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Charlotte, which is in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, trails Indiana by 2 1/2 games for the final playoff spot. The Bobcats, losers of three straight, have five games remaining while the Pacers have four games left The latest defeat left Silas in a foul mood.

CLEVELAND (AP)—Charlotte coach Paul Silas said before Tuesday night’s game that it wouldn’t be easy for his team to make the playoffs.
A few hours later, the Bobcats’ chances looked even more difficult following a 99-89 loss to Cleveland. The injury-depleted Bobcats led only once after scoring the first basket of the game and trailed by 21 points in the first half against the worst team in the league.
Charlotte, which is in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, trails Indiana by 2 1/2 games for the final playoff spot. The Bobcats, losers of three straight, have five games remaining while the Pacers have four games left The latest defeat left Silas in a foul mood.“We just went through the motions in the first half,” he said. “I’m not gonna have that. We’re not gonna do that.
While Silas realizes his team is short-handed, he says that’s no excuse for a lack of effort.
“I still expect the guys to go out and perform as well as possible,” he said. “I expect guys to rise to the occasion. We certainly didn’t do that.”
Ramon Sessions(notes) scored 18 points to pace seven players in double figures for the Cavaliers, who broke a three-game losing streak.
There isn’t much going the Bobcats’ way these days. Not only have they dressed just nine players in the past two games, leading scorer Stephen Jackson(notes), who averages 18.5 points, heads the injury list. Jackson has missed three straight games because of a strained left hamstring, an injury that could sideline him the rest of the season.
Forward Tyrus Thomas(notes) (sore left knee), guard Shaun Livingston(notes) (bruised tailbone) and forward Eduardo Najera(notes) (back spasms) were also out for the Bobcats.
The upcoming schedule doesn’t provide any good news either since Charlotte’s next two games are against Orlando on Wednesday night and Miami on Friday night. The players can see their playoff hopes slipping away.
“We aren’t going to make the playoffs if we don’t come to play,” said guard Gerald Henderson(notes), who scored 15 points. “It’s unfortunate to start games like that and expect to play in the postseason. It’s just not going to happen if we continue to do that these next few games.”
“To lose a game like this, it’s definitely a winnable game,” center Kwame Brown(notes) said. “To get down like we did, that was the ballgame. We’ve got to win every game we can.”
D.J. Augustin(notes) led Charlotte with 22 points while Matt Carroll(notes) added 13.
J.J. Hickson(notes) had 16 points and 19 rebounds for Cleveland. Ryan Hollins(notes), who was 7-from-7 from the field, also scored 16 points while Alonzo Gee(notes) added 13.
“Obviously, this was a pretty good win for us,” Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. “I thought the guys really took up the challenge. We had a lot of guys play really well. I told them for 39 (minutes) and some change, we played very, very good basketball.”
Augustin’s basket 17 seconds into the game gave Charlotte its only lead of the night before the Cavaliers took over. Cleveland raced to an 18-5 lead and was ahead 34-16 after one quarter behind nine points from Hickson and seven apiece from Baron Davis(notes) and Gee.
The lead reached 21 points at 51-30 midway through the second quarter. The Cavaliers led 55-38 at halftime, but Charlotte scored the first 10 points of the third quarter. Cleveland didn’t score until Davis’ free throw at the 6:40 mark. The Cavaliers didn’t get a basket in the quarter until Gee’s layup with 5:35 remaining.
Charlotte cut the lead to 68-64 late in the period, but the Cavaliers built the lead back to 14 points early in the fourth quarter.
Davis and Luke Harangody(notes) scored 11 points apiece while Daniel Gibson(notes) added 10 for Cleveland. Dante Cunningham(notes) and Brown scored 10 points apiece for the Bobcats.
Cleveland forward Samardo Samuels(notes) missed the game with a strained left groin.
NOTES: Silas returned to Quicken Loans Arena for the first time since being fired by the Cavaliers during the 2005 season. Silas coached Cleveland from 2003-05. … Cleveland G Anthony Parker(notes) was scoreless in 30 minutes, going 0 for 8 from the field. The Cavaliers play at Toronto on

Last year, EA decided to hand over the “Madden” cover athlete decision to the fans. The end result was the pretty obvious choice of Drew Brees, who had won Super Bowl XLIV with the New Orleans Saints earlier in the year. The fan decision didn’t come until the choices were narrowed down to just three players (Drew Brees, Reggie Wayne and Jared Allen), but this year things are starting up a bit earlier. EA is holding a bracket-style competition with ESPN, pitting 32 players against each other for the top honors of helming “Madden NFL 12.”

One player from each of the NFL teams is represented (save for Seattle Seahawks, as their “player” is the notoriously-loud 12th Man, aka their fans). The voting for each of the rounds will last a week, with the final athlete determined in late April.
It’s a clever move by EA, as there won’t be a whole lot of player-centric news happening in the NFL while this strike is still going on, and by having multiple rounds, they have multiple opportunities to reach into the strong fanbases of each of the teams.
Voting has already begun for the first round, so head on over and make your picks. Despite being a New York Giants fan, I would sort of like to see Danny Woodhead make a go, what with his charming, “Rudy”-like stature and attitude. But a more well-known face like Aaron Rogers or Mark Sanchez seems like a safer bet. Maybe they could just give the handheld version to Woodhead?

