Friday, July 20, 2007

Did Allegedly Crooked Ref Tim Donaghy Fix Sonics Games?

Based on a very cursory search at the Seattle P-I site, it looks like alleged game fixing ref Tim Donaghy officiated at least three Sonics games in 06-07 and three in 05-06, the two seasons in which the fixing allegedly occurred.

I couldn't figure out a way to get point spread info on these games, maybe some of you can. Note--the dates on the P-I boxscores are incorrect, they indicate when the box score was published in print. The dates I've indicated are correct.

Here are the games I found:

2005-06
12/2/05--Sonics 115, Cavs 108 at Key Arena. Donaghy ejected Danny Fortson from this game. [Game story]

3/8/06--Grizzlies 99, Sonics 74 at Key Arena. [boxscore]

3/29/06--Rockets 115, Sonics 87 at Houston [boxscore]

2006-07

12/20/06--Mavericks 103, Sonics 95 at Key Arena [boxscore]

12/30/06--Mavericks 122, Sonics 102 at Dallas [boxscore]

2/10/07--Kings 114, Sonics 93 at Key Arena [boxscore]

Now, again, I don't have the point spreads in front of me, but of these six games, four were losses by 20 points or more, where the point spread couldn't have been a factor.

For the other two games it seems like the point spread might've come into play.

How about the December '05 game against Cleveland. The Sonics, only at 6-8 but still just off their playoff run, would've been about 6 or 7 point favorites in that home game, right? They won by seven.

And the December '06 home game against Dallas, I can imagine the Sonics being about a 6-8 point underdog. They lost that game by eight.

Someone who knows more about sports betting, please, help me out here.

1 comments:

Nuss said...

Hey Seth --

Did you get my e-mail?