LaMarcus Aldridge had 23 points and 7 rebounds and also the Tigard Trail Sexy dresses blew the Phoenix Suns 109-71 Friday evening for his or her sixth straight win in your own home.

Gerald Wallace added 17 points, Wesley Matthews had 16 and Nicolas Batum added 14 for that Sexy dresses. Marcus Camby had 20 rebounds called the only Sexy dresses player who did not score on the evening where both benches purged early.

Grant Hill had 12 points for Phoenix, that was held to some season-lower in scoring. Sebastian Telfair had 10 and Hakim Warrick had nine.

Solar shot just 32.8 percent in the area, made four of 13 3-pointers and were 9 of 18 in the free-throw line.

Tigard is a very different team in the Rose Garden than out on the highway this year. The Sexy dresses are 9-1 in your own home, tying all of them with Dallas to find the best home record within the Western Conference. Tigard is 3-7 on the highway, together with a loss Wednesday at Golden Condition, once the Sexy dresses battled against Stephen Curry's 32 points and 7 assists.

Phoenix has lost four consecutively and was coming off a 99-96 defeat against Toronto.

Solar brought following the first quarter, but fell way behind following a horrid second quarter by which they provided just four of 19 shots and obtained just nine points. Tigard required a 47-33 lead into halftime.

It simply got worse for Phoenix within the other half, which in fact had the design of a Sexy dresses scrimmage filled with alley-oops, breakaway dunks and mix-court passes. Solar obtained only 12 points within the third and also the Sexy dresses breezed their method to a 35-point lead prior to the finish from the quarter.

Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry sitting his starters for a lot of the other half, including Steve Nash, Hill and Marcin Gorat. Both teams performed bench gamers almost solely within the 4th quarter.

Nash carried out with five points and 7 assists in 24 minutes. He might have passed Mark Cost being the National basketball association career leader in free-throw percentage but went 1 of three in the line. Gorat carried out with eight points and 10 rebounds.

Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg's interview for the Oakland Raiders' head-coaching vacancy was scheduled to take place Friday, according to league sources.

Mornhinweg, who has two years of head-coaching experience with the Detroit Lions in 2001 and 2002, has served as the Eagles' coordinator since 2006 under coach Andy Reid.

Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie is interviewing candidates from organizations other than Green Bay, where he was a longtime personnel executive. However, several of the Packers' coaches are on his list of candidates, including Winston Moss (linebackers), Dom Capers (defensive coordinator) and Joe Philbin (offensive coordinator).
Miami Dolphins interim coach Todd Bowles has already interviewed with the Raiders, who are in search of their fifth coach in seven years following the firing of Hue Jackson.

It was only a matter of time before Donovan McNabb was asked to weigh in on the latest Terrell Owens-driven controversy, and he had a message for Owens during a Friday interview with WMVP-AM in Chicago: You're an adult, you can say what you want.

The latest tiff between the two ex-teammates began when Owens said during an interview in February's GQ Magazine that then-Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter told Owens not to apologize specifically to McNabb for saying the quarterback got winded during the fourth quarter of their Super Bowl loss to the Patriots -- a claim Trotter denied.

"I was a team leader as well," McNabb told the radio station. "The whole thing about it is we're grown men. You say what you want to say. If this letter was written for you and you're supposed to say it, why are you showing it to other teammates? ... If you're a grown man you're going to do what you want to do."

To his credit, McNabb did not appear to be annoyed or mad at Owens. Instead, he opined on the unfortunate nature of their intertwined careers.

"It's unfortunate here's a guy who's a future Hall of Famer, had an outstanding career now playing in the arena league -- whatever it may be," McNabb said. "And my name still comes up out of his mouth or whatever. We'll forever kind of be linked together somehow -- it's unfortunate."

McNabb went on: "It was a remarkable season, it's unfortunate what happened. I've moved on and everything that has been talked about in this article about him not apologizing to me. Nobody wanted to talk about it while it was happening. ... I talked to him but some people it's like talking to just a wall, you don't get a response, and now I see why there was no apology back to me."

