Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
NEW YORK - The Knicks have two years to convince LeBron James they can be a title contender.
His Cleveland Cavaliers showed New York they might be one right now.
James scored 26 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, and the Cavaliers quickly took a charged-up New York crowd out of the game in a 119-101 victory Tuesday night.
The buzz was about James’ future. His teammates have big goals for the present.
“They don’t get caught up in that, man, and I don’t either,” James said. “We hear it every day, we see it every day on TV about 2010 all the time, we still go out and take care of business. We don’t worry about what’s going on. Me the leader, I can’t let that faze me because I’m leading these guys onto something that we want to accomplish, and that’s win an NBA championship.”
Delonte West added 16 points and Wally Szczerbiak had 15 for the Cavaliers, who led by as many as 34. They rang up their highest point total of the season and put seven players in double figures, showing they may have more help than ever for James, the NBA’s leading scorer.
Fans hoping someday to see James play in New York got to learn how good his Cleveland team is right now. The Cavaliers turned it into a blowout while James was enjoying his first rest to start the second quarter, and improved the NBA’s third-best record to 11-3.
“It seems like they want him, but right now we’re excited that he’s a Cavalier,” guard Daniel Gibson said.
Quentin Richardson scored 22 points and newcomer Tim Thomas had 16 for the Knicks, who lost for the fourth time in five games and fell to 7-7.
James’ first visit to Madison Square Garden this season came just days after the Knicks made a pair of trades that cleared enough salary cap space for a potential run at him in free agency in the summer of 2010.
After starting the night by saying he was flattered by the attention but focused on trying to win a title this season with the Cavs, James witnessed how far the Knicks have to go before they can convince James he’d have a chance to win a championship here.
“It’s way too early,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We hate it for tonight, but it’s only tonight.”
Unlike his previous visit, when the Cavaliers needed nearly all of his 50 points to beat the Knicks last March, an ordinary effort was good enough from James, who laughed and smiled throughout the easy victory.
The Knicks are a team in transition after trading Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford, their two leading scorers, last Friday. Making matters worse, they lost Nate Robinson, who became their leading scorer, after he strained his groin in the second quarter. He is doubtful for Wednesday at Detroit.
“I’ll be back in no time,” Robinson said. “I’m not the kind of guy who wants to sit here and be hurt. I hate it.”
Al Harrington, acquired from Golden State for Crawford, had only one full practice. Thomas and Cuttino Mobley, who came over from the Clippers, haven’t had any practice time yet, and Mobley still isn’t available while undergoing further tests for a medical condition that turned up on his physical.
James was cheered loudly during pregame introductions by a crowd that included his buddy, rapper Jay-Z — who might prefer James goes to New Jersey, the team he partly owns — and every time he touched the ball in the early minutes. James then scored 11 points in the first quarter, leading Cleveland to a 34-22 lead.
James could only chuckle and shake his head when a fan yelled “Two more years!” as he was putting on his warmup shirt before heading to the bench for the start of the second quarter.
Then the Cavs really turned it on.
Cleveland scored the first eight points of the period, and after Thomas made two free throws, the Cavs followed with a 13-2 spurt to make it 55-26 on Szczerbiak’s 3-pointer with 7:20 left in the period. Fans started booing the Knicks after consecutive turnovers during that stretch, and by the time James re-entered his team was ahead by 24.
The Cavs led 67-38 at the break, their highest-scoring first half of the season.
James drew a big cheer for a powerful, fast-break dunk with 4:10 left in the third and scored 13 points in the quarter, but by then the fans were mostly disinterested as Cleveland’s lead ballooned to
34. He nailed a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left in the period, and his hardest work the rest of the night was dancing during a fourth-quarter timeout.
Notes: James averaged 42.3 points in three games against the Knicks last season. ... Producer and Knicks fan Spike Lee was wearing a pair of the red “Big Apple” sneakers that James debuted for the game. ... Harrington scored 13 points but shot 5-of-16.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.