NBA
BUTLER DID IT; HIS RETURN SPARKS WIZARDS
The Washington Wizards got Caron Butler back on Thursday, and he was just what they needed. Not yet at full strength after suffering a hip injury in February, Butler still scored 19 points to help Washington reach the .500 mark at 32-32 and hand Cleveland its second straight defeat 101-99.
Cleveland had a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but a three-point try by LeBron James failed to slip through the hoop. James led all scorers with 25 points. Sasha Pavlovic racked up 24 points for Cleveland in a losing cause. The Cavs are now 37-29 on the season.
Washington used balanced scoring. Besides Butler's 19, they got 17 from Antawn Jamison and 15 from Darius Songaila.
OTHER NBA SCORES
Seattle 123, Golden State 115
Sacramento 96, Portland 85
NBA NOTES
* The Suns scored a ton of points again on Thursday, showing that they can still gun and go. Interestingly, Shaquille O'Neal played just 14 minutes in this high-powered win over Golden State. Could it be better for him to be out of Amare Stoudemire's way (he scored 36)?
* It's late in the season, and the Sacramento Kings are going nowhere but home. Yet Reggie Theus somehow talked them into playing intense defense on Thursday. As a result, for the first time in 12 games, their opponents did not score 100 points. The Kings help Portland to just 85 points.
NHL
WINGS BEAT STARS; SECURE PLAYOFF BID
The Detroit Red Wings are in! Thanks to a 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, the Red Wings have secured the first playoff bid this season.
Pavel Datsyuk scored a pair of goals-his 27th and 28th of the season-to lead Detroit's attack. Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson, and Valtteri Filppula added goals for the Red Wings, who trailed 3-1 midway through the second period.
The victory also allowed Detroit to tie an NHL record with eight consecutive 100-point seasons. The Montreal Canadiens had eight straight 100-point seasons from 1975-82.
Detroit has won five straight.
OTHER NHL SCORES
Ottawa 3, Montreal 0
Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1
Los Angeles 4, Nashville 1
Colorado 5, Edmonton 1
Atlanta 6, Calgary 4
Phoenix 2, Vancouver 0
New Jersey 4, Minnesota 3 - OT Shootout
FACTS OF THE DAY
A BRISTOL LOOK-BACK
Here's a look at the last 15 Food City 500 winners at the Bristol Motor Speedway. This race has been run since 1961. The average speed for the first winner, Jack Smith, was 63.37 miles an hour driving a 1961 Pontiac. The record for fastest average speed was set by Cale Yarborough in 1977 when he tooled his Chevrolet around the 0.533-mile oval track at more than 100 miles an hour. He's the only Bristol driver to average 100 mph or more.
1993 Rusty Wallace Pontiac
1994 Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet
1995 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
1996 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
1997 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
1998 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
1999 Rusty Wallace Ford
2000 Rusty Wallace Ford
2001 Elliott Sadler Ford
2002 Kurt Busch Ford
2003 Kurt Busch Ford
2004 Kurt Busch Ford
2005 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
2006 Kurt Busch Dodge
2007 Kyle Busch Chevrolet
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life
TODAY'S FEATURE: TRENT DILFER, NFL QUARTERBACK
BIO NOTE: Trent and Cassandra Dilfer have four children: Trevin (who died in 2003), Maddie, Victoria, and Delaney.
RECENT NEWS: On Thursday, the SF 49ers terminated Dilfer's contract, leaving his NFL future in limbo.
FAITH QUOTE: "What I'm trying to teach my kids is that our circumstances aren't an excuse to act a certain way. We're called to act a certain way regardless of what's happening around us. Bad things are going to happen to you. And that's not an excuse to treat someone else unfairly or to get back at him or her. God has called us to live a pure life regardless of what's happened or is going on around us."
-Sports Spectrum magazine
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
WELL-HEELED
It's not even close. Sports Spectrum gave you nine schools to choose from in picking which NCAA D-I men's basketball team you think will win it all-plus a write-in opportunity-and North Carolina is running away with the vote. In The Daily Weekly Poll on www.sportsspectrum.com, Roy Williams' guys have 39 percent of the vote, followed by Tennessee with 12, Kansas with 11 percent, UCLA with 10 percent, and Duke with 7. Stanford and Texas are getting no love at all. But three wild cards have picked up votes: In the write-in category, Butler, Wisconsin, and Xavier have friends on the Internet. It's not too late to cast your ballot. Is everyone ready to hand the trophy over to the Tar Heels, or do you have an upset in mind?
GIRARDI OUT FOR OPENER?
