Magic take on Cavs in central Florida

Basketball Betting Lines

02/03/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic try to string back-to-back wins together this evening when they welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers to town to wrap up a brief two-game homestand at Amway Center.

Orlando snapped its season-high four-game losing streak on Wednesday, as Dwight Howard posted 23 points and 18 rebounds to help the Magic to a 109-103 victory versus Washington. Ryan Anderson also scored 23 while J.J. Redick dropped in 21 points on 5-of-7 shooting for the Magic, who won for only the second time in their last seven tries.

"We just wanted to come in and focus on getting a win," said Anderson. "It was a frustrating stretch of games, but we knew we had it in us to come back and get wins and tonight is a streak we want to start."

The 109 points were a good sign for a Magic club that had averaged a mere 76.0 points during the slide, while shooting just 39.4 percent. The offense has been hurt by the absence of point guard Jameer Nelson, who hasn't played since Jan. 27 because of a concussion.

"I think we need to look to the next game and bring the same effort and energy," said Anderson, who buried six three-pointers in Wednesday's win. "We didn't want to focus too much on that streak because that's a week we'd all like to forget. Those games we'd all like to forget about and we can move forward and get a win next game and just start a little run.

"This started our confidence, but we need to follow through with it."

Cleveland, meanwhile, comes into tonight's contest on the heels of a narrow 93-90 loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. The Cavs had beaten the Celtics on Sunday, but couldn't overcome a 22-point deficit that they cut to two with a minute remaining.

"We just couldn't finish it off," said rookie point guard Kyrie Irving. "They gave us their best shot and it came down to the final minutes. We've just got to keep our energy up for 48 minutes."

Anderson Varejao had 20 points and 20 rebounds -- 10 offensive -- but missed a pair of shots in the final minute. Irving had 13 of his 21 points in the final stanza, including an inconsequential three-pointer as time expired.

"They played so hard tonight, it was great to see," Cavs coach Byron Scott said of his team. "We just have to continue to play that hard."

Orlando has won six straight overall over the Cavs and eight of its last 10 in its building against them.

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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.