Mavs shoot for win No. 13 at Minnesota

Basketball Betting Lines

02/27/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NBA-best Dallas Mavericks try to extend their winning streak to 13 games when they face the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at the Target Center.

All-Star Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds to pace the surging Mavericks to their 12th consecutive victory, a 110-87 rout of the Atlanta Hawks on Monday at American Airlines Center.

Jason Terry scored 21 points and Josh Howard finished with 20, but left in the fourth quarter after spraining his right ankle. Veteran Jerry Stackhouse scored 19 points and dished out nine assists, as the Mavericks extended their club-record home winning streak to 20 contests.

Howard is questionable for tonight's contest in Minnesota. He is averaging 19.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season.

The Mavericks are an impressive 20-6 on the road this season. After tonight's game, they will return home for a three-game stand. Dallas, which is an incredible 27-3 at home in 2006-07, is scheduled to host Cleveland, Orlando and New Jersey on the upcoming homestand.

Minnesota, meanwhile, plays the fourth of a five-game homestand. It is 1-2 so far on the current stand.

All-Star Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as the Timberwolves downed the Washington Wizards, 98-94, on Sunday at the Target Center.

Ricky Davis finished with 27 points for the Timberwolves, who snapped a three- game losing streak. Rookie Randy Foye scored 13 points and dished out eight assists for Minnesota, which beat Washington at home for the seventh consecutive time.

The Timberwolves are 17-11 at home this season. They will host the Utah Jazz on Friday in the finale of the homestand.

This is the third of four meetings between Dallas and Minnesota this season. Dallas won the two previous contests. The Mavericks are scheduled to host the Timberwolves on April 11th at American Airlines Center.

Dallas, though, has lost three of its last five at Minnesota. The Mavericks have won three in a row in the series.

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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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