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Rockets close out homestand vs. WarriorsBasketball Betting Lines02/02/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The reeling Houston Rockets conclude a disastrous six-game homestand on Tuesday by facing one of the Western Conference's worst teams, the Golden State Warriors. The Rockets, who fell to 1-4 on their residency with a heartbreaking 115-111 overtime loss to Phoenix on Sunday, should have an excellent chance to stop their slide. Houston has topped the Warriors eight straight times, including a pair of wins in Oakland this season. Amare Stoudemire poured in a season-high 36 points on Sunday and the Suns hit 7-of-8 at the foul line in overtime, as Phoenix gutted out a tough road win over Houston. Aaron Brooks had 24 points and six assists for the Rockets. Trevor Ariza contributed 21 points and hit a game-tying three near the end of regulation to force extra time. Luis Scola and Carl Landry went for 17 and 16 points, respectively, in the loss. With the Suns leading 100-97 in the waning seconds of regulation, Robin Lopez blocked Landry's layup attempt to force a jump ball, won by Houston, and the ball found its way to Ariza in the right corner for a three-pointer that tied the game at 100 with 11.3 seconds on the clock. The Suns had one last chance for a game-winning shot, but Steve Nash's off- balance shot never came anywhere near the cylinder. In the extra frame, Jared Dudley was fouled late and sank two clutch free throws with 5.3 ticks on the clock for a 113-110 Phoenix lead. The Suns smartly fouled Brooks before he could get a three-pointer off on the ensuing possession; he made the first and intentionally fired the second straight into the rim. It came right back to Brooks in the lane, but the referees called a lane violation for leaving too early, and Nash iced the game with two from the stripe at the other end. "I surprised myself, the ref, everybody, so maybe something had to be wrong. It was a hard play, a hard call...that's how it goes," Brooks said of his thwarted follow-up attempt on the missed free throw. The Warriors, meanwhile, dropped their fifth straight game in Oklahoma City on Sunday when Kevin Durant made 16-of-21 shots from the field on his way to a season-high 45 points while pulling down 11 rebounds, as the Thunder held off Golden State, 112-104. Corey Maggette ended with 26 points and five boards for the Warriors, who have dropped nine of 11 overall. Monta Ellis chipped in 25 points. Stephen Curry tallied 14 points and five assists while CJ Watson added 13 points off the bench for Golden State, which fell to 4-20 away from Oakland this season. "We need to work on closing games once we have control in the second half," Curry said.
<< Bulls return home to face Clippers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls return to the cozy confines of the United Center shooting for their sixth consecutive win when they play host to the Los Angles Clippers. The Bulls began a season-long seven-game road trip by dropping the
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Red-hot Canucks visit struggling Habs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A matchup against one of the NHL's hottest teams won't make it easy for the Montreal Canadiens to break out of their current slump. Doing so without their leading goal scorer figures to add to the challenge. The Vancouver
Surging Coyotes make a stop in Nashville >>
Stars try to continue home mastery of Wild >>
Report: Jets' Sanchez to have surgery >>
Jokinen set to make Rangers debut against red-hot Kings >>
SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook BettingNFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal. A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon." It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed. The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha. So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games." Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 millionIn the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree. And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so. Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal. So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them. Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.) The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money. As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached. The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs. In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season. Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done. And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting. So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year. There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve. So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal. And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million. There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.) Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft. Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey. Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year. So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation. To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs. |
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