Knicks square off with Nets at MSG

Basketball Betting Lines

02/04/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Knicks will play their third game in as many nights when they entertain the local New Jersey Nets Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks have lost the first two of back-to-back-to-back contests and suffered a 91-89 loss in Boston last night. Carmelo Anthony ended with 26 points and six assists for the Knicks, who haven't won in Beantown since a 101-77 victory back on November 24, 2006. Tyson Chandler recorded 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Amare Stoudemire added 16 points and 11 boards for New York, which has dropped 11 of its last 13 games to fall to 8-16 on the season.

"We need to find ways to be consistent all the way through the game. We're not there yet," Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni said.

New York will take a break after tonight's game and will get back to work Monday versus Utah in the Big Apple. The Knicks are 4-7 in front of their home crowd this season and are playing back-to-back-to-back games for the first time since Mar. 20-22, 1999, when they beat Boston and lost to both Toronto and Atlanta.

New Jersey has lost three of its last four games and dropped a 108-105 decision versus Minnesota last night. Wolves guard Luke Ridnour buried the go- ahead three-pointer with 1:23 remaining, while Anthony Morrow ended with a career-high 42 points and nailed eight three-pointers for the Nets, who went 1-1 on a two-game homestand and failed to build off a recent win over Detroit.

"He was just on fire. Our guys were finding him, setting great screens for him, he was letting it fly," Nets head coach Avery Johnson said of Morrow, who sat out Wednesdays win over the Pistons with a sore left ankle. "Every play that we drew up for him, he executed it perfectly. I think he was perfect and special tonight. It was a special performance."

The Nets shot 44.2 percent from the field and received 16 points and nine rebounds from Kris Humphries. Deron Williams tallied 12 points and matched a season-high with 14 assists in defeat, while Jordan Farmar added 14 points in a reserve role.

After visiting the Knicks, New Jersey will play two straight and four of five games in the Garden State. The Nets are 5-9 away from Newark.

New York won all four matchups with the Nets a season ago and is 11-5 in the past 16 meetings between the two Atlantic Division foes. The Nets have lost two straight and four of five trips to Madison Square Garden.

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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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