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2B – Daily News – Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Celtics top Magic, take 2-0 lead ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Boston Celtics might just roll back to the NBA finals if they keep this up. Paul Pierce scored 28 points, Rajon Rondo had 25 and the Boston Celtics again avoided a late collapse to take a commanding lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 95- 92 victory over the Orlando Magic in Game 2 on Tuesday night. Boston bullied and bruised its way to a 2-0 series lead on the road against a Magic team that had won 14 straight until this series. The Celtics held the Magic to 39 percent shoot- ing. Dwight Howard had 30 points, and Vince Carter and J.J. Redick scored 16 apiece for the Magic, who overcame an 11-point deficit to take a brief lead in the fourth quarter. But they couldn’t hold it. Jameer Nelson’s desperation 3- point attempt airballed at the buzzer. Game 3 is Saturday night in Boston. ‘‘Our fans won’t let us relax,’’ Pierce said. ‘‘We’re going to try and close it out in four games.’’ The Celtics buckled down just enough to hold on late in this one. Ahead 11 points to start the fourth quarter, that almost wasn’t enough. The Magic, just as they did in Game 1, found their rhythm late. They went on a 13-4 run to trim Boston’s lead to 85-83 with about six minutes left. Carter’s jumper with 4:05 remaining gave Orlando a 90-89 lead with 3:35 remaining, and then the Celtics summoned their champi- onship form again. Kevin Garnett and Rondo made consecutive jumpers, and after Nel- son made a layup, Pierce answered with two free throws that put Boston ahead by three. Carter missed two free throws with 31.9 seconds left that cost Orlan- do dearly. It must have felt all too familiar to Magic fans who watched Howard’s damaging misses at the stripe in Game 4 of the NBA finals last year and Nick Anderson’s four bricks in Game 1 of the 1995 finals. Only another footnote for Boston’s remarkable history. Two years removed from their 17th NBA championship, the Celtics, once thought too old to contend for another title, have found their footing again. After ousting LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team with the league’s best record, Boston is showing no signs of stopping. ‘‘Just think our mindset was to be ready for the type of intensity they would bring after losing at home,’’ Pierce said. ‘‘We know the Magic are a talented team and we won’t take — With his championship ring on her hand and her late husband’s dreams of another on her mind, Irene Pollin stood in shock as the Wash- ington Wizards won the draft lottery. Towering over her to the side, Mikhail Prokhorov watched the New Jersey Nets lose yet again. The Wizards won the draft lot- tery Tuesday night, moving up from the No. 5 spot to earn the top pick in next month’s draft, when it will likely choose between Ken- tucky freshman John Wall and national player of the year Evan Turner of Ohio State. Washington was rep- resented by Irene Pollin, who wore the 1978 Bullets championship ring of her late husband, longtime owner Abe Pollin. When the Wizards pulled off the sur- prising win, her jaw dropped and appeared to mouth ’Oh my God!!’ with wide eyes. Abe Pollin died at age 85 in November. ‘‘This is very, very spe- cial. I have been in this my entire adult life and to be here, representing my hus- band, this is very special to me tonight,’’ Irene Pollin said. ‘‘I think it’s the culmi- nation of my husband’s dream because he wanted another ring and maybe this will get us another ring.’’ The Philadelphia 76ers, another disappointment this season, moved up from the sixth spot to grab the No. 2 pick. The Nets continued the run of failure by teams with the best chance of winning, falling to the third. Prokhorov, the 6-foot-6 Russian billionaire who was approved as Nets owner last week and had a front row seat for the loss, shrugged off the disappointment. ‘‘Sometimes luck makes these two wins for granted.’’ Boston again started fast. The Celtics, who took a 20-point lead in Game 1, went ahead by 11 in the first quarter. It wasn’t until back- up center Marcin Gortat and Howard — a rare combination this season — teamed together that Orlando showed any fight. With the the Magic big-time feel- ing postseason pressure for the first time this year, Orlando went on a 16- 2 run behind the two centers. The powerful rebounding combo helped Orlando grab three straight on one possession, and Redick then hit a 3- pointer to put the Magic ahead 28-25. All the pushing and pulling would finally spill over. Pierce was knocked in the head hard by Howard on a layup attempt in the second quarter, a punishing dis- play of anger that the Magic center rarely shows. Pierce got up after a minute, clearly upset, his headband twisted to the side. Howard was called for a flagrant foul. The Celtics would go ahead by five after Howard picked up his third foul moments later. Before they could deliver another big blow, Matt Barnes hit a 3-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded in the final seconds for Orlando to trim Boston’s lead to 53-51 at the half. Wizards win NBA’s draft lottery, earn No. 1 pick SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) all the difference, but it never comes down to one player,’’ Prokhorov said. ‘‘I’m sure we’re going to get a great player. For our team, the only way is up.’’ The lottery victory — despite only a 10.3 percent chance — is just about the only thing that has gone right in a disastrous year for the Wizards, marred by the sus- pension of All-Star Gilbert Arenas for bringing guns into the Verizon Center lock- er room. They finished 26- 56 after being widely fore- cast to finish in the middle of the Eastern Conference. Irene Pollin hopes the lottery win will help fans forget a turbulent season, when the Wizards also traded former All-Stars Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to cut salary after things fell apart. ‘‘Fans are fickle. But I think this is a wonderful thing for our fans who have really stuck by us,’’ Pollin said. ‘‘They really have been through a very, very tough year. Actually when I got up and spoke to them, I was thanking them for sticking by us and being so support- ive even though we had all the problems.’’ Now they hope the No. 1 pick can help spark a quick turnaround under Washing- ton Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, who is close to completing a deal to buy the franchise from the Pollin family. Leonsis met with some NBA owners earlier Tuesday, and the sale is expected to be completed early in June. ‘‘We have a lot of work to do with the franchise,’’ Leonsis said. ‘‘The players, the culture, the expectations, the discipline around the team, but I do think it is a breath of fresh air and does revive the franchise and gives us a shot to be an excit- ing team with a lot of expec- tations. I know how hard it is to rebuild a team. I am going to be patient but I have a strong belief that our man- agement team and owner- ship team is very focused.’’ The Nets had a 25 per- cent chance of winning after going 12-70. Instead, the team with the worst record still hasn’t won since 2004, when the Orlando Magic selected Dwight Howard. Asked before the lottery about potentially changing the system to keep teams from losing on purpose to improve their probability of winning, commissioner David Stern said he thinks, ‘‘the results of the lottery, if anything, are causing teams with the worst record to feel as though a paucity of wins is not being adequately rec- ognized and compensated.’’ So will Arenas play with the No. 1 pick or be replaced by him? ‘‘I’m just going to come in and work hard ... just try to win games for the organiza- tion this year,’’ Wall said. Team president Ernie Grunfeld told reporters on a conference call that earning the No. 1 pick would not affect the team’s plans for Arenas. But the Wizards will have to do better than they did last time they had the No. 1 pick. That was in 2001, when Hall of Famer and for- mer Washington executive Michael Jordan selected Kwame Brown, considered one of the biggest busts ever at No. 1. The losers this time were the Minnesota Timber- wolves, who fell from sec- ond to fourth. Sacramento (No. 5) and Golden State (No. 6) also tumbled — the second straight year the Kings went the wrong way in the lottery. Scoreboard MLB West Division Texas A’s American League WL Pct GB 22 18 .550 — 19 20 .487 2.5 Angels 18 23 .439 4.5 Seattle 14 24 .368 7 East Division WL Pct GB Tampa Bay 28 11 .718 — New York 25 14 .641 3 Toronto 24 17 .585 5 Boston 20 20 .500 8.5 Baltimore 13 27 .325 15.5 Central Division Minnesota 24 15 .615 — Detroit WL Pct GB 22 17 .564 2 Chicago 16 22 .421 7.5 Cleveland 15 22 .405 8 Kansas City 15 25 .375 9.5 ——— Tuesday’s results Seattle at Oakland, late Baltimore 4, Kansas City 3, 10 innings Boston 7, New York 6 Chicago 6, Detroit 2 Tampa Bay 6, Cleveland 2 Texas 8, Los Angeles 7 Toronto 11, Minnesota 2 Today’s games Detroit (Verlander 4-2) at Oakland (Braden 4-3),7:05 p.m.,CSNCA Kansas City (Meche 0-4) at Cleveland (Masterson 0-4), 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (W.Davis 3-3) at New York (A.J.Burnett 4-1), 4:05 p.m., ESPN Minnesota (S.Baker 4-3) at Boston (Buchholz 4-3), 4:10 p.m. Baltimore (Guthrie 2-4) at Texas (Harden 2-1), 5:05 p.m. L.A. Angels (J.Saunders 2-5) at Chicago (Danks 3-2), 5:10 p.m. Toronto (Cecil 2-2) at Seattle (Fister 3-1), 7:10 p.m. Monday’s late result Oakland 8, Seattle 4 West Division National League WL Pct GB Padres 23 15 .605 — GIANTS 21 16 .568 1.5 Dodgers 21 17 .553 2 Colorado 19 20 .487 4.5 Arizona 16 24 .400 8 East Division WL Pct GB Philadelphia 24 14 .632 — Florida 21 19 .525 4 Washington 20 20 .500 5 Atlanta 19 20 .487 5.5 New York 19 21 .475 6 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 23 16 .590 — St. Louis 23 17 .575 .5 Chicago 18 22 .450 5.5 Pittsburgh 17 22 .436 6 Milwaukee 15 24 .385 8 Houston 13 25 .342 9.5 ——— Tuesday’s results San Francisco at San Diego, late Atlanta 3, New York 2 Chicago 6, Colorado 2 Cincinnati 5, Milwaukee 4 Florida 8, Arizona 0 Pittsburgh 2, Philadelphia 1 St. Louis 3, Washington 2 Houston at Los Angeles, late Today’s games San Francisco (Wellemeyer 2-3) at Arizona (I.Kennedy 2-2),6:40 p.m.,CSNBA Chicago (Gorzelanny 1-4) at Philadelphia (Moyer 5-2), 4:05 p.m. Milwaukee (Wolf 3-3) at Pittsburgh (Burres 2-1), 4:05 p.m. New York (Dickey 0-0) at Washington (L.Hernandez 4-2), 4:05 p.m. Cincinnati (Harang 2-5) at Atlanta (Kawakami 0-6), 4:10 p.m. Colorado (G.Smith 1-2) at Houston (F.Paulino 0-6), 5:05 p.m. Florida (A.Sanchez 2-2) at St. Louis (J.Garcia 4-2), 5:15 p.m. San