The boos that the Utah Jazz heard early quickly turned to cheers of "Booz!" Carlos Boozer and the Utah Jazz finally put on a show worth rooting for, beating the San Antonio Spurs 113-99 on Thursday night. The Jazz ended a two-game losing skid and undid a little of the damage done in an embarrassing loss two nights before.
For a split second, LeBron James appeared to be on his way to bailing out the Cleveland Cavaliers once more. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah put a stop to that. Chicago's forwards double teamed James and denied the superstar on a drive in the final seconds as the Chicago Bulls ended Cleveland's three-game winning streak with an 86-85 win Thursday night, the Cavaliers' second home loss already…
Carmelo Anthony almost couldn't miss and Greg Oden missed when it mattered most. Anthony scored 19 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter and the Denver Nuggets were helped by Portland's trouble at the free-throw line for a 97-94 victory Thursday night. Oden missed a pair of free throws with 4.6 seconds left, squandering a chance for Portland to go ahead.
A.J. Burnett hardly got any attention — until he got the win. Almost an afterthought in his matchup with colorful star Pedro Martinez, Burnett challenged Philadelphia right from the start Thursday night and gave the New York Yankees the confident pitching performance they desperately needed. Throwing first-pitch strikes to his first 11 batters, Burnett overpowered a dangerous Phillies lineup and…
Derrick Rose was so antsy and "geeked up" to get back on the court he had to blast the music on his way to the arena. Once he arrived, he certainly seemed in tune. Or at least close. Rose scored 13 points and had seven assists to lead the balanced Chicago Bulls to an impressive 92-85 season-opening victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night.
Pedro Martinez has a long history of memorable starts against the New York Yankees. He's pitched against them during the regular season and playoffs, poked fun at their history and called them his daddy. Thursday night, well, that's going to be a whole other level. Martinez is slated to start for the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2, adding even more spice to this star-studded World Series.
Mere moments after the Los Angeles Angels unleashed their leaping, screeching, rambunctious Rally Monkey on the scoreboard, they erased a late deficit and saved their season. Surely that monkey business was just a coincidence. He's just a marketing gimmick, a video star and a plush toy — right? Not to the fans who watched it happen Thursday night in the latest improbability of an AL…
The NBA's replacement referees were a non-issue in the preseason opener, just as the league wanted. The Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets 103-87 on Thursday night in an exhibition game that featured 69 fouls and very little objection to any of them. Whether it was preseason indifference or players and coaches heeding to the league warning to be nice to the new officials, there wasn't much…
The Colorado Rockies insist they're not feeling the squeeze as the NL wild-card race tightens around them. "We control our destiny still," shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said after the Rockies' 5-4 loss to the San Diego Padres on Thursday night trimmed their lead to 3 1/2 games over idle Atlanta.
Clay Buchholz pitched six effective innings, Jason Bay drove in two runs and the Boston Red Sox hurt Tampa Bay's playoff hopes with a 6-3 win over the Rays on Thursday night. The Red Sox took 2 of 3 from the Rays — Boston's first series win at Tropicana Field since Sept. 21-23, 2007 — to extend their AL wild-card advantage over Tampa Bay to six games.
This was vintage Pedro. Pedro Martinez tossed seven impressive innings to outpitch Tim Lincecum, Ryan Howard doubled in the tiebreaking run and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 on Thursday night. Martinez (3-0) struck out a season-high nine in his fifth start since signing with the Phillies during the All-Star break, allowing one run and five hits.
Michael Vick has scored his first NFL touchdown since the 2006 season, giving the Philadelphia Eagles a 14-7 lead over the New York Jets early in the second quarter. Playing in his second game with the Eagles, Vick lined up at quarterback, faked a handoff and ran up the middle from 2 yards out 25 seconds into the quarter Thursday night.