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Sports 1B Monday March 29, 2010 Regional finals wrap up Warriors beat Clips LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rookie forward Reggie Williams scored 25 points in his second NBA start and the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers 121-103 on Sunday night, putting Don Nelson within three victories of overtaking Lenny Wilkens as the win- ningest coach in NBA history during the regular season. The Warriors have nine chances left on the schedule to MCT photo Baylor's LaceDarius Dunn (24) grabs Duke's Jon Scheyer (30) as they battle for a loose ball during first-half of play. Duke defeated Baylor, 78-71, during the men's NCAA basketball Tournament on Sunday, March 28, 2010, in Houston,Texas. Duke advanced to the Final Four. (AP) Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo moved into some pretty elite company. Duke’s Coach K will take a team to the Final Four for the 11th time, moving him into a tie with Dean Smith of North Carolina for second place on the all-time list, one behind UCLA’s John Wooden. Krzyzewski’s first Final Four was in 1986 and his most recent was in 2004. ‘‘We’re ecstatic, proud, feel very honored and privileged to be going to the Final Four,’’ Krzyzewski said. Michigan State’s Izzo moved into a three-way tie for fifth-most appearances (6) with Denny Crum of Louisville and Adolph Rupp of Kentucky. ‘‘It’s incredible, the consistency and obviously the expectation,’’ Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said of Izzo, who has made all his appearances since 1999. ‘‘You know, I thought that — the accomplishment certainly speaks for itself. And to do it with num- bers of different teams. And it’s obviously a great accomplishment. Tom Izzo is probably as accom- plished and outstanding a coach as there is in our profession.’’ ——— DOUBLE NICKEL: This will be the first Final Four with two No. 5 seeds in it, and they will meet in one of the semifinals. Michigan State, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Regional, and But- ler, who held the same position in the West, will play Saturday. Five other No. 5 seeds have reached the Final Four since seed- ing began in 1979: Iowa in 1980, Mississippi State in 1996, Florida in 2000, Indiana in 2002 and Michigan State in 2005. None went on to win the nation- al championship. Michigan State is making its eighth Final Four appearance and Butler its first, but they do have one thing in common: The Spartans played in the Final Four in their home state last year in Detroit, while the Bulldogs will be the first team to play in a Final Four in its home city since UCLA in 1972. ——— FAMILY FINAL FOUR: Duke junior guard Nolan Smith will get to experience a Final Four like his father did 30 years ago. In the same city, no less. ‘‘It’s definitely a very special win,’’ said Smith, who had a Giants extend deals with Cain, Affeldt, Wilson SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The San Francisco Giants announced the signing of three pitchers to contract extensions: right-handed starter Matt Cain, left-handed setup man Jeremy Affeldt and right-handed closer Brian Wilson. Cain’s deal, which was extended through 2012, pays him $4.5 million in 2010, $7 million in 2011 plus a $1 million signing bonus, and $15 million in 2012. Cain was a first-time All-Star in 2009 and finished with a 14-8 record and 2.89 ERA in 33 starts. His four complete games tied for first in the National League. ‘‘It just shows appreciation for the things I’ve done, and the way they run the organization,’’ Cain said. ‘‘It shows that we can do something to benefit both sides.’’ The 25-year-old showed he is nearly ready for the regu- lar season on Sunday by pitching five innings of no-hit ball in a minor league game. He gave up two home runs in the sixth and pitched the seventh. The 30-year-old Affeldt will receive a $500,000 raise to total $4.5 million this season, get $4.5 million in 2011 and have a $5 million club option with a buyout of $500,000 for 2012. He tied with Minnesota’s Matt Guerrier for the major- league lead in holds with 33 last season and was named the Setup Man of the Year by This Year in Baseball Awards. Wilson, 28, signed for two years at $15 million — $6.5 million in 2011 and $8.5 million in 2012. He will receive $4.437 million this season. Wilson had 38 saves last season and 41 in 2008. He was a first-time All-Star in 2008. In February, the Giants and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum finalized a $23 million, two-year deal. ‘‘It’s what we’ve been talking about all spring (staying together),’’ Cain said of the Giants’ rotation. ‘‘We love playing together. We all feed off each other. career-high 29 points in the 78-71 victory over Baylor. ‘‘This team has worked so hard starting in the summertime until now. Really working hard, and we have such great team chemistry. We’re having fun playing together. This team from the beginning of this tourna- ment has been living in the moment. Really enjoying every single game, and you know, just playing hard. And it just feels great right now.’’ Derek Smith was a sophomore starter on Louisville’s national championship team in 1980. He died in 1996 at age 34, apparently of a heart attack. He played nine seasons in the NBA. ——— OLD RIVALRY: Saturday’s Final Four meeting between Duke and West Virginia will be the third time the schools meet in the NCAA tournament and the first two were both in the second round. Duke won in 1989, while West Virginia prevailed in 2008. