Projo Sports Blog

April 22, 2008 Archives

Tonight at 6, you can find the 2008 HSGameTime Providence Journal All-State girls indoor track team online at www.hsgametime.com/rhodeisland.

We asked each of our first-team selections to fill out a personal survey with questions including favorite TV show, favorite subject in school, and something people would be surprised to know about me.

The athletes' answers, as well as audio clips of the athletes talking about what inspired them this past season, will accompany their bios on their own personal pages.

Also, you will find full listings for second-team, All-Division and Academic All-State selections. The All-State girls indoor track page in The Providence Journal will run tomorrow.

Here is the full schedule for the All-State teams. The teams will be revealed at 6 p.m. each day online, and in the following day's newspaper.

Online now: Wrestling, gymnastics, cheerleading, girls basketball, boys basketball
Tonight: girls indoor track
Tomorrow: boys indoor track
Thursday: girls swimming
Friday: boys swimming
Saturday: boys and girls hockey
Monday: independent stars

| Categories High School

The Celtics’ Kevin Garnett is the recipient of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, the team announced today.
Garnett led the Celtics in rebounds with a 9.2 average and also averaged 18.8 points, 1.2 blocks and 1.4 steals. Garnett received 493 points, including 90 first-place votes, from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Denver's Marcus Camby, who won the award last season, finished second with 178 points and Houston's Shane Battier finished third with 175 points
Garnett helped the Celtics to league-best record of 66-16 and led a defense that held opponents to just 90.3 points (second in the NBA) after allowing 99.2 points per game a season ago. The defensive improvement was a major reason why the Celtics enjoyed biggest one-year turnaround in NBA history as the team won 42 more games this season than in 2006-07 (24-58).
Kia Motors, the sponsor of the award, will donate a new 2009 Kia Borrego seven-passenger SUV on behalf of Garnett to Boston Centers for Youth and Families, Garnett’s chosen charity.

| Categories Celtics

TORONTO (AP) - Only Zdeno Chara and Dion Phaneuf stand in the way of Nicklas Lidstrom winning a sixth Norris Trophy.

The three finalists for the award that goes to the NHL's top defenseman were announced Tuesday. Lidstrom has won the honor five of the past six seasons.

The Detroit Red Wings captain, who earned his ninth career nomination, is tied with Ray Bourque with five Norris Trophies. A sixth would leave him alone in third place behind arguably the two greatest blue-liners ever - Doug Harvey (seven Norris Trophies) and Bobby Orr (eight).

Lidstrom, who turns 38 Monday, led all NHL blue-liners with 70 points (10-60) in 76 games and a sensational plus-40 rating. He also led the Wings to the stingiest defensive record in the NHL this season.

The 31-year-old Chara earned his second nomination. He had a career-high 51 points (17-34) in 77 games for Boston, had a plus-14 rating and was third in ice time among NHL defensemen at 26:50 per game. He was instrumental in helping the Bruins make the playoffs.

Phaneuf also set a career best with 60 points (17-43) in 82 games for the Calgary Flames, fifth among NHL defensemen. The 23-year-old also had a plus-12 rating and played 26:25 a game in only his third NHL season.

The Calder Trophy finalists for rookie of the year will be announced Wednesday.

| Categories Bruins

Fans of intercollegiate rowing should plan on being on the banks of the Narrow River in North Kingstown and the Seekonk River in Providence Saturday to watch the University of Rhode Island women and the Brown University men.

URI, fresh from its first Atlantic 10 championship, will row against MIT on the Narrow River in its second and final set of races on its home waters. The Rams snapped the 12-year reign of the University of Massachusetts as A-10 champion with a spectacular day of rowing on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. Rhody boats won the Varsity Eight, Varsity Four and Lightweight Four, finished second in Second Varsity Eight and Second Novice Eight, came in third third in Novice Eight and finished fourth in Lightweight Eight and Quad.

URI accumulated 135 points. UMass was second with 119 and Saint Joseph's third with 113. UMass's 12-year championship streak was the longest in any A-10 sport. URI's Shelagh Donohue was voted A-10 coach of the year for the second consecutive year.

