Points Magic Salvage Salvage From Quarter

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Paul Pierce had 19 points and seven assists for the Celtics, who have won two straight and three of four games since a five-game slide.

 

Orlando made just 4-of-16 three-pointers and Dwight Howard was the only player to score in double figures with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Former Celtics forward Glen Davis made his return to Boston and recorded six points and 11 rebounds.

 

Celtics veteran guard Ray Allen missed the game due to a left ankle sprain and is expected to miss Thursday's contest. Guard Rajon Rondo has been sidelined the last three games (2-1) and is listed as probable. In other injury news for Boston, guard Keyon Dooling (knee) and center Jermaine O'Neal (knee) are both questionable, while forward Mickael Pietrus (shoulder) is expected to miss tonight's contest. O'Neal and Howard got into a scuffle in the third quarter and were whistled for technical fouls.

 

Orlando will play 10 of its next 14 games at Amway Arena, where it is 6-2 this season, and split a recent two-game road trip in Boston and Indiana. The Magic rebounded from a dreadful shooting display in Beantown to hand the Pacers their first home loss with a 102-83 triumph on Tuesday.

 

Howard added 14 points and nine rebounds, surpassing Nick Anderson as Orlando's all-time leading scorer (10,657 points), while J.J. Redick finished with 15 points. Howard is aiming for his 13th double-double of the season.

 

The Magic, who shot 45.8 percent and sank 13-of-32 three-pointers, are in the midst of alternating home and away games over the next six games. Davis and Hedu Turkoglu scored 13 and 11 points, respectively, in the recent win.

 

Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An MRI on Thursday revealed that Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut suffered a fractured left ankle during Wednesday's game against the Rockets. "The results of the MRI identified a left ankle fracture which will keep Bogut out indefinitely," Milwaukee general manager John Hammond said on the Bucks' Twitter account.

 

The Aussie native is averaging 11.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in just 12 games so far this year. He missed four games earlier this season due to personal reasons, and missed another due to a concussion.

 

For his career, the first overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft has averaged 12.7 points per game to go along with 9.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists. He has a history of various injuries and has not played a full season since his rookie campaign.

 

Dwight Howard had 16 points and 16 rebounds to pace the Magic, losers of three of their last five. Jason Richardson added 13 points and Ryan Anderson finished with 12, but was held scoreless in a second half which saw Orlando shoot 22.9 percent from the floor.

 

The advantage was still 21 with five minutes left in the third when the Celtics began their methodical comeback. A quick 5-0 burst, sparked by three points from former Magic swingman Mickael Pietrus, made it 68-52.

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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.