Anthony, Nuggets hand Wizards ninth straight defeat

Basketball Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, as the Denver Nuggets battled back to upend the Washington Wizards, 97-87, at the Pepsi Center.

J.R. Smith added 17 points off the bench and Nene chipped in 16 for the Nuggets, who have won seven of their last eight.

Andray Blatche paced Washington with 23 points and eight boards for the Wizards, who dropped their ninth in a row.

Al Thornton scored 16 points, but fouled out in the defeat, while Alonzo Gee added career highs of 13 points and 10 boards for the struggling Wizards.

Denver widened its advantage to 74-68 on an Anthony Carter trey with 8:41 left in the fourth. The Nuggets pulled away after Smith scored nine straight Denver points to make it an 88-78 game with just over three minutes remaining. Washington never cut into the double-digit edge down the stretch.

Washington got out to a 7-2 start in the opening quarter and widened the margin to as many as eight in the frame on a Thornton dunk with just over five minutes left. The Wizards led by six, 24-18, going into the second quarter.

Denver tied the game at 26 on an Arron Afflalo jumper, but the Wizards upped the advantage to six on a Shaun Livingston make with under four minutes to go in the half. Washington finished the frame up that same amount at 45-39.

The Nuggets fought back and tied the game at 51 on an Anthony jumper with under eight minutes left in the third. Denver then took the lead on an Afflalo three with 7:18 left. Denver led by as many as seven in the frame, but finished the quarter only up two after Gee drained a half-court buzzer-beating three to lessen the Denver margin to 65-63.

Game Notes

Denver improved to 35-5 this season when leading after three quarters and 29-5 at home...The Nuggets shot 50.7 percent for the game...Both teams turned the ball over 16 times...Washington next plays on Friday at Portland...Denver next plays on Thursday at home against New Orleans.

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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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