Diego (Garland 4-2) at Los Angeles (Ra.Ortiz 1-1), 7:10 p.m. Monday’s results San Diego 3, San Francisco 1 Los Angeles 6, Houston 2 North Division GOLDEN WL Pct. GB Calgary 0 0 .000 — OUTLAWS 00 .000 — Edmonton 0 0 .000 — St. George 0 0 .000 — Victoria 0 0 .000 — South Division Maui WL Pct. GB 0 0 .000 — Orange County 0 0 .000 — Tijuana 0 0 .000 — Tucson Yuma ——— Today’s games Calgary at Yuma, 6:30 p.m. Edmonton at Tucson, 7 p.m. Thursday’s Games Calgary at Yuma, 6:30 p.m. Edmonton at Tucson, 7 p.m. NBA Conference Finals 0 0 .000 — 0 0 .000 — Tuesday’s result Boston 95, Orlando 92 Boston leads series 2-0 Today’s game Phoenix at L.A. Lakers, 6 p.m., TNT L.A. Lakers lead series 1-0 NHL Conference Finals Best-of-7 Tuesday’s results Chicago 4, San Jose 2 Chicago leads series 2-0 Philadelphia 3, Montreal 0 Philadelphia leads series 2-0 NASCAR Sprint Cup Points Leaders 1.Kevin Harvick 2.Kyle Busch 3. Matt Kenseth 1,768 1,699 1,642 4. Jimmie Johnson 1,637 5.Denny Hamlin 6. Jeff Gordon 7. Greg Biffle 8. Jeff Burton 9.Kurt Busch 10. Carl Edwards 11. Mark Martin 12. Martin Truex Jr. 13.Ryan Newman 1,404 14.Tony Stewart 15. Clint Bowyer 1,618 1,605 1,581 1,569 1,531 1,487 1,475 1,434 1,397 1,392 16. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1,391 17. Jamie McMurray 1,346 18. Joey Logano 1,332 19. Juan Pablo Montoya 1,322 20.David Reutimann 1,262 21. Kasey Kahne 22.David Ragan 23.Paul Menard 1,237 1,227 1,217 24. Brad Keselowski 1,210 25. AJ Allmendinger 1,202 26. Scott Speed 27. Brian Vickers 30.Sam Hornish Jr. 1,013 31. Regan Smith 32.Travis Kvapil 1,050 1,010 33.Bobby Labonte 34.Robby Gordon 35.David Gilliland 36.Kevin Conway 37. Mike Bliss 38.Max Papis 39.David Stremme 40.Joe Nemechek 41.Dave Blaney 985 945 899 817 743 621 499 474 463 422 42. Michael McDowell 348 43. Bill Elliott 290 1,185 1,158 28. Marcos Ambrose 1,068 29. Elliott Sadler Best-of-7 44. Casey Mears 45. Boris Said 46. Michael Waltrip 47.Terry Cook 255 252 200 164 48. Robert Richardson Jr.155 49. Aric Almirola 154 50. Reed Sorenson 120 Upcoming schedule x - non-points race May 22 — x-Sprint Showdown, Concord, N.C. May 22 — x-NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Con- cord, N.C. May 30 — Coca-Cola 600, Concord, N.C. June 6 — Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500, Long Pond, Pa. June 13 — Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Brooklyn, Mich. June 20 — Toyota/Save Mart 350, Sonoma Nationwide Points Leaders 1. Brad Keselowski 2.Kyle Busch 3.Kevin Harvick 4. Carl Edwards 5. Justin Allgaier 6.Paul Menard 7. Greg Biffle 8. Joey Logano 9. Jason Leffler 10. Brian Scott 1,766 1,755 1,702 1,546 1,521 1,404 1,239 1,228 1,204 1,181 11. Brendan Gaughan 1,164 12.Tony Raines 13. Steve Wallace 14.Trevor Bayne 15. Michael Annett 16. Scott Lagasse Jr. 1,076 17.Kenny Wallace 18. Mike Wallace 19.Joe Nemechek 1,161 1,144 1,123 1,095 1,058 1,006 955 20. Reed Sorenson 953 Upcoming schedule May 29 — TECH-NET Auto Service 300, Concord, N.C. June 5 — Federated Auto Parts 300, Lebanon, Tenn. June 12 — Meijer 300, Sparta, Ky. June 19 — Bucyrus 200, Elkhart Lake, Wis. 1. Aric Almirola 2.Todd Bodine 3.Timothy Peters Truck Points Leaders 920 893 848 4.Ron Hornaday Jr. 795 5. Matt Crafton 6. Ricky Carmichael 765 7. Johnny Sauter 8.David Starr 9. Mike Skinner 10. Jason White 737 734 733 Upcoming schedule May 21 — North Carolina Education Lottery 200, Concord, N.C. June 4 — WinStar World Casino 400k, Fort Worth, Texas 772 761 June 12 — VFW 200, Brooklyn, Mich. PGA FedExCup Leaders Rank Pts Money 1. Ernie Els 2. Jim Furyk 3. Phil Mickelson 