At the end of the interview McNabb was asked if he'd consider joining the Chicago Bears as a backup quarterback if the team's new general manager approached him. McNabb did not say definitively if he'd be intrigued about a stint with his hometown team.

"That I don't know," McNabb said. "There's a lot of things you've got to look into."

Filip Kuba obtained a tight schedule-ahead goal with 1:11 left and also the Senators beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4, yesterday in Ottawa to earn a split from the weekend home-and-home series.

Kuba fired a slap shot in the left point past goalkeeper Ilya Bryzgalov, and Nick Foligno sealed the win by having an empty-internet goal with 45 seconds to visit.

Colin Greening and Erik Karlsson obtained earlier within the third period for that Senators, who removed a 4-2 deficit. Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Neil had goals within the first, and Craig Anderson made 33 saves for Ottawa, that is on the 5--1 run - together with a 3-2 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Saturday.

Matt Read obtained a energy-play goal within the second and aided on a single of three Flyers goals within the first.

Andrei Meszaros obtained 2:32 into his 500th NHL game to attract Philadelphia even at 1. Marc-Andre Bourdon and Sean Couturier had goals 28 seconds apart to own Flyers a 3-2 lead later within the first period.

Read¡¯s goal 14:08 in to the second was his thirteenth of year, giving the Flyers a 4-2 lead and tying Edmonton¡¯s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins which are more goals with a rookie this year.

Bryzgalov stopped 32 shots for Philadelphia, which in fact had won three of 4.

Red-colored Wings 3, Blackhawks 2 - Pavel Datsyuk banked inside a shot from the bad position off defenseman Nick Leddy for that winning goal 3:08 into overtime for going to Detroit.

After Corey Crawford made two point-blank saves, Datsyuk reached the loose puck across the goal line, whiffed once, after which clicked an increasing shot that hit Leddy and bounded in to the open upper area of the internet as Crawford was lower within the crease.

Detroit¡¯s Serta Cleary obtained with 4:45 left in regulation to tie it at 2 after Henrik Zetterberg fired a loose puck into traffic in-front. Valtteri Filppula also obtained for that Red-colored Wings. Dork Bolland and Patrick Sharp obtained goals 44 seconds apart at the start of the very first period, however the Blackhawks lost for that fifth amount of time in six games carrying out a 9-1-1 run.

Ducks 7, Blue Jackets 4 - Corey Perry completed his 4th NHL hat trick by scoring into a clear internet within the final minute, Teemu Selanne had two goals, and Anaheim beat going to Columbus despite losing goalkeeper Jonas Hiller to some lower-body injuries.

Ron Nash had two goals, and Derick Brassard and Vinny Prospal also obtained for that Blue Jackets.

Aaron Rodgers may be having the quietest record-shattering season for an undefeated team in N.F.L. history.

Rodgers¡¯s Packers are certainly getting attention with their 11-0 record and their bid to repeat as Super Bowl champions. He is also getting plenty of credit for their success. But his assault on the N.F.L. record book is receiving little notice, and his 2011 season is not getting enough credit for what it may be: not just a most-valuable-player-caliber effort, but the best season a quarterback has had.

Rodgers is on a pace to smash the single-season passer efficiency rating record. His current rating of 127.7 is 6.6 points higher than Peyton Manning¡¯s rating in 2004, when he threw for 4,557 yards and 49 touchdowns. Efficiency rating may be the statistic that fans love to hate ¡ª it is confusing, difficult to calculate and arbitrary ¡ª but it is hard to argue with the names just below Rodgers on the list: Manning, Tom Brady, Steve Young and Joe Montana.

Rodgers¡¯s efficiency rating will most likely slip as bad weather and reality take their toll. After all, he threw for 307 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions on Thanksgiving, and his rating actually went down, demonstrating just how high his standards have been. But his statistics can slip a little and still be historically high. Even if he throws 50 consecutive incomplete passes, his rating would drop only to 113.5. That would not only lead the league ¡ª Brady¡¯s rating this year is 105.1 ¡ª but be the third highest single-season rating in N.F.L. history.

