Heat resume homestand vs. Spurs

Basketball Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams battling for playoff positioning get together tonight in south Florida, as the Miami Heat continue a six-game homestand versus the San Antonio Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat have won the first three tests of the homestand and are coming off Sunday's 104-91 triumph over Philadelphia in which NBA star Dwyane Wade recorded 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting to lead the victors.

"Coming out of the All-Star break we expected to go on a run," said Wade, who is averaging 30.6 points and 7.9 assists over his last seven games. "We looked at our schedule and we understood that the toughest part was behind us."

Udonis Haslem added 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Carlos Arroyo chipped in 12 points with 10 assists for the Heat, who have won six of seven overall and six in a row as the host.

Miami will also welcome the Magic and Bobcats to town and is 20-14 in its own backyard this season. The Heat are currently tied with Charlotte for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

In injury news for the Heat, forward Michael Beasley has missed back-to-back games because of a bruised thigh and is questionable for Tuesday.

San Antonio will begin a brief journey through Florida with upcoming matchups in Miami and Orlando, and is 15-15 away from the Alamo City this season. It has won three straight and seven of eight games, including Saturday's 118-88 blowout of the Los Angeles Clippers at the AT&T Center.

Matt Bonner had a team-high 21 points, Richard Jefferson added 18 points and nine rebounds and both Manu Ginobili and George Hill scored 14 points for the Spurs, who are seventh in the West standings -- just a half-game behind Phoenix and a half-game in front of Portland.

"Sometimes it's good to let the players do some of the coaching," Popovich said of Hill taking over coaching duties in the final stanza. "It makes them think a little bit and gives them confidence in what we are doing as a group."

In the 13 games since All-Star Weekend, Ginobili has scored in double figures 11 times and has posted 20-plus points on six occasions.

San Antonio defeated Miami, 108-78, back on December 31 this season and has won 14 of the past 19 contests in the series. These two clubs have split the previous 10 meetings in south Florida.

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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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