James Recalls Saunders Of Stretch

Basketball Betting Lines

The Kansas product was acquired by the Hornets on January 4 as part of a three-team trade involving the Grizzlies and 76ers.

 

Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards have reportedly fired head coach Flip Saunders. Various media outlets, including the Washington Post, have reported that Saunders is out after a dismal 2-15 start. The Post added that lead assistant Randy Wittman has been elevated to interim head coach.

 

Saunders was in his third season with the Wizards, who started the year with eight straight losses and were coming off a 103-83 setback on Monday in Philadelphia. He had one more year remaining on a four-year contract.

 

Saunders has also been the head coach at Minnesota and Detroit, and owns a career record of 638-526.

 

Augustin re-aggravated the injury during to the first quarter of Sunday's game at New Jersey.

 

He is averaging 13.6 points, 6.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 17 games this season.

 

In 18 games this season, Deng has averaged 15.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

 

James, the 24th overall pick in the 2010 draft, started the first seven games of this season, averaging 4.9 points and 4.7 rebounds, before re- aggravating the injury.

 

The 26th-overall pick of the 2010 draft has career averages of 3.2 points, 1.5 rebounds and 11.9 minutes through 82 games with New Orleans and Memphis.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - All-Star forward Kevin Love will beat a Wednesday night deadline by signing a four-year, $62 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to a report. He is expected to sign the deal Wednesday afternoon in Dallas before the Timberwolves' game against the Mavericks, the St. Paul Pioneer Press has reported.

 

Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Bosh scored a season-high 35 points and the Miami Heat won another game without Dwyane Wade, holding off the Cleveland Cavaliers, 92-85, on Tuesday. The Heat went 4-1 on a five-game homestand, playing each game without Wade as he deals with a sprained right ankle. They are 7-1 without the All-Star guard in the lineup this season.

 

Rookie Kyrie Irving kept Cleveland close down the stretch and finished with 17 points while Samardo Samuels scored 15 off the bench. But the Cavs fell to 1-4 against the Heat since James left to play for them before last season.

 

Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert had 16 points apiece for the Pacers, who suffered their first home loss of the season.

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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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