Sports Morning Headlines - Wednesday, 01/04/12

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Created on Wednesday, 04 January 2012 08:12

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 May 2013 07:51

Written by Staff and Wire Reports

Rapid Reaction: Houston Rockets 99, Los Angeles Lakers 108 - Another solid outing by Scola went for naught. He was crafty and fearless going against L.A.’s giants by himself, but, understandably, came up short.  Awful shooting performance from Kevin Martin. In a back and forth contest through 3.5 quarters, if a few of Martin’s missed threes went in, the outcome could’ve been a little more interesting. Instead we’re left to wonder as seven of eight deep balls didn’t come close.  READ MORE

Rockets won't back down against Lakers - Kobe Bryant scored 37 points, Andrew Bynum had 21 points and 22 rebounds in the first 20-20 game of his career, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 108-99 Tuesday night for their fourth victory in five games. Kyle Lowry scored 22 points and Luis Scola added 20 for the Rockets.   READ MORE

Replacing Manu a group effort - The Spurs had yet to play the Timberwolves in their first game of 2012 on Monday night, so the loss of leading scorer Manu Ginobili to a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand was still half a day away.  Point guard Tony Parker watched as Ginobili put up a few final jumpers at the team’s morning shootaround at the Target Center, then took a seat and discussed how vital Ginobili had been to a 3-1 start Parker deemed encouraging.  There was improvement still to be made on defense, the three-time All-Star said, but the team’s offensive efficiency early on after such a short training camp had been better than anyone expected.  “Offensively we’re playing really well,” he said, “especially Manu. He’s making shots and playing really well. Really, everybody is playing well, but Manu is already playing like an All-Star, and we are all feeding off him.”  About 10 hours later, Parker was shaking his head and wondering why the basketball gods had cursed Ginobili, and the Spurs, yet again.  “It’s a tough break, literally,” Parker said in a grim locker room after the 106-96 loss.   READ MORE

El Contusión’s checklist - For the second time in four seasons, the Spurs will spend a large amount of time without their No. 1 offensive weapon and energy source — Manu Ginobili — because of injury. He has worn the “El Contusión” nickname as a badge of honor in his 10 seasons, but now his proclivity for getting hurt could have a grave impact on the Spurs’ playoff hopes in a shortened season.  Overall, the Spurs are 66-45 without Ginobili — injured or not — isn’t in the lineup. But they’re just 32-29 in the previous four seasons.  Express-News staff writer Douglas Pils takes a look back at his injury tour, which is likely missing some of the injuries he played through.   READ MORE

Mavericks' White House visit set for Jan. 9, but they had to do it themselves - The Mavericks' 2011 championship will get the presidential seal of approval on Jan. 9.  Though they had to do all the legwork themselves after the NBA schedule did not have them visiting the Washington Wizards, the Mavericks arranged for their trip to the White House next Monday to meet President Barack Obama, a big basketball devotee.  "Either the league was stupid, dumb-asses or something worse for not putting that together,'' Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban said. "That's just ridiculous. All you got to do is, when you're putting in the scheduling software, say 'Dallas at Washington, yes.' It's not that hard. It's only happened every single year. Even with the lockout schedule, it's not that hard.''  The Mavericks organized the visit before a two-game trip to Detroit and Boston that starts on Jan. 10. The team will fly to Washington on Sunday, get honored at the White House on Monday, then travel to Detroit for the Tuesday night game.   READ MORE

Time To Split Up The Jasons? - This is an addition to Boweman55 excellent piece about Delonte West.  Last season Jason Kidd and Jason Terry worked their magic especially in crunch time with Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Tyson Chandler. They led the NBA in virtually every major clutch-category. This year? Not so much.  Besides all the other problems with the Center rotation and Lamar Odom not performing well thus far, the first games of the regular season presented a problem in an area that was supposed to be well tuned and unchanged from last year: The glorious "Jason" backcourt from the championship roster might not be able to repeat its magic. The reason is pretty simple: Without Chandler holding the middle and the defensive chemistry not quite there yet (or gone to Toronto with Dwane Casey), much more is asked from the perimeter defense and both Terry and Kidd can't provide that. They also couldn't last season, but it was masked by superior rotations and brilliant teamwork. Now that the Mavs are forced to rely on individual effort more than ever, the number pile up heavily against the "Jason" backcourt in the early going.   READ MORE

 

 

César Cedeño headlines names of 2012 Astros' minor league affiliate coaches - The Houston Astros announced their 2012 minor league field staffs on Tuesday, which included the managers for all eight affiliates.  Skippers Tony DeFrancesco (Triple-A Oklahoma City), Keith Brodie (Double-A Corpus Christi), Rodney Linares (High A Lancaster), Ivan DeJesus (Class A Lexington), Stubby Clapp (Short-Season A Tri-City), Omar Lopez (Rookie Greeneville), Ed Romero (Gulf Coast League Astros) and Luis Martinez (Dominican Summer League) will lead the respective squads next season.  Astros icon César Cedeño, a four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner, will return to the organization in a full-time capacity as the new hitting coach for Rookie Level Greeneville.   READ MORE

