Sports Betting Blog

So it seems that up to now it is going to be up to commissioner David Stern to decide whether Chris Paul will play with the LA Clippers or if he should stay at the New Orleans Hornets or if his future lies somewhere in the west cost. Many teams wanted to get the service of the four-time All-Star. If the transaction goes through, Chris Paul could join the talented Blake Griffin as the Clippers hit the next season. Griffin has said that he would like to have Paul play on his team, but that whether the transaction happens or not, Griffin made it clear that the Clippers didn’t really needed Paul to make it around this season.

So far, and with little over two weeks before the next season kicks in, the Clippers lineup will include the likes of veteran point guard Chauncey Billups, fourth-year scorer Eric Gordon, small forward Caron Butler, franchise player Blake Griffin and the recently re-signed DeAndre Jordan at center. In paper, they seem to be a healthy contender to fight the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Lakers for some of the attention over at the West. To complete the rooster, Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ryan Gomes and Chris Kaman would be the best elements to fill in from the bench. If his recovery from knee surgery goes as planned, the Clippers could count on point guard Eric Bledsoe joining the rotation sometime early in 2012, perhaps January.

Now, the proposed trade for Paul would include Aminu and Kaman. And it should come as a big surprise if by the end of the negotiation either Gordon or Bledsoe are included in the multiplayer deal. Some are even saying that the Clippers would go so far as to giving these last two players and a couple of first-round picks in the NBA Draft to secure having Chris Paul in their Jersey. Now that would probably mean that they would have to find a spot for Mo Williams. It seems to me that Williams would rather find a different home than to spend so much time at the bench.

The main problem here is that the league, which currently owns the New Orleans Hornets, are the one’s who are going to be making the final call: that is, it’s going to be up to NBA Commissioner David Stern to decide where and under what circumstances is Chris Paul going to be transferred. Rumor has it that the team team has twice agreed to multiplayer trade offers, (including a very sound offer from the LA Lakers) only to see the league turn them down on both occasions.

The NBA season is going to begin with two great matches on Christmas Day. On the one side, the Dallas Mavericks are going to relive their NBA Finals series against the Miami Heat. This should certainly be a good one, particularly because of all the off season training that LeBron James has been doing in an effort to get his ring. The Lakers on the other hand will be playing the Chicago Bulls to get things going into the NBA spirit.

The Seattle Seahawks are still alive for the postseason. Their chances are slim, but they have the momentum and the motivations to actually get themselves into the Playoffs. And perhaps what it is interesting here is that Seattle is actually pulling this off with a team that is filled with many players that were underrated and perhaps unappreciated by their previous teams. Seattle kicked off the season with a rather mediocre performance. On the other hand, this squad has managed to get their act together and on their latest Monday Night Football game they managed to dominate the St. Louis Rams to claim a 30-13 win at the Century Link Field in downtown Seattle.

This is currently the fourth win in the squad’s last five games. A good effort considering that at 6-7 for the season they need to make every win count, as there is still a slim chance of making it into the postseason, and winning is the only option left for these guys. The Seahawks now need to win every game left in the season, but considering their coming from a 2-6 start, I would say that they are doing quite well. And perhaps, this comeback has to deal with the up shift in Marshawn Lynch’s game this season. Considering his latest performances it really looks as if it’s two different players we are talking about. In Lynch’s first six games of the season, he averaged 43.8 rushing yards per game with 3 touchdowns. Now, in the latest six games, on the other hand, he´s been doubling that, recording 117 yards per game and with 25.2 rushes per game with 6 touchdowns.

A big part of the Seahawks revival has to do with Lynch. Despite the fact that Seattle fans recognize that this hasn’t been the season they had dreamed off, it is quite evident that Lynch has managed to win many fans over. It was somewhat of a bizarre spectacle, but Seahawks fans threw bags of Skittles into the end zone as Lynch celebrated his ninth rushing touchdown this season. With that score, that helped secure the breach over the Rams, Lynch also tied a franchise record with nine consecutive games with a TD.

Doug Baldwin was also responsible for stealing some of Lynch’s thunder. He had a great game. He has become Tavaris Jackson’s weapon of choice. Jackson finished the game with 21 of 32 passing for 224 yards and one touchdown pass with no interceptions, including six catches to Baldwin in the second half. He had a great game. For starters, he blocked a first-quarter punt that was returned by Michael Robinson 17 yards for a touchdown. As if that was not enough, he would then caught a 29-yard TD pass from Tarvaris Jackson in the third period as the Seahawks began to open up the gap over the Rams.

Once again, the Rams proved that they really don’t have the talent or the manpower to give their young quarterback, Sam Bradford, the backup he needs to prove his worth. Bradford has yet to prove this season that he has the talent to make it in the NFL. He finished the game with 12 of 29 passing for 193 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Not a brilliant performance, but not much backup from the rest of the Rams either.

