Free Contests at BetUS – Football and Basketball
Free Contests at BetUS – Football and Basketball
In the gambling world there is nothing like a free shot. Whether it’s a free bet or a free contest, you can’t go wrong when you have a chance to show off your expertise, win some cash or prizes and it doesn’t cost you a dime. Every year BetUS gives bettors a ton of “Betsson Gutschein Code” to allow them to show off and make some money.
Millsap rallies Jazz past Rockets in OT (AP)
The Utah Jazz understand how to finish games. It’s the starts that need some work. Paul Millsap scored 12 of his 27 points in overtime and the Jazz rallied from another double-digit deficit in a 103-99 win over the slumping Houston Rockets on Saturday night. Al Jefferson had 24 points and 13 rebounds and C.J.
Durant scores 40, Thunder beat Grizzlies (AP)
Kevin Durant’s big second half featured just the kind of performance the Oklahoma City Thunder needed in the closer’s role. Durant scored 28 of his 40 points after halftime, Russell Westbrook added 22 points and 11 assists, and the Thunder avenged a loss at Memphis earlier this week by beating the Grizzlies 109-100 on Saturday night.
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NASCAR fines Kurt Busch $50,000 after Darlington (The Associated Press)
NASCAR fines Kurt Busch $50,000 after Darlington (The Associated Press)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Kurt Busch was fined $50,000 by NASCAR on Tuesday for reckless driving on pit road at Darlington and a post-race altercation with Ryan Newman’s crew members. Busch was also placed on probation through July 25 for his actions Saturday night, which began when a flat tire caused him to wreck with six laps remaining in the race. He headed to pit road for repairs, and as he left, he did a burnout through Newman’s pit box. There were crew members over the wall and on pit road at the time, and they complained they could have been injured by Busch’s actions. Busch also ran into Newman’s car on pit road after the race, and several of Newman’s crew members confronted Busch. NASCAR also placed Newman crew chief Tony Gibson on probation through June 27 for failing to control his team, and crew member Andrew Rueger was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for failing to comply with a directive from a NASCAR official. Busch’s motorhome driver, Craig Strickler, was fined $5,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year for interfering with a member of Fox’s broadcast team. It’s just the latest dust-up for Busch, who was fined $50,000 by NASCAR last November for making an obscene gesture and being verbally abusive to a TV reporter during the season finale. Busch parted ways with Penske Racing soon after, and said he’s seeing a sports psychologist to help him better deal with adversity. But Newman insisted Saturday night not much has changed with Busch, and attributed his actions to a ”chemical imbalance.” ”It’s easy to see and it’s easy to say that Kurt blew a fuse again,” Newman told SI.com after the race. ”I’m not sure why he did it and tried to run over our guys and NASCAR officials. And nobody is.” Busch contended he accidentally ran into Newman’s car while taking his helmet off after the race, but Newman didn’t believe the explanation. ”Circumstances I think are that he lied and was so frustrated that he doesn’t know how to deal with his anger,” Newman said. Busch, the 2004 NASCAR champion, is driving for underfunded Phoenix Racing this season. He promised to make this year more fun, and said he took the job with James Finch’s team with an eye on proving he should return to a top-level team in 2013. Newman, meanwhile, is in the final year of his contract with Stewart-Haas Racing. Although team owner Tony Stewart indicated Tuesday he’d like to sign Newman to an extension, in theory, both Busch and Newman could be angling for the same seats right now. Busch and Newman were teammates for three seasons at Penske Racing, and Busch pushed Newman to the win in the 2008 Daytona 500.