Astros GM Luhnow adds two to operations staff - Jeff Luhnow has long been a proponent of sabermetrics, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that one of his first duties as Astros general manager was to bring in someone to help sort through the massive amount of data that's available.  Luhnow announced Tuesday he had hired Sig Mejdal from the Cardinals, where he had worked with Luhnow for the previous six years and was most recently the team's director of amateur draft analytics. Mejdal's title with the Astros will be director of decision sciences.  The Astros also announced they had hired Stephanie Wilka as coordinator of amateur scouting, a position previously held by Mike Burns before he took a job as an area scout with the Blue Jays.   READ MORE

Darvish visits Rangers; no deal reached - The most famous sports star in Japan, all 6-foot-5 of him, has coursed his way through the Metroplex the past two days as he attempts to get a feel for his future.But that's all that was behind Yu Darvish's first trip to Texas as he, his representatives and the brain trust of the Texas Rangers continue to work toward a contract.The sides have until 4 p.m. Jan. 18 to agree to terms after the Rangers shelled out a $51.7 million posting fee Dec. 19 for the right to negotiate with the right-hander.   READ MORE

Rangers pick up infielder from Baltimore - The Texas Rangers have acquired former first-round pick Brandon Snyder, who was been with the Baltimore organization since he was selected in the 2005 draft.  The Rangers are sending cash considerations to Baltimore for Snyder, who will be added to the 40-man roster. Texas now has 38 players on its 40-man roster.   READ MORE

 

 

2DH: In Denard We Trust - Under normal circumstances, losing a game in the manner that the Texans did on Sunday would have sent me into a rage that resulted in a dog's being kicked. (Probably the little dachshund; she barely counts as a dog, really.) Losing to the Tennessee Titans in that fashion would have taken my reaction up another notch to outright apoplexy (meaning I would have kicked the dachshund at one of my kids).  Yet none of that happened, because Sunday was not "normal circumstances." It did not matter one bit whether the Texans won, lost, or tied that game. Yet, despite that, the backups, especially on defense, played very well and almost beat a Titans team that was fighting for their playoff lives.  You'd think that everyone --- at least everyone who was a Texans fan --- would have had the same outlook about the game. After all, there was zero upside to going to overtime in that situation, so the 2-point conversion attempt was absolutely the right call, even after the false start. There was zero downside in losing the game; the playoff seed could not possibly change, no matter what happened.  Some people, however, saw it differently.   READ MORE

2011 NFL Wildcard Weekend AFC Picks and Predictions: Fan’s Take - Making the playoffs is rare by NFL standards. Sure, some teams are regulars, but there are a number of teams that do not get there very often. This wildcard weekend is represented by old timers and newcomers alike. The Houston Texans are appearing for the first time. The Cincinnati Bengals are appearing for the first time since the 2009 season, and Denver Broncos last appeared in 2005. The Pittsburgh Steelers are here pretty much every season and represent the norm in this foursome. As a huge NFL fan, I am looking forward to a weekend of exciting games. Here is how I see these match-ups shaking down.   READ MORE

Ex-Cowboys coach has built Texas tough defense in Houston - With a black cowboy hat on, Antonio Smith might as well have been chewing on straw when asked about the first time he shot the breeze with Wade Phillips.The Houston Texans' garrulous defensive end paused, thinking back to the vow made by the new sheriff in town."The No. 1 defense. From Day 1, he had no interest in mediocre," Smith said. "He was confident in what he thought we could be and how we could fit into the system."Phillips came off sounding like a sage prophet after his first season as Houston's defensive coordinator. The Texans were the league's top defense late into the season before finishing second after a slide that coincided with Phillips leaving the team for a couple of weeks on medical leave.Houston was 30th out of 32 teams in total defense last year.Phillips is back now, and the Texans are headed to the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's decade-long history. AFC South champion Houston hosts Cincinnati in the wild-card round Saturday at Reliant Stadium.   READ MORE

Jerry Jones has no plans to step down as Cowboys GM - Jerry Jones is owner, president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys.And it's going to stay that way.One day after Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay stunned the NFL by firing his vice chairman Bill Polian and general manager Chris Polian, Jones said he has no interest in bringing Bill Polian to the Cowboys front office or anyone else to serve in that role.Jones said the job of general manager is his alone and it works best for the Cowboys with him as involved as he is as the owner."The thing you've got to realize is that when you have an owner that is full time as the owner, then you create a situation where you have as much turnover at GM as you do at coaching level," Jones said Tuesday on KRLD/105.3 FM. "And I think that just deters from the mix."   READ MORE

Glen Gulutzan finds more minutes for Jamie Benn - Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said he was going to try to find more minutes for center Jamie Benn, and he clearly did that on Tuesday against Detroit. Benn was averaging 17:47 going into the game and played 16:48 Saturday in a 4-2 win over Boston.  On Tuesday in a 5-4 loss to the Red Wings, Benn played 21:01 and had a goal and two assists. In addition, he was 14-8 (64 percent) in the faceoff circle.   READ MORE

Stars can't overcome early deficit in loss - Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula and Henrik Zetterberg form what's supposed to be Detroit's No. 2 line.  Whatever the label, they're performing at a high level for the Red Wings.  Hudler scored twice, Filppula added a goal and two assists, Zetterberg had three assists and Detroit hung on to beat the Dallas Stars 5-4 on Tuesday night.  "I don't know what's the second line," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "They dominated the game offensively and defensively. They were by far the best line today."  The trio combined for eight points in the first period, getting their team off to a flying start.   READ MORE





---Staff and Wire Reports contributed to this story