Orange Crush

Frank Ordonez/The Post Standard 

After going 18-0 at the beginning of the season, Syracuse Orange has now lost 4 games straight including a game last night to the Marquette Golden Eagles.  The 4 game losing streak is the first time Syracuse has lost 4 games straight since the 2005-06 season.  The Golden Eagles rose over the Big Orange last night defeating them 76-70.  Marquette a 42-31 lead heading into the second half and Syracuse started the second half with an 8-1 run while holding Marquette scoreless for almost four minutes to pull to 43-39 with 16:38 left. Marquette's Crowder had 25 points in the victory and Syracuse's Joseph led the Orange with 18 points in the loss.

Thomas Robinson Plays Through his Sorrow

(Photo by Nick Krug)

Kansas Men's Basketball team forward Thomas Robinson had a great game last night against Kansas State after a tough loss of his mother last week and his grandparents a few weeks before.  Robinson had 17 points (the 2nd most in his collegiate career) and 9 rebounds.  The Jayhawks team went to support their fellow team member Thursday for Robinson's mother memorial service who suddenly passed of a heart attack earlier last week.  Robinson received a lot of support and love from the Kansas fans in the game versus Kansas State where he led them to a 90-66 victory over the Wildcats.

NBA All-Star

The starting line-ups for the NBA All Star weekend have been announced after months of voting from NBA fans.

2011 Eastern Conference 
All Star Starters
Lebron James
Amar'e Stoudemire
Dwyane Wade
Derrick Rose
Dwight Howard




2011 Western Conference 
All Star Starters
Kevin Durant
Carmelo Anthony
Kobe Bryant
Chris Paul
Yao Ming

Kevin Durant Drops 47 points

In a fight down to the wire game against the Minnesota Timberwolves KD dropped 47 points and 18 rebounds in the game this past Wednesday, 1.26.11.  Durant currently leads the league in scoring with 28.6 PPG as he has led the Thunder to 4th place in the Western Conference with a 28-16 record thus far.  After a continuous back and forth in the first four quarters, the Thunder were able to hold off and defeat the Timberwolves 118-117 in overtime.  Timberwolves' Love also had a great night with 31 points and 21 rebounds in the loss.

Jay Cutler Suffered Torn MCL

Being criticized for his toughness and attitude after going out of the division championship game Sunday.  Cutler had a MRI conducted on Monday that showed Cutler suffered a torn MCL during the game on Sunday. After continuous criticism the Bears team stepped up to defend Cutler after not only fans but also Cutler's peers have accused Cutler of having no heart and not stepping up to the plate in the big game on Sunday.

Super Bowl XLV

The Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers advance to Super Bowl XLV after play on Sunday 1.23.11.

NFC Championship
The Chicago Bears took on the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and fell short to the underdog Packers.  The 1st half of play were all Packers as they went into halftime 14-0. After coming out ready to fight their way back, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler left quarter during 3rd quarter with a possible torn MCL and was replaced by Todd Collins.  Collins was pulled after going 0 for 4 in passing and was replaced by 3rd string quarterback Caleb Hanie.  Although Hanie threw two interceptions including one picked off by Raji (1st career interception and touchdown), Hanie had 13 completed passes out of 20 for 153 yards and one touchdown.  Hanie had only played in 5 NFL games in his career prior to last night's NFC Championship game. After being picked off by Raji, Hanie went for a quick drive down the field that led to a touchdown and brought the score to 21-14.  Looking like the Bears would have the last position of the football, Hanie looked to drive and tie the game but was picked off by Sam Shields (his 2nd pick of the game) with :37 seconds left in the game.  The Green Bay Packers advances to Super Bowl XLV after a 21-14 victory over the Chicago Bears.

Chris Faytok/The Star-Ledger

AFC Championship
The Pittsburgh Steelers opened the game with a 15 play drive for 66 yards and touchdown putting the Steelers up 7-0 early in the 1st quarter.  The 1st half of play was all Steelers had Sanchez of the New York Jets fumbled the ball with 1:13 left in the 2nd quarter allowing the Steelers to score two touchdowns in :44 seconds and put the Steelers ahead of the Jets 24-0.  After getting the ball back , the Jets were able to get into field goal range and score a field goal with :13 seconds left in the half making the score 24-3 at halftime.  The Steelers defense played a big role in the 24-19 victory over the Jets.  Big Ben had 10 completions out of 19 for 133 yards, and Sanchez had 20 completions out of 33 for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns.  The Steelers move on to Super Bowl XLV hoping for a 7th Super Bowl to bring to the city of Pittsburgh.