4. Anthony Kim 5.Tim Clark 6. Robert Allenby 7. Camilo Villegas 8. Steve Stricker 9. Dustin Johnson 10. Matt Kuchar 11.Ben Crane 12. Bill Haas 13. Hunter Mahan 14. Luke Donald 15. J.B. Holmes 16. K.J. Choi 17. Adam Scott 18. Jason Bohn 19. Ian Poulter 20. Geoff Ogilvy 1,541 $3,460,341 1,318 $2,588,070 1,286 $2,677,719 1,215 $2,518,521 1,109 $2,559,158 1,061 $2,394,057 972 $2,118,415 966 $2,033,714 938 $1,915,665 912 $1,909,688 897 $1,713,426 867 $1,463,831 848 $1,740,593 785 $1,600,146 784 $1,556,922 781 $1,359,330 767 $1,542,260 755 $1,567,366 702 $1,700,025 689 $1,400,306 TENNIS ATP Money Leaders 1. Rafael Nadal 2.Roger Federer 3. Andy Roddick 4. Andy Murray 5.Fernando Verdasco 6.David Ferrer 7. Robin Soderling 8.Novak Djokovic 9. Ivan Ljubicic 10. Marin Cilic 11. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 12.Sam Querrey 13. Mikhail Youzhny 14. John Isner 15.Tomas Berdych 16. Nicolas Almagro 1. Serena Williams 2.Venus Williams 3. Justine Henin 4. Jelena Jankovic 5. Aravane Rezai 6. Kim Clijsters 7. Sam Stosur $2,596,880 $2,452,168 $1,237,226 $1,225,449 $1,167,234 $1,076,111 $974,342 $933,272 $845,258 $777,353 $745,679 $655,068 $652,255 $586,535 $547,720 $546,699 WTAMoney Leaders $2,245,514 $1,694,245 $1,172,098 $1,102,485 $999,009 $807,636 $683,022 8. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez $639,586 9. Caroline Wozniacki 10. Nadia Petrova 11. Flavia Pennetta 12. Zheng Jie 13.Shahar Peer 14. Li Na 15. Agnieszka Radwanska 16.Victoria Azarenka $637,813 $541,419 $529,478 $522,334 $514,483 $502,991 $485,832 $478,829 DEALS Major League Baseball American League CLEVELAND—Placed SS Asdrubal Cabr- era on the 15-day DL. Recalled INF Jason Donald from Columbus (IL). MINNESOTA—Recalled RHP Jeff Manship from Rochester (IL). Optioned INF Matt Tol- bert to Rochester. NEW YORK—Recalled RHP Mark Melancon from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (IL). Optioned OF Greg Golson to Scranton/Wilkes Barre. TEXAS—Assigned 1B Ryan Garko outright to Oklahoma City (PCL). National League ARIZONA—Recalled RHP Billy Buckner from Reno (PCL). Designated RHP Blaine Boyer for assignment. LOS ANGELES—Placed OF Andre Ethier on the 15-day DL, retroactive to May 15. Recalled OF Zavier Paul from Albuquerque (PCL). MILWAUKEE—Placed OF Jim Edmonds on the 15-day DL. Called up RHP Marco Estra- da from Nashville (PCL). PITTSBURGH—Agreed to terms with RHP Bryan Almonte, LHP Angel Sanchez, OF Willy Garcia, RHP Oderman Rocha, RHP Jose Luis Acosta and 1B Jose Roman. National Basketball Association CLEVELAND—Exercised the club option on F Leon Powe. National Hockey League COLUMBUS—Signed F Tomas Kubalik. Major League Soccer MLS—Suspended Columbus F Guillermo Barros Schelotto for one game and fined him $250 for elbowing Chivas USA’s Michael Umana in a game on May 15. National Football League CLEVELAND—Signed K Shaun Suisham. Waived K Leigh Tiffin. NEW ENGLAND—Released CB Shawn Springs. SEATTLE—Released QB Mike Reilly. Signed WR Marcus Maxwell. TAMPA BAY—Signed DE Carlton Powell. Released CB Darrell Pasco. College NORTH CAROLINA STATE—Announced basketball sophomore F Josh Davis and junior G Julius Mays will transfer. PROVIDENCE—Dismissed F Jamine Peter- son from the men’s basketball team. RUTGERS—Named Mike Cox men’s associ- ate head basketball coach. UNC-GREENSBORO—Promoted Corey Gipson to associate head basketball coach. WINTHROP—Suspended G Robbie Dreher for the first four games of the 2010-11 bas- ketball season and F Charles Corbin for the fall semester of the basketball season for vio- lating team and athletic department