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 for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
APMeanwhile, the entire episode lit a fire under the Lakers. Actually, the fire was lit, this just stoked it. The Lakers came out aggressively from the night’s opening tip, jumped to a 39-25 lead after one period thanks to 15 points from Bryant and 13 from Pau Gasol (who finished with 22 and 14 boards), faltered in the second, then took control again in the second half.
Los Angeles was decidedly more aggressive than it was in Game 1, for the most part. It also helped that Yao Ming got into foul trouble and was not much of a factor, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Lakers also did a much better job of containing super-quick point guard Aaron Brooks, who had 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t deal with reserve forward Carl Landry, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds; 16 of his points came in the second quarter.
Yet they did what they needed to do to avoid disaster: Even the series, and give themselves momentum to try and go to Houston, win at least one of the pair there, and regain home-court advantage.
“Unfortunately the end of the third quarter (the Scola brouhahas) was kind of erratic and took the air out of the game,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “It set the tone for what happened and what’s going to happen.”
The Rockets had planned to play with brute force in this series. Being physical is their only shot against the more talented Lakers. And their plan has worked thus far: They going home with a split.
“We’re playing basketball,” Adelman said, “and we’re not backing down for anybody.”
But the Lakers often have to be reminded to mix it up, to counterpunch, to push back after being shoved. It isn’t second nature to them. Yet after Wednesday night, it might be easier to work up some aggression.
“We intend to win a championship,” Fisher said, “and whatever it takes to do that, we’re willing to do.”
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
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