Colorado Peace Ride

Spurs-HeatGame Review

Miami, FL (Sports Network) – LeBron James and Chris Bosh combined for 63 points in the absence of Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat dominated the second half en route to a 120-98 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

Miami trailed by as many as 17 in the second quarter, but made better than 68 percent of its shots in second half, including 12-of-15 from three-point range.

James logged 33 points and 10 assists while Bosh had 30 points, eight rebounds and five helpers in the emphatic comeback.

LeBron and Chris were brilliant offensively and shouldered a big load, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said. In the second half, after we defended and those two guys generated a lot of offense, we were able to execute and trust and the other guys were able to get involved.

Mike Miller was a spark in his first game of the season, hitting all six of his three-point attempts — five in the fourth quarter — to chip in 18 points and help halt the Heats three-game slide.

Danny Green netted 20 points to pace the Spurs, who remained winless on the road (0-5). Tony Parker had 18 points, while Gary Neal and Kawhi Leonard both netted 12 in a losing effort.

Wade turned 30 on Tuesday, but had to watch from the bench as his teammates gave him a birthday present in the form of a comeback win as he rested his sprained right ankle.

James netted all but eight points during a 23-1 run that turned a 12-point deficit into a 10-point lead in the third. The former league MVP drained three from behind the arc during the stretch, including one that concluded the flurry for a 78-68 cushion with 3:28 showing.

LeBron James was great. He waited for the third quarter to come and he went wild, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. We had no one that stepped up.

Miami led 88-75 entering the fourth thanks to a 39-12 differential in the third.

With James on the bench to start the fourth, Bosh and Miller took over. In a three-possession span, Bosh hit a 17-footer, grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for a two-handed dunk off a spin move at the foul line.

Bosh then drew a double team down low to free up Miller for a three-pointer, resulting in a 100-82 advantage with 8 1/2 minutes to play.

The margin reached as high as 28 down the stretch.

The Spurs controlled the paint in the first quarter, with DeJuan Blairs 12 points helping them outscore the Heat 18-4 down low in the opening frame.

San Antonios 16-of-24 shooting effort provided a 35-26 lead, and it ballooned to 52-35 on Neals three-point play late in the half. The visitor led 63-49 at the break.

Tags: Game

New ATP boss Brad Drewett says the mens game is in its best-ever shape despite player issues over the calendar and prize money.

The Australian, who became the organisations executive chairman and president on January 1, said he was already working with the players in a bid to address concerns raised, particularly over the ATP World Tours schedule.

However, he insisted that overall mens tennis had never been in such a good position.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Drewett said: Theres always some issues around. There is some frustration on certain points within the game. Nothings ever perfect in any world, and certainly not in the tennis world.

I heard the players loud and clear about their issues. Theyre obviously a very, very important part of this organisation.

But the truth is right now the mens game is in an unbelievable position – arguably the best ever.

There have been suggestions that some players would be prepared to strike over the issue of the calendar with many feeling the season is too long, although two weeks have been cut from the schedule in 2012.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have also been at loggerheads, with the Spaniard accusing the Swiss of not doing enough to address the issues.

Drewett, a former top-40 player himself, added: Ive read the articles and I think theyre quite sensational in lots of ways.

Responsibility

We had a player meeting the other night, its not often the players get together in one room. Certainly the players were very vocal about what was on their mind.

A lot of the issues that are around now have been around for a while. Theyre not new issues.

You hear discussions about scheduling, about prize money, and I heard the players very clearly the other night about that topic. Its my responsibility to represent them.

As Ive said, theyre an important part of this organisation. I plan to make sure that their views are heard and represented at every level of the game.

Drewett feels his job will be made significantly easier by having a group of players who understand and are willing to address the issues at hand.

He said: I feel very fortunate coming into this job having such an engaged group of top players.

I cant remember ever in the history of the game, maybe right back at the beginning of pro tennis it was different, but certainly in the last 20 or 30 years, when youve had a player like Roger Federer as the president (of the player council), Rafa as the vice-president.

You have people like Novak (Djokovic) and Andy (Murray), theyre all engaged.

Ive just been around the last few days, they all want to talk. They want to talk in great detail about the issues.

These guys, because theyre engaged and they care, their level of understanding about the detail of any issue, whether it be the grand slams, scheduling, calendar, prize money, is like its never been before. I see that as a positive.

Its great to be able to sit down with players who really get it. They really do get it. They understand and thats a great starting point.

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• Thearon W. Henderson, Getty Images

  San Francisco 49ers safety Dashon Goldson returns an interception during their NFC divisional round game vs. the New Orleans Saints in San Francisco.

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Wild-Flyers Game Review

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) – Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell each scored a power-play goal to help the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-1, at the Wells Fargo Center.

Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek and Braydon Coburn also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, which has won six of its last nine games. Ilya Bryzgalov made 25 saves in the win.

Darroll Powe supplied the lone goal for Minnesota, which has gone 2-10-4 over its last 16 games.

Just because something bad happens in the game now we cant go out and play our game? So we have to fix that, fix that in a hurry. Because bad things are going to happen, said Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo. Bad things happened to us when we were in first place and we were winning a lot of hockey games [because] we overcame them. Right now we let those affect us in a very negative way.

Josh Harding surrendered five goals on 34 shots in the loss, the 10th in row on the road for the Wild.

Wild forward Matt Cullen took Philadelphias Claude Giroux down in the offensive zone, and Timonen scored on the subsequent power play, firing a slap shot from the point through heavy traffic at the 2:56 mark of the first period.

Giroux picked up the primary assist for his 200th career point.

The Flyers and Wild combined to score three goals in a 2:20 span during the second period.

First, Couturier partially fanned on a return feed from fellow standout rookie Matt Read but it still trickled into an open net for a short-handed goal at 10:27. The 2011 first-round pick extended his goal-scoring streak to five consecutive games.

Hes just hot right now and Im just happy for a good young kid. He works hard, Hartnell said of Couturier.

Powe, a former Flyer, quickly answered with his first tally since December 8 at 11:38, but Coburn replied for Philadelphia at 12:47.

The Flyers power-play unit then struck again as Hartnell notched his 20th goal of the season on a redirection, extending the lead to 3-1 at 16:04 of the middle stanza.

Voracek added a goal in the third period.

Tags: Game

CBSSports.com wire reports
Jan. 16, 2012

MILWAUKEE — Trailing by 16 against Louisville only seven minutes into the game, Marquette coach Buzz Williams tried something new during a timeout as he tried to figure out a way to reverse another of his teams slow starts.

He said nothing.

I literally said nothing the whole time, he said.

His silence worked wonders as the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles rebounded with a 32-12 run to grab a four-point lead by halftime en route to a 74-63 victory against the 23rd-ranked Cardinals on Monday.

Marquette 15-4, 4-2 Big East won its third consecutive conference game after losing back-to-back games to Georgetown and top-ranked Syracuse. The Golden Eagles have made a habit of starting slow in many of its league games.

Tags: Game