Blake Griffin Alley Oop Against Warriors

Video by NBA

Redemption

Photo Credit: AP Photo

The Atlanta Hawks redeemed themselves tonight after a 41 point lost last night to the New Orleans Hornets.  The Hawks went into Charlotte tonight hoping to have a better game than they did last night and came out with a 103-87 victory over the Bobcats.  With Al Horford still out with an ankle sprain, the Hawks were able to pull it together with out their powerful center.  Joe Johnson led both teams in scoring with 32 points and was 12-18 from field goal range, 3-4 from 3 point range and 5-6 in free throws.   Josh Smith added 16 points and Mike Bibby added 14 points to the final score for the Hawks.  The Bobcats have now lost 11 home games this season and the Hawks have now won 6 straight road games.

Hornets Continue to Dominate

CP3 and the New Orleans Hornets winning streak continues tonight after they defeated the number 1 team in the league right now, the San Antonio Spurs.  After coming off a very explosive game last night in Atlanta, the Hornets flew back home to take on the Spurs. The Hornets outscored in the Spurs throughout the 1st three quarters, holding the Spurs to only 10 points in the 3rd quarter alone.  The Spurs had only two players in double digits tonight, the highest being 11 points by Splitter, and Duncan was held to shooting 2-11 field goals and only scoring 6 points and 5 rebounds.  Although the Hornets did not outscore the Spurs in the 4th, the Hornets still held on to beat San Antonio 96-72 and has extended their win streak to 8 games and are now 29-16.

Miami Bounces Back

The Miami Heat bounced back after their lost to the Atlanta Hawks earlier this week to defeat the Toronto Raptors 120-103.  Chris Bosh was not active in tonight's game against his former team, due to an ankle injury. Without Bosh and Dwyane Wade, out with a migraine, King James led the Heat to a victory with 38 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assist.  Miller wasn't too far behind James with 32 points and 10 rebounds in the victory.  DeRozan led the Raptors in scoring with 30 points in the lost to the Heat.  After struggling the past couple of games the Heat's 4 game losing streak came to an end tonight and are now 31-13, still behind the 33-10 Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.  The Miami Heat next game will be Thursday 1.27.11 against New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors will take on the Memphis Grizzlies Monday 1.24.11.

Disappointing Loss in Atlanta

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images North America

With Atlanta fans still recovering from the disappointing lost last weekend, as the Falcons lost to the Packers, the Hawks game tonight probably didn't make Atlanta fans feel any better.  Standing in 5th place in the Eastern Conference and after a very impressive victory over the Miami Heat, the Hawks had a very embarrassing and disappointing lost tonight in Atlanta against the New Orleans Hornets.  With Hawks powerful center Al Horford out the Hawks struggled and the game was no where near close with the Hawks losing at home 59-100.  The game tonight was the lowest scoring game in Atlanta history and is sure to be a game that the fans will never forget.  After this devastating lost hopefully the Hawks will be able to bounce back in their next game against the Charlotte Bobcats tomorrow night in Charlotte.  Chris Paul had 16 points and 8 assist in the Hornets 6th straight victory tonight against the Hawks.

'Melo Drama

After a meeting was scheduled between Carmelo Anthony and New Jersey Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov on Monday, Prokhorov later cancelled the meeting and told his office to stop the pursuit of the trade with the Denver Nuggets for Carmelo Anthony.  The Nets organization only wanted to sign Carmelo if he would have signed a contract extension which seemed to be a no coming from Melo.  After feeling that Melo wouldn't sign the contract extension, the owner stopped the pursuit of Carmelo Anthony and Prokhorov stated that the deal was becoming too expensive.  Anthony stated that he still feels that he will still be traded by the trade deadline February 25th, but until then he's focused on playing basketball for the Denver Nuggets.  Melo is beginning to get irritated by all of the media attention and speculations with all the trade talks and has stated he will no longer answer any questions pertaining to anything other then the games at hand.

Mavericks Bounce Back

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America

After a 6-game losing streak, the longest losing streak they've had in almost 11 years, the Dallas Mavericks bounced back last night against the LA Lakers.  Dirk Nowitzki was added back to the line-up Saturday 1/15/11 after an injury has had him out since December 27, 2010.  The game was a definite toe-to-toe, duke it out match-up as the teams were back and forth the entire game.  At the half both teams were shooting above 50% and the Lakers were up by 4, 56-52.  The Mavericks were able to fight back for the lead as they went on a 17-4 run to end the 3rd quarter and put them ahead of the Lakers 82-73.  The Mavs held off for the 109-100 victory over the Lakers, with 2 players, Terry and Marion ending the night with 22 points.  Jason Kidd also had a red-hot night with 21 points and was 5-8 from the 3-point range. Dirk had 14 points, 8 rebounds in the win and Kobe had 21 points, 10 assists, and Gasol had 23 points in the lost.

