LATIMES.COM/SPORTS S TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019D7
known as sharps, have been
taking advantage of sub-
scription-only statistical
breakdowns since that
website’s inception.
In the Maui field, the
kenpom.com ratings were:
Michigan State 1, Kansas 8,
Virginia Tech 41, Dayton 53,
Georgia 62, Brigham Young
72, UCLA 104 and Chami-
nade unranked.
UCLA is the worst-rated
major program in the field.
And the Bruins weren’t
rated by computers or bet-
ting markets as “Big Dance-
caliber” even before the
Hofstra loss.
USC, as a nine-point
favorite, lost to Temple 70-61
on Friday night. The Tro-
jans are part of a less loaded
field in the Orlando Invita-
tional that begins on
Thanksgiving.
Here were Pomeroy’s
rankings for that field enter-
ing the week: Maryland 13,
Marquette 28, USC 61,
Davidson 69, Temple 88,
Texas A&M 92, Harvard 95
and Fairfield 277.Noteworthy
8 In college football,
Circa Sports in Las Vegas
opened UCLA as a 2^1 ⁄ 2 -point
favorite over California in
Saturday night’s season
finale at the Rose Bowl.
Chip Kelly’s team has no
chance to earn bowl eligibili-
ty with a 4-7 record. Home-
field advantage is usually
worth 2^1 ⁄ 2 to three points in
college football conference
games. The opening line
tells us that Circa sees the
Bruins and Bears as evenly
matched.
8 Advance lines for Los
Angeles’ NFL teams: The
Rams opened as 3^1 ⁄ 2 -point
favorites for Sunday’s game
at Arizona for low-limit
betting in advance of Mon-
day night’s home game
against the Baltimore
Ravens. The Chargers
opened within a point of
pick ’em for Sunday’s game
at Denver. The Cardinals
are coming off a bye, but the
Rams could be hampered
by a short week of prepara-
tion through the holiday.
The Chargers will be fresh
off a bye. The disappointing
Broncos were further de-
moralized in a blowout loss
at Buffalo.
8 In the NBA, betting
markets finally caught up
with the Lakers. After cov-
ering eight of their first 1 1
games — 8-2 against the
spread (ATS) after losing
their opener to the Clippers
— LeBron James and com-
pany missed the spread in
four of their next five games,
even though they won them
all. Investment value ap-
pears to be gone on a day-to-
day basis. Oddsmakers are
pricing the Lakers to play
like champions every time
out. Keep an eye on travel
fatigue too. The Lakers’
Monday night matchup in
San Antonio started a
stretch of 10 of 13 games
away from Staples Center.Tuley and Fogle write
for VSiN.com.LAS VEGAS — A week
after losing to the public, the
sportsbooks bounced back
with a winning NFL Week 12
because of the failure of two
popular teams: New Eng-
land did not cover in the
marquee Sunday afternoon
game against Dallas, and
Green Bay was routed at
San Francisco on Sunday
night.
Sportsbooks are used to
sweating the Sunday and
Monday prime-time games
every week because of the
swings they can bring to the
bottom line, but the big
decisions started early this
past weekend.
The books got off to a
fast start with the 10 a.m.
Pacific time kickoffs as the
New York Jets jumped out
to a 13-3 halftime lead over
visiting Oakland and then
added three touchdowns in
the third quarter to leave no
doubt in a 34-3 upset as
31 ⁄ 2 -point underdogs.
“The Jets win was enor-
mous, probably the biggest
10 a.m. decision of the sea-
son,” said Jeff Davis, direc-
tor of trading for the Cae-
sars Palace network of
books. “We really liked the
Jets, and someone bet
Raiders big early. The Jets
aren’t bad. I’m not sure the
market has caught up to it
yet.”
The books also won with
Cleveland routing visiting
Miami 41-24 as a 10^1 ⁄ 2 -point
favorite; host Buffalo domi-
nating Denver 20-3 as a
four-point favorite, and
Washington defeating visit-
ing Detroit 19-16 as a four-
point underdog.
But it wasn’t all gravy for
the books. Seattle went off
as a 1^1 ⁄ 2 -point favorite at
Philadelphia. The vast
majority of the money was
on the Seahawks, and most
bettors rejoiced in their 17-9
win. The books were also on
the wrong side of Tampa
Bay’s 35-22 upset win at
Atlanta, as the Buccaneers
were bet down from five-
point underdogs to
31 ⁄ 2 -point underdogs by
kickoff.Bruins, Trojans
look to recover
UCLA and USC are
playing in three-game holi-
day basketball tournaments
Thanksgiving week after
suffering disappointing
home losses. UCLA, as a
14-point favorite, was
stunned by Hofstra 88-78
last week. The Bruins
looked to atone for that in a
loaded Maui Jim Maui Invi-
tational that began Monday
in Hawaii.
