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Bobcats open key homestand vs. woeful WolvesBasketball Betting Lines03/24/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats are closing in on the franchise's first postseason appearance and are back in the Tar Heel state tonight for the opener of a five-game homestand versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. If only the Bobcats could play all of their games at home as evidenced by the 25-8 mark at Time Warner Cable Arena. The 25 home wins are a franchise record in a season, topping the 23 victories as the host set last season. They're 11-26 as the visitor, and will also play the Wizards, Raptors, Sixers and Bucks on the residency. Charlotte is currently seeded seventh in the Eastern Conference, just a half- game behind No. 6 Miami and three games ahead of ninth-place Chicago. The Bulls are 2 1/2 games off the eighth and final postseason slot in the conference. The Bobcats put the brakes on a two-game slide and won for the eighth time in 11 tries after beating Washington by a 95-86 score in overtime on Tuesday in the finale of a three-game road trip. Gerald Wallace had 17 points and 19 rebounds, Stephen Jackson added 16 points and seven boards, and Boris Diaw netted 17 points for the Bobcats, who outscored the Wizards, 13-4, in the extra session. "In overtime, I told them we were lucky to be in overtime," said Bobcats head coach Larry Brown. "I told them to concentrate on getting the jump ball and having good possessions." Minnesota will hobble into Charlotte riding a 13-game losing streak. It will also visit the Orlando Magic on the quick trek and has lost seven in a row away from the Twin Cities. The Timberwolves, who are 5-31 as the guest, are coming off Monday's 106-100 loss versus the Toronto Raptors at Target Center. Al Jefferson led all scorers with 22 points to go with seven rebounds, while Wayne Ellington scored 17 points in a reserve role for the Timberwolves, who have dropped 19 of the last 20 games and haven't won since beating Miami back on February 23. Jonny Flynn and Kevin Love had 14 and 13 points, respectively, in defeat. "Our half-court defense let us down in the second half," said Wolves coach Kurt Rambis. "We just couldn't find ways to get stops. Because they have talented guards and pick setters and bigs that can shoot basketball it puts a lot of stress on our defense. It spelled our fate tonight." The Timberwolves last dropped 13 in a row from November 29 - December 23 of the 2008-09 campaign, and haven't lost 14 straight games since a 16-game drought spanning from April 8 - November 12, 1994. They lost 16 consecutive contests in a season February 29 - March 29, 1993. Charlotte defeated Minnesota, 93-92, last month in Minneapolis thanks to Nazr Mohammed's dunk with 5.3 seconds left and Jackson's 33 points. The Bobcats have won five of the last six meetings with the T'Wolves, who have lost four of the five matchups as the guest.
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALKNFL Football Trash TalkTrash 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. |
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