The New York Knicks have multiple issues they’ll need to fix if they want to avoid being swept in a home-and-home series by the Indiana Pacers.
In addition to getting on track offensively, the Knicks need to figure out a way to slow down Tyler Hansbrough as they visit Indiana on Tuesday night.
New York was out of sync at the offensive end in a 106-93 loss to Indiana at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The Knicks (34-31) shot 36.6 per cent and trailed by as many as 20 in suffering their second straight defeat following a three-game winning streak. Indiana prevailed despite playing without leading scorer Danny Granger, who was out with the flu.http://koellmann.blog.co.uk/
“The luxury about the NBA is that we get a chance to come back Tuesday and play the same team. I know in my mind I’m going to be thinking about this game and this loss,” forward Carmelo Anthony said. “I just want my whole team to be on the same page with me when we step on that court Tuesday.”
Amare Stoudemire led the Knicks with 28 points. Anthony scored 25 but shot 9 of 22. “The rhythm’s not there,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “I don’t know if it’s the attention to details, the energy, but it just wasn’t right. We were off-kilter in our offence.”
Anthony struggled with his shooting for the second straight game. The four-time All-Star has totalled 43 points and made 37.8 per cent from the field in his last two games after scoring 65 points and shooting 60.0 per cent over the previous two.
New York, battling Philadelphia for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, is 6-5 since trading for Anthony and Chauncey Billups. Billups returned to the lineup Sunday after missing six games with a bruised left thigh, but missed 10 of 14 shots and finished with nine points.
With their point guard and offence out of rhythm, the up-tempo Knicks didn’t reach the 100-point mark for just the third time in 13 games. New York, second in the league with 106.4 points per game, are 6-16 when they fail to hit 100.
“Our goal was to not let them try to get a run and it worked, so we have to face this beast again and hopefully we can try to do some of the same things,” said Indiana’s Dahntay Jones, who had 18 points and did a solid job defending Anthony.
While the Pacers clamped down on the Knicks defensively, Hansbrough carried Indiana at the offensive end.
The forward scored a career-high 29 points to help Indiana (28-38) snap a six-game skid and remain tied with Charlotte for the East’s final playoff spot.
Hansbrough has emerged as a major scoring threat in interim coach Frank Vogel’s system after being an afterthought under former coach Jim O’Brien.
Hansbrough has started three straight games and has reached the 20-point mark in his last four. The former North Carolina star has scored 18.4 points in his last nine contests – 10.0 more than averaged in his first 45.
“I don’t know if he’s trying to prove anything, I just think he has a motor that is really unparalleled in this league,” Vogel said. “Nobody goes harder than that kid.”
Hansbrough may get some help up front in the rematch if Granger is able to play.
Granger, who averages a team-best 20.6 points, missed his second game of the season Sunday. He had 25 points and a career-best 17 rebounds in the first meeting of the season with the Knicks, a 98-92 loss at MSG on Jan. 2.

Channing Frye’s long jumper as the buzzer sounded gave the Phoenix Suns a 110-108 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
Grant Hill had 34 points for the Suns, who scored the first seven points of overtime before the Pacers rallied.http://koellmann.blog.co.uk/
Josh McRoberts tied the game at 108-108 on a 3-point play with 23.9 seconds remaining. But the Suns worked the clock to 3.5 seconds, and after a timeout, Frye converted from 23 feet for the victory.
A.J. Price had 11 of his 16 points during the Pacers’ fourth-quarter rally.
Steve Nash had 10 points and 12 assists for the Suns, who tied it 99-99 on a 3-pointer by Hill with 44.4 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to OT.

