Nets try to get even with Lakers
LOS ANGELES, June 7 (UPI) -- The New Jersey Nets hope to get off to a better start on Friday night and even the NBA Finals at a game apiece when they play the homestanding Los Angeles Lakers in Game Two at the Staples Center.
New Jersey outscored Los Angeles in every quarter of Game One except the first, and it proved to be decisive. A disastrous first quarter for the Nets, in which they were outplayed and outscored, 29-14, was too much to overcome in a 99-94 loss on Wednesday.
The Nets got as close as three points in the fourth quarter, but the Lakers' foul shooting was too much to overcome. The Lakers attempted 23 free throws in the fourth and finished 32-of-45 at the line, including a 12-of-21 showing by Shaquille O'Neal, who is intent on leading Los Angeles to its third straight title as he physically overwhelmed the smaller Nets for 36 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The strategy of Lakers Coach Phil Jackson was to throw the ball to O'Neal down low almost exclusively in the fourth quarter.
The Nets' Jason Kidd recorded the first triple-double in the NBA Finals since Charles Barkley in 1993, when had 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for Phoenix. Kenyon Martin scored 21 points, but Keith Van Horn fouled out with 12 on 5-of-14 shooting.
Despite the victory, Los Angeles has some room for improvement. Kobe Bryant made just 6-of-16 shots, but did convert 10-of-11 free throws for 22 points. He appeared to have little trouble with the defense of Kerry Kittles throughout the opener.
Nets Coach Byron Scott indicated that he will try something different in an attempt to slow down O'Neal, but it is difficult to fathom what that could be. New Jersey used Todd MacCulloch and Aaron Williams for most of the night and turned to rookie Jason Collins in the fourth quarter. None of the trio was especially effective.
Also, despite Martin's 21 points, he made just 7-of-22 shots and missed mostly jumpers. The Lakers' game plan was for Robert Horry to play off Martin and the Nets' forward failed to make the Lakers pay.
Both teams are looking for stronger efforts from their benches.
The Nets received just 19 points from their reserves, who were one of the team's strengths during most of the season. Meanwhile, the Lakers' output off the bench was a paltry nine points.
While Kidd had a triple-double, the Nets had difficulty all game long getting any easy points in transition, a staple of its run to the Finals. New Jersey normally can count on fast-break points, but the Lakers' commitment to walking the ball up the court and setting up its famed triangle offense helped slow the Nets down.
Jackson has never lost a series when his team won the opener. That would make 33 straight and counting.
Safin loses in French semis
PARIS, June 7 (UPI) -- Juan Carlos Ferrero upset second-seeded Marat Safin of Russia in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, on Friday to advance to his first Grand Slam final.
Ferrero, the 11th seed, will meet No. 20 Albert Costa, who defeated countryman and practice partner Alex Corretja, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in the first men's semifinal match.
Corretja will serve as the "best man" at Costa's wedding next week, but Costa was the better man on clay Friday in a match that lasted three hours and 10 minutes. Costa also be playing in his first Grand Slam final.
It marks the second all-Spaniard final at Roland Garros in four years. In 1998, Carlos Moya beat Corretja.
One of only seven players in the Open Era to reach the French semifinals three straight years, Ferrero made the third time a charm. He previously won two five-set matches in the tournament, and eliminated Andre Agassi in the quarterfinals.
Safin, the Australian Open runnerup, was appearing in his third consecutive Grand Slam semifinal. He lost to Pete Sampras in the U.S. Open semifinals last September and was beaten by Thomas Johansson in the Australian Open final in January.
Corretja beat Sebastian Grosjean in the French semifinals last year before losing in the final to Gustavo Kuerten. This time, he was denied his third trip to a French final by Costa, his close friend and Barcelona neighbor, who ousted Kuerten in the fourth round.
"We probably met two million times in practice," said the
18th-ranked Corretja. "In Spanish tournaments, we met about a
thousand more. It's not an easy situation for both of us, but
we are professionals and we went out and did our best."
Actually, Corretja had won seven of the previous 12 meetings with Costa, including five of eight on clay. However, Costa won the last two matches, most recently in the quarterfinals at Barcelona, and followed with his third straight on Friday.
After dropping the first two games, Costa won six of the next seven to close out the first set in a battle of baseliners.
Corretja dropped the second set and fell behind, 3-1 in the third, but won five straight games. Costa then took command again in the fourth set, taking a 5-2 lead.
