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02/28/2007 - Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and led the Dallas Mavericks to their 13th straight win, a 91-65 rout of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Mavs are now one win shy of their franchise-record victory surge, set at the start of the 2002-03 season.
Jason Terry scored 18 points and doled out seven assists, and Josh Howard came back from a sprained ankle suffered Monday night to score 17 points and rake in seven rebounds for the Mavs. DeSagana Diop pulled down 10 rebounds for Dallas, which has its second 13-game winning streak of the season. Dallas, which also had a 12-game winning streak earlier in the season, is the first team in NBA history to record three winning streaks of 12 or more games in one season.
They can tie the franchise record winning streak Thursday at home against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kevin Garnett scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who shot a horrid 29.6 percent from the field. Ricky Davis also notched 15 points for Minnesota, which has lost four of five. Mark Blount added 10 points for the Wolves.
The Wolves appeared to be shaking out of their shooting doldrums early in the second half, opening the third quarter with a 13-7 stretch, and pulling to within single-digits. A Davis three capped the stretch, cutting the Mavs lead to 49-40.
That was as close as Minnesota would get, though, as Dallas quickly heated back up, and a Nowitzki three in the final minute of the third quarter posted the Mavs to a 68-53 lead entering the final 12 minutes.
"The second half, we ran a couple of plays for me and I was able to make some shots," said Nowitzki.
Minnesota went out with a whimper in the fourth, scoring only 12 points as the Mavs coasted to their largest road win of the season.
"They're a pretty good team," said Garnett of the Mavs, adding, "We didn't shoot the ball particularly well, we didn't give ourselves a chance."
A Terry three posted the Mavs to a 24-14 lead with 1:41 left in the first quarter, but a Davis three in the final minute pulled the Wolves to within 26-19 entering the second.
Minnesota scored only eight points in the second quarter, making only three field goals, squandering a rare bad offensive quarter by the Mavs, who only scored 16 points in the stanza. Minnesota missed its last 12 shots from the field in the quarter, though, and trailed 42-27 at the break.
The Wolves shot a paltry 22.7 percent in the first half.
Game Notes
The Mavs set two defensive records, as Minnesota's 65 points and 29.6 percent shooting performance were both all-time lows for Dallas opponents...The Mavs improved to 40-3 when holding the opposition under 100 points...Dallas outrebounded the Wolves, 54-39...The Mavs are 11-0 on the second night of back-to-back games.
<< Weight, Blues top Canucks
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doug Weight scored two goals as the St. Louis
Blues downed the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1, at Scottrade Center.
David Backes added a goal and an assist and Curtis Sanford made 25 saves for
the Blues, who have w
<< Blake tallies hat trick, Hunter caps wild Isles win
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trent Hunter's second goal of the game,
coming with 31 seconds left in overtime, sent the New York Islanders past the
Philadelphia Flyers, 6-5, at Nassau Coliseum.
Jason Blake recorded a hat trick and
<< Redd, Bucks storm past Warriors
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Redd poured in 31 points, Charlie
Bell reached double digits for the 19th straight time with 20 points and
Andrew Bogut scored 13 points to go along with 14 rebounds, as Milwaukee
trounce
<< Carter, Kidd lead Nets over Wizards
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Carter scored 27 points and Jason
Kidd had another solid all-around game with 26 points, eight rebounds and nine
assists, as the Nets used a big run in the fourth quarter for a 113-101 win
over Wa
Legace has knee surgery >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Blues goaltender Manny Legace
underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday.
No immediate timetable was given on his return.
Legace is 23-15-5 with a 2.59 goals-against average and five
Red Wings defeat Blackhawks in Windy City >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tomas Holmstrom scored a pair of goals to lead
Detroit to a 4-1 win over Chicago at the United Center.
Kyle Calder posted a goal and an assist in his debut for the Red Wings, who
snapped a two-game slide.
Hewitt wins, Blake goes down in Vegas >>
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lleyton Hewitt stormed past Vincent Spadea,
but James Blake rolled snake eyes in defeat during round-robin action Tuesday
at the $416,000 Tennis Channel Open.
The second-seeded Hewitt posted a 6-3, 6-3 vic
Defending champ Horna exits Acapulco event via injury; Calleri wins >>
Acapulco, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second seed Agustin Calleri and No. 3 seed
Nicolas Almagro were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the $690,000
Abierto Mexicano Telcel, but defending champion Luis Horna was bounced after
injurin
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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