SPORTS

||| NBA. LeBron rallies Cavs in Portland, Davis ignores boos to help Warriors

 Overcoming obstacles

||| James and Davis led their teams to impressive road wins on Wednesday night.
||| Cleveland handed Portland only its fifth home loss, and Golden State snapped New Orleans’ nine-game winning streak.

The Associated Press

Blocked and booed, LeBron James and Baron Davis refused to be beaten.
Frustrated after having two shots rejected by Blazers center Joel Przybilla, James scored 17 points in the fourth quarter – two more than the entire Portland team – including a reverse layup with less than a second left that gave the Cavaliers an 84-83 victory.
James finished with 37 points and 14 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who have won 13 of their last 16 games.
They have won five straight road games for the first time since March 17-April 1, 1998.

"I just wanted to take every possession like it was our last and be aggressive," James said. "I don't know when the turning point happened, but we were able to ride the wave and get a win."
Davis, who starred for the Hornets during their first two-plus seasons in New Orleans before being traded to Golden State, had 23 points and nine assists in Golden State's 116-103 victory.
Jeered every time he touched the ball, Davis hit five 3-pointers, helping the Warriors pull away in the fourth quarter.
"Nobody likes to get booed," Davis said.
"It wasn't really motivation. It was kind of distracting, but at the same time you've just got deal with it. I expected it, so I just dealt with it."

“I just wanted to take every possession like it was our last and be aggressive.”

In other games, it was: Orlando 107, Miami 91; Philadelphia 112, Milwaukee 69; Toronto 122, Washington 83; Denver 106, Memphis 102; Minnesota 83, Chicago 67; Utah 100, New York 89; Sacramento 105, Charlotte 91; and the Los Angeles Clippers 95, Atlanta 88.
Golden State's lead was only 92-88 early in the fourth quarter. Then Monta Ellis' driving layup ignited an 11-2 run that included Davis' 3-pointer and gave the Golden State a 103-90 lead with 6:21 to go. Davis, who still keeps a home in New Orleans, buried his final 3 to make it 114-95 with 3:21 left.

"When we have all our guys on one page and we're hitting shots like that it feels good because we know we're definitely hard to beat that way," said Stephen Jackson, who led the Warriors with 26 points.
Chris Paul had 28 points and 12 assists for New Orleans (32-13), which lost for only the third time in 20 games.
David West had 24 points and 13 rebounds.              

||| TENNIS. Patrick McEnroe gets best to play Davis Cup for U.S. team

Unlike his older brother

 Howard Fendrich | AP Sports Writers

John McEnroe's brief tenure as U.S. Davis Cup captain was marked by frequent laments about how tough it was to get Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to play for his team.
McEnroe's successor as captain, his younger brother Patrick, has no such trouble getting the current crop of top Americans to participate – which probably is why he finally won a championship. And when the United States opens defense of its first Davis Cup title since 1995 next month, he'll once more be able to rely on Andy Roddick, James Blake and twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
"I've been extremely lucky. We've got a group of guys that love to play for their country, that love supporting each other, and that have answered the call every single time I've asked them," McEnroe said Wednesday in a conference call. "That's pretty amazing, considering the world we live in. I certainly understand the players that do skip matches here and there."

The Feb. 8-10 series at Austria will mark the record ninth consecutive time that Roddick, Blake and the Bryans comprise the U.S. team. No other quartet from the country ever participated in more than three Davis Cup series in a row, according to the U.S. Tennis Association.
"I'd love to take the credit, but to be quite honest, the credit goes to them, because they really do enjoy it and they really do enjoy the weeks together," McEnroe said.
"When I first became captain, the first thing I said was: 'I want to try to get players that really want to play, that want to be there.' I've been lucky that those guys happen to be the guys that are our best players." Roddick is currently ranked No. 6 in singles, with Blake at No. 9. The Bryans lead the doubles rankings.
They ended the longest U.S. championship drought in Davis Cup history by beating Russia in December on an indoor hard court at Portland, Ore.
Now the quick turnaround has the group heading to Vienna to face Stefan Koubek, Jurgen Melzer, Werner Eschauer and Julian Knowle on indoor clay. Koubek is ranked 55th, Melzer 71st. The United States has won the title 32 times, Austria none.  

Zetterberg returns; Kovalchuk

limps off

 The Associated Press

Henrik Zetterberg's return to the lineup gave the Detroit Red Wings a lift. Ilya Kovalchuk's gimpy walk to the dressing room handed the Atlanta Thrashers quite a scare.
The NHL is back from the All-Star break and the health of the league's stars will go a long way in determining who eventually gets into the playoffs.
Zetterberg came back from a back injury in style on Wednesday night, scoring a quick goal to help the Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2 at home – the fifth straight win for high-flying Detroit, the top team in the league.

The Thrashers dominated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 in Atlanta, but that victory came with a price – one that wasn't fully known when Kovalchuk left the game with a knee injury.
"You can't keep him off the ice," Thrashers general manager and coach Don Waddell said. "He was determined to come out and at least test it.
"These kind of injuries, you always wait until the next day and see how the swelling is and just see how he reacts from it."
In other NHL games, it was Minnesota 5, Anaheim 1; Buffalo 1, Florida 0; Colorado 6, Chicago 3; and Calgary 5, San Jose 4.
Detroit has more than a healthy lead in its run for the top record in the NHL. Atlanta's position is far more precarious and would take a huge hit if leading scorer Kovalchuk is out for any length of time.

The Thrashers are two points behind Carolina for the lead in the weak Southeast Division and might not have enough points to earn a playoff spot if they don't win that title.
They snapped a five-game losing streak.
Kovalchuk was leveled by Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu with a knee-on-knee hit 3:21 into the second period. The collision left Kovalchuk laying on the ice in obvious pain in front of Atlanta's bench before he limped to the locker room. He came back for one shift, but left again and didn't return.
He scored his team-leading 38th goal, but it was his knee that was the topic of conversation. Ruutu was ejected from the game after also being forced to fight Steve McCarthy, who rushed to Kovalchuk's defense.