Improved Clippers aim for another win over Nuggets

Basketball Betting Lines

02/02/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers seem to grow more imposing by the day and will aim get the best of Denver for the second time in less than a week when the two teams square off at Staples Center.

The Pacific Division-leading Clips invaded the Rockies last Sunday and escaped with a 109-105 win behind ex-Nugget Chauncey Billups' 32 points. Since then LA has disposed of the Western Conference's top team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and earned a very rare win in Utah on Wednesday night.

It wasn't easy, but the Clips picked up their first triumph in Salt Lake City since 2003 and only their second in the last 44 trips to the Beehive State. Los Angeles had lost 15 straight against the Jazz overall in Utah, but got a season- high 34 points and 11 assists from All-Star point guard Chris Paul in a game which featured 12 ties and 14 lead changes

Blake Griffin added 31 points and 14 rebounds and executed a key three-point play in the final minute for the Clippers, who have won a season-high four straight overall.

"We really wanted this game," Paul said. "I think we did a great job of showing a lot of patience and fighting through."

On the injury front for LA, veteran forward Caron Butler was a late scratch on Wednesday with a sore lower back and remains questionable for tonight.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, followed up their setback to the Clips over the weekend with another heartbreaker in Memphis on Tuesday.

After a pair of missed shots and two offensive rebounds, O.J. Mayo rose up from the top of the arc and nailed the go-ahead three-pointer with 35.1 seconds remaining in overtime, helping the Grizzlies snap a four-game losing streak with a thrilling 100-97 win over Denver.

Al Harrington netted 23 points to go with 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who have lost the two in a row since winning six straight. Andre Miller, who is set to play his 1,000th regular season NBA game tonight, had 20 points, six rebounds and six assists for Denver but Danilo Gallinari was just 1-of-10 from the field and finished with eight points.

After Mayo first missed a jumper, Mike Conley came down with the offensive rebound and found himself open for a three-pointer. But he missed and Tony Allen then corralled the second offensive rebound. Conley hit a wide-open Mayo and his three-pointer from the top of the arc went down for a 98-97 Memphis advantage -- the first lead change since the opening quarter.

"In overtime, they outhustled us on many misses with the lead and made a big 3," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "We made them take two or three shots before they got it, but we ran out of gas."

Aaron Afflalo turned the ball over on Denver's ensuing possession and Conley nailed a pair of free throws to seal it.

Despite the loss Karl was happy with the bigger picture.

"We've had a great month of January," the coach told NBA.com. "It might have been the best month I've ever had in Denver in my mind."

Denver, which will be kicking of its second three games in three nights stretch this season, has dropped three straight to the Clips. LA, meanwhile, is a more than solid 10-2 as the home team this season.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.