Nets hold off Cavs

Basketball Betting Lines

01/27/2012 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Deron Williams recorded a double-double with 27 points and 10 assists as the Nets held off the Cavaliers 99-96 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Kris Humphries, who left Friday's shootaround with an illness, fought through it scoring 18 points and pulling down 11 boards. Anthony Morrow added 22 points and six rebounds.

The Nets have now won three of four, closing out a three game road trip. New Jersey returns home Sunday to take on Toronto.

Kyrie Irving led the way for Cleveland scoring a career-high 32 points including 21 in the fourth quarter. Antawn Jamison added 20 points and six rebounds and Ramon Sessions scored 11 off the bench as the Cavaliers dropped their fifth game in the last six tries.

Cleveland will travel to Boston in its next contest on Sunday.

The Cavaliers, who trailed by as many as 17 in the fourth, had the margin down just six with 24.9 seconds to play.

Sundiata Gaines missed two from the line for the Nets, and Anderson Varejao's deep two with 16.9 seconds left put his team down 97-93. Video replay confirmed Varejao's toe was barely touching the line.

The Cavaliers were forced to foul and Morrow calmly hit two free throws to ice the victory for the Nets.

A meaningless three from Irving counted as time expired to make the final score closer than the game really was.

Back-to-back Jordan Farmar layups gave the Nets a 25-18 lead with 3:03 left to play in the first frame and the quarter ended with the Nets leading, 30-20.

Neither team was able to get it going in the second until a Humphries layup with 3:26 to go sparked an 11-0 run for the Nets. Irving stopped the run with four consecutive points, but the Cavs entered halftime trailing, 47-37.

The Nets, who entered the game leading the NBA in three-pointers made, found their stroke from outside in the third as they hit five of their eight three- pointers to take a 72-61 lead entering the final stanza.

Game Notes

MarShon Brooks (Achilles) missed his third straight game for the Nets, while teammate Mehmet Okur (back) missed the game and will have MRI on Saturday...The Cavaliers beat the Nets 50-26 in points in the paint...The Nets got their first win (1-11) when being outrebounded by their opponent...The Nets shot 39 percent from behind the arc.

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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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