Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
02/09/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks may not be matching their championship-caliber performance from last season, but Dirk Nowitzki is still playing well enough to make the Western Conference All-Star team.
Nowitzki, 33, will make his 11th career All-Star appearance at Orlando's Amway Center on February 26th. The 2011 Finals Most Valuable Player has averaged 17.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists over 31.9 minutes this season for Dallas.
Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Memphis' Marc Gasol, Phoenix's Steve Nash, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Minnesota's Kevin Love and San Antonio's Tony Parker were also selected as Western Conference reserves by the coaches.
It is the eighth All-Star selection for Nash in this his 16th season. He is averaging a double-double with 15.1 points to go with 10.0 assists on the year thus far.
Parker will make his fourth All-Star appearance since he entered the NBA with the Spurs in 2001-02. His 18.9 points per game average leads San Antonio and his 7.7 assists per game are a career-high. Love is making his second consecutive appearance on the back of 25.0 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. Westbrook is also making his second appearance.
Aldridge and Gasol both received their first All-Star selection. Aldridge ranks fifth in the league in scoring with a career-best 23.3 points per game while Gasol has career bests in points (15.0) and rebounds (10.2) per game.
The Eastern Conference reserves are led by Paul Pierce, fresh off passing Celtics' legend Larry Bird for No. 2 on the team's all-time scoring list. He will be making his 10th All-Star appearance (five consecutively).
Pierce is joined on the East bench by Atlanta's Joe Johnson, New Jersey's Deron Williams, Chicago's Luol Deng, Miami's Chris Bosh, Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala, and Indiana's Roy Hibbert.
Bosh was named to his seventh All-Star team, all consecutively. The Miami big man is scoring 19.2 points per game this season. Johnson was selected for his sixth consecutive All-Star game with Atlanta, the longest such streak for the Hawks since Hall-of-Fame forward Dominique Wilkins was named to nine straight from 1986-94.
Williams, selected for the third time, is averaging team-highs with 20.9 points and 8.6 assists per game for the Nets.
The East also has three first-time All-Stars in Deng, Iguodala, and Hibbert. Deng has dropped 16.0 points per game while averaging a career-high 7.3 rebounds per contest. Iguodala has been a key element in the Sixers' balanced attack this season, and has averaged a career-best 6.7 boards per game to go with 13.0 points. Hibbert is averaging career-highs in points (13.6) and rebounds (9.9) this season.
<< Johnson among leaders at Pebble Beach; Tiger five back
Pebble Beach, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dustin Johnson, Danny Lee and Charlie Wi
shot rounds of nine-under par Thursday to take the lead after one round of the
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods made his season debut on the PGA
<< Raiders cut CB Stanford Routt
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Raiders released cornerback
Stanford Routt on Thursday, just one season after he signed a three-year
contract extension.
The deal guaranteed Routt $20 million over the first two
<< MLB suspends 2 Mets minor leaguers
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball suspended two New York
Mets minor leaguers Thursday.
Charles "Dock" Doyle and Scott Moviel both received a 50-game suspension after
second violations of the minor league drug prevent
<< Benfica, Aimar agree to one-year extension
Lisbon, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Benfica and Argentina midfielder Pablo
Aimar agreed to a one-year contract extension Thursday through the 2012-13
season.
Aimar, 32, joined Benfica from Spain's Real Zaragoza in 2008 and has played
Gray, Duke holds off Boston College >>
Chestnut Hill, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chelsea Gray had 19 points, six rebounds
and five assists to lead No. 5 Duke past Boston College on Thursday.
Elizabeth Williams added 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks for Duke
(20-3, 11-0 AC
No. 8 Maryland breezes past Clemson >>
Clemson, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lynetta Kizer led six players in double figures
with 18 points, as No. 8 Maryland breezed past Clemson, 91-61, on Thursday.
Alicia DeVaughn added 15 points while Tianna Hawkins and Alyssa Thomas both
had 14
Hartnell helps Flyers edge Leafs >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Hartnell had a goal and an assist as
the Philadelphia Flyers edged the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, at Wells Fargo
Center.
Maxime Talbot, Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn also lit the lamp for
Pacioretty's hat trick lifts Canadiens over Islanders >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Pacioretty netted his first career hat
trick, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders
at Nassau Coliseum.
Scott Gomez also scored -- his first goal since February 5, 20
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.
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting