Spurs close out Rodeo Road Trip in Denver

Basketball Betting Lines

02/23/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle said it felt like the team hit every green light during the 1998 season until getting sideswiped in the NFC Championship game against the Atlanta Falcons.

The San Antonio Spurs can relate to that somewhat after they absorbed their first loss on an annual Rodeo Road Trip the last time out. An 11-game winning streak and an unblemished mark on the trek went down the tubes in Portland, but the Spurs have a chance to redeem themselves tonight against the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.

San Antonio is 7-1 on the nine-game road swing and had an eight-game winning streak on the road cut short with Tuesday's embarrassing 137-97 setback to the Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden, where the Spurs shot a dismal 38.1 percent and trailed 66-43 at halftime. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan did not play due to a coach's decision and rookie Kawhi Leonard led the way with 24 points, 10 rebounds and five steals in San Antonio's seventh straight loss in Rip City.

"They've been going and going and going and if you don't do it now I think you're asking for trouble," Popovich said about resting Duncan and Parker.

Danny Green and Cory Joseph scored 16 and 13 points, respectively, and both Dejuan Blair and Gary Neal ended with 10 points. The Spurs still lead the Southwest Division by 2 1/2 games ahead of Dallas and fell to 10-9 away from the Alamo City this season.

After their stint in the Rocky Mountains, the Spurs will rest during the break before opening a seven-game homestand versus Chicago, Charlotte, Denver, New York, the LA Clippers, Washington and Orlando. San Antonio will be without Manu Ginobili (oblique) and Tiago Splitter (calf), who are both expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks.

Parker and Duncan are expected to play tonight. Parker is posting 19.5 points per game, while Duncan owns averages of 19.9 points and 8.6 boards.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets hope to head into the All-Star break on a positive note and have lost four of five and nine of the last 12 games.

In Wednesday's 103-95 loss at the Clippers, Chris Paul had a season-high 36 points to go along with nine assists to lead the hosts and dunk master Blake Griffin added 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Arron Afflalo paced the Nuggets with 20 points, while Jordan Hamilton added a career-high 18 points for Denver, which suffered its fourth straight loss on the road.

"They made shots at the right time and we missed shots. They rebounded and we just couldn't put the ball in the basket," said Nuggets guard Andre Miller, who had eight points and eight assists.

Kenneth Faried and Corey Brewer recorded 12 points apiece in defeat. Rudy Fernandez (back) and Ty Lawson (ankle) did not play Wednesday and are questionable versus the Spurs.

Denver is back at home and sports a 9-7 record at the Pepsi Center. It has won two in a row in the Rockies and lost the first meeting of the season with San Antonio, 121-117, in the Alamo City. The Nuggets have lost six of seven matchups with the Spurs.

The Nuggets and Spurs have split the past eight encounters in Colorado.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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