http://zuobuwan.blog.com/

News Distribution, Media Relations, & News Measurement in One Solution. Sunil Rajguru
The recently concluded India-South Africa ODI series threw up an interesting contradiction. This was probably the worst performance by the Indian top- and middle-order in recent times.
A look at how the top half performed in the five ODIs: 95-5, 169-5, 93-5, 123-5 and 60-5. One struggles to recollect such bad mid-innings collapses throughout any series.
Despite this, we came out with our best ODI performance on South African soil. It was a 2-3 instead of a 0-5 that would usually come out of the loss of such wickets early on in the innings.
Also See: India lose, inspite of Yusuf’s heroics
That happened thanks to some good bowling, late-order hitting and some South African choking.
But the most important thing was the fight that the Indian team showed in the final match. South Africa lost their last five wickets in 11 balls while India put up a breathtaking 105 runs for the ninth wicket. Many a South African heartbeat must have gone up during that period.
Indian fans should take heart from the fact that the last time South Africa beat us in any kind of bilateral series (Tests and ODI combined) was in November 2006. Getting beaten by a team of such quality after four years isn’t that bad!
After matches against Australia, the India-South Africa matches are the most intense now. Yusuf comes of age at last
Yusuf Pathan had always shown promise.
There were the breathtaking innings in the IPL, but, for a long time, there wasn’t anything substantial at the international arena.
But what a time to come to the party! On the eve of a World Cup! Three of his last four knocks have been dazzling.
Against New Zealand in December, he smashed a blistering ton in 79 balls, helping India chase down 316 despite being 188-5 at one stage.
In the third ODI against the Proteas (he was left out of the first two), he hit a match-winning 59 off 50 on a pitch where the other batsmen struggled to get anywhere near a run a ball.
But he was an even bigger revelation in the fifth ODI, bettering his own fastest century record, raising the milestone in a mere 68 balls. Thanks to his eight sixes, the final scoreline read: South Africa 250/9, India 234/10. A far cry from the 119-8 we were at one stage!
Yusuf is also a handy bowler.
It sure looks like Suresh Raina will not make it to the playing XI in the World Cup now.
The return of the big three
The good news is that Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are back for next month’s World Cup.
Read the latest cricket columns
Add Virat Kohli (who was our leading run-getter in the ODI series) to the list and our batting looks good again.
One hopes that this will make the recent top-order collapses a thing of the past. If the troika comes good, then handy late-order hitting by MS Dhoni, Yusuf and Harbhajan Singh could make us a formidable side.
While Yuvraj Singh’s form has been indifferent, he did score half-centuries against Australia in the only ODI we won against them in October last and one again in the second ODI of the South Africa series, which we also won.
His part-time bowling has also been a revelation. Opposition batsman will find him quite a handful on Indian pitches.
Our frontline bowlers Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh look good and captain Dhoni has plenty of fifth-bowler options.
India has also come up with one of their best fielding performances in the recently concluded series.
All in all, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that we are peaking at the right time.
A team in form
India is ranked Number 2 in ODIs. That’s a result of a string of consistent performances after the debacle at the last World Cup.
In fact, India has won eight of their last 10 ODI series’ played on home soil. Both the series which we lost were to Australia.
The last time we lost on home soil to any other team was against Pakistan way back in April 2005.
If there’s any time to break the World Cup home soil jinx, it is now!

Washington
The Pentagon is likely to face stepped-up scrutiny from representatives pushing to leverage the Navy’s lewd video scandal into change.

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USS Enterprise: Do lewd videos point to deeper problem for military?
Rep. Niki Tsongas (D) of Massachusetts and several colleagues want closer examination of whether sexual assault offenders are adequately punished, as well as better training for a military leadership that she says is often unequipped to deal with matters of sexual harassment and assault.

The US Navy is unlikely to face hearings on Capitol Hill as a direct result of fallout from the USS Enterprise. But Congresswoman Tsongas says that she and other members of the House military personnel subcommittee will continue to examine who responds to such incidents and how successful current Pentagon programs are in curtailing them.

IN PICTURES: Controversial US Generals

On the Enterprise, Capt. Owen Honors participated in lewd videos that were broadcast over the ship’s closed-circuit television system from 2006 to 2007. The productions were replete with sexual innuendo and gay slurs. Honors was relieved of his command this week.

Pervasive sexual harassment can create a climate that increases the likelihood of assault, and the Enterprise incident illustrates the need for commanders to lead prevention efforts, says Tsongas. “Over and over again we hear the critical role of the commander in dealing with these issues, and how often they are poorly prepared,” she says.

Tsongas adds that good leadership can be as important – or more so – than education programs, she adds. “When you have a commander who engages in that kind of behavior, it doesn’t matter what training put in place.”

For this reason, Tsongas and some of her colleagues on the House military personnel subcommittee pushed to make a military general, rather than a civilian, the head of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), the Pentagon division tasked with sexual-assault prevention. The amendment did not make it into the final defense authorization bill, but it is a possibility that the subcommittee will continue to investigate, Tsongas says.

For its part, the Defense Department says that SAPRO is not necessarily responsible for responding to sexual-harassment charges.

“It is important to note that much of what has been discussed related to this [USS Enterprise] coverage falls into what the Department of Defense has labeled harassment and not sexual assault,” says Defense Department spokesman Cynthia Smith. “The Department’s response to sexual harassment and sexual assault are designed differently because of the fundamental difference between the two behaviors.”

Specifically, Defense Department policy “encourages individuals to address sexual harassment and other inappropriate behaviors at the lowest level possible,” says Ms. Smith. “In comparison, sexual assault is a crime and requires and immediate and concerted response by authorities.”

Smith points to the Pentagon’s efforts to step up its response to sexual crimes. The Army has already trained some 4,200 victim advocates and deployable sexual-assault response coordinators (DSARCs), and the Navy has trained some 12,000 health-care workers and forensic examiners, she says. What’s more, she adds, the Marine Corps is busy “improving the quality of sexual assault litigation training for its personnel and provided specialized instruction to 137 staff judge advocates.”

This legal training is imperative, Tsongas says. The Pentagon has agreed to deliver a study on the feasibility of providing legal counsel to sexual assault victims by 2012. “We will hold them to that,” she adds.

Congress will also be monitoring the status of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for the Pentagon to release information on the outcome of sexual assault charges. “There are a lot of questions around the whole prosecution piece,” Tsongas says. “In many instances victims have no idea what has happened once a charge is made. Their request for information can only be helpful.”

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