Sports - Page 4

A bounce here, a bounce there. The way Martin Brodeur sounded, the New Jersey Devils were fortunate to close out the Tampa Bay Lightning. In reality, the three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie was the difference in the first-round Eastern Conference series that the Devils won Sunday with Brodeur stopping 32 shots and Brian Gionta scoring two goals in a 3-2 victory. More Info...  

Wes Obermueller was rewarded for giving the Florida Marlins some much-needed innings in his return to the major leagues. Dan Uggla homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs, and Obermueller earned his first major league victory in almost two years to lead the Marlins to a 12-6 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday. More Info...  

Flat on his back, LeBron James grimaced as he looked toward the arena rafters, where giant banners spelled out his team's playoff motto: "RISE UP!" And he did. Ignoring a sprained left ankle, James stayed in the game to score 23 points and Larry Hughes added 27 Sunday, lifting the Cleveland Cavaliers over the depleted Washington Wizards 97-82 in the opener of this Eastern Conference series. More Info...  

The NHL came down hard Sunday on Calgary, suspending goalie Jamie McLennan for five games and fining coach Jim Playfair $25,000 and the team $100,000 for actions late in Game 5 of the Flames' first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. McLennan was given a match penalty for slashing Detroit's Johan Franzen in the midsection at 17:01 of the third period, one of four penalties the... More Info...  

The Red Sox managed to keep Alex Rodriguez from hitting another home run. The Yankees can't say the same about David Ortiz. Ortiz had a two-run homer and four RBIs, and Josh Beckett settled down to help Boston beat New York 7-5 Saturday for its second consecutive victory over the Yankees. It was Ortiz's fourth homer in seven games and his 12th in the past two years against New York. More Info...  

The Barry Zito that San Francisco Giants fans saw in his first two starts of the season looked nothing like a former Cy Young Award winner who just signed the richest contract ever for a pitcher. Now that he's no longer trying to live up to the expectations that came with his $126 million contract, Zito has once again found his groove. More Info...  

Latest news and information from the world of sports. Shaquille O'Neal's words were sharp and pointed and aimed straight at his target, like those passes he whips to cutters when he is double-teamed. His target this time was referee Eddie F. Rush. "My intention was to come out and be myself, until Eddie Rush derailed me," O'Neal said after fouling out. Chicago's Luol Deng also played a big part in knocking defending champion Miami off track. More Info...  

The Calgary Flames aren't going down without a fight. Daniel Cleary converted the first successful penalty shot ever in Detroit during the playoffs and Henrik Zetterberg had two goals and an assist in the Red Wings' 5-1 victory over Calgary on Saturday. When the Flames knew they'd fall behind 3-2 in the first-round series, they weren't satisfied with just some scrums and trash talk. More Info...  

The Chicago White Sox are pretty confident when they have to go to their bullpen. Jermaine Dye doubled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and five Chicago relievers combined to toss three scoreless innings in a 7-5 win over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday. White Sox relievers also tossed 4 1-3 shutout innings in a 5-4 victory over the Tigers on Friday. More Info...  

Vince Carter heard boos all afternoon. They couldn't ruin his return to Toronto for the playoffs. "I didn't come here to worry about the crowd and the response, I came here to win a basketball game," Carter said. Richard Jefferson and Jason Kidd made sure the Nets did just that. Jefferson scored 28 points, Kidd nearly had a triple-double, and the Nets withstood a fourth-quarter rally to beat the... More Info...  

NHL scoring champion Sidney Crosby played the final 2 1/2 weeks of the regular season and the playoffs with a broken left foot, an injury the Pittsburgh Penguins star didn't disclose until Saturday. Crosby revealed the injury when he explained why he won't play in the world championships in Moscow. Crosby was expected to join Team Canada for the second year in a row after Pittsburgh was eliminated... More Info...  

Islanders defenseman Sean Hill was hit with a 20-game suspension by the NHL on Friday -- just hours before New York faced elimination from the playoffs -- for violating the league's drug policy. Hill's ban began Friday night when the Islanders faced the Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 of the first round Eastern Conference playoff series. More Info...  

Boston Celtics guard Sebastian Telfair was arrested early Friday after police stopped him for speeding and found a loaded handgun under a seat in his SUV. Telfair, 21, of Brooklyn was stopped at about 4 a.m. on the Bronx River Parkway in Yonkers, N.Y. after being clocked at 77 mph in a 45-mph zone in his Range Rover, Westchester County police spokesman Kieran O'Leary said. More Info...  

Lou Piniella has been around long enough to see just about everything in baseball, but his first managerial look Friday at Cubs-Cardinals -- one of the game's longest and most intense rivalries -- is one he'll remember for a while. Braden Looper allowed five hits in seven innings for the Cardinals, Preston Wilson hit a long homer and St. More Info...  

The Sacramento Kings fired coach Eric Musselman on Friday after just one tumultuous season. The Kings went 33-49 and missed the playoffs amid infighting and unimpressive play. The club, which reached the postseason eight consecutive times before coach Rick Adelman was fired last summer, wasted no time removing Musselman, but intends to take plenty of time to choose his replacement. More Info...  

Latest news and information from the world of sports. Greg Oden is through with school. The 7-foot freshman center said Friday he will leave Ohio State to enter the NBA draft, where he figures to be one of the top two picks along with Texas freshman forward Kevin Durant. Freshman teammates Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook also said they will make themselves available for the draft. More Info...  

Even though the Detroit Pistons are in the playoffs for the sixth straight year, Richard Hamilton insists they don't have a ho-hum attitude. "We all get the same, exciting feeling," Hamilton said Friday. "It's like the first day of school. You take your clothes out, lay them on the bed and get some brand-new sneakers. More Info...  

On a day marked by tears and mourning, prayer vigils and tolling bells, life was beginning to return to normal on at least part of the Virginia Tech campus: the school's baseball field. Workers groomed the diamond in preparation for a game Friday evening against the University of Miami, the first sporting event held since Monday's rampage by a student gunman who killed 32 people. More Info...  

The Houston Rockets hung a banner during their last regular-season home game to honor retiring general manager Carroll Dawson. They haven't had much more to celebrate lately. Houston hasn't won a playoff series since 1997 and since winning back-to-back championships in 1994 and '95, the Rockets have slipped to third-best in their own state, behind Dallas and San Antonio. More Info...  

Nevada junior guards Marcelus Kemp and Ramon Sessions will enter the NBA draft in June, but without agents so they'll retain the option of returning to school next fall, coach Mark Fox said Thursday. The two players have filed early-entry paperwork with the NBA and have until June 18 to decide whether to withdraw from the June 28 draft. More Info...