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LA Kings roll home with impressive playoff lead (Yahoo! Sports)
LA Kings roll home with impressive playoff lead (Yahoo! Sports)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) Jeff Carter realizes how smooth the Los Angeles Kings’ 6-1 run through the postseason must look from the outside. The power forward knows most people don’t realize how the Western Conference’s eighth seeds had to grind, scratch and scrape just to get a chance to look so good. ”The last month of the regular season, we were playing playoff hockey,” Carter said Tuesday after the Kings returned from consecutive victories in St. Louis to open their second-round series. ”We had to fight just to get in, and once you get in, anything can happen with how close the teams are,” he added. ”An eight seed doesn’t really mean anything once you’re in. Anything can happen. That month before the playoffs started has helped us. We just kept rolling the way we’ve been playing. It’s good.” And it keeps getting better heading into Game 3 on Thursday night. The West’s lowest seeds are in a commanding position after winning twice in St. Louis with gritty road efforts that left the hard-nosed Blues criticizing their own work ethic and defense. For a franchise with no Stanley Cup championships and just one playoff series victory in the previous 18 years, the Kings are adapting splendidly to the high stakes and physical style of the NHL postseason. After blowing out top-seeded Vancouver in the opening round, they’ve largely dominated the West’s top two teams. Yet the Kings know it’s not nearly as simple as it looked in Vancouver and St. Louis. Anze Kopitar believes there’s no chance of overconfidence against the powerful Blues when they return to Staples Center, where Los Angeles has lost six of its last seven postseason games. ”We’re definitely feeling good right now,” said Kopitar, whose deflating short-handed goal in Game 2 was set up by captain Dustin Brown’s hustle. ”Getting into that building (where) they’ve had so much success and winning both games puts us in a great spot, but it’s not over yet. They have a great team. They can turn it around pretty quick.” After replacing coach Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter at midseason, Los Angeles finished the regular season with a 9-2-3 push, earning a playoff spot right before its 81st game. Sutter might be the overseer of this playoff run, but the crusty veteran coach insists he’s ”just along for the ride” in this postseason surge, claiming the Kings figured it out for themselves from midseason onward. ”It made us a stronger team,” Kopitar said of Murray’s departure and their season-long offensive struggles. ”Mental toughness is a big part of 82 games plus the postseason. We’ve gone through a lot of stuff this season, and at the end of the day, it matters what the guys in the locker room think.” The Kings took control of Game 2 with an utterly dominant first period, starting with Mike Richards’ alert rebound goal just 31 seconds in. Kopitar then scored Los Angeles’ fourth short-handed goal of the playoffs, and the Kings added two late goals to take a four-goal lead that flat-lined the playoff emotion in St. Louis’ long-suffering crowd. ”It was embarrassing, the work ethic we had as a team, I think,” Blues forward T.J. Oshie said. ”For our team defense to be that poor, it’s embarrassing. … There were a lot of guys running around. Everyone’s working hard, but they’re not working hard and using their head at the same time. We’ve got to work hard but work smart.” The Blues didn’t practice Tuesday, taking a day for physical healing and mental resets before boarding a flight to the West Coast. While Los Angeles started the season terribly and finally got itself together, St. Louis was remarkably consistent after coach Ken Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne 13 games in, unexpectedly rising atop the conference standings for a long stretch. But the downside of that success could be a lack of late-season urgency. St. Louis was the first team to clinch a playoff spot and the first to clinch its division, although it didn’t hurt the Blues in their first-round elimination of dangerous San Jose. The Blues don’t blame their weak efforts against Los Angeles on the regular season, but they also realize they can learn a few things from the Kings’ desperate approach to the first two games. ”They don’t stop coming,” Blues captain David Backes said. ”They earned their two wins, and it’s kind of disappointing that we didn’t have more digging in and solidarity as a group to push them back and see what they are made of. We’ve got other levels we can get to, to hopefully make them earn it more.”
