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03/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Hornets are in danger of recording their longest losing streak in three years. Fortunately for the struggling club, it'll be facing one of the NBA's poorest road teams when the Golden State Warriors enter the Big Easy tonight for a Western Conference matchup.
New Orleans has dropped its last four games and five of the past six contests to fall to 11th place in the West, five games back of Portland for the conference's eighth and final playoff seed. Since All-Star point guard Chris Paul suffered a knee injury in late January, the Hornets have gone a subpar 6-11.
The Hornets' latest mishap occurred Friday in San Antonio, where seven Spurs players scored in double figures in a 102-91 victory over their Southwest Division rivals.
New Orleans was within striking distance after three quarters of play, trailing by a 74-69 score, but Manu Ginobili's three-pointer two minutes into the fourth ignited a 13-5 run that enabled the Spurs to pull away.
"We competed and played extremely hard," said Hornets head coach Jeff Bower. "I thought we played well for a lot of the game. I don't think we had enough plays to come out on the plus side on the road."
Darren Collison poured in 32 points for the Hornets in a losing cause, with David West compiling 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on the night. Marcus Thornton scored 18 points before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an upper back strain, although the rookie is expected to play tonight.
New Orleans, which hasn't lost five in a row since a six-game slide from March 2-13, 2007, will play six of its next seven on the road following tonight's tilt.
Golden State has also been without its best player for some time, with high- scoring guard Monta Ellis slated to sit out a sixth straight game this evening due to a sore back. Even with Ellis available, the Warriors haven't had much success in enemy buildings this season, having lost 27 of their 31 outings as the visitor for the campaign.
The Warriors have been dealt defeats in each of the first four tests of a road trip that concludes tonight, including Saturday's 101-90 setback at Charlotte. Golden State trailed just 86-85 midway through the fourth quarter, before the Bobcats put together a 15-2 spurt to kill any comeback hopes.
"We hung around for a long time. They finally figured out a way to hurt us with the zone (defense)," Warriors head coach Don Nelson said. "We kept waiting -- and we got away with it for a long, long time -- and they finally got it in the middle of our zone and that was pretty much the end of it."
Stephen Curry led Golden State, which shot just 38.2 percent from the field, with 25 points, with Corey Maggette finishing with 19 points in the loss.
The Warriors also played Saturday's game without starting center Andris Biedrins (groin), while replacement Ronny Turiaf left in the first quarter after straining his left knee. Neither player is expected to be in uniform tonight.
New Orleans has won both previous meetings between the teams in 2009-10, including a 108-102 decision at home on December 23.
<< Blazers C Przybilla to undergo surgery again
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers announced center
Joel Przybilla will undergo surgery on his right patella tendon after he
slipped in the shower at his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Przybilla first ruptur
<< WTA renews partnership with Sony
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The WTA Tour and Sony Ericsson announced
a two-year extension of their existing partnership on Sunday.
The deal will now keep Sony as the lead global sponsor for the tour through to
the end of 2012.
"
<< Trail Blazers-Nuggets, Box
PORTLAND (106)Batum 2-7 0-0 4, Aldridge 6-14 4-5 16, Howard 4-6 0-2 8, Miller 7-15 5-6 19, Roy 3-14 5-6 12, Fernandez 5-9 0-0 14, Pendergraph 0-0 0-0 0, Bayless 6-10 9-11 24, Webster 1-6 1-2 4, Cunningham 1-1 3-4 5. Totals 35-82 27-36 106.DENVER
<< Durant, Thunder drop Kings
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Durant scored 27 points, grabbed eight
rebounds and dished out five assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder stayed hot
with a 108-102 win over the Sacramento Kings.
Russell Westbrook added 21 points a
Hawks aim to bounce back against reeling Knicks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks didn't open their current road trip the
way they had planned this past weekend, but seem to have a good shot at
bouncing back Monday night against the New York Knicks at Madison Square
Garden.
Atlanta ha
Mavs visit T-Wolves, shoot for 12th straight win >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Dallas Mavericks will try to stretch their
season-high winning streak to 12 games when they close out a short road trip
tonight against the woeful Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center.
Dallas kept its lo
Grizzlies, Nets collide in Memphis >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Memphis Grizzlies will attempt to put their current
home woes behind in this evening's clash with a New Jersey Nets squad that
enters FedEx Forum off a rare positive result.
Memphis has lost eight consecutive c
Tribe take on Monarchs for CAA title >>
Richmond, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The William & Mary Tribe are one win away from
claiming their first-ever Colonial Athletic Association Tournament title, but
for that to happen they will have to get past the Old Dominion Monarchs this
evenin
“You play to win the game!”
Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.
The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.
The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.
Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?
Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.
Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.
Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.
Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.
The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.
Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.
Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.
This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.
First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”
The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason.
Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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