Before the eight-team
event began, Ken Pomeroy’s
computer ratings, posted at
kenpom.com, gave us some
insight into it.
Oddsmakers use Pom-
eroy’s team ratings and
game projections as a base
for their point spreads.
Professional sports bettors,SPORTS GAMBLING
Vegas rebounds
in NFL Week 12
By Dave Tuley
and Jeff Fogleest Buckner (seventh in
2016), Solomon Thomas
(third in 2017), Arik Arm-
stead (17th in 2015) and Ford
(23rd in 2014).
Without question, they
have won the respect of
teammates on offense.
“They just shut down one
of the best to ever play foot-
ball in Aaron Rodgers,”
49ers tackle Mike
McGlinchey said. “That’s
pretty impressive.”
Rodgers completed 20 of
33 passes for 104 yards with a
touchdown and a modest
75.8 passer rating (com-
pared with the 145.8 rating by
San Francisco’s Jimmy
Garoppolo.)
“That’s Aaron Rodgers,
future Hall of Famer, one of
the best quarterbacks in the
history of this game,” 49ers
cornerback Richard Sher-
man said. “I don’t know how
many times he’s been held to
[104] yards throwing in his
career.”
Said Buckner of Rodgers:
“We knew he was Houdini in
the pocket. You know he’s
going to make plays and ex-
tend them. ... When we
couldn’t get to him and hegot the ball out, we had to
make sure that we could, ob-
viously legally, hit him and
try to get him on the ground
as much as we could, and
make him pick himself up so
we can wear him out a little
bit.”
Good as they are, the
49ers aren’t running away
with the NFC West. Seattle
looms large in their rearview
mirror, and the Seahawks
beat San Francisco in over-
time two weeks ago. The
teams meet in a regular-sea-
son finale at Seattle, and the
division could hang in the
balance.
All this is bad news for the
Rams, who have lost at Seat-
tle and at home to the 49ers,
and have a steep uphill climb
even for a wild-card spot.
Teams are faltering allover the league. Dallas has
yet to beat anyone with a
winning record, and Cow-
boys owner Jerry Jones
seemed to put coach Jason
Garrett on notice after Sun-
day’s loss at New England.
Quarterback Carson Wentz
had a terrible game in a
home loss to Seattle.
And, it’s not as if his team
is going anywhere, but ...
Washington rookie quarter-
back Dwayne Haskins
missed the final snap in his
first victory because he was
too busy taking a selfie with
a fan.
The stumbles of the
Rams, notably losses to
beatable Tampa Bay and
Pittsburgh teams, are bad
but not necessarily fatal. It’s
likely going to take an 11-5
record to secure a wild-cardspot in the NFC, meaning
the Rams would have to go
at least 5-1 down the stretch
for a realistic chance to
make the postseason for the
third consecutive year under
Sean McVay.
As it stands, though, the
49ers have all the momen-
tum to keep rolling through
teams. The Rams and their
patchwork offensive line will
have their hands full playing
in Santa Clara on Dec. 21.
Just as Rodgers did Sunday
night.
“This pass rush is the
identity of the team, the core
of the team,” said Greg
Papa, 49ers play-by-play an-
nouncer for KNBR. “Most of
the teams that have a rush
like this have a nickname.
They’re the ‘Fearsome Four-
some,’ they’re the ‘Purple
People Eaters,’ they’re the
‘Steel Curtain,’ ‘Doomsday.’
You think of any great pass
rush, this one is there.”
Papa has taken to calling
them the “Gold Rush,”
which is good but for one
small detail: “That’s what
they call the cheerleaders.”
If that’s their biggest is-
sue, the 49ers are doing just
fine.FIRST-ROUND PICKSNick Bosa, left, and Arik Armstead are key cogs in a San Francisco 49ers defense
that is ranked No. 1 in the NFL and that has a plus-169 points differential, the club’s best since 1948.Tony AvelarAssociated PressRams are facing big trouble
with the rise of the 49ers
[49ers,from D1]
‘They just shut down one of the bestto ever play football in Aaron
Rodgers. That’s pretty impressive.’
— Mike McGlinchey,
49ers offensive lineman, on the team holding the Packers
quarterback to 104 yards passingIn the midst of a splint-
ered season, the Chargers on
Monday became as whole as
they’ve been all fall.
All-Pro safety Derwin
James returned to practice
for the first time in more
than three months and ap-
pears on course to make his
season debut Sunday at
Denver.
