NBA
HAWKS BEAT BUCKS TO HANG ON TO EIGHTH
The Hawks have their talons in the eighth place spot in the East, and a single loss will make them slide into the ninth spot behind incoming New Jersey. On Wednesday, the Hawks took care of business with a 115-96 win over the stumbling Milwaukee Bucks.
Of course, it's good news, bad news deal for Atlanta if they do hang on. Good news: You've made the playoffs. Bad news: You have to play the Boston Celtics. But for Atlanta, it would be a good indication that they are at least making progress.
The Bucks got off to a good start, taking a 37-32 lead after one quarter. The Hawks, however, outpaced Milwaukee in each of the remaining quarters to win decisively. Milwaukee got a good effort from Andrew Bogut, who scored 27 points.
The Hawks were led by Joe Johnson, who had 28 points. Josh Childress had 20.
Atlanta's Mike Bibby injured his left thumb during third quarter action, but X-rays revealed no break. Bibby had surgery on that thumb last year.
Milwaukee dipped to 24-46 on the season while Atlanta improved to 31-40.
OTHER NBA SCORES
Boston 117, Phoenix 97
Charlotte 108, LA Lakers 95
Houston 97, Minnesota 86
New Jersey 124, Indiana 117
New Orleans 100, Cleveland 99
New York 103, Miami 96 (OT)
Philadelphia 121, Chicago 99
Sacramento 107, Memphis 106 (OT)
San Antonio 107, LA Clippers 88
Toronto 89, Detroit 82
Washington 104, Seattle 99
PLAYOFF WATCH
* New Orleans has constructed a one-game lead in the West over LA and Houston. And in the tight West, that's pretty substantial.
* New Jersey kept the heat on Atlanta and put some distance between themselves and the team they beat on Wednesday-Indiana.
* Washington, Philadelphia, and Toronto solidified their playoff claims on Wednesday with just three weeks to play.
* Denver takes on Dallas on Thursday as they attempt to overtake Golden State, who hosts Portland.
NBA NOTES
* Kobe Bryant is getting close to a one-game day off. He has now picked up 15 technical fouls-and 16 means the league suspends him for one game. On Wednesday, he got two and was tossed from the Lakers' loss to Charlotte. With the race for positioning this tight in the West, it would seem that a guy with MVP aspirations would keep his mouth closed and just play ball.
* The fans in New York deserve better. Their loyalty showed on Wednesday when the struggling Miami Heat dropped by to play the struggling Knicks. The Garden was just a few hundred short of full-which is a tribute to the fans. Now the Knicks need to reciprocate by doing whatever it takes to put a good team on the floor next year.
NHL
WILD BEAT OILERS; REGAIN DIVISION LEAD
The Minnesota Wild is back atop the NHL's Northwest Division. They beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Wednesday night to regain the top spot in the ultra-competitive division.
The Wild, who dropped a match-up between the two teams on Monday, scored a pair of goals in the game's opening minutes to earn the win. Branko Radivojevic and Sean Hill scored the first-period goals, and Mikko Koivu assisted on all three of Minnesota's tallies.
Niklas Backstrom earned the win in goal. He made plenty of impressive stops, turning away 32 Edmonton shots.
The win moved the Wild past the Calgary Flames and into first place in the tight Northwest. Minnesota leads Calgary by one point and Colorado by three points.
OTHER NHL SCORES
Columbus 4, Chicago 0
Colorado 6, Vancouver 3
Anaheim 2, Los Angeles 1 - OT Shootout
FACT OF THE DAY
NBA CONFERNCE STANDINGS
Regular season ends April 16
EAST
Boston 56-15
Detroit 50-21
Orlando 46-27
Cleveland 40-32
Washington 37-34
Philadelphia 37-35
Toronto 36-35
Atlanta 31-40
Outside looking in
New Jersey 31-41
Indiana 29-43
Chicago 28-43
WEST
New Orleans 49-21
LA Lakers 49-23
Houston 49-23
Utah 47-25
San Antonio 49-23
Phoenix 47-24
Dallas 45-26
Golden State 43-27
One foot in the door
Denver 43-28
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life
TODAY'S FEATURE: TONY BENNETT, men's hoops coach, Washington State
BIO NOTE: For a while after his NBA career ended, Bennett and his wife Laurel traveled to New Zealand to coach and to witness of Jesus love.
