Nowitzki, Pierce highlight All-Star reserves

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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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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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