Happy Returns: Nash leads Phoenix over Clips

Basketball Betting Lines

02/21/2007 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Nash scored 13 points and dished out 12 assists before spending a large chunk of the second half enjoying his return to the lineup from the bench, as Phoenix cruised from the outset in a 115-90 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center.

Nash missed four games with a sore right shoulder, then didn't play in the All-Star Game on Sunday. He looked every bit the All-Star on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, connecting on 5-of-11 from the floor and handing out 12 assists to 4 turnovers.

Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire were the recipients of Nash's dishes, finishing with 31 and 22 points respectively. Both players also grabbed nine rebounds, as the Suns outrebounded the Clippers 50-38 in snapping a three-game skid.

Corey Maggette led the Clippers with 19 points, Elton Brand had 17 points and Daniel Ewing totaled 16 points in the loss. Sam Cassell didn't play in the second half, Chris Kaman missed the contest with the flu and Doug Christie stated publicly he just doesn't want to play for the club anymore.

In a state of flux, Los Angeles has dropped four straight and six of seven.

Phoenix stepped on the gas from the beginning, going on a 14-3 spurt to open a 33-19 edge in the first stanza. Stoudemire and James Jones capped the stretch with back-to-back jumpers.

After three straight jumpers from Maggette cut the deficit to 54-45 late in the first half, Phoenix reeled off eight straight points capped by Stoudemire's driving slam as the seconds ticked toward intermission.

Phoenix scored nine in a row during the midway point of the third stanza, and Nash finished it off with a driving layup for an 83-61 advantage with 4:32 remaining.

The Suns cruised to victory from there.

Game Notes

Boris Diaw didn't play with back spasms...Phoenix improved to 20-7 away from home...The Clippers dropped to 17-10 on the road...Attendance was 19,898.

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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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