NBA
ROCKETS ADD TO MIAMI’S WOES
The Houston Rockets are in the midst of a playoff drive. The Miami Heat are in the midst of a serious dive. Put them together on a basketball court in Houston, and you get a 112-100 win for the Rockets.
The Rockets lifted off early with a 41-point first period, giving the Heat a 15-point deficit from which Miami had no hope of extracting themselves. Houston’s dynamic duo of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady was far too much for Miami’s struggling team. Yao had 21 points and nine rebounds while McGrady scored 23 points and dished out 10 assists.
Meanwhile Dwyane Wade was his superb self, scoring 33 points and handing out 11 assists. His new teammate, Shawn Marion had 18 points and 10 rebounds. But it all went for naught as the teams extended their streaks to 10 games—wins for Houston, losses for Miami.
Houston is 34-20 on the season; Miami dips to 9-43.
OTHER NBA SCORES
San Antonio 100, Minnesota 99
Portland 92, Seattle 88
NHL
FLYERS HARDLY SOARING; WINLESS STREAK HITS NINE
The Philadelphia Flyers are doing anything but flying of late. On Thursday, Philadelphia extended their winless streak to nine straight games, dropping a 3-1 contest at home to the San Jose Sharks.
Douglas Murray and Milan Michalek scored early third-period goals just 42 seconds apart to lift the Sharks to their first win in five games.
Philadelphia, who began the month of February as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, is now nearly 10 points behind the final playoff contender. The Flyers are 0-8-1 during their streak of futility.
Veteran Mike Knuble scored the only Flyers only goal of the night, his 22nd of the season.
And if their current slump wasn’t bad enough, the Flyers learned that Simon Gagne’s season is finished due to a serious concussion.
OTHER NHL SCORES
New York Islanders 1, Tampa Bay 0
Buffalo 5, Toronto 1
Pittsburgh 5, Montreal 4
Carolina 5, Atlanta 3
Los Angeles
Vancouver 3, Nashville 2 – OT Shootout
Columbus 3, Ottawa 2 – OT Shootout
Boston 5, Florida 4 – OT Shootout
FACTS OF THE DAY
TRADING PLACES
Here’s a look at all the NBA traded since February 1.
Pau Gasol: Memphis to LA Lakers
Kwame Brown: LA Lakers to Memphis
Javaris Crittendon: LA Lakers to Memphis
Aaron McKie: LA Lakers to Memphis
Stromile Swift: Memphis to New Jersey
Jason Collins: New Jersey to Memphis
Shaquille O’Neal: Miami to Phoenix
Shawn Marion: Phoenix to Miami
Marcus Banks: Phoenix to Miami
Mike Bibby: Sacramento to Atlanta
Shelden Williams: Atlanta to Sacramento
Lorenzen Wright: Atlanta to Sacramento
Anthony Johnson: Atlanta to Sacramento
Tyronn Lue: Atlanta to Sacramento
Jason Kidd: New Jersey to Dallas
Antoine Wright: New Jersey to Dallas
Malik Allen: New Jersey to Dallas
DeSagana Diop: Dallas to New Jersey
Maurice Ager: Dallas to New Jersey
Devin Harris: Dallas to New Jersey
Trenton Hassell: Dallas to New Jersey
Keith Van Horn: Dallas to New Jersey
Kurt Thomas: Seattle to San Antonio
Brent Barry: San Antonio to Seattle
Francisco Elson: San Antonio to Seattle
Primoz Brezac: Detroit to Toronto
Juan Dixon: Toronto to Detroit
Taurean Green: Portland to Denver
Von Wafer: Denver to Portland
Gerald Green: Minnesota to Houston
Kirk Snyder: Houston to Minnesota
Bonzi Wells: Houston to New Orleans
Mike James: Houston to New Orleans
Marcus Vinicius: New Orleans to Memphis
Bobby Jackson: New Orleans to Houston
Adam Haluska: New Orleans to Houston
Ira Newble: Cleveland to Seattle
Donyell Marshall: Cleveland to Seattle
Ben Wallace: Chicago to Cleveland
Joe Smith: Chicago to Cleveland
Wally Szczerbiak: Seattle to Cleveland
Delonte West: Seattle to Cleveland
Larry Hughes: Cleveland to Chicago
Drew Gooden: Cleveland to Chicago
Cedric Simmons: Cleveland to Chicago
Shannon Brown: Cleveland to Chicago
Adrian Griffin: Chicago to Seattle
That’s 47 players who have switched teams in the past 21 days. That averages out to 12 percent of all NBA players have been traded in the past three weeks.