The New York Giants desperately needed a win against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Sure enough, not only where they fighting for the leadership of the division, not only was this win necessary in order to keep their playoff chances alive, the bottom line was quite simple: the New York Giants needed to put an end to their four game skid that had cost them the two game advantage over the Cowboys, but that was also jeopardizing the season success. The Giants were a three-point underdog for this game, and for a moment there, it seemed as if they wouldn’t be able to even cover the spread, as the Dallas Cowboys had worked to get a clear 12-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

Then again, that’s when Eli Manning and the New York Giants strap on their boots and went into overdrive mode to pull a 37-34 come-from-behind win at Arlington, Texas. At 7-6 for the season, the Giants had to pull off a win in order to have realistic chances of making it into the postseason. And that’s when Manning brought in some of his personal magic to complete two-touchdown drives with 3:41 minutes to go in the last quarter. And then, the Giants relied also on a little luck and a lot of talent from Jason Pierre-Paul who managed to block a field goal to push the Giants past Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys.

It was a great game that is going to make things in the NFC East much more interesting as the race is now officially open for these two teams. The Giants had lost their games to Division leading teams, and to give them enough credit, we must say that they were tight games. But they were able to put a stop to it, but for the better part it seemed that with 27 of 47 passing and 400 yards with two touchdown passes and one interception, Eli Manning’s work wasn’t going to be enough to keep the Giants from facing another disappointing loss. The Giants were trailing 24-32 with 5:41 left in the game. And then the Dallas Cowboys came into their almost regular meltdown. The Dallas Cowboys has gone from winning four straight to losing two in a row. But it’s been a frustrating two games. This included missed kicks by rookie Dan Bailey, who’d been so good for so long this season.

This come from behind win, is not the first for the Eli Manning. He has actually managed to pull off 5 wins in the fourth quarter, coming into this season. Manning showed that he knows his stuff, when he mounted an eight-play, 80-yard drive capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ballard, to get the Giants back in the field. The Dallas’ cowboys managed to give the Giants a little break and actually help them out just a bit on this win. For starters, Dallas suffered when their usually reliable punter, Mat McBriar, had a 33-yarder, letting Manning take over at his 42 with 2:12 left. And that’s when it all went south for Dallas.

Romo finished the night with 21 of 31 passing for 321 yards for four touchdown-passes with no interceptions. It’s quite a shame that despite this good performance from Romo, they couldn’t make a win. Still, the race for the Division is open, and this two squads will face each other again in the Meadowlands on Christmas Day.

If only Tim Tebow figures out a way to play like he does when a game is hanging on a thin line; if only Tim Tebow manages to be the quarterback he is in the fourth quarter, and make him play consistently throughout and entire game, the Denver Broncos would probably be as efficient as Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Then again, considering their most recent numbers, no other team is as close to perfection as the Packers than the Denver Broncos, and no other team is making it look so improbable as this guys are. Talk about winning ugly. Drop the ugly already. It’s not pretty, it’s not showy, but it certainly works. The Denver Broncos defeated the Chicago Bears 13-10 on Sunday in a thrilling come-from-behind effort that carried out into overtime.

Even Charles Barkley got involved in this one. He went on to call upon the Chicago Bears, pleading that they put an end to the Tebownian madness. It should had been simple: the Bears had the man force necessary to put an end to this almost miraculous comebacks that the Denver Broncos have been pulling off lately. They sure enough new that it was going to be in the last quarter when they needed to get their defense straight and avoid as many mistakes as possible, since it is in the last 5 minutes or so of the 4^th quarter that Tim Tebow and the Broncos become an imminent threat. They knew exactly were the danger was coming from and they pretty much knew when it was going to come. And yet, they failed to keep Tebow from pulling of yet another comeback.

And that’s when the madness begins, that’s when the whole Tebownian miracle kicks in. The Broncos shouldn’t be 7-1 since Tim Tebow was placed at the helm. It’s just not logical for a quarterback that is simply among the league worst in the first three quarters, turns things around in the fourth quarter to be bested only by the likes of Tom Brady, Eli Manning and Drew Brees. Tebow couldn’t get it straight in the first three quarters. The squad was failing to score on their first dozen possessions, and Tebow’s passing was on the gutter. Still, the Broncos, who know have an 8-5 for the season, erased a 10-0 deficit in the final 2:08 of regulation, and managed to save the game in overtime with out of this world performances by the special teams.

But this time around, Tim Tebow is going to have to split some of the miracle credit with his teammate, Matt Prater. The Broncos special team’s place kicker connected a  51-yard field goal with after 6½ minutes of overtime play to give the Broncos a 13-10 lead over the Chicago Bears. But Prater’s performance wasn’t just responsible for the winning field goal. He actually completed a 59-yarder with 3 seconds left in regulation, enough to tie the score and but the Broncos enough time to get the victory in overtime. Of course it was Tebow who guided the comeback, but we have to give Prater some credit: Tebow didn’t have to push that hard in order to get his stellar kicker in range. Now, Tebow and the Broncos are going to have a though match ahead of them as they host Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.