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Travis Zajac’s goal in overtime forces Game 7 (Yahoo! Sports)
Travis Zajac’s goal in overtime forces Game 7 (Yahoo! Sports)
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) A one-game showdown to win their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. Neither New Jersey coach Peter DeBoer nor Florida coach Kevin Dineen is complaining about the prospect. The series between the sixth-seeded Devils and third-seeded Panthers has been close, so it’s appropriate it comes down to 60 minutes, or more. The Devils staved off elimination and forced the deciding contest when Travis Zajac scored at 5:39 of overtime in a 3-2 win over the Panthers on Tuesday night. Game 7 will be played in Sunrise, Fla. on Thursday night. ”They are fun to be part of,” said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has played in two Game 7s to decide Stanley Cup titles, not just series. ”When you’re a kid you always go out and say ‘this is Game 7 for all the marbles.’ It brings back good memories because of that. You don’t need to be nervous. You need to embrace the situation and make the best out of it.” Dineen smiled when asked about playing in a Game 7 that would give the Panthers their first series win since 1996. ”We’re fine,” he said. ”We’re going back home. This is where we are. It comes down to one game. Obviously you go to overtime and you’d like to put things to bed, but that’s the nature of it. It will make for a very exciting game on Thursday.” DeBoer hesitated for a split second when asked if he would have settled for one game to decide everything before the series began. ”At the start of the season?” he said, drawing some laughs. DeBoer then got serious. ”All you have to do is look around the league to appreciate how tough playoffs are,” the first-year Devils coach said. ”Look at the quality of some of the teams that are sitting on the sidelines right now. Absolutely, we’ll take one game. We’ve had one of the best road records in the league and guys are comfortable to play a good one.” Two other series in the conference are also headed to Game 7s. Washington will be at second-seeded Boston on Wednesday and Ottawa will be at the top-seeded Rangers on Thursday. The Devils had the better of the play in Game 6 at the Prudential Center, outshooting Florida 42-16. Steve Bernier and Ilya Kovalchuk staked the Devils to a 2-0 lead early in the second period but the Panthers rallied to tie the game on goals by Kris Versteeg and Sean Bergenheim. Zajac, who played in only 15 games this season because of an Achilles’ tendon injury that required surgery in August, ended the contest, scoring on a counterattack after the Panthers threatened the 39-year-old Brodeur in a scramble around his crease. Zajac cleared the puck from in front of the net and started a rush up the ice. Zach Parise took his cross-ice pass and gave the puck to Kovalchuk, who found Zajac skating down the left wing for a shot along the ice that beat former teammate Scott Clemmensen. ”It’s fun to be back competing and playing at this time of year,” said Zajac, who made his season debut in December before having to shut it down again until late March. ”When you have a setback, you never know what’s going to happen,” said Zajac, who also set up Kovalchuk’s goal. ”As I went through the process again, I felt better and better. It was just about being patient. I knew I would be back at some time in the new year. I was able to get a few games in and prepare for the playoffs.” Zajac’s third goal of the series sparked a wild celebration in the corner and sent both teams packing for a trip to Florida. ”It’s been a frustrating year for him,” Parise said of Zajac, who had played in 401 straight games before his injury. ”It’s got to be rewarding and satisfying for him to get that one. He’s played really well for us in the series. He’s a good guy to play with. He makes my job easier. He makes Kovy’s job easier.” Clemmensen was outstanding, making 39 saves in an emergency start for the injured Jose Theodore. ”I think he missed it, the shot,” Clemmensen said of Zajac’s last shot. ”My D also may have gotten a stick on it. I don’t think he was shooting where he wanted to, but went under the pad. I thought he was trying to shoot it high.” Despite being outshot 29-10 in the opening 40 minutes, the Panthers rallied from a 2-0 deficit and entered the third period tied at 2-all. The remarkable aspect was that the Panthers took only four shots in the second period and tallied on the two of the first three. Versteeg cut the deficit to 2-1 at 7:05 of the period. Stephen Weiss centered the puck from along the left sideboards and Versteeg’s shot hit off the skate of Devils forward Alexei Ponikarovsky and into the open side of the net. Brodeur never had a chance. The tying goal came at 12:49 after the referees ignored a slash by Bergenheim that knocked Kovalchuk to the ice. It led to a 4-on-2 rush. Brodeur made the initial stop on a shot from the between the circles by Tyson Strachan, but Bergenheim came late and tucked the rebound into an open net with teammate Marcel Goc hanging on the crossbar. ”This series has been going back and forth,” Bergenheim said. ”I have no doubts we will have the energy for Game 7.” Kovalchuk gave the Devils a 2-0 lead earlier in the period, slam-dunking a pass from Zajac into the net with 4 seconds left on a power play.. The Devils had a big territorial advantage in the final 10 minutes of the first period and it finally paid off when Bernier beat Clemmensen with a bad-angle shot at 16:37 of the period. NOTES: The NBA’s Nets played their final home game in New Jersey on Monday night and all the team banners and retired jersey numbers that hung from the rafters of the Prudential Center were gone on Tuesday. … Panthers D Jason Garrison, their leading goal scorer on the back line, missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury. …The Panthers did not discuss the nature of Theodore’s injury.
