Lin leads Knicks into Toronto
Basketball Betting Lines
02/14/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Linsanity goes north of the border this evening when Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks shoot for a sixth straight win against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.
One night after netting a career-best 38 points against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Lincredible run continued in Minnesota, as the point guard from nowhere scored 20 points, including a go ahead free throw with 4.9 seconds remaining in the Knicks' 100-98 win over the Timberwolves.
"Obviously it was an ugly one. It was a gutsy one, it was a road win," said Lin. "Everybody was tired. But that's the duty of basketball. We never gave up. I struggled a lot tonight but I mean everyone who came in gave us a lift and picked us up."
The Knicks, who will start a five-game homestand after tonight's tilt, haven't won six in a row since a seven-game run from March 28-April 10.
"We've talked about it all year, that if we got a point guard who can set people up, then we'll be better off," head coach Mike D'Antoni said. "And it's happened."
Lin also had eight assists, while Iman Shumpert added 20 points and Landry Fields contributed 19 for the Knicks, who are expected to have Amare Stoudemire back in the lineup tonight. Stoudemire, of course, has missed the team's last four games following the tragic death of his brother.
"The only positive for us during that whole week was we were watching the basketball games and we were watching Linsanity," Stoudemire said. "My family was getting a kick out of it. That's the only smiles they really had all week."
The team's other star, Carmelo Anthony, remains sidelined with a groin injury, but could return by the end of the week.
Lin's strong play was rewarded on Monday when he was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. In the four games since taken over the starting reins for New York, Lin has averaged 27.3 points, 8.3 assists and 2.0 steals. He also became the first player in NBA history to record at least 20 points and seven assists in each of his first four starts.
Toronto, meanwhile, enters tonight's tilt on the heels of a heartbreaking 94-92 loss to the Lakers.
After Kobe Bryant gave the Lakers a one-point edge with a right baseline jumper, Toronto was called for a five-second violation on the ensuing inbounds pass. Bryant then made 1-of-2 from the line to make it 94-92.
With 3.7 seconds remaining, DeRozan received the inbounds pass, but Metta World Peace defended him well and his shot from the left corner at the buzzer came up well short.
"I like my money, what little bit of money I make. I don't want to send it to the league. Mr. Foster saw it different," Raptors head coach Dwayne Casey said of the five-second call.
Jose Calderon netted a career-high 30 points for Toronto, which has lost four of its last five games.
The Raptors beat the Knicks earlier in the year and have won 11 of their last 14 at home in this series.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Back home after a successful and lengthy road trip, the Central Division-leading Chicago Bulls are scheduled to play their next six games on familiar territory and will host the Sacramento Kings tonight. The Bulls own an E
<< Rockets wrap up road trip in Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets will wrap up a six-game road trip
tonight against the Southwest Division-rival Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum.
The Rockets are 3-2 on the journey and suffered a 106-97 loss at Golden State
the last ti
<< Spurs resume lengthy trek vs. Pistons
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs are starting to pick up their game on
the road and will resume a nine-game Rodeo Road Trip tonight against the lowly
Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
The Spurs have won seven in a row ov
<< Heat finish hectic stretch in Indy
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat try to continue one of their best starts in
team history this evening when they visit the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life
Fieldhouse.
Miami kept rolling on Monday, as LeBron James scored 35 points to lead the
<< Hornets' Gordon sidelined six weeks after surgery
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Orleans Hornets guard Eric Gordon is
expected to be sidelined for six weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee
surgery on Tuesday.
The Hornets said the procedure was performed "to clean up his r
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Utah just might be a sitting duck when it finishes a grueling three games in three nights road stretch tonight in Oklahoma City. The Jazz lost to the Thunder, 101-87, in Salt Lake City last Friday and has played
Suns, Nuggets clash at Pepsi Center >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver halted one losing streak on the road in its last
outing and will now try to stop its longest skid at home in nearly a decade
when they play host to the Phoenix Suns.
Ty Lawson scored 27 points on Saturday
Blazers try to halt home skid vs. Wizards >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers will try to halt a rare losing
streak at the Rose Garden when they play host to a Washington Wizards team
coming in off its second road victory.
The Blazers had been a gaudy 11-1 in Rip Ci
Hawks commence trek against Lakers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta will kick off a five-game road trip tonight at
Staples Center when they take on a Lakers team returning from its annual
Grammy trek.
The Hawks, who will also visit Phoenix, Portland, Chicago and New
Devils try to bounce back in Buffalo >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils will try to get back in the win
column this evening when they visit the Buffalo Sabres for a clash at First
Niagara Center.
The Devils had won a season-high five straight heading into a two-game
home
FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL 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.