Miami Losing Streak Continues

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

As Lebron James returned to the court last night against the Atlanta Hawks everyone expected the Heats losing streak to come to an end even with Chris Bosh currently being out with an injury.  The game got off to a slow start when the Hawks went up 19-8 in the 1st quarter with 30 seconds left in the quarter. Once the Heat got it together the game was continuously a back and forth, great game and came down to the wire.  When looked like the Heat could take the win with a winning shot by King James with 2 seconds left in the game, Lebron missed the 3 point attempt and sent the game into overtime.  The Hawks held off to beat the Heat during overtime 93-89 and the Heat are now on a 4 game losing-streak putting them 2.5 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

Unpredictable

As the top 3 teams in the NFL for the season got knocked out of the run for the Super Bowl this weekend the predictions for the Super Bowl match-up are now tossed in the air for a lot of people.  In this very unpredictable weekend the Jets and the Steelers hold off to advance in the AFC and the Packers and the Bears hold off to advance in the NFC.







AFC

Steelers vs. Ravens

The Pittsburgh Steelers fought back in the 2nd half to beat the Baltimore Ravens 31-24.  The Steelers went into halftime down 21-7 and came back in the 2nd half and held the Ravens to only a field goal and scored 24 points including a TD with 1:33 left in the game where Big Ben threw a 58 yard pass to rookie Antonio Brown on 3rd-19 leading to Rashard Mendenhall scoring from the 2 yard line.



Patriots vs. Jets
The New York Jets were the surprise of the weekend as they defeated the number 1 team in the league this year, the New England Patriots.  The Jets led the Patriots 14-3 at halftime and was looking to be a good game when Brady returned in the 3rd quarter to throw 2 touchdown passes, bringing the score to 14-11.  The Jet defense was a big decider in this game as the Jets held off to beat the Patriots 28-21 and advance to the AFC Championship.


NFC

Bears vs. Seahawks
The Chicago Bears advance to the NFC championship after defeating the underdogs Seattle Seahawks who surprised everyone by defeating the defending champions New Orleans Saints the week before.  Jay Cutler scored 2 touchdowns and passed for 2 more in the 35-24 victory against the Seahawks this past Sunday.  Bear's Cutler had 15 completions for 278 yards and Seahawks' Hasselbeck had 26 completions for 258 yards.



Falcons vs. Packers
The second shocker of the weekend was the Green Packers coming into Atlanta, GA where Matt Ryan was 20-2 at home of all time going into the post season.  Packers' Rodgers had 31 completions out of 36 attempts for 366 yards and 3 thrown touchdowns and Falcons' Ryan had 20 completions out of 29 for 186 yards and 1 touchdown.  The Packers held off to beat the Falcons in a shocking score of 48-21 and advances to the AFC Championship against the Chicago Bears.

Will He Stay or Will He Go?

The Nuggets have heated up lately as the talk of Forward Carmelo Anthony being traded to the New Jersey Nets have intensified.  Denver has won the last two games scoring at least 130 points in both games, one of whom was against the #2 seat in the East the Miami Heat.  In the game Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns the Nuggets knocked the Suns off winning 132-98 and later in the week, Thursday, beat the Miami Heat 130-102.  

 Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

The potential trade including Carmelo Anthony would consist of a 3 team, 15 player trade.  According to NBA.com it is stated, "The deal would supposedly send Anthony, along with guards Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter, along with center Shelden Williams, to the Nets. Detroit would send veteran Rip Hamilton to New Jersey. The Nets would send guard Devin Harris, rookie forward Derrick Favors, guards Anthony Morrow, Stephen Graham, Quinton Ross and Ben Uzoh, along with two first-round picks, to the Nuggets. New Jersey would send center Johan Petro and forward Troy Murphy (and his expiring $12 million contract) to Detroit."


Carmelo Anthony doesn't feel that the trade is imminent and later went on to say:


"That's my feeling. I don't think so. I don't want to elaborate on that anymore. That's just my own personal feeling," Anthony said following practice.


"I'm here," Anthony said. "Until something happens, I'm a Denver Nugget."

Mavericks Struggle

With Dirk Nowitzki being out for the last 9 games, the Mavericks have struggled going only 2-7 the last 9 games.  Before Dirk went out on December 27th the Mavs were 24-5 and were running in a close second in the Western Conference behind the San Antonio Spurs.  The Mavs have now fell to third place in the Western Conference standings behind the #1 Spurs and now #2 Lakers.  In their 9th game without Dirk last night they took on the Spurs in San Antonio and once again fell to deliver without Dirk in the line-up.  The Mavs lost to the Spurs last night 89-101 which has now left them 7 games behind the Spurs for the #1 spot.  The Mavs believe that Nowitzki will return to the court next week but are still unsure.  The Mavs continue their 4 game road trip tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies.

