Points Effort Pound Claim On Losing

Basketball Betting Lines

"Our mental approach to the game was much, much better to start the game, especially on the defensive end," said Afflalo, who also blocked two shots.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You have to figure the loss of All-Star big man Al Horford will eventually catch up to the Atlanta Hawks. So far, however, Atlanta has kept its head above water and will try to finish a four-game homestand in perfect fashion when they host Jamal Crawford and the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at Philips Arena.

 

Crawford's troubles have coincided with Portland's although the club did snap a three-game skid and improved to 1-2 on a six-game road trip Monday in the Big Easy when LaMarcus Aldridge scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds, helping the Blazers handle the New Orleans Hornets, 84-77.

 

Nicolas Batum added 19 points and six boards for Portland, which will finish its long trek with visits to Toronto and Detroit after tonight. Gerald Wallace tallied 14 points and seven rebounds.

 

Veteran Portland center Marcus Camby is likely to miss a third straight game tonight with a sprained left ankle.

 

"I think I'm in a different state of mind," Smith said. "I'm playing as hard as I've ever played."

 

Their last three victories, against admittedly inferior competition in Charlotte, Minnesota and the Raptors, have come despite the fact they've played without Horford, who will be out for the next three to four months because of torn pec suffered last week.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince has scored 20 points in back-to-back contests but it hasn't been enough to lift his team to victory. Perhaps a third time will be a charm when Detroit takes on the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at Target Center. Prince is averaging 10.5 points this season and has scored in double figures over the last four games. He delivered his second straight 20-point effort in Tuesday's 97-80 loss at Houston, while Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey added 18 and 16 points, respectively, in defeat.

 

Prince posted two steals for 400 in his career and needs one block for 400. Greg Monroe had only four points and grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds. The Pistons, who are last in the Central Division, have lost eight of their last nine games and fell to 1-6 as the visitor this season. They are averaging a league-low 85.0 points per game and have one of the worst records in the NBA at 3-11.

 

Wolves guard Jose Barea (ankle) has missed the past three contests and is listed as questionable for tonight's game. Forward Michael Beasley (foot sprain) hasn't played in the last six games and is out indefinitely, while Ridnour (personal) is questionable versus Detroit.

 

"Once we get everybody healthy ... we're very good," said Love, who is just one 30-point effort short of tying Kevin Garnett's franchise record of four in a row set from March 22-28, 2000. "We can surprise a lot of people. We just want to continue to get better."

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

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.