Big Three have a huge opening weekend

Basketball Betting Lines

11/05/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - They lived up to the hype! Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce had a big opening weekend for the Celtics, who started a new season with two straight wins for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign.

There was no disputing that the Celtics looked like a powerhouse on paper, but the answer to whether they would deliver on that promise wouldn't be answered until the season tipped off. And, while it's a long season, things are looking very good in Beantown so far.

Opening night at TD Banknorth Garden was magical. Pierce netted 22 points, and Garnett finished with 22 and 20 rebounds to lead the Celtics over the Washington Wizards, 103-83. Allen scored 17 in his debut for Boston, which shot over 48 percent from the field.

After their impressive home victory, the Celtics knocked off the defending Atlantic Division champion Toronto Raptors, 98-95, in overtime at Air Canada Centre. The sharp-shooting Allen was deadly, as he was 11-for-16 from the floor, including 7-of-11 from beyond the arc, and finished with a game-high 33 points.

Garnett collected his second straight double-double, finishing with 23 points and 13 rebounds in the victory over Toronto. Pierce was just 4-for-17 from the field and ended with 13 points, but this is the new-look Celtics, who can now overcome a poor shooting night from their team captain.

Many have enjoyed watching the Celtics, who have banners hanging in the rafters from past championships and are one of the most storied franchises in professional sports, struggle the last two years. Boston won just 24 games last season, and finished with a dismal 33-49 record in 2005-06.

Things have changed very quickly.

Executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge has Celtics fans thinking championship because of his hard work this past offseason. Before acquiring Allen and Garnett in blockbuster trades, Ainge was on the hot seat, and many wondered out loud how much longer he would be calling the shots in Boston. Now, he is being viewed as a genius.

Allen, Garnett and Pierce are on a mission. None of the big three have ever played in the NBA Finals. All three have played in conference finals, but have never advanced. Can they do it together, carrying one of the country's most sports crazed-cities along for the ride?

Concern remains in regard to the rest of Boston's roster, which is made up of role players. Rajon Rondo is still learning how to play point guard in the NBA, while starting center Kendrick Perkins is being asked to bang down low, get rebounds and score garbage points when they come his way. Tony Allen is trying to make a full comeback from a knee injury which sidelined him for 49 games last season. Veterans Eddie House, James Posey, Scot Pollard and Brian Scalabrine need to be complementary pieces in the effort to get the Celtics back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1987.

In spite of any perceived flaws, with an impressive home victory and a road win over the defending Atlantic Division champions, the rest of the league and NBA fans are beginning to realize that the Celtics are not just a team that looks good on paper.

KOBE SOAP OPERA COULD RUN FOR A WHILE

The Los Angeles Lakers won two of their first three games of the new season, despite rumors of a big trade involving their best player, Kobe Bryant. In fact, the Lakers defeated the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz, two of the top teams in the Western Conference. Bryant averaged 31.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in LA's first three contests. What does this mean?

Bryant would like to compete for a championship now, and he is not going to let two wins, no matter who they were against, change his thinking. Trade rumors with the Bulls have cooled down, though there has been persistent talk that the Lakers may be looking into acquiring All-Star forward Jermaine O'Neal from Indiana. The Lakers and Pacers were connected in a possible deal over the summer that would have landed O'Neal in LA. Would O'Neal make Kobe want to stay with the Lakers?

The trade talk will heat up again, and Kobe rumors will be the talk of the league. The Lakers are a team that needs to choose a direction. Do they want to win with Kobe or start fresh?

Stay tuned.

THIS ROOKIE CAN PLAY

To no one's surprise, Seattle rookie Kevin Durant has game. Durant averaged 23.0 points for the Supersonics, who nonetheless opened the campaign with three straight losses. The Texas product, who was the second overall pick in the draft, shot 43.8 percent from the field, including 36.8 percent from three-point range.

The SuperSonics, who could be playing in Oklahoma City in the near future if ownership moves the team out of Seattle, are in rebuilding mode. Durant is the cornerstone of the franchise, and despite the early losses, is the player the front office will build around.

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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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