Results tagged “westernconference”

The Rangers are going to have to have a lot more weekends like this one if they are going to make the playoffs. Fresh off of Saturday’s shellacking of Buffalo, New York outlasted San Jose in a physical contest 3-1.

This was a shorthanded and tired team. Renaldo Balkman missed the game for his elbow in Tuesday's game against L.A. Eddy Curry and Quentin Richardson have the flu. The rest of the team is just sick of losing.

Some L.A. Lakers fan (we assume) came up with a brilliant plan to psych out Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa last week. Barbosa fell victim to a hoax where his hotel gave him a message saying that Suns GM Steve Kerr wanted to meet him to discuss a trade to the New York Knicks. Jeez, that's maybe the meanest prank call we've ever heard!

• Coyotes 5, Rangers 1: Wayne Gretzky returned to Madison Square Garden, the site of his final game as a player, to coach his Phoenix club to an easy win over the Rangers. His voice was hoarse because of a flu and laryngitis. Similar symptoms sidelined New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and Steve Valiquette wasn't up to the challenge of facing the worst offense in the Western Conference. Thanks to the wonders of the unbalanced schedule and the lockout, this was Phoenix's first trip to New York since 2002. At the rate the Rangers played against them, they might not want them back for another five years.
• Devils 4, Flyers 2: What more can be said about Martin Brodeur? He excelled in net again, and the Devils used his stopping of a penalty shot as a morale-booster during their home win over the Flyers. John Madden had two goals and an assist.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Overly Gracious Hosts"

With Kobe Bryant's trade demands in and out of the news, Gothamist wonders what Isiah Thomas would give up to put Bryant in a Knicks uniform. If you follow basketball, you know that Kobe has on again, off again, on again trade demands, and there's a video being shopped around where Kobe says some disparaging words about Lakers management and Andrew Bynum. The Lakers say that they won't be trading Kobe - and why would they - but when Thomas first heard of Byrant's trade request, he did think of a package.

Unfortunately for the Nets, their tread-water strategy while waiting for injured players to return won't work too well against most teams in the West. A team like the Clippers -- now .500 at 21-21 -- would probably look much better in the Eastern Conference. New Jersery has two more games on this trip, and 0-5 is a possibility, even if the last two matchups don't rip the Nets' hearts out like Thursday's did.

-Eastern Conference 98, Western Conference 82: A day after the most popular All-Star Game in American sports, the WNBA's best took the floor at Madison Square Garden. Each year, the Wednesday following baseball's All-Star game is derided by sports fans as the worst day of the sports calendar. Despite the WNBA's efforts, Wednesday wasn't that exciting. The Liberty's Becky Hammon didn't play because of an injury. With the game out of reach in the final seconds, an impromptu slam dunk contest broke out. Alas, neither Diana Taurasi nor Michelle Snow could dunk the ball.