rules. Zabriskie takes lead in Tour of California SANTA CRUZ (AP) — David Zabriskie won the third stage of the Tour of California by inches over Michael Rogers and took over the race lead on Tuesday. The U.S. national time-trial champion won the 113.3- mile stage from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 9 seconds. He leads Rogers by 4 seconds over- all. Lance Armstrong finished 14th and was 12th overall, 27 seconds back. ‘‘The final climb was long and hard,’’ said Zabriskie, who has twice finished second overall in the four previous races but never won a stage. ‘‘We were just trying to hold off the chase group.’’ Three-time defending race champ Levi Leipheimer was third, also in the same time as the top two finishers. He’s 6 seconds behind Zabriskie. The top three finishers all began the third stage in a group of 20, trailing Brett Lancaster by 10 seconds. ‘‘I screwed up the finish,’’ said Leipheimer, the third- place finisher in the 2007 Tour de France. ‘‘I knew about the final corner, but Dave got the jump on us. I closed the gap to Mick (Rogers), but it was just too short to the finish to do anything.’’ Lancaster fell to 36th place overall after finishing 51st in the stage. The fourth stage of the eight-day race will be a 121.5- mile road race Wednesday from San Jose to Modesto. Sharks lose, fall into 2-game hole to Hawks SAN JOSE (AP) — Dustin Byfuglien and Jonathan Toews scored on deflections 90 seconds apart in the second period and the Chicago Blackhawks rolled to their record- tying seventh straight road win in the playoffs, 4-2 over the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 of the Western Conference final Tuesday night. Andrew Ladd and Troy Brouwer also scored and Antti Niemi made 25 saves for the Blackhawks, who have a 2-0 series lead. This is the closest Chicago has been to making the Stanley Cup final since getting there in 1992. The series moves to Chicago for Game 3 on Friday night. That may not be the best thing for the Blackhawks, who are only 3-3 at home this postseason. Patrick Marleau scored both goals for the Sharks, who dropped to 0-5 at home in two trips to the conference final. Flyers take 2-0 lead PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Michael Leighton stopped 30 shots and recorded his second straight shutout, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. Danny Briere and Simon Gagne scored power-play goals, and Ville Leino scored for the Flyers. Game 3 is Thursday at Montreal. The Flyers have scored 13 straight goals in the postseason since trailing 3-0 in Game 7 against Boston in the East semifinals. Leighton has been impeccable since taking over for an injured Brian Boucher in Game 5 of the semis. His season was considered over once he went down with an ankle injury in mid-March. Leighton has the Flyers two wins away from their first Stanley Cup finals appearance since 1997. Leighton is the first Flyers goalie to record consecutive playoff shutouts since Bernie Parent in 1975. His shutout streak of 165:50 is the second-longest in team history behind Boucher’s 184:45 in Philadelphia’s run to the East finals in 2000. The Flyers haven’t won the Stanley Cup since the sec- ond of their consecutive championships in 1975. Leighton was tested from the opening faceoff as the Canadiens out- played the Flyers most of the first two periods. He turned away a ferocious slapshot from P.K. Subban in the first peri- od to set an early tone of denial. Leighton made three quick stops in about a minute on a Montreal offense treating the game like shooting practice.