Anthony leads Nuggets over Hornets

Basketball Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carmelo Anthony put up 32 points to go with 12 rebounds, and Denver pulled away late for a 102-95 win over New Orleans.

Chauncey Billups recorded 21 points and seven assists for the Northwest Division-leading Nuggets, winners of five straight.

Nene had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Johan Petro chipped in 10 and 10 to help the visitors win a game that featured 19 lead changes and 21 ties.

David West and Marcus Thornton led New Orleans with 30 and 23 points, respectively. Darren Collison accounted for 17 points and 10 assists in the loss, the sixth in the last seven games for the playoff-chasing Hornets.

Collison's reverse layup had the Hornets within 90-88 with 4 1/2 minutes to play in the fourth, but Emeka Okafor turned the ball over after consecutive buckets by Anthony.

The veteran Billups came up with the steal in the backcourt and sank two free throws with 3:29 left for a 96-88 Nuggets lead.

Nene threw down a dunk the next time down to cap the game-altering 8-0 run.

Down 100-93 with under two minutes to go, Collison and Thornton each missed three-pointers. Julian Wright's alley-oop slam made it a five-point game, 100-95, with 26.9 seconds left, but the Nuggets made enough free throws in the closing seconds to seal the win.

The score was close throughout the game. It was tied 29-all after 12 minutes, New Orleans took a slim 52-51 lead after two quarters of play, and a similarly-played third frame ended with the hosts on top, 75-73.

The largest lead for either team in the first three quarter was six.

Game Notes

The Hornets played without forward James Posey, who was experiencing flu-like symptoms...Anthony has scored at least 30 points 27 times this season...Denver had scored at least 110 points in its previous four games...Denver overcame 19 turnovers by owning the glass, 49-36, and making 25-of-28 free throws... Nuggets sharpshooter J.R. Smith made just 1-of-12 from the floor for three points...Wright had 13 points, eight rebounds and five steals in defeat.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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