Felton helps Bobcats rally past Heat

Basketball Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raymond Felton poured in 15 points and dished out a season-high 11 assists, as the Charlotte Bobcats rallied late to down the Miami Heat, 83-78, at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Stephen Jackson added 17 points for the Bobcats, who improved to 23-8 at home this season. That matches the franchise record of 23 home wins in a season set last year.

Boris Diaw donated 11 points and eight rebounds for Charlotte, which went perfect on a three-game homestand.

Dwyane Wade had 27 points and seven boards for the Heat, who saw a three-game win streak come to an end. Jermaine O'Neal added 19 points and five rebounds. Michael Beasley finished with 11 points and nine boards in defeat.

Miami started the fourth on a brief 6-1 flurry to go in front 72-63 with nine minutes to play.

But Charlotte fought right back with a 15-4 spurt to go ahead by two. D.J. Augustin tallied the first eight points of the run, which Felton ended with a trey to give the Bobcats a 78-76 edge with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

The margin was the same following buckets from O'Neal and Tyrus Thomas. Wade then missed a three-pointer before Charlotte was called for a shot clock violation with 32.3 ticks left.

Udonis Haslem couldn't make a 15-foot jumper and Felton was there for the defensive rebound. Felton made 1-of-2 from the foul line with 7.2 seconds remaining to make it 81-78.

Miami's next trip down the court ended with Wade missing a trey. Diaw pulled down the defensive rebound and made a pair of free throws with 2.3 ticks left to seal the victory.

The Heat led by as many as 11 in the first quarter and took a 30-20 margin into the second.

Miami scored the first four points of the second to build a 14-point cushion. Charlotte was down by the same margin late in the stanza when they scored the final five points to cut the gap to 48-39 at the half.

Trailing 63-52 with less than six minutes left in the third, the Bobcats ripped off nine straight points to get within two. Felton tallied five points during the burst, which Tyson Chandler capped with a deuce to make it 63-61 with 2:30 remaining. Miami led by four, 66-62, after three periods.

Game Notes

The Bobcats have won the first three meetings with Miami this season and nine of the last 13 matchups between the clubs. The Heat have also lost six of their last seven trips to the Queen City...Miami shot 40.3 percent from the floor, while Charlotte made 38.9 percent of its shots...The Bobcats went 22-of-30 from the foul line, while Miami went 13-of-16 from the charity stripe.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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