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Lynx draft Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters (The Associated Press)
Lynx draft Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters (The Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The defending champion Minnesota Lynx didn’t have much room on their roster for rookies, so this year’s WNBA draft served a future purpose. Looking ahead for a potential replacement for 41-year-old center Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the Lynx picked Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters with the third overall selection on Monday. They took five other players, but only two of them will even be at training camp. For the first time in their 14 seasons, the Lynx didn’t need the draft. They’ve already got a title contender assembled, and they’re hoping Peters can be a valuable piece. The 6-foot-2, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, who helped the Fighting Irish reach the last two NCAA championship games, finished her college career as only the second player in program history with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 150 blocks and 150 steals. The Lynx acquired the selection before last season in a trade with the Washington Mystics for center Nicky Anosike. ”Although I believe Taj might play until she’s 50, there’s probably a more than likelihood that in a couple years, if not a year from now, we might have to replace her,” head coach Cheryl Reeve said. Peters, on a conference call with reporters, said her selection was ”just pure shock” because of how loaded the Lynx are. With McWilliams-Franklin, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen in the lineup, moving from biggest to smallest, the starting five is set. Candice Wiggins leads the list of reserves, with recent acquisition Erin Thorn and Monica Wright in the backcourt and Amber Harris and Jessica Adair in the post. After two ACL injuries earlier in her career, Peters played the last two seasons without any problems. She’s a strong rebounder and defender who’s used to playing a supporting role on a star-studded Notre Dame team. She’ll need to improve her jump shooting and cut down on her foul-prone play in the WNBA. ”I think I’ve made a big improvement,” Peters said. Reeve joked that Peters was as happy as any player to join the league this year, because ”she gets six fouls.” The Lynx also drafted Damiris Dantas of Brazil with the final choice of the first round, 12th overall. They then picked mid-major stars Julie Wojta of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Kayla Standish of Gonzaga before grabbing guard Nika Baric of Slovenia in the second round, with the 18th, 19th and 20th selections. In the third round, No. 31 overall, they took oft-injured USC point guard Jacki Gemelos. Wojta and Standish will be long shots to make the team, but the two forwards could challenge Wright or Harris for time. WNBA rosters are limited to 11 players. ”We’ve seen it before that you think you’re set, but you come in find out that someone is better and they’ll have that opportunity to prove that they can beat somebody out on our roster,” Lynx executive vice president Roger Griffith said. ”If that happens, we’ll all be stronger for it.” Said Reeve: ”I certainly won’t be drawing a depth chart for them. I think that’s rather disappointing. I won’t go that route. I want them to come in and be confident and be competitive.” Gemelos has torn the ACL in both of her knees twice each, most recently in December, so she won’t play this season. But the Lynx will hold her rights as long as she’s still recovering. The same goes for Dantas and Baric, who are both 19. They’re playing internationally – Baric is a teammate of Augustus in a Russian league – and won’t start their WNBA careers for some time. Dantus might not turn pro until after the Summer Olympics – in 2016. ”That’s not a timeline that scares us either,” Griffith said. — Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP
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Former draft bust Akili Smith has a surprising new path
Former draft bust Akili Smith has a surprising new path
