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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 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.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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
BOSTON - The Boston Celtics haven’t found a way to fix their defensive woes.
Center Brook Lopez scored 25 points and guards Devin Harris and Courtney Lee added 23 and 21 points and the New Jersey Nets topped the Celtics 104-96 Saturday.
The Nets, who entered the game 5-52 and 2-27 on the road, took a 29-27 lead on Keyon Dooling’s jumper at the end of the first quarter and never trailed again.
“Any win for us is big. There’s no question,” Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “But to get a win on the road, and this is one of the toughest places to play in the NBA just shows that — it should demonstrate to our guys that if they play with effort, they can compete against anybody.”
Kevin Garnett had 26 points and Marquis Daniels had 16 for the Celtics, playing their third straight game without Paul Pierce. The Celtics hope to get Pierce back for Tuesday’s game against Detroit.
New Jersey took 41 free throws to the Celtics’ 11.
“It shows that we were aggressive,” Lopez said. “A lot of the season we’ve been settling for jump shots at very inopportune times. Tonight we were very assertive in trying to get to the basket and get the best possible shot we could.”
Celtics coach Doc Rivers blamed his team for the free throw disparity, saying “it was on us.”
Rivers said one of the things he told his team yesterday, a day after a 108-88 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers, was “It ain’t the system. It’s our heads. It’s between our ears. And we’ve got to come out and play.”
Garnett said he was “disgusted” at the loss and said it came down to defense. “In this league you have to get stops, it’s that simple. A team gets into a rhythm, and it’s hard to turn it off.”
New Jersey’s effort shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Celtics. On Feb. 5 in Boston, the Nets hung with the Celtics until the last couple of minutes in a 96-87 loss.
The Celtics cut an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to six on Ray Allen’s 3-pointer with 2:05 left, but Kris Humphries’ layup and two foul shots by Lopez ended the rally.
The Celtics didn’t hit a 3-pointer until Nate Robinson’s shot late in the third quarter and finished 3 of 19 from behind the arc while the Nets hit six 3-pointers in 13 attempts.
The Nets scored 25 points off 18 Celtics turnovers. Boston shot 63 percent in the first quarter and had a 12-2 lead, but the Nets, led by Harris’ 11 points, charged back to take a 29-27 lead at the end of the quarter.
Lopez continued to hurt the Celtics inside in the second quarter and the Boston bench struggled. Lopez’s tip-in with four minutes left in the first half gave the Nets a 46-36 lead.
New Jersey led 74-64 after three quarters and then started to pull away in the fourth. Chris Douglas-Roberts’ dunk upped the lead to 12 with 7:44 left and Dooling’s 3-pointer gave Jersey an 18-point advantage with five minutes left.
Notes: The flu has been bothering the Celtics, but Rivers dismissed it as a reason for the loss. “No, no, no. Everybody’s sick right now. We just didn’t play very well.” ... New Jersey must win at least four of its remaining 24 games to overtake the 1972-73 76ers’ 9-73 record.
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.
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.
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.