Super Bowl XLVI
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.
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi scored shootout goals to give Detroit a 2-1 win over Anaheim on Friday. The victory was the Red Wings' 19th consecutive at home, one shy of the NHL record.
Jeremy Lin had the most astounding performance of his remarkable week, scoring a career-high 38 points and outdueling Kobe Bryant as the New York Knicks held off the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.
Arc's weekend preview: The way you beat Kentucky is by getting physical with their big guys, and the Wildcats don’t have much depth up front.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Despite an injury scare and a few missed opportunities at Monterey Peninsula CC, Tiger Woods remains in contention at the AT&T.
John Isner jolted Roger Federer with his big serve and booming groundstrokes Friday, winning 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to give the United States a 2-0 lead against Switzerland in the first round of the Davis Cup.
Manchester City will find at least three highly motivated players in its way Sunday when it tries to improve upon its flagging away form in the Premier League at Aston Villa.
All that stuff about the Olympic ideal, how it's all about taking part, not winning, can often seem like so much hot air, rendered hopelessly quaint and outdated by the ultra-competitive and mercenary world of modern sport. Until, that is, you speak to Kieran Behan.
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
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - For the last several years, the Detroit Pistons have spent early April trying to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
This year, they had a smaller goal on their minds.
On Friday, the Pistons got 46 points from their bench and clinched a playoff spot with a 100-93 victory over the New Jersey Nets.
“We’re getting better and better every game,” said reserve guard Will Bynum, who led the Pistons with 20 points. “They said that whichever team is playing the best going into the playoffs is pretty dangerous. Hopefully, we can be that team.”
Detroit (39-40) will be in the postseason for the eighth straight year, but still needs two wins in its final three games to finish with a .500 record.
“We’ve been through some rough times and struggled this year,” said first-year coach Michael Curry. “We need to take some of the things we’ve learned and use them in the playoffs. We’re still going to be in there — just not with the kind of seed we’re used to having.”
New Jersey (32-47) lost for the eighth time in 10 games as coach Lawrence Frank went with a young lineup for much of the game. Rookie Ryan Anderson led the Nets with 20 points, one short of his career high, and fellow first-year players Chris Douglas-Roberts and Brook Lopez had 16 each.
“I wanted to put some guys in, guys in different positions so they could feel what it is like,” Frank said. “So instead of Vince (Carter), we went to Chris and Brook in the fourth quarter, and I thought Ryan gave us a big life from the middle of the third quarter on.”
The Pistons never trailed, and were up by as many as 19 in the first half. Detroit outshot the Nets 61 to 36 percent and outrebounded them 24-13 to take a 54-38 lead into intermission.
“The second unit really stepped it up,” said Arron Afflalo. “Will was great, but we were all getting stops and that’s how we built up the lead.”
Anderson’s 3-pointer pulled the Nets to 76-68 in the final minute of the third period, but Tayshaun Prince’s dunk moved the margin back to 10 at quarter’s end.
New Jersey got to 96-91 in the final minute, but Richard Hamilton clinched the game with a 3-pointer.
“There was a lack of energy in the first half, but we kept playing tough,” Lopez said. “Ryan kept us in the game, and CDR made some big plays late that gave us a shot.”
Nets All-Star point guard Devin Harris left the game in the third quarter with a sore left shoulder and did not return.
He missed all five shot attempts and finished with one point, his lowest output since scoring a single point for the Mavericks against Atlanta on Feb. 26. 2007.
“We lost to them last week, but tonight we did a much better job against Harris and Carter,” Curry said. “We were good at helping on both of them with our bigs.”
Notes: For much of the fourth quarter, with the game still in the balance, six of the 10 players on the floor were either in their first or second NBA seasons. ... Kwame Brown was called for a technical foul with 2:50 left, but Douglas-Roberts missed the free throw.
Jeremy Lin had the most astounding performance of his remarkable week, scoring a career-high 38 points and outdueling Kobe Bryant as the New York Knicks held off the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.
Chandler: Even in eighth grade, Jeremy Lin stood out as a singular talent. So his success with the Knicks is no surprise.
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Jeremy Lin had the most astounding performance of his remarkable week, scoring a career-high 38 points and outdueling Kobe Bryant as the New York Knicks held off the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.
Plenty of people are telling the Jeremy Lin story, because it's just a good story. The underdog, the unexpected and the first player since LeBron James nearly a decade ago to put up at least 20 points and eight assists in his first two NBA starts.
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.