Rodgers¡¯s career efficiency rating of 103.8 is 7 points higher than any other qualifying quarterback¡¯s. That rating is so high that if the 2011 season ended now and a horrendous season ¡ª 400 attempts, 200 completions, 2,000 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and 15 interceptions ¡ª was projected for 2012, Rodgers would still rank second on the career list, behind Young.

Rodgers is on a pace to break the single-season completion percentage record set by Drew Brees last year; at 71.8 percent, Rodgers is 1.2 percentage points ahead of Brees¡¯s pace in 2009. Some football statisticians scoff at completion percentage as an evaluation tool, invoking a hypothetical quarterback who completes nothing but ineffective, supershort passes. Such arguments bear weight when comparing quarterbacks across historical eras, and there are examples of passers who made their way to the top of the career leader boards that way. (Brian Griese completed 69.3 percent of his passes for the five-win Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004; there was no parade.) Still, only five times has a quarterback completed at least 70 percent of his passes in a full season. Three of those quarterbacks (Brees in 2009, Montana in 1989 and Young in 1994) led their teams to Super Bowl victories. Brees in 2010 and Cincinnati¡¯s Ken Anderson in 1982 were the others; they had led their teams to the Super Bowl in the previous season, just like Rodgers.

Yards per attempt are often cited as a better indicator of a quarterback¡¯s greatness than completion percentage. With an average of 9.6 yards per pass, Rodgers is on a pace to be eighth on the single-season list, behind three seasons by Otto Graham, and one season each by Sid Luckman, Norm Van Brocklin, Kurt Warner and, well, Chris Chandler.

Just as the completion percentage list is dominated by quarterbacks who have played in the past two decades, the yards-per-attempt list is loaded with Hall of Famers of different vintage. But that does not mean that the latter list is timeless or impervious to statistical illusions. Quarterbacks threw deeper but far less frequently in the 1940s and early ¡¯50s. Luckman threw just 202 passes in 1943, when he set the record with 10.9 yards per attempt. It was also the middle of World War II, and Luckman faced opponents like the famous Steagles team cobbled together from available Steelers and Eagles players who were not overseas. Rodgers is the only player in the top 10 with more than 350 attempts, despite still having five regular-season games left; even Warner¡¯s best year in regard to the statistic was his injury-shortened 2000 season.

Rodgers¡¯s high yards-per-attempt figure shows that he does far more than complete screen passes. In fact, he has thrown 136 passes of 10 or more yards in 362 attempts this season, meaning that when he throws a pass, not only is there a nearly 72 percent chance that it will be caught, but a 38 percent chance that it will produce the typical necessary yardage for a first down. Rodgers¡¯s completions of 10 or more yards have netted 2,858 yards: take away all of the short passes that drive traditionalists crazy and Rodgers would still be on a pace to throw for 4,157 yards.

His low interception rate of 1.1. percent also ranks fifth on the career single-season list, behind Brady last season and some guys who just barely made the qualification standards ¡ª Damon Huard, Steve DeBerg, David Garrard. He is currently first on the career interception rate list, three-tenths of a point ahead of Neil O¡¯Donnell. If the presence of O¡¯Donnell, Griese and Chandler on these various lists troubles you, keep in mind that each only pops up on one list: only quarterbacks like Brady and Young have a presence on all of them.

Rodgers is having a historic season by every possible measure, including the kinds of high-tech statistics that are designed to adjust for historic eras, schedule strength and other variables. In the statistic known as DVOA used by the Web site Football Outsiders, Rodgers¡¯s current season ranks below Manning¡¯s in 2004 and Brady¡¯s in 2007 but above the best seasons by Young and Warner. When using Pro Football Reference¡¯s adjusted-net-yards-per-attempt statistic, the season ranks just below Manning¡¯s in 2004 and above Dan Marino¡¯s 5,084-yard season in 1984. Under the circumstances, praise for Rodgers seems somewhat faint: calling this season M.V.P.-caliber is a little like calling a ¡°Mona Lisa¡± exhibition worthy.

