Iverson, Nuggets come back to upend Clippers in OT
Basketball Betting Lines
11/01/2008 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Allen Iverson scored 25 points, including nine in overtime, as the Denver Nuggets overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-103, at Staples Center.
Nene scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Nuggets, who bounced back from a season-opening loss at Utah. J.R. Smith chipped in 17 points and 10 boards off the bench, while Kenyon Martin tallied 13 points to match his 13 rebounds.
Al Thornton scored 30 points and hauled in 11 rebounds for the Clippers, who lost for the second time in as many games this season. Tim Thomas notched 20 points, and Chris Kaman had 15 points to go with his 15 rebounds. Cuttino Mobley ended with 14 points in defeat.
Clippers point guard Baron Davis left early in the second quarter after injuring his left hip/tailbone. He came crashing to the floor after going up for a defensive rebound.
Smith put Denver ahead 97-96 following a three-point play, but Kaman hit a jumper to shift the one-point lead in LA's favor with just over a minute gone in overtime.
Iverson then scored the next three baskets and Denver was sitting on a 103-98 lead with 2 1/2 minutes left in the extra frame. The five-point lead held until Martin drained a three with under a minute remaining to make it 108-100, which was enough insurance for the Nuggets.
The Clippers held a 28-20 lead heading into the second, which grew to 55-37 at the half.
Denver pulled within 12 points, 59-47, on a Nene dunk that closed out an 8-2 run. However, Kaman and Thomas both hit a pair from the line and LA's lead was at 16 with 7:19 left in the third.
Denver's deficit hovered around the mid-teens, until the team ripped off nine straight points. Smith got things going with a three-pointer and, after Kaman missed a jumper, Martin added a layup.
Iverson then got in on the scoring with a layup and Dahntay Jones hit a pair from the charity stripe to make it 72-64 with 1 1/2 minutes showing on the clock.
The teams traded baskets the rest of the third and the Nuggets still trailed by eight, 76-68, heading into the final stanza.
The Clippers opened up a 10-point lead, 88-78, but the Nuggets came right back to make it a contest.
Iverson and Smith both connected on baskets before Nene drained a layup and a dunk to make it 88-86 with just under five minutes to go.
Moments later, Nene tied the game at 90-90 on a layup that appeared to beat the shot clock by the naked eye. However, replays showed that the ball was still in the player's hands as the shot clock expired. The call stood as called, though.
Moments later, with the score still tied, 92-92, the Nuggets called a timeout following a Martin rebound off a Thornton missed jumper.
With the clock showing 43.6 ticks left, Iverson took the inbounds pass and drove to the hoop. His shot caromed off the rim and Thornton grabbed the rebound.
The Clippers drove downcourt and Thomas nailed a turnaround jumper from the high baseline to give LA a 94-92 advantage with 16.1 seconds left to play.
Following a Denver timeout, Iverson hit Linas Kleiza with a cross-court inbounds pass at the left side of the arc. Kleiza then drove to the hoop and was fouled before draining both shots from the line to tie.
The Clippers had one last shot, but the ball was knocked out of Thomas' hands and rolled out of bounds to send the game into overtime.
Game Notes
The Nuggets were without star forward Carmelo Anthony in the win, but will get him back for their next game. Anthony was sitting out the latter half of a two-game suspension for an offseason DUI arrest...Denver was without guards Sonny Weems (sports hernia) and Chucky Atkins. Forward Renaldo Balkman also did not see any action...The Clippers were without new center Marcus Camby for the second straight game. The defensive-minded Camby was traded to the Clips by Denver in a salary dump during the offseason after spending six years in the Rocky Mountains. He led the NBA in blocked shots for three of them...The Nuggets won three of the four meetings between the two clubs last season and split the two games at the Staples Center. Overall, the series had been nip- and-tuck coming in with the teams splitting the last 10 encounters prior to Friday's duel.
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Clippers guard Baron Davis left Friday's 113-103 loss to the Denver Nuggets after injuring his left hip/tailbone, he did not return. Davis, who signed a five-year, $65 million contr
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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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