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Bobcats topple Pacers; Granger hurts foot

Basketball Betting Lines

02/18/2009 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace scored 25 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and doled out seven assists to lead the Charlotte Bobcats in a 103-94 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Emeka Okafor chipped in 12 points and 12 boards for the Bobcats, who have won three of their last four games. Raymond Felton and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 16 and 15, respectively, in the win.

Troy Murphy had 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Pacers, who have alternated wins and losses the last seven games. Jarrett Jack totaled 18 points, eight boards and five helpers.

Marquis Daniels had 14 points and Danny Granger scored 12, but sprained his right foot early in the second quarter for Indiana, which has dropped 10 straight on the road.

Raymond Felton hit a buzzer-beater from beyond half court to give the Bobcats a 32-25 lead after the first quarter, but the Pacers cut it to 53-50 at the intermission.

Daniels' reverse layup trimmed the margin to 59-58 with 8:20 left in the third quarter.

Moments later, Boris Diaw dropped in a layup, Felton nailed a jumper and Wallace offered three points to make it an eight-point game.

Brandon Rush interjected with a three for Indiana, but Charlotte rolled off nine straight points. Felton had five and Okafor closed it out with a pair from the charity stripe for a 77-63 home-team lead with 1:53 left in the third.

The home team was sitting on a 79-69 lead heading into the final 12 minutes.

Rasho Nesterovic's jumper cut it to 81-75 early in the fourth, but the Bobcats inflated their lead and it hovered around 10 the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Pacers shot 41.8 percent from the field and the Bobcats hit 41 percent of their shots...The teams went a combined 13-of-43 from behind the arc...Indiana is just 6-23 as the visitor this season. Its last win as the guest was a 113-110 triumph over Phoenix on January 7...The Bobcats began a brief two-game homestand and will also take on the Magic. They are 16-14 as the host in 2008-09...Charlotte took a 2-1 lead in the season series, but the Pacers have won nine of the 17 all-time meetings...The Bobcats have won five of seven as the host in this series.


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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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