Magic win eighth straight, top Wizards

Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwight Howard put up 28 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and even dished out five assists, as Orlando overcame a sluggish start to upend lowly Washington, 109-95.

J.J. Redick netted 18 points, and fellow reserve Brandon Bass contributed 16 points and nine rebounds for the Southeast Division-leading Magic, winners of eight straight. Vince Carter scored 18 points for the victors.

Andray Blatche posted 32 points for the Wizards, who actually led by 15 before stumbling to their seventh consecutive loss. Shaun Livingston provided 18 points and eight assists, and Al Thornton chipped in 15 points in defeat.

Orlando took control in the third, scoring the first eight points of the frame. Howard had a pair of inside buckets and hit a free throw two minutes in for a 69-55 cushion.

The difference was 88-76 with a quarter to play, and a Bass jumper and Redick three-pointer pushed the Magic lead to 93-76 early in the final stanza.

The visitors led comfortably the rest of the way.

Washington scored the final 12 points of the first quarter to take a healthy 33-20 margin. By the midway point of the second frame, the Magic had already battled back to take the lead, 44-41, behind a 10-0 run.

Howard's slam in the closing second of the half gave Orlando a 61-55 lead.

Game Notes

This is Orlando's first eight-game win streak since April of 2006...Jameer Nelson added nine points and eight assists for the Magic, who made 51.9 percent from the floor and 8-of-14 from three-point range...Washington, which had won the first two meetings against the Magic this season, was beaten on the glass, 46-30.

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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.