Nowitzki, Pierce highlight All-Star reserves

Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks may not be matching their championship-caliber performance from last season, but Dirk Nowitzki is still playing well enough to make the Western Conference All-Star team.

Nowitzki, 33, will make his 11th career All-Star appearance at Orlando's Amway Center on February 26th. The 2011 Finals Most Valuable Player has averaged 17.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists over 31.9 minutes this season for Dallas.

Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Memphis' Marc Gasol, Phoenix's Steve Nash, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Minnesota's Kevin Love and San Antonio's Tony Parker were also selected as Western Conference reserves by the coaches.

It is the eighth All-Star selection for Nash in this his 16th season. He is averaging a double-double with 15.1 points to go with 10.0 assists on the year thus far.

Parker will make his fourth All-Star appearance since he entered the NBA with the Spurs in 2001-02. His 18.9 points per game average leads San Antonio and his 7.7 assists per game are a career-high. Love is making his second consecutive appearance on the back of 25.0 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. Westbrook is also making his second appearance.

Aldridge and Gasol both received their first All-Star selection. Aldridge ranks fifth in the league in scoring with a career-best 23.3 points per game while Gasol has career bests in points (15.0) and rebounds (10.2) per game.

The Eastern Conference reserves are led by Paul Pierce, fresh off passing Celtics' legend Larry Bird for No. 2 on the team's all-time scoring list. He will be making his 10th All-Star appearance (five consecutively).

Pierce is joined on the East bench by Atlanta's Joe Johnson, New Jersey's Deron Williams, Chicago's Luol Deng, Miami's Chris Bosh, Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala, and Indiana's Roy Hibbert.

Bosh was named to his seventh All-Star team, all consecutively. The Miami big man is scoring 19.2 points per game this season. Johnson was selected for his sixth consecutive All-Star game with Atlanta, the longest such streak for the Hawks since Hall-of-Fame forward Dominique Wilkins was named to nine straight from 1986-94.

Williams, selected for the third time, is averaging team-highs with 20.9 points and 8.6 assists per game for the Nets.

The East also has three first-time All-Stars in Deng, Iguodala, and Hibbert. Deng has dropped 16.0 points per game while averaging a career-high 7.3 rebounds per contest. Iguodala has been a key element in the Sixers' balanced attack this season, and has averaged a career-best 6.7 boards per game to go with 13.0 points. Hibbert is averaging career-highs in points (13.6) and rebounds (9.9) this season.

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Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.