Perhaps that is because football¡¯s percentage statistics do not carry the cachet that batting average and earned run average possess for baseball. Many football analysts distrust statistics to a degree that defies common sense, and that skepticism carries over to fans. Record fatigue has also set in recently, with Brady, Manning and Brees setting new marks almost annually. Rodgers could set a half-dozen records this season, only to see them broken, possibly by himself, in just a year or two.

Even though the labor crisis has the NFL at a standstill, the effort to bring a pro football team back to Los Angeles is moving forward.

AEG, proposing to build an NFL stadium/event center in downtown L.A., has taken another step in that direction by selecting Gensler to design the estimated $1 billion venue, The Times has learned. L.A.-based Gensler was one of three finalists, with the other two being the firms HNTB and HKS.

It's something of a coup that AEG chose Gensler, which has never designed an NFL stadium, considering HNTB is responsible for Invesco Field in Denver and HKS drew up the plans for Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Among dozens of other projects around the world, Gensler designed the 54-story hotel and residence tower that's part of L.A. Live.

Tim Romani, president and chief executive of ICON Venue Group, which is overseeing the proposed project, said the important aspect of Gensler "is the people, not the practice."

Romani said Gensler's extensive experience in helping design the L.A. Live campus will help expedite the environmental impact report, a necessary step toward getting clearance for a stadium.

"They understand how this site works," he said. "They understand all of the infrastructure, and that saves two to three months if not more of the EIR process."
Ron Turner, who heads Gensler's sports practice, was the principal in charge for the firm NBBJ during the design of Staples Center, and also helped design Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

"When AEG and ICON decide to do something, they get it done," Turner said. "They're going to get this done. That's what's exciting to us. We've all worked on projects that don't have a chance. These guys build projects around the world, and they know what they're doing."

There are plenty of significant hurdles in the way of the downtown stadium proposal. First of all, the city needs to be on board with the notion of relocating the West Hall of the Convention Center and allowing it to be replaced with a football stadium, all while floating a bond to pay for the destruction of the existing convention center.

There's also the process of convincing a team to move to L.A. ¡ª a market that hasn't had an NFL franchise since early 1995 ¡ª and doing so in a bad economy while on the heels of a major NFL labor fight that currently is far from resolved.
There is a competing project, too. Ed Roski has a site in City of Industry ¡ª the area of the proposed stadium was recently renamed Grand Crossing ¡ª and that piece of land is fully entitled for a venue, no small feat.

That said, Romani said the downtown project is in position to surge ahead of the Grand Crossing venture "in a very short time," at least in terms of how far along the designs will be.

"In a matter of months, we'll be equal to if not past where the other project is," he said.

"We're moving full speed into true design of the project. The work that Gensler has already done is going to put us pretty far down the road. But within 10 to 12 months, we're going to have the design set that's ready to start procuring construction for the project."

One interesting aspect of the proposal is AEG is not only looking into the possibility of a retractable roof, but also of a less expensive fixed one.

Romani said the preference is still to go with a retractable roof but, "We're just going to study both to see what the opportunities and constraints are."

Turner said one possibility that will be considered is a translucent roof made of a material that can change any color when light is shot through it, raising the possibility the stadium could be lit different colors depending on the occasion.

Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday blamed Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster for the crushing defeat inflicted on her ruling Christian Democrats by the Greens in key state elections at the weekend ¨C but ruled out changes to her coalition in response to her party's humiliation.

The conservative CDU party was ousted from power in the prosperous south-western state of Baden-W¨¹rttemberg for the first time in 58 years on Sunday. They were trounced by an alliance of Social Democrats and Greens, who will appoint Germany's first Green state prime minister this week.

The sweeping gains made by the Greens in state elections in the south-west and in the Rhine-Palatinate reflected a national trend and put the party firmly on course to rival the Social Democrats as the country's second mainstream political party. "Now we really have a chance to show what we can do as a main party of government," said Cem Özdemir, the Green party leader.