Corretja held serve after facing two match points, and gained three break points on Costa's serve in the next game, Costa closed it out on his third match point when Corretja hit a backhand that carried wide.
Costa stumbled at midcourt racing for the errant backhand and was covered in red clay when he went to the net to hug the loser.
Corretja often found the net with his forehand groundstrokes and committed 92 unforced errors, compared to 76 for Costa, who last won a tournament in 1999.
The winner of Sunday's French Open final will overtake Agassi for the No. 2 spot in the ATP Champions Race. Safin will remain No. 1, despite his semifinal loss.
Interleague play begins in the majors
NEW YORK, June 7 (UPI) -- A new system of interleague play in the majors starts Friday night, and one of the most intriguing matchups occurs at Yankee Stadium.
Lefthanded slugger Barry Bonds is expected to take aim at the short right-field fence at Yankee Stadium when the San Francisco Giants face the New York Yankees for the first time since the 1962 World Series.
Bonds began the season in seventh place on the all-time home run list, but already has risen to fourth. He tied Frank Robinson for fourth place on Sunday, then moved past him with a grand slam in Wednesday's 12-2 win at San Diego, which brought him to within 73 of his godfather and Giants legend Willie Mays. His blast hit the base of the scoreboard in right field and was the longest hit in Qualcomm Stadium since distances were
first recorded in 1988.
The Giants have won four consecutive games after a four-game slide and are trying to win five straight for the first time since a seven-game run in early May.
The teams have not met since Oct. 16, 1962, in San Francisco, when the Yankees posted a 1-0 victory in Game Seven of the World Series.
Livan Hernandez (5-5, 3.92 ERA) makes his 13th start of the season for the Giants, and is trying to avoid falling under .500 for the first time this year. The Cuban righthander began the season with four consecutive wins and a 2.03 ERA, but is 1-5 with a 4.93 in his last nine outings. He is 0-1 with a 5.68 ERA in two career starts against the Yankees, which came when he was with the Florida Marlins.
The Yankees are 2-4 on their 13-game homestand and have hit a major league-leading 97 homers. Because of a rainout on Thursday, Mike Mussina (8-2, 4.26) makes his 13th start on five days rest. He is second in the American League with eight wins behind Boston's Derek Lowe, who notched his league-leading ninth victory on Wednesday.
Mussina is 5-0 with a 3.91 ERA in six starts since suffering consecutive losses from April 25-May 1. He defeated Boston on Saturday, allowing two runs and five hits in seven innings. The veteran righthander has never faced the Giants.
San Francisco is 43-31 in interleague play and the Yankees are 48-36.
Other games include Robbie Alomar's return to Cleveland when the Indians host the New York Mets; defending World Series champion Arizona at Boston; Florida at Minnesota in a battle of two teams that have been mentioned about possible contraction; and Los Angeles at Baltimore.
Reds get Branyan from Indians
ANAHEIM, Calif., June 7 (UPI) -- The Cincinnati Reds Friday acquired third baseman-outfielder Russell Branyan from the Cleveland Indians for minor league first baseman Ben Broussard.
The addition of Branyan, 26, gives the Reds another home run threat in their lineup, but he never seemed to realize his potential in three-plus seasons with the Indians.
He batted just .251 with 45 homers and 115 RBI in 242 games for the Indians. He showed some promise last year with 20 homers in only 315 at-bats, but struggled mightily this season, batting just .205 with eight homers and 17 RBI in 50 contests.
Broussard, 25, was considered one of the top prospects in the Cincinnati organization, but with Sean Casey locked in at first base, he likely did not have much of a future with the Reds.
He had spent the entire 2002 season at Triple-A Louisville of the International League, hitting .273 with 11 homers and 30 RBI in 57 games.
Broussard, the Reds' second round choice in the 1999 amateur draft, led the Double-A Southern League in hitting last season, batting .320 with 23 homers and 69 RBI for Chattanooga.
To take Branyan's roster spot, the Indians purchased the contract of outfielder Chad Allen from Triple-A Buffalo of the International League.
Allen, who was signed to a minor league contract on May 13, batted .359 with 11 RBI and 11 runs scored in just 16 games for the Bison. The 1996 U.S. Olympian was limited to 63 contests with the Minnesota Twins and the Triple-A Class Salt Lake Buzz in 2001 because of a right knee surgery.
