Billups, Nuggets snap Lakers' six-game win streak

Basketball Betting Lines

02/27/2009 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chauncey Billups logged 22 points and handed out six assists en route to orchestrating Denver's 90-79 victory over the Lakers, snapping Los Angeles' six-game winning streak in a battle of division leaders.

Carmelo Anthony recorded 12 points and 12 rebounds, while reserves J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen played quality minutes for the Nuggets, who have won back- to-back games on the heels of a season-long three-game skid.

Smith notched 22 points and Andersen scored 11 to go with 12 rebounds for Denver, which got an eight-point, seven-rebound effort from Nene after the center missed two straight games with a right knee contusion.

Kobe Bryant shot a mediocre 10-of-31 from the field, finishing with 29 points for the Lakers, who shot a woeful 29.8 percent from the field. Pau Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Lamar Odom continued his solid play with 12 points and 19 boards in the setback.

Anderson opened the final quarter with a pair of buckets and Linas Kleiza tipped in an Anthony miss for a 72-63 lead two minutes in.

After the Lakers' sixth straight miss to start the quarter, Smith added two free throws for an 11-point lead. Bryant scored LA's next six points, but Smith drilled a deep jumper for an 80-69 score with less than five minutes to play.

Odom's three-point play on the next possession gave the visitors a breathe of life. Gasol tipped in an Odom miss with 3 1/2 minutes on the clock to cut the deficit to 81-74 following a Smith free throw.

Anderson pulled down a big defensive board for Denver a little later, and subsequently hit 1-of-2 from the foul line for an eight-point lead.

Odom then cleaned up his own miss with a tip-in, but the Lakers missed their next six shots, as the Nuggets cleaned up on the glass and continued to get to the line, where they hit 6-of-8 in the waning minutes to secure their signature win of the season.

The Lakers held a 19-16 advantage after an offense-starved opening quarter. Denver proceeded to wake up in the second, scoring the first 13 points of the frame, eventually taking a 46-40 edge into halftime.

The Nuggets made just one field goal in the first six minutes of the second half, as LA jumped out to a 55-50 lead on Derek Fisher's three-pointer with 7 1/2 minutes to play in the stanza.

Billups tied the game with a bucket and a three-pointer roughly two minutes later and nailed another from behind the arc late in the frame that resulted in a 66-63 advantage with one quarter remaining.

Game Notes

The Pacific-leading Lakers had won five straight regular season games over the Nuggets, who currently sit atop the Northwest Division...Neither team shot the ball well from three-point range, with LA hitting 2-of-21 and Denver making just 3-of-21 from downtown.

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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.

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