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02/10/2007 -

Gilbert Arenas settled one part of a grudge from last summer with a 54-point performance in December. He's predicting the next part of his settling of the score will go just as well as the first.

After claiming in a blog entry that he'll reach the 50-point mark again Sunday, the star guard leads the Washington Wizards against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Verizon Center.

Arenas made his prediction in an entry on NBA.com entitled "Time to Get my 50 Points vs. Portland." The desire to score 50 against the Blazers isn't random, as Arenas sees it as payback for anyone who might have had anything to do with his not making the U.S. national team for the world championships last summer.

Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni and Portland coach Nate McMillan served as assistants on that team, and Arenas unleashed his frustrations against D'Antoni on Dec. 23, scoring 54 points as the Wizards snapped the Suns' 15-game winning streak with a 144-139 overtime victory.

Arenas pounded his chest in that game and appeared to stare into the stands at Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, the head of USA Basketball, and at D'Antoni several times during the contest.

Arenas said afterward that he wasn't staring at D'Antoni and didn't know Colangelo was there, but his blog post seems to indicate that last summer's snub is definitely on his mind.

"Even if you don't watch the game, you're going to look at the box score to see what happened," wrote Arenas, second in the league with 29.4 points per game. "My last one o'clock game was 51 against Utah. So I'm feeling pretty frisky."

Arenas said before Washington's rematch with Phoenix in January that he wasn't looking to repeat his first performance against the Suns, adding, "The next team is Portland. One down, one to go."

D'Antoni's joked after Arenas' spectacular effort against his team that "He's gonna kill Duke," a reference to Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, who as head coach of the U.S. team cut Arenas. The Wizards guard reacted by saying he'd 'score 84 or 85' against Duke.

All three of Arenas' 50-point games have come this season, and he had a personal-best 60 in an overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 17.

Arenas' coach and teammates didn't seem too thrilled by the prediction following Washington's 110-83 loss to San Antonio on Wednesday, which matched its largest margin of defeat of the season.

"I'm not going to comment on that," Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said of the blog entry. "He talked about that. That's for him. I'm concerned about how we should perform as a team."

Washington looked listless in suffering its third loss in four games without starting forward Antawn Jamison, who's sidelined for three-to-six weeks with a knee injury. The Wizards had won seven of eight.

"We're going to have no distractions," forward Caron Butler said. "We just want to play basketball and win the game. Obviously, (Arenas) made statements, and it is what it is.

"Coach is just saying the main thing is to win games - we're not going to feed into an extra hype."

Arenas had 29 points against the Spurs, but Butler was the only other Wizards player in double figures with 15.

"That was just a flat-out, 48-minute, thorough beating - right from the beginning to the end," Jordan said.

While Butler and the Wizards would like to avoid distractions, they added one more to Arenas' prediction and Jameson's absence Saturday. Etan Thomas was suspended two games by the team for throwing a punch at Brendan Haywood in practice Friday, the latest clash between two players competing for time at center.

With Jameson already out, the suspension leaves Washington even more thin in the frontcourt, and Jordan admitted after Saturday's practice that the feud is one more thing for his team to deal with.

``For the moment, yes. But after everything is said and done and everything is taken care of, no,'' he said. ``We had a morning meeting, watched film, moved on to practice and we had a very good practice today. We addressed various things at the meeting.''

Forward Michael Ruffin, who has played only 10 games this season because of a foot injury, could return to help Washington in a limited role Sunday.

Like Washington's best player, Portland star Zach Randolph may also be using a snub to motivate him.

The power forward, who averages 24.3 points per game, had 40 points and nine rebounds Friday to lead the Blazers (21-30) past Charlotte 108-100 in overtime in the opener of a four-game road trip.

"I feel like I'm up there with the best players in the league," said Randolph, who was left off the Western Conference All-Star team.

"I guess I just get no respect doing the same thing other guys are doing. They're on winning teams and I understand that. But we're going to continue to get better and I'll get the respect I deserve."

Randolph has struggled against Washington in his career, managing only 12.3 points per game in eight meetings - his second-lowest average against any team.

The Blazers and Wizards split their series in 2005-06, with each club winning at home.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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Betting Football

NFL Football Betting Online

Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.

Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.