He owns a career average of .275 in 209 games for the Twins from 1999 through last season.
England tops Argentina at World Cup
SEOUL, June 7 (UPI) -- England and Argentina added to their historic rivalry Friday with a fierce 90 minutes of World Cup soccer that was decided by a single blow of the whistle.
That whistle signaled a penalty kick for England in the 44th minute and David Beckham, considered a villain in his home country after the World Cup four years ago, made good on his opportunity.
England went on to down Argentina in Sapporo, 1-0, and moved to the top of its group alongside Sweden as the tournament headed into its second weekend.
Spain, meanwhile, became the first country to clinch a spot in the second round while Nigeria became the second country, along with Saudi Arabia, to be eliminated from contention.
The Spanish ensured they will be a part of the round of 16 by overcoming an early deficit to defeat Paraguay in a Group B match played in Jeonju, 3-1. And Sweden, which earned a 1-1 tie with England earlier in the tournament, recorded a 2-1 decision over Nigeria in Kobe.
The England-Argentina game had been anticipated for months, ever since they were drawn into Group F along with Nigeria and Sweden.
The old rivals played a violent match in the 1996 World Cup in England, which the home team won, and one the event's most memorable games was played between them in Mexico 16 years ago. That one saw Argentina advance thanks to a Maradonna goal that was allowed even though he batted the ball into the net with his hand. The Argentines went on to win the championship.
And four years ago, in the round of 16, Argentina advanced on penalty kicks after Beckham had been sent off for a retaliatory tackle. For that transgression, Beckham was roundly booed in his various club appearances.
But Beckham's efforts during World Cup qualifying regained the hearts of his countrymen and he battled back from a broken foot so he could be a part of this World Cup. In England's first game, a tie against Sweden, Beckham left for a second-half substitute. But he stayed in the entire way Friday night as the English fought off Argentina's relentless second-half attack.
His penalty kick was a powerful blast delivered straight ahead and past goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero, who was leaning to his right in hopes of guessing correctly.
Michael Owen, who hit the left post with a shot earlier in the match, drew the penalty when he was taken down by Mauricio Pochettino.
There were 41 fouls called in the game and Argentina had almost two-thirds of the possession time. But England had far more quality scoring chances and put together a solid defensive effort during the all-out Argentina attack that came during the closing minutes.
Friday's outcomes left England and Sweden atop Group F with four points each. Argentina, which won its first game over Nigeria, has three. The remaining games in the group will be played next Wednesday and England will be favored to down Nigeria to earn its way into the second round. England needs only to earn a draw in that match to advance.
If England does win, the Argentina-Sweden winner will also move on. Sweden would advance if the game ended in a tie. If England loses to Nigeria, it could still advance but only if Argentina beats Sweden and does so by a larger goal differential than Nigeria has over England.
None of those complications remain for Spain, which has a history of underachieving in the World Cup. Four years ago, Spain could not get to the second round and was eliminated in part because of a 0-0 draw with Paraguay.
Fernando Morientes came off the bench to score twice in Spain's win Friday and Francisco de Pedro had two assists. Spain surrendered an own goal to fall into an early hole.
"I'm satisfied that they did their best," Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho said. "The fact we scored three goals against a strong team like Paraguay shows that we did well."
Spain will advance out of Group B and is almost certain to be the winner of the group since it has a goal differential of plus four. If Slovenia and South Africa play to a tie Saturday, Spain will clinch first place in the group with one game left to be played.
That would put Spain up against the runner-up in Group E -- either Germany, Ireland or Cameroon -- in the round of 16 on June 16.
Both of Sweden's goals in its win over Nigeria came from Henrik Larsson -- one of them on a penalty kick.
Larsson's game-winner came after he was brought down in the penalty area by Ifeanyi Udeze in the 62nd minute.
The first of Saturday's matches will find South Africa meeting Slovenia at Daegu. South Africa has one point in Group B and Slovenia has none, so a loss by Slovenia would eliminate it from second-round contention.
Italy will then try to virtually wrap up a second-round spot in a match against Croatia in Ibaraki. Italy and Mexico are tied at the top of Group G with Mexico facing Ecuador on Sunday.
And in the finale Saturday night, Brazil is expected to waltz past China. Brazil won its opener in controversial fashion over Turkey, which will play Costa Rica Sunday.