“Hell, yeah,” he said when
asked whether he would be
ready to play this week.
Then, asked about the po-
tential of rust, James added:
“I’m not worried about it.
Let’s go.”
Coming off a rookie sea-
son in which he established
himself as one of the NFL’s
most dynamic and versatile
defenders, James suffered a
stress fracture of the fifth
metatarsal in his right foot
in mid-August.
He was hurt during a
joint practice with the New
Orleans Saints at the Char-
gers’ training camp facility
in Costa Mesa. James had
surgery a week later and was
placed on injured reserve.
Per NFL rules, the Chargers
have 21 days to activate him
from IR, though James has
no intention of waiting that
long. He said he physically
has “no limitations at all”
and mentally has remained
locked in on what the Char-
gers are doing.
“If I start something, I al-
ways want to finish it,”
James said. “We’ve got five
games left. I feel like we can
finish the season up 9-7.”
The Chargers were ex-
pected to contend for the
AFC title until they were
decimated by injuries and
burdened by an inability to
make key plays late in close
games. They are 4-7, with
each loss coming by one
score.
In James, they are getting
back a player who can move
all over on defense and pro-
duce the exact type of game-
deciding moments that have
been missing.
In 2018, he became the
first Chargers rookie to be
named a Pro Bowl starter
since linebacker Shawne
Merriman in 2005. James fin-
ished with a franchise rook-
ie-record 109 tackles. He also
had 3^1 ⁄ 2 sacks, three inter-
ceptions and 15 passes de-
fended.
“He looks good,” coach
Anthony Lynn said. “He
looks good in uniform. It’s
just good to see him back onthe field, just his spirit and
the leadership that he
brings.”
Adrian Phillips, an All-
Pro on special teams in 2018,
replaced James in the start-
ing defensive lineup for the
first two weeks before suffer-
ing a broken right arm in a
loss at Detroit.
Phillips also was placed
on IR. He resumed practic-
ing in advance of the Char-
gers’ game last week against
Kansas City. He too looks tobe on pace to return Sunday
in Denver as Lynn’s defense
moves closer to being as
healthy as it has been all sea-
son.
Phillips said the final step
in his comeback was getting
his arm back to full strength.
“I finally got it back now,”
he said. “So I can go out
there and not think about it
at all and just play the way
I’m capable of playing.”
On similar rehabilitation
schedules, James andPhillips often were able to
work out together. James
said they particularly
pushed each other during an
on-field session before the
game against the Chiefs.
“Under the circum-
stances, it was probably the
best thing,” Phillips said.
“Going through the process
sucks. But being able to go
through it with somebody
like Derwin, competing like
that, it puts you back in that
football mode.”
After Phillips was in-
jured, undrafted rookie Rod-
eric Teamer moved into the
starting lineup at strong
safety for six games. He then
went down with a groin
problem. Jaylen Watkins
started the last three games
at the position as the Char-
gers’ secondary was
stretched thinner.
Still, the defense played
well enough and is coming
off a game in which Kansas
City quarterback Patrick
Mahomes passed for only 182
yards, his second-lowest to-
tal in 26 career starts.
The Chargers lost to the
Chiefs 24-17 when Philip Riv-
ers threw four interceptions,
the last of which came in the
end zone. Their seven losses
came by a combined 36
points.
“It’s been hard,” James
said of having to sit out and
watch. “I’ve been wanting tobe out there to help my team
win. We’ve been losing a lot of
close games, within one
point, one yard. Just to be
back out there feels good.”
James is returning at a time
when free safety Rayshawn
Jenkins has continued to
emerge in his first full season
as a starter. Jenkins leads
the secondary with 43 total
tackles and has a team-high
three interceptions.
“To have Derwin back, I
think it’s going to be special,”
cornerback Casey Hayward
said. “I think we’re going to
have the best safety combi-
nation these last five games.
Hopefully, we’ll be clicking
right away. We got no time to
wait. We need to win these
five games.”Etc.
Right tackle Sam Tevi
“will have a chance to play
this week,” Lynn said. He
has missed the past two
games because of a knee in-
jury. ... Left tackle Russell
Okung did individual work
on the side during practice
Monday as he works his way
back from a groin problem.
... Rookie linebacker Drue
Tranquill, who missed the
game against Kansas City
because of a sore calf, re-
turned to practice. “He
looked fine,” Lynn said. “I
think the bye week did him
some good.”James says he’s ready for season debut
By Jeff MillerDERWIN JAMES looks on track to be back Sunday
at Denver — and so does fellow safety Adrian Phillips.Myung J. ChunLos Angeles TimesChargers’ All-Pro
safety who suffered
foot injury in August
returns to practice.