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03/27/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers hope to inch closer to a postseason spot while eliminating the New Orleans Hornets from playoff contention in the Big Easy on Saturday.
The Blazers are coming off a big win over fellow Western Conference contender Dallas on Thursday when LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, as Portland continued its playoff push with a 101-89 victory over the Mavericks.
Andre Miller had 19 points and 10 assists for the Blazers, while Marcus Camby added 17 points and 11 boards. Brandon Roy contributed 16 points and seven assists for Portland, which rebounded from Sunday's loss at Phoenix to win for the sixth time in its last seven games.
The victory kept the Blazers in the thick of the playoff hunt. Portland is just one-half game behind San Antonio for the seventh spot in the West, and 1 1/2 games shy of Oklahoma City for sixth. Meanwhile, the Blazers are a comfortable five games ahead of ninth-place Memphis and can eliminate the 11th-seeded Hornets with a win tonight.
"It was important," Roy said. "It's just important to win right now, but it feels good that you can beat a team that's second or third in the Western Conference. This was a huge win for us."
The Hornets are coming off a 105-92 setback to Cleveland on Thursday. LeBron James scored 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting and added nine assists in that one, as the Cavaliers took a 105-92 road victory from New Orleans.
Rookies Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison had 20 and 17 points, respectively, for New Orleans, which won the opener of its five-game homestand in convincing fashion Monday against Dallas as Chris Paul returned from a 25- game absence.
Paul struggled in his second game back from a torn meniscus in his left knee, making 2-of-8 shots for five points while handing out seven assists.
David West notched 16 points in the loss, the Hornets' 11th in the last 14 games.
"We kept it close and played well in the first two quarters. Then they began to chip away," Hornets head coach Jeff Bower said. "We missed some key shots and had a few turnovers that really hurt us. They got the momentum going in the fourth quarter and it was more than we could overcome. We just have to re- group and get ready for Portland."
These two teams have split a pair of meetings so far this season with each winning on the other's home floor.
<< Mavs finish quick road trip in Oakland vs. Warriors
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks hope to improve their playoff position
in the jumbled Western Conference Saturday when they finish a brief two-game
road trip in Oakland against the woeful Golden State Warriors.
The Mavs lost for the
<< Sharks play host to Canucks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks appear back to their usual form after
enduring their longest losing streak in more than four years. The Western
Conference front-runners face their biggest challenge since ending that slide
tonight, howeve
<< Slumping Bulls welcome Nets to Windy City
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took nearly five months but the New Jersey Nets are
finally riding a winning streak. Now the club hopes to take the final step in
avoiding some rather ignominious history when they take on the slumping
Chicago Bulls in the
<< Wizards hope to snap 14-game skid vs. Jazz
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the Gilbert Arenas mess officially in the rear view
mirror the Washington Wizards get back to work on Saturday hoping to snap a
franchise-record 14-game losing streak.
Arenas was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway hous
Coyotes try to end eight-year playoff drought versus Avalanche >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - On the verge of securing their first postseason appearance
in eight years, the Phoenix Coyotes return to Jobing.com Arena tonight to take
on the Colorado Avalanche in a matchup of Western Conference contenders.
Phoenix has
Duke-Baylor Matchup >>
Duke BURecord 32-5 28-7Avg. Pts. 77.4 77.1Opp. Avg. Pts. 60.9 65.3Margin 16.5 11.8FG Pct. .442 .488Opp. FG Pct. .401 .3833-Pt. FG Pct. .379 .388Opp. 3-Pt. FG Pct. .278 .328
Tennessee (16-18) >>
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.
Michigan State (51-22) >>
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.
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
In 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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