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Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If you entered Wells Fargo Center on Monday night expecting great NBA basketball, you were setting yourself up for disappointment. Sure the Sixers have been one of the NBA's most improved teams this year but most of their big man rotation was wiped out by injury and illness coming in.
The Wizards tapped out in almost record time, falling behind by as many as 34 points en route to a 103-83 drubbing at the hands of a Sixers team playing with an ill Elton Brand and without centers Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic. S.D. Jones was more competitive in the inaugural Wrestlemania when he lost in eight seconds to King Kong Bundy that Washington was on Monday night.
It's not like Flip doesn't have any talent on hand. What he doesn't have, however, is a glue guy -- a player like Bruce Bowen.
And that got me thinking. As important as Bowen was to three different Spurs championship clubs, retiring the number of a role player -- any role player is heresy or at least it should be.
But forget about Luke Jackson, the amazing power forward from the 1966-67 team that some still call the greatest of all time. And forget about Clint Richardson the defensive-minded guard from the Moses Malone-fueled Fo' Five Fo' '82-83 world championship team.
That's not to say those players aren't revered in Philly. They and a host of others are but the 76ers have set the bar high for any player to get his number retired.
Bowen is one of just five swingmen in NBA history to earn All-Defensive Team honors in eight-or-more straight seasons joining Scottie Pippen (10 straight from 1991-00), Jones (nine straight from 1977-85), John Havlicek (eight straight from 1969-76) and Michael Cooper (eight straight from 1981-88).
I say respect the game and the history of the organization. If you want to honor Bowen, give him a pat on the back or a bobblehead, not a place in history reserved for players like George Gervin and David Robinson or in the future, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
Larry Kenyon should be insulted and Tiago Splitter should be getting ready.
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Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.
New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.
His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.
HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.
The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.
RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.
First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.
The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.
These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.
New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.
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