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Bryant, Lakers take on Blazers in LABasketball Betting Lines02/20/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers will attempt to put some off-the-court turmoil in the rearview mirror tonight when they host the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. Bryant wasn't happy after the Lakers fell behind by as many as 27 points before losing the back end of a home-and-home set to Phoenix, 102-90, on Sunday in the desert. The All-Star, who scored 32 points but also committed an NBA season-high 10 turnovers, was especially rankled over his team's treatment of fellow star Pau Gasol, who has been the subject of multiple trade rumors since the preseason. "I wish management would come out and either trade him or not trade him," Bryant said. "It's tough for a player to give his all when you don't know if you're going to be here tomorrow. I'd rather them not trade him at all. If they're going to do something, I wish they would just do it." Andrew Bynum and Gasol each contributed double-doubles in Phoenix as Bynum scored 16 and pulled down 10 boards, while Gasol had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Gasol, however, is averaging a career-low 16.6 points. "It's disappointing whenever you lose, whenever you're down 27 points and you have to try to climb up that hill," said Bryant. "We did a good job in the second half but it was just too deep of a hole." The Lakers, who had won three straight before faltering in the desert, are an impressive 13-2 as the host on the season and have won 16 of 19 over Portland in SoCal. The Blazers, meanwhile, haven't been playing all that well lately but are coming off a 97-77 rout of Atlanta in the Rose Garden on Saturday. Nicolas Batum led all scorers with 22 points in that one while LeMarcus Aldridge recorded a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds in his first game back after missing two straight with a sprained left ankle. Raymond Felton added 14 points and eight assists as Portland has now won two of its last three after dropping four of the previous five. "I thought we got in a good rhythm, we made our shots, and we stopped those guys," said Portland head coach Nate McMillan. "We mixed in some zone tonight and we continued to make shots. We continued to defend. In the fourth quarter we did the same thing. Whenever they made a big shot, we responded." The Blazers, who are just 5-10 on the road, will finish a tough back-to-back stretch tomorrow when they return to Rip City to face off with Southwest Division-leading San Antonio.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After opening a five-game road trip on a sour note in Miami Sunday afternoon, the Orlando Magic are probably happy to see the Milwaukee Bucks on the slate tonight in a showdown at the Bradley Center. Orlando was blitzed by
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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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