James leads Heat past Bucks

Basketball Betting Lines

02/13/2012 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James scored 35 points and the Miami Heat snapped a three-game losing streak to the Milwaukee Bucks with a 114-96 win on Monday night.

The Heat, in the midst of a three-games-in-three-days stretch, avoided falling to the Bucks for the third time in less than a month. They snapped a losing streak to the Central Division team that dated back to April of last year.

James scored 16 of his 35 points in the third quarter, punctuating the effort by racing past three defenders for a thunderous one-handed dunk that put the NBA's second-leading scorer over 30 points for the first time in five games.

The Heat moved to 6-1 since their most recent loss to the Bucks on February 1 and are 2-0 on their tough back-to-back-to-back stretch of three road games in three nights. They are 3-1 overall on a season-long six-game road trip.

"We took last night like it was its own game and we did the same thing tonight," said James. "Now we move on to Indiana to close it out."

Carlos Delfino had 24 points to lead the Bucks, who are 2-5 since their last win over Miami. They trailed by as many as 24 points and fell to 0-2 on a three-game homestand.

The Heat were able to rest their three stars for most of the fourth quarter one night after James and Dwyane Wade sat out the entire fourth in a 20-point rout of Atlanta and Chris Bosh rested for most of it.

Wade scored 20 of his 22 points, and Bosh had six of his eight, in the first three quarters as Miami held a commanding 90-74 lead going into the fourth.

James' dunk, which came after he slipped past one defender at the point and split two more in the paint, gave Miami its 16-point lead with 4.2 seconds left in the frame.

The Heat shot nearly 52 percent from the field and made half of their 14 three-point attempts, leading Bucks head coach Scott Skiles to lament his team's porous defense.

But there were some shots the Bucks couldn't do anything about, like a couple of fadeaway jumpers James knocked down in front of their bench that Skiles thought looked particularly difficult.

"Maybe they're easy for him," the coach qualified.

The rout wasn't on until James went off in the third quarter. Milwaukee led 30-27 after the first and trailed just 55-50 at halftime. But the Heat shot 65 percent in the third quarter, starting it with a 19-6 run led by James.

"We hung in there the first quarter and did some nice things," said Skiles. "We're an average defensive team, and we can't afford to be."

Game Notes

Mario Chalmers had 13 points for Miami, while Drew Gooden and Brandon Jennings scored 12 apiece for Milwaukee. Jennings scored just four points over the last three quarters...The Heat play the Pacers on Tuesday...Milwaukee's three-game homestand ends against New Orleans on Wednesday. It started with a loss to Orlando on Saturday.

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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.