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.
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
LOS ANGELES - Fighting to stay on the floor every minute of perhaps the last game of his career, Rasheed Wallace finally threw up his hand when it was time for a break.
And he wasn’t the only Boston Celtics player who was tired.
“I think everyone is not only physically fatigued, but mentally fatigued,” forward Kevin Garnett said.
Those old guys ran out of gas just short of the finish line.
The Celtics nearly pulled off an improbable championship, leading most of the way against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA finals on Thursday night before losing 83-79.
They wasted a superb defensive effort when their offense stalled midway through the fourth quarter. Boston went without a field goal for nearly five minutes, a decisive stretch when Los Angeles grabbed control.
“You know, it’s the first time all year that you can actually say at the end of the day we were old at the end of the game because we didn’t have enough bodies,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought it hurt us.”
It was nearly an 18th title for the league’s most decorated team, and perhaps its most unlikely. The Celtics were the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference after playing .500 ball over the second half of the season and were dismissed as too old to compete for a championship.
“We had so much adversity. That’s why putting ourselves in a situation to do this would have been miraculous for us. It would have been wonderful,” Ray Allen said.
Instead, they finally looked their age Thursday night. Allen’s jumper, one of the prettiest and most reliable in the NBA, was flat all night in a 3-for-14 performance.
Paul Pierce was 5 of 15. Garnett, the other member of the aging Big Three, scored 17 points but managed only three rebounds and couldn’t keep Pau Gasol off the backboards.
Pierce and Garnett both bent over with hands on shorts in the fourth quarter, usually a symbol of fatigue. A more recognizable sign: Wallace, another old guy who was forced to start and play 36 minutes because of Kendrick Perkins’ knee injury, had to motion to come out of the game when he became winded in the second half.
“He was just trying to figure out a way to stay on the floor,” said Rivers, who called the 35-year-old Wallace a “warrior” who was considering retirement.
Rivers said Wallace was battling cramps and strains, which kept him from going inside as he did early in the game.
“We had to keep subbing him for one minute and two minutes, and I thought the reason we got up early was because of Rasheed Wallace,” Rivers said. “We got it low in the post, he started scoring, and I thought what happened was late in the game he got tired and had the injuries and we couldn’t go down anymore, and I think that had a huge impact on how we were playing. We had to go away from the post almost because of fatigue.”
The Celtics led by 13 in the second half with an efficient offense and an even better defense that was frustrating Kobe Bryant. That’s what Boston did to get past LeBron James and Cleveland, then defending East champion Orlando in the previous two rounds.
|
But all those games perhaps took their toll on the Celtics, who simply didn’t have the energy down the stretch. They were outrebounded 53-40 and couldn’t leap to corral the most important rebound of the game, which Gasol grabbed to retain possession with the Lakers up three and 30 seconds to go.
The Lakers even game-planned for the Celtics’ age.
“With the Boston team obviously I saw Garnett fatigue,” coach Phil Jackson said. “And that’s been one of the issues we’ve had all the way through this series, is run him hard and keep running him if you get a chance because fatigue will affect his game.”
It was a great run for the Celtics. They just didn’t have the legs to finish it.
“We were scratching and clawing, trying to do everything we could to try to pull this out,” Allen said. “We had an opportunity to win, but it just didn’t go our way down the stretch. I don’t think we ran out of steam. Lady Luck just didn’t bounce in our corner.”
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.
The NBA finals |
Lakers def. Celtics 4-3 |
 | Slideshow |
 | more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | NBCSports.com |
ProBasketballTalk tweets |
|
Source: Twitter. For more, follow @basketballtalk. |
 | Video: NBA from NBC Sports |
 Lin on on 'Linsanity' Knicks guard Jeremy Lin discusses the hype surrounding his recent rise in New York. |
| Slideshow |
 |
more photos |
Ask the NBA expert: Ira Winderman |
Do you have a burning NBA question? Submit it now, and then check back for our reader mailbag. |  |
 | Special feature |
 |
Who will be MVP? Interactive: Rank each player on a scale of 0 to 10 (10 = best player, 0 = barely worthy of consideration). NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 |
more photos |
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.
