Conley helps Grizzlies top Rockets

Basketball Betting Lines

02/14/2012 - Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Conley scored 21 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range as the Grizzlies defeated the Rockets, 93-83, at FedEx Forum on Tuesday.

Memphis had five scorers in double figures, including 20 from Rudy Gay and 18 from Marc Gasol. The Grizzlies have now won three of their last four contests.

Kyle Lowry led all scorers with 24 points and Courtney Lee added 13 points for Houston, which dropped its second straight game after winning the previous three.

Memphis led by as many as 15 in this game, but the Rockets scored eight straight to cut the deficit to 84-79 with just under three minutes remaining.

The Grizzlies responded to the Houston surge as Conley knocked down a three and Gay forced a turnover. Gay then found a streaking O.J. Mayo, who finished on the other end to put the Grizzlies back up double digits.

Conley knocked down a triple with 6:25 left in the first to spark a 13-2 spurt for the Grizzlies, allowing them to take a 21-17 lead after one quarter of play.

The Grizzlies finished the first quarter shooting 52.6 percent, while the Rockets managed to shoot just 29.6 percent from the field.

Conley scored seven straight points with just over a minute left in the second as Memphis held a 52-43 advantage at halftime.

Memphis turned eight first-half turnovers into 16 points as the Rockets managed just six points on four Memphis turnovers.

Houston got four straight points from Lowry to close out the third quarter as the Rockets cut the deficit to 72-64.

Game Notes

Both teams will play the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday as Memphis will visit New Jersey and the Rockets will begin a season-high six-game homestand against Oklahoma City...Houston's Luis Scola scored his 5,000th career point on a first quarter layup...Memphis shot 47.9 percent from the field, while the Rockets shot 38.5 percent.

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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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