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02/28/2007 - East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Carter scored 27 points and Jason Kidd had another solid all-around game with 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, as the Nets used a big run in the fourth quarter for a 113-101 win over Washington.
Bostjan Nachbar added 23 points for New Jersey, which won its third straight after a three-game skid. The Nets also beat the Wizards for the ninth time in the last 13 meetings.
Gilbert Arenas had 26 points and Jarvis Hayes added 21 with nine boards for the Wizards, who lost their third straight. It was a tough night though for Arenas shooting-wise, as he finished 7-of-25, including 3-of-12 from three- point range.
Roger Mason Jr. equaled his career-high with 18 points for Washington.
Two free throws by Arenas moved the visitors to an 86-85 lead with 9:17 remaining, but the Nets scored the next 10, which included three-pointers from Eddie House and Nachbar to begin the burst. Nachbar drove in for a jam and Clifford Robinson's two free throws brought the Nets to a 95-86 lead with 7:27 left.
Hayes stemmed the tide with a three-ball, but Nachbar had the next nine New Jersey points, which included another shot from beyond the arc.
After Hayes' three cut New Jersey's lead to 104-97, Kidd answered with a driving layup. The exclamation point for the Nets came when Kidd drilled a three with 1:36 left for a 113-97 cushion.
House and Robinson each finished with 12 points for the Nets, while Brendan Haywood scored 11 for Washington.
The Nets raced to an 11-3 lead early and were on top 22-18 going into the second. Hayes' jumper capped seven straight Washington points for a 46-40 lead for the Wizards, and they led 51-49 at the half.
Carter's free throw ended eight consecutive points for New Jersey, which grabbed a 76-67 advantage, and it was 79-78 in favor of the Nets going into the fourth.
Game Notes
Washington All-Star forward Caron Butler missed his second straight game due to back problems...Washington has lost 13 of its last 15 at New Jersey.
<< Brodeur earns 12th shutout as Devils top Penguins
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marty Brodeur notched his NHL-leading 12th
shutout of the season to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 1-0 victory over the
Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena.
Brodeur stopped 31 shots and Jamie Langenbr
<< Stumpel, Jokinen shine as Panthers edge Caps
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jozef Stumpel notched the game-winning goal
in the shootout and Olli Jokinen recorded his third hat trick of the season,
as the Florida Panthers edged the Washington Capitals, 6-5, at the Verizon
Center.
<< Cardinals ink Molina, Wainwright, 16 others
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The defending world champion St. Louis
Cardinals signed catcher Yadier Molina and reliever Adam Wainwright among a
slew of 18 total players, all to one-year deals, the team announced Tuesday.
The 2
<< Lundqvist and Blueshirts blank Habs
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henrik Lundqvist stopped 19 shots to post his
third shutout of the season, as the New York Rangers blanked the Montreal
Canadiens, 4-0, at Madison Square Garden.
Marcel Hossa scored twice and added an as
Blake tallies hat trick, Hunter caps wild Isles win >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trent Hunter's second goal of the game,
coming with 31 seconds left in overtime, sent the New York Islanders past the
Philadelphia Flyers, 6-5, at Nassau Coliseum.
Jason Blake recorded a hat trick and
Weight, Blues top Canucks >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doug Weight scored two goals as the St. Louis
Blues downed the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1, at Scottrade Center.
David Backes added a goal and an assist and Curtis Sanford made 25 saves for
the Blues, who have w
Oilers honor legendary Messier >>
Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers retired former center
Mark Messier's No. 11 prior to Tuesday's home game against the Phoenix
Coyotes.
Messier began his NHL career in 1979 with the Oilers and was named the
Streak hits 13 as Mavs thrash T'Wolves >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points, grabbed 14
rebounds, and led the Dallas Mavericks to their 13th straight win, a 91-65
rout of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Mavs are now one win shy of their
franchi
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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.
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