Brown, the second-ranked men's crew in the nation, will host Dartmouth on the Seekonk. The Bears beat seventh-ranked Northeastern in the 44th Annual Dreissigacker Cup Saturday on the Charles River in Boston. Brown's varisty eight remained undefeated, and the second varsity and freshman teams also won.

The Brown women, reigning NCAA national champions, will row against Cornell and Columbia at Ithaca, N.Y., on Saturday. They won six races on the Charles River Saturday, leaving Gonzaga, Boston University, Notre Dame, Northeastern and Texas in their wake.

| Categories College Sports

Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning. All's right for the Red Sox fans of the world, as our conversation topics suggest: the team's fast start (same record through 21 games as they had en route to the World Series last year), Jacoby Ellsbury's standout play of late and Julio Lugo responding to the challenge from young Jed Lowrie. Also, Sean provides a briefing on the L.A. Angels, who hit Fenway for three games beginning tonight.

| Categories Red Sox

The NBA announced today that the Celtics' Kevin Garnett has been named Defensive Player of the Year.

Garnett helped the Celtics to league-best records of 66-16 (.805) overall and 31-10 (.738) on the road. Boston held opponents to just 90.3 points (second in the NBA) after allowing 99.2 points per game a season ago. Garnett led the Celtics to the biggest one-year turnaround in NBA history as the team won 42 more games this season than in 2006-07 (24-58), surpassing the previous record of 36 games, set by the San Antonio Spurs in the 1997-98 season.

The 12-year NBA veteran became the 32nd player in league history to record 20,000 career points on March 8 against Memphis. Garnett is only the fourth active player to reach this milestone, joining Phoenix’s Shaquille O’Neal (26,296), Denver’s Allen Iverson (22,988) and Kobe Bryant (21,619) of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Garnett received 493 points, including 90 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sports writers and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Denver’s Marcus Camby, who won the award last season, finished second with 178 points and Houston’s Shane Battier finished third with 175 points.

Nothing's worse than being labeled a fair-weather fan, but that's exactly what the Hawks' Mike Bibby is calling Celtics followers.

Speaking today to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sekou K Smith on the newspaper's Hawks Blog, the veteran point guard said, "[A] lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now. I played here last year, too. And I didn’t see three fourths of them . . . I remember them having bags on their heads [last year]. It’s a different look. I guess that’s what happens when you win.”

We'll see how the crowd responds when Bibby -- who was seen jawing with some spectators as he left the floor at the end of Game One on Sunday night -- takes the court tomorrow night.

BOSTON (AP) — One of the few spots at which the Hawks seemed to have an edge over the Boston Celtics was point guard, where Atlanta starts Mike Bibby.

After the way Rajon Rondo played in the first playoff game of his career, even that may be in doubt.

The speedy Rondo had 15 points, nine assists and six rebounds in Boston’s 104-81 win Sunday night. Bibby, a 10-year veteran with 51 playoff games before this season, managed just five points, one assist and three rebounds. And he played six more minutes than Rondo.

>> Continue reading: Rondo an unlikely playoff star for Celtics

| Categories Celtics

MONTREAL (AP) — At least three police cars were set on fire in downtown Montreal on Monday night after the Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of their playoff series. Click here to see photographs of the chaos from the blog of James Mirtle, a sports staffer from the Globe and Mail of Toronto.

Cable news channel LCN caught images of the destructive celebration from a camera in a helicopter. People could be seen smashing a police car before it was set ablaze.

Montreal police spokeswoman Annie Lemieux confirmed in a statement on the department’s voicemail that at least three police cars had been set on fire a few blocks away from the Bell Centre, where the Canadiens beat the Bruins 5-0.

“Many arrests have been made,” Lemieux said. “Fortunately, no one seems to have been seriously injured so far.”

| Categories Bruins

On today's sports cover, Bill Reynolds writes about the off-court hoopla at Celtics games, which makes going to one of these games a much different experience than it was during the glory days of the '80s. Joe McDonald puts the Red Sox' hot start into perspective, with players telling him that they never doubted their ability to play through the tough early schedule. Jim Donaldson describes how a seemingly second-rate lineup put forth by the Sox for Patriots Day came up big anyway. And the AP has the story of the Bruins' season-ending loss in Montreal.

Click here to download the file in pdf format.