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knows just playing Duke is enough to get most teams ready. ‘‘We’ve had a target on our See FINALS, page 2B keep Nelson from having to wait an entire summer before breaking Wilkens’ record of 1,332 victories. Four of the games are against New York, Washington, Minnesota and the Clippers, who are a combined 115 games under .500. Rasual Butler scored 21 points and Eric Gordon added 20 for the Clippers, who have lost 11 of their last 13 games. They have to go 6-3 the rest of the way to avoid — or at least postpone — their 18th 50-loss season in Los Angeles. Baron Davis had 18 points and seven assists against his former team. Williams, one of five players Golden State brought in from the NBA’s Development League this season, got the start because leading scorer Monta Ellis continued to have the flulike symptoms which have hampered him all week. Williams played 42 minutes, getting seven assists and six rebounds in his 15th game with the club. Rookie Stephen Curry had 18 points and seven assists during a foul-plagued 40 minutes. Second-year forward Anthony Tolliver added 19 points and six rebounds, one night after grabbing a career-high 21 boards in a 111-90 home loss against Dallas. Corey Maggette, the Clippers’ leading scorer two seasons ago, had 17 points. The Warriors, who came in averaging a league-best 17.7 forced turnovers and 21.4 points off turnovers, con- verted 20 Clippers turnovers into 26 points. Craig Smith, who scored a season-high 25 points off the bench for the Clippers in Thursday’s 99-93 win at Houston, played less than 5 minutes over the first three quarters against the Warriors and scored his first points on a pair of free throws with 10:49 remaining to trim Gold- en State’s lead to 97-88. But they got no closer. Curry, who scored a career-high 36 points against the Clippers and posted his first career triple-double in a 132- 102 rout on Feb. 10 at Oakland, helped stake Golden State to a 69-50 halftime lead in the rematch with 16 points. Golden State outscored Los Angeles 25-4 during a 6- minute span of the second quarter to turn a nine-point deficit into a 54-42 lead with 4:56 left in the half. Curry’s short jumper gave the Warriors their first lead, 42-40, with 7:41 left in the second. Curry helped fuel the rally with a pair of 3-pointers, and reserve Chris Hunter added a couple of tip-in baskets after missed shots. NOTES: Wilkens had 80 wins in the playoffs, five more than Nelson. ... The Clippers are 3-11 this month with two games remaining. This is the 60th time they have had 10 or more losses in a month since the franchise moved from San Diego to Los Angeles for the 1984-85 season — and the 17th time they’ve reached double dig- its in March. ... Davis averaged 20.1 points and 8.1 assists during his three-plus seasons with the Warriors. In 136 games with the Clippers, he’s averaging 15.1 points and 7.8 assists. ... Maggette came in as one of only five play- ers in the league averaging at least 20 points while shoot- ing 50 percent or better from the field. The others are LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire and David Lee. ... The Clippers have at least one win against Golden State in 23 consecutive seasons — their longest such streak against any club. Rain postpones Martinsville race MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — NASCAR’s bad weather luck at Mar- tinsville Speedway reared its head again Sunday as rain forced the postponed of the Sprint Cup race until Monday at noon. It is the second year in a row that rain pushed an event into the work week at the track in southwest Virginia. Last spring, the truck series event had to be run on Monday. Rain also has washed out Sprint Cup qualifying for the past three spring races, putting points leader Kevin Harvick on the pole for the race. Har- vick will be seeking a weekend sweep after dominating the truck race that was run in sunshine and ideal conditions Sat- urday. Many drivers traded their ball caps for knit caps and wore heavy coats for driver introductions Sunday, which were con- ducted under heavy cloud cover and in a steady rain. ‘‘It stinks for the fans and all the teams, but the fortunate thing is we’ve got an off week coming up, so it’s not like this is going to put everybody way behind,’’ said A.J. Allmendinger, who will start 21st. NASCAR’s premier series is taking its tradi- tional break of the season for Easter next weekend. The Monday race will be the first in the Sprint Cup Series since last August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. It will be the first Cup race on a Monday in Martinsville since the fall of 2001. The absence of lights for night racing at the 0.526-mile oval meant the window for racing was already small considering the time it would take to dry the track if the rain stopped. NASCAR does not allow a race to start unless it’s feasible for the entire event to be run, and races at Martinsville take up to 4 hours to complete. The call to postpone was made about 90 min- utes after the scheduled 1 p.m. start. The postponement also will push back Denny Hamlin’s plans to have arthroscopic surgery on Monday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He still hopes to have the proce- dure this week so he’ll have time to recover before the next race on April 10.