Cavs' Jamison relishing title shot

Basketball Betting Lines

04/26/2010 -

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) -While breaking down game tape during a serious film session, the Cleveland Cavaliers sometimes will break into laughter.

Seeing Antawn Jamison toss in one of his unorthodox shots can be pretty funny.

``I hear the giggles,'' Jamison said Monday. ``I'm used to it.''

Floaters. Runners. Underhanded scoops. From odd, almost impossible angles, Jamison can make just about any shot.

Currently, he's shooting for something else: an NBA title.

Acquired in a February trade from Washington to take pressure off LeBron James and serve in a supporting role to the superstar, Jamison scored 24 points in Sunday's 121-98 win over the Chicago Bulls that gave Cleveland a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series.

The Cavs can advance to the second round with a win in Game 5 on Tuesday, and Jamison believes they better put away their young, stubborn opponent.

``If you want to be a championship-caliber team and you've got a team on the brink, you've got to find a way to get it done,'' Jamison said. ``We realize this is a great opportunity and we have to take advantage.''

Jamison would know.

The 12-year veteran, who played with Golden State, Dallas and Washington before joining the Cavs, was once part of a young, talent-rich Wizards team that was on the verge of being a perennial title contender when it all fell apart.

In his second season with Washington, the Wizards beat Chicago in the first round before being eliminated by Miami. Jamison figured they'd go further the next time, but James and the Cavaliers eliminated Washington in the first round the next three years.

Then injuries and Gilbert Arenas' legal woes fractured the Wizards, who were eventually split up and may need years to recover.

At one point, Jamison feared he had missed his title shot.

``It was very frustrating,'' he said. ``You start asking questions like: Why is this happening? You were part of a franchise that was so promising a few years ago and all of a sudden you don't know what's going to happen. You go from that to there is a light at the end of the tunnel.''

At 33, Jamison, is running out time.

He hasn't won a championship - of any kind - since he was 16. Now he's on a team with James and Shaquille O'Neal, desperately seeking his fifth NBA championship.

It's now, or maybe, never for Jamison.

``This is an opportunity of a lifetime,'' he said. ``I don't have another five or 10 years left in this body. The sense of urgency is there, not only with myself but with the rest of these guys. That's why I think it's a great fit because we all have the same mentality. We are all trying to accomplish the same thing - right now. We're not trying to wait until next year or the year after that.''

The Bulls, meanwhile, are fighting for survival.

After stunning the Cavs in Game 3, they had no match in Game 4 for James, who added to his postseason legacy by totaling 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. James highlighted his fifth career playoff triple-double with a pair of buzzer-beating shots, including a 42-foot jumper to end the third period.

Chicago may have missed its chance, and now the Bulls face a win-or-see-you-next-season scenario at less than full speed.

Guard Derrick Rose missed practice Monday to undergo an MRI on his right ankle and forward Luol Deng sat out with a sore knee and calf.

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro, facing an uncertain future in Chicago, expects both Rose and Deng to play.

Del Negro's biggest challenge is devising a plan to slow the Cavaliers, who are no longer a one-man band. With James, Jamison, O'Neal and Mo Williams, Cleveland has four players capable of carrying the load and the Cavs' deep bench seems bottomless.

``It's not one guy. I thought yesterday that Antawn played very well for them,'' Del Negro said. ``They isolate him on the wings and it's very tough to cover him one-on-one.''

Jamison's size and speed make him a difficult, if not impossible, matchup. His range spreads a defense, forcing big men to come out where they aren't comfortable. Jamison also can post up smaller players, backing them down before beating them with one of his patented scoops.

While James has his own arsenal of shots, even he can't match Jamison's.

``All my seven years in the NBA, I've always said 'Tawn is the most unorthodox guy we have,''' James said. ``He makes shots that I've never seen. It's hard to guard a guy like that. It's effective. I'm glad he's on our side.''

And not just because he can score.

Jamison is one of the most respected players in the league. On Monday, he finished fourth in voting for the Joe Dumars Trophy, given to the player who best exhibits the ideals of sportsmanship. Jamison has been an ideal fit for the Cavs - on and off the floor.

``A big, big, big, big-time guy,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said. ``He's special. You couple that with his ability to play and you've got the whole package.''

Jamison credits his respect for the game to Dean Smith, his coach at North Carolina, and his parents.

``You have to carry yourself in a certain manner,'' Jamison said. ``My parents raised me the right way.''

His father, Albert, also may have helped Jamison develop his unique shooting touch. Albert Jamison accidentally put up an 11-foot-high basket and not a 10-footer at their home, forcing his son always aim a little higher.

``It comes natural,'' Jamison said of his unusual delivery. ``In the summer time, I'm not in the gym working on it or trying to perfect it at all. It's nothing I work on.

``But as long as that ball keeps going in the basket, I'm happy.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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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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