Yesterday Ms Merkel attributed the doubling in Green support to the nuclear disaster in Japan: "It is very clear that this was caused by the debate about the catastrophe at the reactors in Fukushima," she said. She conceded that the Christian Democrats' defeat was "a very painful day for the whole party". More than 250,000 people took part in anti-nuclear protests across Germany at the weekend.
However, Ms Merkel said she had no plans to reshuffle her cabinet or make any other changes to her coalition of conservatives and liberal Free Democrats. Instead she pledged to stick to her planned moratorium on nuclear power, under which seven of Germany's 17 reactors have been temporarily shut down prior to a switch to renewable energy.

Ms Merkel's moratorium was a quick response to Fukushima, announced only days before the Baden-W¨¹rttemberg election. Previously her party had been committed to extending the life of reactors. Some polls report that 70 per cent of voters believed the move was designed to improve her party's chances in the election.

Political observers said that the Chancellor was able to play down the severity of the defeat as there were currently no conservative politicians who were in a position to challenge her. Her only possible rival, ex-defence minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to resign in early March after he was found to have plagiarised his doctorate.

But Ms Merkel's coalition has been criticised in recent weeks for its nuclear U-turn, its UN abstention over Libya and what voters see as its failure to come to grips with EU financing.

Opinion polls before Sunday's state elections showed that Ms Merkel's coalition would lose to an alliance of Social Democrats and Greens if a general election was held now.

"People no longer know what the coalition stands for" complained Josef Schlarmann, of Germany's conservative business association.

"Its style is governed only by pragmatism and tactics," he added.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Chicago White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy has been shut down with what doctors believe is rotator cuff tendinitis.

Peavy met with the team doctors Sunday, and they prescribed anti-inflammatory medication a day after he pitched 5 2-3 innings against Oakland. He also had been battling flulike symptoms late last week.

The right-hander had surgery to repair a detached muscle in his throwing shoulder in July and had been setback-free so far this spring, posting a 4.11 ERA in 15 1-3 innings. He said the current issue is not related to the surgery.

Peavy said the next 48 hours will likely determine whether he starts Thursday as scheduled.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - In its third and most critical game against Duke over the last 10 weeks, and with a place in the ACC tournament semifinals at stake, the Maryland men's basketball team battled with an aggression and belief that eluded it toward the end of the regular season.

But the outcome was the same as the first two games, with Maryland stumbling down the stretch Friday night and falling, 87-71. The Terrapins were soundly outplayed over the final six minutes following a toe injury that sent Duke's senior point guard, Nolan Smith, hobbling to the sideline.

Smith, the ACC's player of the year, didn't return, and Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he didn't expect to know about Smith's status for Saturday's semifinal until Saturday morning.

The loss brought Maryland's ACC tournament to an end, along with its razor-thin hopes of a berth in the NCAA tournament, which almost certainly would have required four victories at Greensboro Coliseum in four days.

Instead, the Terrapins got just one and finished 1-10 against teams in the top 50 of the RPI, a mathematical measure of teams' strength used by the NCAA tournament selection committee. Now Maryland (19-14) has little to do but await Sunday's National Invitation Tournament selections. It's a fate Maryland's seniors had hoped to avoid, having been relegated to the NIT as freshmen. It will mark Maryland's fourth trip to the NIT in the last seven seasons.

Duke (28-4), the nation's fifth-ranked team and the ACC tournament's No. 2 seed, has beaten the Terrapins in nine of their last 10 meetings.

Maryland, a team that had three freshmen and a sophomore logging major minutes, showed some signs of progress as the season wore on. But that was little comfort in a somber Terrapins locker room after the game.

"We don't get better unless we win," freshman point guard Pe'Shon Howard said. "There's no moral victory. We wanted to win the tournament."

Smith's struggles started well before he injured the second toe on his left foot with 6 minutes 48 seconds to play and Duke leading, 65-60. Smith made just 2 of 11 shots from the field and turned over the ball five times.

With Duke shooting guard Seth Curry also misfiring early, the Blue Devils got the bulk of their offense from senior Kyle Singler, who led the team with 29 points.

Maryland was paced by sophomore center Jordan Williams, who scored 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to earn his 25th double-double of the season. However, he made only 2 of 10 free throw attempts.

