Spurs finish Florida trip in Orlando

Basketball Betting Lines

03/17/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An intriguing interconference matchup is on tap tonight in central Florida, where the San Antonio Spurs take on the playoff-bound Orlando Magic at Amway Arena.

San Antonio is still trying to solidify a postseason spot in the West and is currently seventh in the conference standings, just a half-game behind Phoenix and a full game in back of Oklahoma City. Utah is only two games ahead in the fourth spot.

The Spurs kept their chances of moving up the charts by recording their fourth straight win with Tuesday's 88-76 victory at Miami in the opener of a short road trip. Manu Ginobili scored 22 points, George Hill added 16 and Tim Duncan checked in with 12 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio, which is 8-1 in the previous nine contests.

"It's hard to say we're back or we're about to make a run for a championship," Ginobili said. "We've lost so many bad games, so we have to stay humble and keep working."

Richard Jefferson had 15 points and eight rebounds to help the Spurs improve to 16-15 away from the Alamo City.

Orlando had an eight-game winning streak come to an end with a 96-89 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday despite 27 points and 16 rebounds from Dwight Howard. Howard has recorded an NBA-best 53 double-doubles this season and posted a league-high 69 double-doubles in 2007-08. He leads the NBA in both rebounding and blocked shots, and is trying to become the first player in NBA history to lead the league in that category more than once.

Vince Carter ended with 23 points and Mickael Pietrus added 20, as the playoff-bound Magic scored just 36 points in the second half and were outrebounded by a 46-34 margin. Orlando, which is second in the East, had a six-game home winning streak broken and fell to 27-7 as the host in the loss to Charlotte.

"Our defense wasn't very good at times, our offense was even worse," Orlando guard J.J. Redick said. "You can't really win when that happens."

The Magic are shooting for their third straight Southeast title and sit three games ahead of Atlanta in the division. They have won the last two meetings with San Antonio, which is 6-3 in the past nine matchups as the guest.

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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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