RECENT NEWS: On Thursday, Bennett takes his WSU Cougars up against North Carolina in the Charlotte Regional.
FAITH QUOTE: "The role of the church isn't to prove that Christianity is a good thing, it's to prove that Christianity is relevant. Jesus is Someone you have to deal with. It's to reach people who haven't heard the gospel."
-Sports Spectrum magazine
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
PLAY BALL! WELL, NOT FOR REAL
Now that the baseball season is underway, it's time to see how everyone is doing. It's time for real action that counts. It's time for . . . oh, they're still playing exhibition games? Even Boston and Oakland, who have just 160 games left in the regular season, now play three more spring training games before real baseball resumes early next week. Does this make any sense?
SWEET 16 SCHEDULE
Get your chips and soft drinks ready. Clear the schedule. It's go time again on the road to San Antonio. Here's Thursday's schedule:
At Phoenix:
West Virginia (7) vs. Xavier (3) 7:10 ET
UCLA (1) vs. Western Kentucky (12) 9:40 ET
At Charlotte:
Washington State (4) vs. North Carolina (1) 7:27 ET
Louisville (3) vs. Tennessee (2) 9:57 ET
SHAQ AS IN HACK
Shaquille O'Neal always says outlandish things. He is the Big Talker sometimes. But for him to disparage former teammates with the Miami Heat shows a serious lack of character for the usually gregarious one. He apparently told the Boston Globe this of his new team contrasted to his old one: "We have professionals who know what to do. No one is asking me to play with Chris Quinn or Ricky Davis." Those are unfair and demeaning comments-especially by naming names. Quinn and Davis may not be Amare Stoudemire or Steve Nash, but they are professional basketball players and deserve at least some respect.
THE JOY OF DAVIDSON
UCLA, with its 37,000 students can't do this (well, they could borrow the money from a Chinese bank). But Davidson, with its tiny student population of less than 2,000 can swing it. Davidson is providing free travel and tickets to any of its students who want to travel to Detroit to watch the Wildcats take on Wisconsin. Very cool.
SPRINT CUP STANDINGS
With five races in the books, here's a look at the leaders in the Sprint Cup standings. Next up for the NASCAR guys: Martinsville's half-mile track in Martinsville, Virginia and the Goody's Cool Orange 500. The NASCAR circuit, as is tradition, takes Easter weekend off. Good for NASCAR.
Driver | Points | 2007 finish
1. Kyle Busch 782 5
2. Greg Biffle 752 14
3. Kevin Harvick 749 10
4. Jeff Burton 745 8
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 686 16
6. Kasey Kahne 674 19
7. Tony Stewart 656 6
8. Ryan Newman 635 13
9. Clint Bowyer 606 3
10. Kurt Busch 605 7
Other notables:
Matt Kenseth 11th
Jeff Gordon 14th
Carl Edwards 16th
Sam Hornish Jr. 35th
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.
WEDNESDAY'S SPORTS SPECTRUM FEATURE
WHO IS THIS PERSON?
* He played for FC Dallas in 2007 in MLS
* He was the Dallas Defender of the Year
* He moved from MLS to a Norwegian league in 2008
WHO IS THIS PERSON? CLARENCE GOODSON
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 THURSDAY GUEST
C. J. WOOLUM, SS college basketball analyst
Hey, basketball analysts don't have to be famous. Even the mighty Bob Knight makes wrong guesses (he picked Pitt over Michigan State, for instance). So, our guy, C. J. Woolum may not have a red vest and 900 wins, but he knows hoops. He has his eye on a couple of the matchups as the Sweet 16 begin tipping off for another weekend of college hoops. Let's see who picks 'em better, CJ or Bob.
