Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
APThe Lakers suddenly became desperate. Instead of working the ball into Gasol or Lamar Odom, they fired away from outside.
They couldn’t shoot with the Magic.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson couldn’t find any fault with his team’s low rebounding total.
“What kind of rebounds are they going to get?” he said. “Making the amount of shots they made, there’s not a whole lot of rebounds to be had out there.”
Bryant missed a 3, Trevor Ariza misfired on one, Bryant clanged another and Derek Fisher was long as the Lakers went 0 for 4 on a possession where they had to have points. Bryant did score on a putback with .05 seconds left, but it was too late and although there was still time left, confetti began to fall to the court.
Jackson felt Bryant looked tired down the stretch.
“We’re all frail as humans,” he said. “Sometimes not as much as others.”
Orlando, which was swept by the Houston Rockets 14 years ago, could finally celebrate winning one on pro basketball’s biggest stage.
Bryant fouled Lewis with 0.2 seconds to go, and as Magic fans hugged and danced at an outcome they longed for, he dropped two more to seal it.
The last time Orlando hosted a finals game, Howard was a 9-year-old kid in Atlanta and Shaquille O’Neal was the Magic’s Superman.
Outside the cramped arena, which had a red Superman cape hanging off one wall, Orlando fans, one of them dressed as Jack Nicholson and carrying a sign that read: “Jack, You Can’t Handle The Truth,” gathered on the sidewalks hoping this would be a night their team could get back into the series.
They believed.
This was their magic night.
Notes: Orlando’s 0-6 start in the finals was the second longest in league history, surpassed only by the Baltimore Bullets, who dropped their first nine. ... Van Gundy, a college point guard at SUNY-Brockport, still holds the school record for free throw accuracy (154 of 171), a mark he dismisses. “I probably got to the line 120 times in four years,” he said, “and I was playing for my father. So that tells you how good I was. I was an awful player.”
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Paul Pierce has been around long enough to know what Rajon Rondo's performance can mean for the aging Boston Celtics.
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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.
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.
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.