This whole silly Rays-Bombers spring training boy-fight may now cost Joe Girardi he chance to be in the dugout to guide his New York Yankees on opening day. He and Joe Maddon appear to be headed for suspensions as a result of the teams' brouhaha. It all started with a Pete-Rose-crashes-into-Ray-Fosse-type play at the plate when the Rays' Elliot Johnson barreled over the Yanks' Francisco Cervelli, breaking Cervelli's wrist. In the next game the two teams played, Heath Phillips of the Yanks plunked Evan Longoria with a pitch in the first inning. Then Shelley Duncan of the Yanks slide into Rays' second sacker Akinori Iwamura, cutting his thigh with his spikes. Benches clear, guys looked menacingly at each other, and Girardi had a mid-field meeting with the boys in blue. Who says nothing ever happens in spring training?
DILFER DONE?
After 14 seasons and one Super Bowl victory, Trent Dilfer may have come to the end of his NFL career. And after what happened to him late last season, this might be a good idea. The San Francisco 49ers saved themselves $500,000 by putting an end to Dilfer's contract with them. If they had kept him through Saturday, they would have had to pay him that half-mill bonus. Dilfer has seen his share of adversity in his career, including the ignominy of being the only SB-winning QB who was released by the team he took to glory. And last season he suffered a severe concussion, which ended his season early. But none of that compares to the pain Dilfer and his wife Cassandra suffered in 2003 when their son Trevin, 5, died after a virus infected his heart.
TOO FAST TO TAME?
Ever watched a race at Darlington? Often, there's a little racing and a lot of yellow. A 1.3-mile track. Fast cars. Lots of crumpled sheet metal. And now that Jeff Gordon et. al have tested The Track Too Tough To Tame's new surface and found it smooth and fast, May 10 looks to be a day to mark on your schedule if you like to see racecar drivers earning their money. Gordon and his friends reported that the track was racing about 18 miles per hour faster than the usual top speed. The qualifying record is 173.797 by Ward Burton, but the racers hit 200 mph in testing. Hope Goodyear brings out their good tires for this one.
SPRINT CUP STANDINGS
With four races in the books, here's a look at the leaders in the Sprint Cup standings. Next up for the NASCAR guys: Bristol, Tennessee, and the Food City 500 Sunday.
Driver Points Car No.
1. Kyle Busch 665 18
2. Greg Biffle 592 16
3. Kevin Harvick 574 29
4. Ryan Newman 571 12
5. Jeff Burton 555 31
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 531 88
7. Kasey Kahne 528 9
8. Tony Stewart 525 20
9. Brian Vickers 491 83
10. Kurt Busch 478 2
Other notables:
12. Matt Kenseth
13. Jimmie Johnson
15. Jeff Gordon
18. Mark Martin
32. Dale Jarrett
36. Sam Hornish Jr.
INSIDE SPORTS SPECTRUM
Do you read Sports Spectrum magazine? If you do, you'll be able to identify the following athlete featured in the March-April edition of the magazine, which is arriving in mailboxes across the country this week.
FRIDAY'S SPORTS SPECTRUM FEATURE
Let's review. In each edition of Sports Spectrum magazine, it is our desire to bring you the best and brightest among the Christian sports stars on the scene today. In this feature, we've given you a look at who is included in the March-April edition-athletes you could be reading about if you had Sports Spectrum delivered to your door each edition. Here are the sports people we've already mentioned in "Inside Sports Spectrum" from the pages of the March-April edition:
Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees
Jeremy Affeldt, Cincinnati Reds
Josh Bard, San Diego Padres
Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies
Aaron Baddeley, PGA golfer
Sara Hall, world-class long-distance runner
Pat Casey, coach of the back-to-back NCAA D-I college baseball champions
Scott Sanderson, former major league pitcher
Sidney Crosby, LA Sparks guard, WNBA
Jenny Boucek, Sacramento Kings coach, WNBA
Raul Ibanez, Seattle Mariners
And we're not done. We'll bring you more names on Monday. Isn't it time you ordered Sports Spectrum magazine, where Faith and Sports Collide?
THURSDAY'S SPORTS SPECTRUM FEATURE
* He's an outfielder for the Seattle Mariners, and it's not Ichiro Suzuki.
* He has played for the KC Royals and the M's.
* He has 1,184 hits in his career.
* He knocked in more than 100 runs in both 2006 and 2007.
CAN YOU NAME THIS SPORTS PERSON? RAUL IBANEZ
SPORTS 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
RAY MELICK, sports columnist, Birmingham News
Before you fill out your brackets, you might want to listen to Ray Melick. He follows the SEC for his gig with the Birmingham News, and he thinks there's a sleeper team in the conference-a school besides Tennessee and Vanderbilt that could make a little noise once the tourney gets going next week.
