Aldridge shines as Trail Blazers dominate Suns

Basketball Betting Lines

01/28/2012 - Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LaMarcus Aldridge scored 23 points, and Portland dominated the middle two quarters in a 109-71 rout of the Phoenix Suns.

Gerald Wallace tallied 17 points, Wesley Matthews 16 and Nicolas Batum 14 for the Trail Blazers, who have won three of their last four games. They've won six in a row at home over the Suns and moved to 9-1 overall at home this season.

Marcus Camby pulled down 20 rebounds for the Blazers, who held a 57-21 scoring advantage spanning the second and third quarters.

Portland exacted some revenge from a 102-77 loss at Phoenix on Jan. 6.

"They embarrassed us in their hometown," Wallace said. "We were coming off an emotional win on a back-to-back, and they handed it to us."

Grant Hill scored 12 for Phoenix, which shot 37 percent from the field. Sebastian Telfair added 10 points in Phoenix's third consecutive defeat.

Aldridge had 11 points during a 26-9 scoring binge for the Blazers in the period. Phoenix went 4-of-19 from the field in the stanza and struggled by not making a field goal over the final 5:33 of the half.

Batum's three-ball opened the second, tying the game at 24. Matthews connected with Aldridge for an alley-oop jam with 7:22 left, widening Portland's lead to 38-28 and finishing a 10-2 burst.

After Hill's jumper closed the margin to 42-32, the Suns went ice cold over the final 5 1/2 minutes.

Ahead 47-33 at the half, the Blazers made it a rout in the third. They opened the period on a 29-8 spurt. Two free throws from Wallace had the difference at 76-41 inside three minutes left.

Portland led by as many as 42 in the fourth quarter.

"We can't score nine points and it's happened quite a bit now," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said of the horrid second quarter. "I've got to make some adjustments some kind of way where we can at least keep the game level when we're in it in the second quarter."

Game Notes

Phoenix is 6-1 this season when leading at the half and 0-11 when trailing...Portland has scored more than 100 points in nine of the last 10 games with the Suns...Jamal Crawford had 10 assists for Portland...Phoenix had 22 turnovers, leading to 24 Portland points.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.