Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
02/10/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-year center Greg Monroe is starting to heat up for a Detroit Pistons team riding a season-high three-game winning streak and is aiming for his fourth straight double-double tonight versus the New Jersey Nets in the back end of a home-and-home series at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
Monroe led the Pistons to a 99-92 victory at New Jersey on Wednesday and provided 20 points and 12 rebounds. Monroe has recorded a double-double in eight of his last nine games (14 total) and is averaging 20.8 points and 11.8 boards in his previous four contests.
"We're giving maximum efforts for 48 minutes, we're playing together, everybody's on the same page offensively and defensively," Monroe said of Detroit's recent success.
The former Georgetown star is one of only five players averaging 3.9 or more offensive rebounds per game and is tied for second in the NBA in total offensive rebounds with 104. Jonas Jerebko scored 16 points to go with seven rebounds, while Tayshaun Prince finished with 15 points and five assists for Detroit, which snapped a seven-game road losing streak and is aiming for its first four-game winning streak since a prevailing in five straight games from Dec. 4-12, 2009.
The Pistons are kicking off a three-game homestand tonight versus the Nets, Wizards and Spurs, and are 5-8 at The Palace this season. In injury news for Detroit, guard Will Bynum is questionable for Friday's game versus the Nets with a strained right foot. Bynum missed his 15th straight game on Wednesday and fellow guard Ben Gordon scored 14 points off the bench in New Jersey after missing the previous 10 games with a sore left shoulder.
New Jersey has lost four straight and six of seven games, and almost sent Detroit packing with a loss the last time out. Star point guard Deron Williams poured in a game-high 34 points on 10-of-21 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out four assists. He is averaging 26.3 points in his past nine games for the Nets, who suffered their third loss in a row at home and were outscored by a 31-19 margin in the second quarter.
"That second quarter was really lopsided and that's where they got their confidence," said Williams, was named a reserve on the East's All-Star team.
Jordan Farmar scored 22 points in a reserve role and Kris Humphries posted nine points and 16 rebounds in defeat. New Jersey shot 42.3 percent compared to Detroit's 53.4 percent clip. Keith Bogans had three points before suffering a left ankle injury in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. Bogans is expected to undergo surgery and miss the remainder of the 2011-12 season.
Injuries are nothing new to the Nets this season since they're already without center Brook Lopez (foot), forward Damion James (foot), forward DeShawn Stevenson (knee), guard MarShon Brooks (toe) and center Mehmet Okur (back). Center Shelden Williams is the only Nets player to have appeared in all 27 of their games this season. He has made 10 starts.
The 2011-12 season series between the Nets and Pistons is tied at a game apiece, but Detroit is 14-6 in the past 20 matchups in the series. New Jersey has dropped nine in a row and 28 of its last 31 contests at The Palace. It hasn't won on the road in this series since a 79-74 victory on March 26, 2006.
<< Heat visit nation's capital to take on Wizards
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After getting their six-game road trip off to a poor start,
the Miami Heat will dust themselves off for tonight's showdown against the
lowly Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center.
The Heat had won three straight and 11
<< Clippers resume road trip vs. 76ers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers will close out a seven-game stretch
that head coach Doug Collins dubbed as "Death Row" when they entertain the
upstart Los Angeles Clippers tonight from Wells Fargo Center.
The Sixers are 4-2 on the
<< Thunder conclude road trip in Utah
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oklahoma City will attempt to wrap up a five-game road trip
on a winning note tonight when Kevin Durant and Company visit Salt Lake City
to take on the Utah Jazz.
The Western Conference-leading Thunder dropped to 2-2 o
<< First meets worst when Bulls visit Bobcats
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two streaks will be on the line this evening at Time Warner
Cable Arena, as the Chicago Bulls go after their fifth straight win, while the
Charlotte Bobcats attempt to avoid matching the longest losing streak in
franchise his
Pacers battle Grizzlies on Beale Street >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The much-improved Indiana Pacers hope to salvage the back-
end of a brief two-game road trip tonight when they square off with the
Memphis Grizzlies on Beale Street.
Indiana is coming off a 97-98 loss in Atlant
Mavs visit Love, Timberwolves >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will have Kevin Love back in the
lineup tonight versus the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center after serving a
two-game suspension for stomping on Houston's Luis Scola during the third
quarter of Satu
Magic welcome Hawks to central Florida >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic try to stay hot tonight when they welcome
the Atlanta Hawks to the Amway Center.
This, of course, is the first meeting between these Southeast Division rivals
since Atlanta knocked the Magic out of last
Giggs to play another year at United >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex
Ferguson has revealed that midfielder Ryan Giggs will return to the club for
another season after signing a one-year contract extension.
The 38-year-old Giggs m
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting