,578,168) and Houston pivot-man Yao Ming (2,532,958). Bryant, Duncan and Yao will be joined in the West starting lineup by Paul and hometown favorite Stoudemire.

Bryant led the West in votes for the second consecutive season and, still only 30 years old, will make his 11th All-Star game appearance. The NBA's third-leading scorer with 27.7 points per game, Bryant won the All-Star MVP award in 2002 and 2007.

Duncan, who was co-MVP in 2002 along with Shaquille O'Neal, will also make his 11th appearance, averaging 20.8 points and 10.5 rebounds this season. He will be joined in the frontcourt by Yao, who received his sixth nod to the contest, and Stoudemire, who makes his fourth appearance.

Bryant will team up in the backcourt with Paul, who will make his second straight All-Star appearance. Paul leads the NBA this season in assists and steals, while averaging 21.3 points a game.

O'Neal highlighted the reserve selections for the West by moving past Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Jerry West into second place in league history with his 15th All-Star appearance.

O'Neal now looks up only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 19 All-Star selections. The big man in the middle has been efficient and smart with his physical health this season, playing fewer, but fresher minutes for the Suns. He is averaging 17.3 points -- his most since 2005 -- and a team-best 8.9 rebounds per contest.

The legendary center is joined on the Western bench by Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol from the Lakers, Spurs point guard Tony Parker, Denver point guard Chauncey Billups, Roy and New Orleans forward David West.

Nowitzki, making his 8th straight appearance, is averaging 25.9 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Mavericks. Gasol is totaling nearly a double-double per contest and hits 56 percent of his shots from the floor for the 42-10 Lakers.

Parker will head to the Valley of the Sun for his third All-Star game and is registering career-highs in points per game (20.4) and assists per contest (6.4). Roy, the Blazers top scorer, is making his second consecutive appearance.

Billups has been playing a great floor game in the Rocky Mountains, averaging 18.0 ppg and a team-leading 6.2 assists, while West isn't piling up double- doubles like last season, but still averages 19.5 points and 7.5 boards per contest.

The starters for Sunday's contest were determined by the fans' votes, while the 30 head coaches in the NBA voted for the reserves in their respective conferences. Commissioner David Stern selected the injury replacements.

Head coaches for the East (Cleveland's Mike Brown) and West (the Lakers' Phil Jackson) are based on the teams with the best winning-percentage in each conference following the games on February 2. Boston head coach Doc Rivers would have mentored the East but was not eligible because he coached in last year's game.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

The home floor means a lot in these games so you have to look at Stoudemire and O'Neal for the Suns.

Phoenix has underachieved under new coach Terry Porter this season and may be looking to rebuild the franchise. Both players have been mentioned prominently in trade rumors as we approach the February 19 deadline and may use the game as a stage to thank the fans of Phoenix.

Eyes will be especially focused on O'Neal, who will join Bryant as a teammate for the first time since their acrimonious divorce in Los Angeles after the 2004 NBA Finals.

For the East, pay close attention to James, Wade and Iverson. Their freewheeling games are tailor-made for this kind of setting and are always threats to have an MVP type night.

NOTABLE

-Howard is shooting an amazing 81.0 percent in All-Star games (17-for-21).

-Bryant is third all-time in All-Star game steals with 26. He needs six to pass Isiah Thomas and 11 to reach Michael Jordan, the all-time leader.

-O'Neal is third in blocked shots with 18, trailing only Abdul-Jabbar (31) and Hakeem Olajuwon (23).

-Allen will try and build on his record for most three-pointers (20). Bryant is second with 14.

-James is the all-time leader in scoring average for players who have toiled in three or more All-Star games at 24.3 points per contest.

-The East leads the all-time series by a 35-22 margin. There was no All-Star game in 1999 due to the lockout.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.