Thunder, Nuggets clash at Pepsi Center

Basketball Betting Lines

03/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder face a big test Wednesday when they arrive in the Rockies to battle Western Conference power Denver.

The Thunder won for the 12th time in 14 games last night when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook finished with 39 and 30 points, respectively, to lead Oklahoma City to a 113-107 home victory over the Sacramento Kings.

It was the 32nd time in 33 games that Durant has scored at least 25. The All- Star forward also grabbed 10 rebounds and Westbrook had 13 assists for the Thunder, who have won three in a row. Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic added 15 and 14 points.

The Kings made just under 54 percent of their shots, but Oklahoma City nearly matched that, making half its shots in addition to sinking 28-of-32 free throws.

"Of course we didn't play the way we wanted to, but you're going to have games like that," Durant said.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, have hit a bit of a snag, dropping two in a row against fellow West heavyweights, the LA Lakers and Phoenix.

Most recently Amare Stoudemire poured in 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds on Monday, as the Suns dominated Denver, 101-85, at US Airways Center.

Chauncey Billups finished with 21 points for the Nuggets, who have dropped back-to-back games for the first time since a season-high three-game skid from December 25-28. Carmelo Anthony ended with 17 points and seven rebounds, while J.R. Smith added 16 points off the bench in defeat.

"I think in general if you hold Phoenix to 100 points you played pretty well defensively," Nuggets head coach George Karl said. "In general I think we did some good things, but we never really got a run going where we could get it to under 10 points. And we just didn't have enough energy in our bodies after playing four games in five nights to make a comeback."

On the injury front for Denver, reserve big man Chris Andersen (right knee tendinitis) is questionable and rookie point guard Ty Lawson (shoulder/thumb) is listed as doubtful.

The Thunder have won five of their past six on the road but haven't won in the Rockies since relocating to Oklahoma City from Seattle, dropping five straight.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL 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.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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