Rockets wrap up road trip in Memphis

Basketball Betting Lines

02/14/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets will wrap up a six-game road trip tonight against the Southwest Division-rival Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum.

The Rockets are 3-2 on the journey and suffered a 106-97 loss at Golden State the last time out on Sunday in Oakland, where Kevin Martin led five players in double-digit scoring with 28 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Luis Scola had 14 points, while both Chandler Parsons and Courtney Lee netted 11 points.

Kyle Lowry finished with 10 points and nine assists for the Rockets, who had a three-game winning streak stopped and fell to 6-9 away from Space City. Lowry has handed out at least eight assists in 15 games this season.

"It just seemed to me like...we were playing in eight inches of water," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "We just couldn't get going."

McHale's squad was held to a season-low 31 field goals (31-of-75), but also made a season-high 11 three-pointers (11-of-29). On the milestone watch, Scola (4,998) needs just two points to reach 5,000 for his career. Lee has reached double figures in scoring over a season-high four consecutive games.

Following tonight's game in Memphis, the Rockets will head back to the Lone Star State for a six-game residency versus Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Utah, Memphis, Philadelphia and Toronto.

The Grizzlies will put the finishing touches on a five-game homestand Tuesday and look to rebound from a recent loss versus the Jazz.

In Sunday's 98-88 setback to Utah, Rudy Gay scored a team-best 22 points and both Marc Gasol and Mike Conley posted 17 apiece for the Grizzlies, who had a two-game winning streak stopped and lost for the eighth time in 12 tries.

"We have to get better at a lot of things," Gay admitted.

Tony Allen scored 12 points in a losing cause for Memphis. The Grizzlies, who fell back to .500 at 14-14 this season, are a decent 9-5 on Beale Street this season and will pay a visit to New Jersey on Wednesday after their homestand. After playing nine of the past 12 games on the road, Memphis is in the midst of playing seven of eight games at home, including this five-game homestand.

Memphis is 13-11 since Zach Randolph has been sidelined with a torn right MCL and defeated Houston, 113-93, back on Dec. 30 this season at FedEx Forum. Randolph finished with 23 points and nine rebounds in that one and Gasol added 20 points and eight boards. Martin scored 21 points to lead the Rockets, who have still won 12 of the last 16 meetings between the Southwest foes.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

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.

MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.

Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.

According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).

Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

''It's certainly creative, it's certainly fun and it has something for the horsemen, which we always want to embrace,'' Churchill Downs president and chief executive Robert Evans said at a news conference. ''What's really cool is it will force us to remember Barbaro.''
    
Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.

''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''

Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
   
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.

”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
   
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.

For complete odds on the Kentucky Derby, visit MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.