Akili Smith found the NFL to be tough going. (Getty Images) LostLettermen.com is a college football and men’s basketball site. Today, we check in on the current whereabouts of NFL draft bust Akili Smith. Former Oregon quarterback Akili Smith isn’t where anyone thought he would be 13 years after he was selected with the third overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft: Slogging toward the finish line of finally getting his college degree. “I gotta do a Spanish or a math (classes), so I’m thinking that’s going to take about a year and a half. So I should be done here in the next couple years,” Smith recently said by phone. More from LostLettermen.com • NFL Draft’s Top 10 memorable moments• Ray Lewis’ son commits to Miami (FL)• Joe Montana selling house for $35M•Flutie’s daughter: Pats cheerleader Smith, now 36, never finished his degree as a senior at the University of Oregon when he realized he would make millions as a high NFL draft pick. He’s now finishing what he started, taking classes last semester and planning to chip away over the summer at the 20 remaining credits he needs at a junior college in his native San Diego. In order to receive his diploma, Smith will eventually move back to Eugene to finish his requirements now over a decade removed from his exploits on the gridiron. [Related: NFL draft's 50 biggest busts: Where are they now?] In the meantime, Smith is the quarterbacks coach at St. Augustine High School in his hometown. He is also setting up a football company called “Akili Smith Training” in the area. Of course, this isn’t the path scouts foresaw for Smith prior to the 1999 draft. A junior college transfer that dominated as a senior for the Ducks, draft pundits drooled over Smith’s cannon arm and athleticism leading up to the draft despite the fact Smith had just 11 starts for Oregon. (Getty Images)But Smith wasn’t ready for the fame, fortune and attention afforded to high draft picks. He flamed out of the NFL after just four seasons and five career touchdown passes with the Cincinnati Bengals and has admitted he partied and drank too hard to succeed. His football career finally came to a close in 2007 after stints in NFL Europe and the CFL. Smith has vowed to work hard toward a degree that will help him become more attractive for significant college or NFL coaching jobs and appears at ease with the label of an “NFL draft bust.” “[Being called a bust] used to really bother me about three, four years ago. But now when I look back on it, it doesn’t really bother me no more. I know that it was me that did it,” Smith said. [Related: Mark Rypien's daughter, Angela, takes talents to new Lingerie team] “Now, was the [Bengals] organization where it needed to be at that time? No. Marvin Lewis and the Browns [ownership] have done a great job getting it where it’s supposed to be, getting it in the right direction, where it needs to be. “But it’s still my fault for the off-the-field shenanigans that I was doing. I can hold my head up high now and deal with it.” The ex-quarterback said that he ran away from the pressures in Cincinnati, where he was deemed a savior for a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs since 1990 with Boomer Esiason under center. “You have to run towards your problems, address them and get them fixed,” Smith said. [Related: Ex-Bengal Ki-Jana Carter now running… sanitation company?] At this point in his life, Smith said he wants to relay that message to young football players and help them avoid the pitfalls that led to him falling short of his advanced billing. Smith has some advice for the young quarterbacks that will be selected in this month’s NFL draft — and he speaks from experience. “I think these guys need to stay in their respective [NFL] cities, stay at the facility, stay in their community, stay at the local YMCA and things of that nature to try to build that brand depending on what team you play for,” Smith said. “Then obviously you can pop on home or head down to South Beach or something like that, then get back … because you are now part of that NFL team, that corporation. That’s the biggest thing that I didn’t understand.” According to Sports Illustrated in 2009, Smith would fly back and forth between Cincinnati and San Diego answering calls from “multiple women, my boys, club promoters” and living a life on the party scene. He called himself an “embarrassment.” [Related: NFL draft bust Tony Mandarich goes from lineman to cameraman] As for Smith’s future after graduation, he said he will reach back out to Cal head Jeff Tedford, his former college offensive coordinator for whom he was an administrative assistant in 2010, and Oregon, a program he heaped praise upon for its success under coach Chip Kelly. Smith certainly offers a unique perspective to young players. “I can show you how to get there and I can show you how to get yourself out of there,” Smith said. And he might be able to do it in more than one language. Most popular on LostLettermen.com:• PHOTO: Ryan Tannehill’s model fiancee turning heads• VIDEO: RB crashes during NFL combine 40-yard dash• PHOTO: ESPN’s Jenn Brown gets hitched to actor• PHOTOS: Football helmet design concepts go viral on web• Stars Behind Bars: Ex-football standouts now in prison
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