Spurs, Knicks square off in Alamo City

Basketball Betting Lines

03/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs will have to continue their playoff push tonight against the New York Knicks without star guard Tony Parker.

The team did receive some good news on Monday, however, when it was learned that Parker won't need surgery for a broken bone in his right hand. An examination of the All-Star confirmed an initial diagnosis of a non-displaced stable fracture of the right fourth metacarpal and Parker is still expected to be sidelined for about six weeks, which likely means he will not return until the postseason.

Parker, the Spurs' second-leading scorer this season at 16.5 points per game, originally suffered the injury late in the first half of last Saturday's 102-92 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Without him, San Antonio fell in Cleveland on Monday when Mo Williams had 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, as the Cavaliers edged the Spurs, 97-95, despite playing without LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal.

Manu Ginobili had a huge night for the Spurs, sinking seven three-pointers on his way to 38 points. He appeared to hit a game-tying three with 14.2 seconds left, but it was ruled a two-pointer after review.

George Hill added 23 points for San Antonio, which had its four-game win streak broken.

"We had a great opportunity, not many teams can come in here and win," Ginobili said. "LeBron wasn't playing, Shaq wasn't there [because of thumb surgery] and [Antawn] Jamison didn't play the second half, so we blew a big one, so we are kind of upset with that."

The Spurs currently sit in seventh place in the Western Conference playoff race, a still comfortable 4 1/2 games ahead of ninth-place Memphis.

The Knicks, meanwhile, are playing out the string but are coming off an exciting 99-98 win over playoff-bound Atlanta on Monday. Danilo Gallinari made four three-pointers and finished with a game-high 27 points in that one, as New York escaped with the victory at Madison Square Garden.

David Lee contributed a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Al Harrington went for 14 points off the bench for the Knicks, who were able to recover from a 113-93 loss to New Jersey on Saturday.

"I thought our team the whole game did a good job competing on the boards, did a good job competing for loose balls," Lee said. "We did a good job overall."

New York, which had lost four of its last five coming into the contest, made 10-of-15 three-pointers after setting an NBA record by going 0-for-18 from three-point range in the setback to the Nets.

The Spurs have won eight of their past nine meetings with the Knicks, including a 95-88 win in New York earlier this season. San Antonio has also won six straight over the Knicks in the Alamo City.

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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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