Rockets welcome Nets to town

Basketball Betting Lines

02/17/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets get back to business Tuesday when they resume a six-game homestand by welcoming the New Jersey Nets to the Toyota Center.

The Rockets opened the residency on February 11 when Yao Ming tallied game- bests of 24 points and 18 rebounds to lead Houston, minus Tracy McGrady, in a 94-82 rout of the hapless Sacramento Kings.

McGrady sat out after getting an MRI on his sore left knee earlier that day. The procedure showed no new damage but the team is unsure when the former All- Star will return. McGrady has already missed 17 games this season after undergoing offseason arthroscopic surgery on the knee.

Ron Artest and Luis Scola scored 19 points apiece against Sacramento for the Rockets, who have alternated wins and losses for the past five tilts and, at 32-21, sit in second in the Southwest Division, four games south of the San Antonio Spurs.

Rafer Alston set a season high with 13 assists, but shot only 2-for-10 from the field to end with five points in the Rockets' win.

Houston, which is now an impressive 19-6 at the Toyota Center, will finish the homestand with bouts against Dallas, Charlotte, Portland and Cleveland.

The Nets, meanwhile, reached the break on a sour note last Tuesday after Tim Duncan registered 27 points and nine rebounds, as the Spurs did what they always seem to do against the Nets, systematically building a comfortable lead and burying home-standing New Jersey, 108-93.

San Antonio has come out victorious in 13 straight regular-season meetings over New Jersey, with New Jersey's last victory coming on November 13, 2003. The Nets have actually dropped 15 in a row to San Antonio, including Games 5 and 6 of the 2003 NBA Finals to close out the best-of-seven series.

Vince Carter, playing after hyper-extending his right elbow on Saturday versus Denver, scored a team-best 25 points with six rebounds and five assists. Devin Harris added 21 points, seven boards and five assists, while Brook Lopez collected 18 points and Trenton Hassell 10.

The Nets, who have dropped two straight following a season-best four-game winning streak, may get a boost tonight with the possible return of power forward Yi Jianlian, who has been on the shelf with a broken right pinky finger.

Houston has dominated this series recently winning five straight and eight of the past nine contests between the two teams, including a 114-91 win in the Meadowlands on December 22.

New Jersey, which is 13-13 on the road, will finish a two-day trip through Texas in Dallas on Wednesday.

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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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