Jrue Holiday Lakers Disable Fire At Games

Basketball Betting Lines

The Clippers, playing their second straight game without Chris Paul, were paced by Caron Butler's 14 points. Courtney Fortson added 13 while Randy Foye chipped in 11. Blake Griffin scored 10 on 5-of-12 shooting and added 11 rebounds. LA has lost 16 straight in Salt Lake City.

 

But the Jazz, who are 7-1 at home this season, made short work of LA. Millsap was sharp from the opening tip, scoring 10 first-quarter points on 5-of-6 shooting en route to a 29-17 lead.

 

The advantage was 52-41 at the half and ballooned to as many as 20 in the third, leading to a fourth devoid of drama and rife with reserves. Still, the Jazz did not relent, emphasizing the win with a scintillating bench effort.

 

Game Notes

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks hope to salvage the back-end of a two-game stop in Los Angeles when they meet a Clippers team that could be without star point guard Chris Paul for a third straight night. The Mavs dropped a heartbreaker at Staples Center on Monday when Derek Fisher knocked down a three-pointer with 3.1 seconds remaining, lifting the Lakers to a 73-70 victory over Dallas. Fisher's go-ahead shot, from the right side over Dirk Nowitzki, was the only three-pointer the Lakers made in the game.

 

Which is about how ugly much of the game was for both teams in their first meeting since Dallas swept the Lakers in last year's Western Conference semifinals.

 

Dallas was even worse. Nowitzki was 8-of-17 for 21 points, but the Mavs shot 35 percent and made only four of their 26 three-point attempts to have a five- game winning streak snapped. Jason Terry made a game-tying shot in the last 10 seconds for the Mavs.

 

Monday was also former Laker Lamar Odom's first trip back to play in Los Angeles since being traded to the defending champions in the offseason. He scored 10 off the bench for the Mavericks.

 

The Mavericks, who are in the midst of a four-game road trip that will finish with trips to Utah and New Orleans, are 2-4 as the visitor this season.

 

Blake Griffin scored 10 on 5-of-12 shooting and added 11 rebounds as the Clippers dropped their 16th straight in Salt Lake City.

 

The Mavericks have owned the Clippers for years, winning 10 straight in the series and 19 of the last 22 meetings overall. The last time that the Clips got the best of Dallas was on Nov. 9, 2008.

 

"I thought Jrue Holiday had his best game of the year. He was fabulous," 76ers head coach Doug Collins said.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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