Senior Cliff Tucker came off the bench for 12 points and had a big hand in keeping the game within reach, with Maryland pulling within one point five times in the second half.

http://debisance.blog.hr/ SAN ANTONIO -- Kobe Bryant agreed it might have been the Lakers' best game so far. It technically wasn't the worst for the San Antonio Spurs, though it often looked that way. The Lakers may not catch the NBA'scheap NBA jerseys winningest team for the No. 1 seed in time for the playoffs, but they handed the Spurs a blunt reminder that the Western Conference is still theirs to surrender, beating San Antonio 99-83 in a blowout Sunday. Bryant, who finished with 26 points, didn't make much of it. "I don't think it's that big of a message that we sent today," he said. http://myjerseysfactory.blog.com It was the seventh straight victory for the Lakers, who are playing as well as any point this season. Coach Phil Jackson concedes that San Antonio's 6 1/2-game lead in the West may be too big to overcome with 18 games left. But the Lakers still made a few marks. One is emphatically ending San Antonio's franchise-record home winning streak at 22 games. Another is beating the Spurs for the first time in three tries, including last month's stunning loss in Los Angeles when Antonio McDyess tipped in the game-winner at the buzzer. Bryant, for his part, didn't show any excitement in winning this round. "Why should I be?" he said. Instead, Bryant sought to keep the lopsided win in perspective. "We know we're capable of having games like this and San Antonio knows we're capable of having games like this," he said. "It just as easily could go the other way around." Tony Parker led the Spurs with 14 points. He was their only starter in double figures; Tim Duncan scored two points and Manu Ginobili scored six. Two days after San Antonio humiliated LeBron James and Miami in a 30-point blowout, the Spurs took their own lumps. The NBA's sixth-highest scoring team mustered just 37 points in the first half - matching a season low - and shot 36 percent from the floor. And it could've been worse. The Lakers led by as many as 32 in third quarter before the Spurs threw in the towel and emptied their bench. "They hit us in the mouth from the beginning and by the time we realized it, it was the ninth round and we were down on the scorecard," Spurs guard Gary Neal said. Pau Gasol scored 21 points and Andrew Bynum had 17 rebounds for the Lakers, who can match their longest win streak of the season with a victory at Atlanta on Tuesday. It's part of arguably the toughest stretch this season for the Lakers, who are still out to prove they're the NBA's best despite trailing the Spurs all season. The Lakers will also play at Miami and at Dallas before coming home to face Orlando on March 14. By the time the Magic leave Los Angeles, the Lakers will have faced four of the NBA's top seven teams in a span of eight days. Jackson called it the best the Lakers have played all season against this caliber opponent. "We need to be at our peak later on," Gasol said. "Not right now." The last Spurs loss at the AT&T Center had been to Dallas on Nov. 26. But that 103-94 defeat wasn't anything like this. Bryant finished 12 for 25 and had seven rebounds. His only blemish was a technical foul in the second quarter after getting tangled up with Ginobili, leading to a brief exchange of stares and words. Ron Artest rushed between the two and pulled Bryant away. It was Bryant's 14th technical foul this season, though he stands at 12 after having two rescinded. The NBA issues a one-game suspension after 16 technical fouls. The last time the Spurs and Lakers met was in Los Angeles on Feb. 3, when the Spurs won 89-88 on McDyess' tip-in as time expired. Jackson had his video staff pull that clip before this one and remind his team of a game Jackson said they should've won. It apparently worked. Neal scored 15 points and George Hill added 14 for the Spurs. "Nobody expects to be losing by more than 20 in the first quarter," Ginobili said. "But the way the game presented itself, they were making every shot. We couldn't make layups, 3s, free throws, anything." San Antonio's most lopsided defeat this season was a 24-point loss at New Orleans on Jan. 22. Derek Fisher scored eight points and remained in the starting lineup after being listed as probable going into the game because of a strained right elbow. Notes: Bryant is 13 points shy of surpassing Moses Malone for sixth on the NBA's career scoring list. ... McDyess played in his 999th career game. The 15-year veteran can hit 1,000 if he plays Wednesday against Detroit. ... The Lakers in town made for a rare courtside celebrity sighting in San Antonio: late-night host George Lopez.