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.
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.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
Arc: After heartbreaking loss, Tyler Zeller and No. 5 North Carolina made an impressive statement with a 70-52 win over No. 19 Virginia.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Charlie Wi holds a three-shot lead at the midway point of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Tiger Woods sits six back.
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
DALLAS - Top scorer Dirk Nowitzki was struggling, and the Dallas Mavericks needed points from other sources.
Jason Kidd, Caron Butler, rookie Roddy Beaubois and Shawn Marion picked up the slack.
Kidd had 20 points and nine assists, hitting 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and the Mavericks recovered from a lethargic start to match the NBA’s longest winning streak this season with their 13th straight victory, 96-87 over the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday night.
Butler and Beaubois each added 16 points and Marion had 14 points and 13 rebounds, helping the Mavericks equal Cleveland’s winning streak from Jan. 10-Feb. 11.
Nowitzki, who’s had 16 games this season with 30 or more points and two with 40-plus, went 3 for 16 from the field and finished with 12 points.
“Dirk didn’t play that well, but he’s not always going to have 20 or 30 points,” Kidd said. “So everybody stepped up. When I get the ball, I know what to do with it.”
New Jersey led by as many as 18 in the first half before the Mavericks got untracked to match the third-best winning streak in franchise history, even while Nowitzki was falling 13.3 points under his season average.
“My jump shot was all over the place,” Nowitzki said. “But the guys were great. We really wanted this game.”
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Nowitzki could be excused for occasionally falling short of his All-Star standards.
“He had an atypical night,” Carlisle said. “You’re not going to play like an MVP every night. He’s earned the right to have an off night.”
Former Mavericks guard Devin Harris scored 21 points and Terrence Williams had 18 points and a season-high 13 rebounds for the Nets, who’ve lost nine of their last 11 and fell to 7-57.
The Mavericks carried a 70-62 advantage in the fourth quarter, but the Nets pushed back with 11 unanswered points, including six from ex-Maverick Kris Humphries, to pull within 81-80 with 7:40 remaining.
Butler scored eight of Dallas’ next 11 points, including a 20-footer with 1:45 left to extend Dallas’ lead to 92-87.
“They’re a good team and they’re going to make a run,” Harris said. “They came out and put their foot on the gas. But I’m proud of the way the guys responded. We got it to one, but we couldn’t get enough stops to overturn it.”
The Nets charged to a 17-3 start, getting seven points from Harris and connecting on seven consecutive field goal attempts.
New Jersey shot 67 percent, converting 14 of 21 from the floor in the first quarter, to build a 33-19 advantage.
The Nets went on to a 41-23 second-quarter lead before the Mavericks finished with a 16-6 run over the final 7:36 of the quarter to cut New Jersey’s edge to 47-39 at the break.
Dallas opened the third quarter with a 24-9 spurt that included a pair of 3-pointers from Kidd to grab a 63-56 lead.
“Our defensive disposition was stronger,” Carlisle said. “We were more physical. We were more alert.”
The Mavericks welcomed back centers Brendan Haywood and Erick Dampier from injury absences. Haywood started after sitting out the two previous games with lower back tightness and had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Dampier, who missed the previous 12 games with a dislocated right middle finger, had one point in five minutes.
NOTES: Mavericks G Jose Juan Barea was out due to an injured left ankle sustained in Monday night’s 113-93 victory at Minnesota. Dallas is also without No. 2 scorer Jason Terry, who missed his fourth consecutive game (surgery to repair facial injuries). F Tim Thomas (personal reasons) is also out for the Mavericks. ... Beaubois fouled out with 5:36 remaining. ... New Jersey lost its 10th in a row in Dallas. ...With a second-quarter free throw, Nowitzki passed George Gervin’s 20,708 points and took over 30th place on the career scoring list. ...Dallas’ best winning streak was 17 games during the 2006-07 season. ... Dallas’ 39-point first half matched its worst-scoring output for any half during the winning streak.
Buried on the bench a little more than a week ago, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin is now the toast of New York.
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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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.
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.