NFL Bound

After winning the BCS National Championship Monday, Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Cameron Newton has decided to skip his senior year and apply for the NFL Draft. 


"This decision was difficult for me and my family," Newton said, adding that he made it after talking to coach Gene Chizik and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.


Newton made major headlines this season when allegations surfaced that money was allegedly sought in the recruiting of the young quarterback.

NFL Weekend Line-up

AFC:

Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Saturday 1.15.11 @ 4:30 pm on CBS

New York Jets vs. New England Patriots

Sunday 1.16.11 @ 4:30 pm on CBS

NFC:

Green Bay Packers vs. Atlanta Falcons

Saturday 1.15.11 @ 8:00 pm on Fox

Seattle Seahawks vs. Chicago Bears

Sunday 1.16.11 @ 1:00 pm on Fox

Heat's Hot Streak Comes to An End

The Heat have now struggled two games back to back after Lebron James suffered an ankle sprain in the game Wednesday 1.12.11 against the LA Clippers.  Wade and the rest of the Heat went into Denver last night with their heads held high hoping they would be able to take down the Nuggets without the help of King James.  D.Wade and the Heat fell to the hands of the Nuggets 130-102 and have now struggled to close out and win the last two nights.  The Heat have now fell back into 2nd place behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference as their 9 game-winning streak came to an end Wednesday.  The Heat are now preparing to head to Chicago to take on the Bulls this Saturday for the last stop in their 5-game road trip.

Things aren't so HOT in Cleveland

If having to watch Lebron James make his decision about joining the Miami Heat on national TV wasn't disappointing enough, the game last night between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers was just pure embarrassment for the city of Cleveland.  The Lakers beat the Cavs by 55 points in the victory last night and if the Lakers would have scored 2 more points their final score would have been twice that of the Cavs.  With the final score of the game being 112-57 the Cavs players could do nothing but drop their heads as they walked off the floor of the Staples Center. After the game  Mo Williams tweeted:

This shit is embarrassing. I feel like I can't even show my face in Cleve.

Coach Byron Scott went on to say after the game:
"I thought that was embarrassing... I told them at halftime, 'You look scared. You look scared to death.' That was my take on it, as simple as that."


After an embarrassing loss to the Heat the Cavs have now went 1-20 and are currently 8-30 for the season and is sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference.  The loss to the Lakers last night is the worse loss the Cavs have endured since the 1970 season, the year they joined the league.  After a loss like that the Cavs can only go up from here, hopefully. 

Undefeated Blue Devils Fall Short

Number 1 NCAA Men Basketball team Duke Blue Devils lost tonight against the Florida State Seminoles after being undefeated the entire season.  Duke fell to the hands of the Seminoles 66-61 in Tallahassee, Florida tonight.  The Blue Devils trailed at halftime, which is also a first for this season and the largest lead they held for the night was only 3 points. After a 25 game winning streak, the Blue Devils were unable to hold off and was 19-61 from Field Goal range (Made-Attempted) and 11-35 from 3 point range (Made-Attempted).  Duke is now 15-1 for the season and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back from this disappointing loss Saturday 1.15.11 against Virginia.

Miami Heat

As the "Heatles", as Lebron James calls him, Wade, and Bosh, have begun to gel together the team have found their way into the #1 seat in the Eastern Conference of the NBA.  The Heat are currently 30-9 for the season so far and are on a 9 game winning streak. The team was criticized at the beginning of the season for not playing as everybody expected them to, losing 80-88 in opening night of the regular season against the Boston Celtics and struggled the first month of the season, losing 7 games in November alone. Once the Heat got over their slump and began to win, critics then begin to say that they're winning streaks were due to the Heat playing against below .500 teams and that they wouldn't stand a chance against elite teams such as the Lakers, Magic, Celtics, and Spurs.  With basketball fans glued to the TV on Christmas Day the Heat began to put doubts to all the nonbelievers as they went to beat the Lakers 96-80, which was an embarrassment to the defending champs in their own home.  With the season approaching the halfway mark the Heat are beginning to hit their stride and show everyone what they thought would happen once the 3, James, Bosh, and Wade, were brought together in Miami.  Let's see if the Heat can keep up the excitement the rest of the season or if they will fall short of the NBA Championship this season.  The Heat continue tonight against the LA Clippers in Los Angeles.