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life
TODAY'S FEATURE:ALBERT PUJOLS, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
BIO NOTE: Albert Pujols will start the 2008 season with 282 career home runs, 1,344 hits, and 861 RBI. His career batting avearage is .332.
RECENT NEWS: Pujols has a sore elbow in the first few days of spring training. He is expected to take it easy during sprining training so as to rest the elbow in preparation for the new season.
FAITH QUOTE: "You have to know who you represent. I want to represent the Lord out there. We all fall into temptation. We're all human. We all make mistakes. The only one who was perfect was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nobody else can be like Him, and that's why He forgives us. I want to try to be like Him, while at the same time knowing that you can't be like Him."
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
NFL SAYS YES TO CHURCHES
For the past several years, many local churches have found the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl to be nerve-wracking times. While they wanted to provide a friendly environment for their parishioners to enjoy the Super Bowl, they have not wanted to violate rules set up by the NFL relating to showing the games. The league, apparently threatened by the fact that hundreds of churches across the land would hold viewing parties in their auditoriums, made it nearly impossible for churches to hold such events. There were stipulations on the size of the screen, and there were threats of legal action. Many churches, in an attempt to be good citizens, cancelled their viewing parties—often giving up an opportunity to provide the positive message of the Sports Spectrum Power to Win videos featuring NFL stars who are Christians. Churches can breathe easier now at Super Bowl time. The NFL has decided to drop its restrictions. As long as churches don’t charge admission and use a location that is their “routine and customary” church locale, they are free to show the game on any size screen they want. Kudos go to a few legislators who went to bat for the churches: Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), and congressman Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina), who pursued this question with the NFL. Also, kudos to commissioner Roger Goodell, who rightly saw this as a win-win situation for the NFL, who had looked heavyhanded in its treatment of churches over the past few years. It’s like a breath of fresh air and common sense from the National Football League.
IF IT’S SPRING, IT’S SHEFF TIME
Yes, spring training has begun, and Gary Sheffield has begun talking. Surely he will continue talking right on through however long the Detroit Tigers will be playing this season. Sheff began right away with a diatribe against his former agent Scott Boras, which probably doesn’t upset too many people. Or course, Jim Leyland is probably not a big fan of Sheffield’s pronouncements, but he lets his players be themselves—until it hurts the team. So far, Sheff has just been Sheff, accusing Boras of being a bad person and mishandling some negotiations the two worked on together before he slugger joined the Tigers. At least this time Sheffield wasn’t talking about PEDs. Any conversation that doesn’t have the word “steroids” in it could be seen as a positive conversation this baseball season.
TRADES ABOUND IN NBA
Okay, let’s start with the big one. Eleven players will be trying on new jerseys soon as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, and Seattle SuperSonics got together to swap all of those players. Here’s how it happened: The Cavaliers now have the services of aging center Ben Wallace, excellent shooter Wally Szczerbiak (Now who’s the Z man in Cleveland?), point guard Delante West, and forward Joe Smith. To get those guys, Cleveland sent guards Larry Hughes and Shannon Brown along with forwards Drew Gooden and Cedric Simmons to Chicago. Also, they shipped forwards Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to Seattle. Chicago send guard Adrian Griffin to Seattle. In another deal, the Houston Rockets sent Bonzie Wells and Mike James to New Orleans. The Rockets pick up guards Bobby Jackson and Adam Haluska. And in the mix, the Memphis Grizzlies obtain Marcus Vinicius, a forward.
WHO IS HE?
Testing your knowledge of past sports stars—taken from “Legends” articles from the pages of Sports Spectrum magazine
THURSDAY’S MYSTERY PERSON
• He won the French Open when he was just 17
• He won 34 ATP titles during his career.
• He won nearly $20 million in prize money
• He was ranked No.
• In 1994, he won six tournaments
WHO IS HE? Michael Chang
FRIDAY’S MYSTERY PERSON
• Played for the
• Was named to the Pro Bowl four times in his career.
• Played in the 1999 AFC championship game for the Jags.
• Played in the 2000 NFC championship game for the Vikings.
• After his playing days were over, coached briefly for his alma mater, the
WHO IS HE?
SPECTRUM RADIO
SS DAILY INTERVIEW
To hear today's interview, go to the Sports Spectrum radio home page. It can be found at www.sport.org.
THE FRIDAY GUEST
BRAD WINTERS, SS racing analyst
This look at racing will have a decidedly Indiana flavor. Winters himself is from the Hoosier state, and he will discuss Indiana native Ryan Newman, who surprised everyone by capturing the Daytona 500 last weekend. And Winters will also discuss Tony Stewart, who grew up in Winter’s own hometown of
