My Sports News Digest

And they beat the reigning Super Bowl champions to do it. Matt Hasselbeck passed for 272 yards and four touchdowns, Marshawn Lynch gave a playoff thriller its ultimate highlight with an impossible 67-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, and Seattle held on for a 41-36 win over the New Orleans Saints in a Wild Card game Saturday. The Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record — the first time a losing team has ever made the playoffs — but they scored 17 straight points in the first half to overcome an early deficit and held on against Drew Brees and the Saints.

It was Kobe Bryant’s late jumper that put an end to the Lakers three game slide on Tuesday night.

With just 1.9 seconds left Bryant hit a 17-foot jumper taking the Los Angeles Lakers to a 109-107 victory over the Toronto Raptors. This ended what was the Lakers longest losing streak this season.

The Raptors totally outplayed the defending champions through most of the three-quarters up until Bryant’s heroic shot in the fourth. Chris Bosh hit a 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds left to bring the game to a tie. Then Bryant eluded Antoine Wright’s defense getting the ball on the wing and moved nearly to the baseline for the jumper.

Bryant, who scored 14 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, saved the Lakers’ win but hopefully he won’t need to again in the run up to the finals.  He showed his disappointment after the game and called the victory over the Raptors “garbage” and made it clear he wasn’t impressed that he was required to bail the Lakers out yet again. They definitely need the whole team to defend their NBA Championship title.

 On Sunday, the San Antonio Spurs put an end to the Phoenix Suns five-game winning streak. Despite a 41-point and 12-rebound performance from Amare Stoudemire of the Suns, San Antonio beat them 113-110.

This is the Suns second loss since the All –Star break. Could they be on the slide? Jason Richardson had a helping hand in their defeat when he, embarrassingly, missed the perfect opportunity to bring them to a tie. With 40 seconds left to play he mistimed a dunk, there was no one blocking him and his one-handed slam bounced off the rim to the shock of his teammates.

It was a great day for the Spurs. Tim Duncan had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Manu Ginobili also scored 21, including 11 points in the fourth quarter and Tony Parker, who had just returned after missing their loss at Houston on Friday due to illness, added 16 points.

The Spurs meet New Orleans tonight and are 3.5 point favorites and currently have 74% of the betting volume on the spread at LinesMaker. Last night was the Spurs second win in their last five games. Phoenix had won 11 out of their last 13. Despite being one of the top scoring teams in the league, LinesMaker has the Suns odds of winning the NBA Championship at +6000.

The AFC took down the NFC at the Sun Life Stadium, Miami in the 40th edition of the Pro Bowl. The NFC was a 3 point favorite to win at LinesMaker and took 76% of the betting volume. The 41–34 victory was clinched with Tennessee’s Chris Johnson who ran for a late touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

Members of the Colts and Saints were unable to take part in the Pro Bowl this year which was moved from its usual slot a week after Super Bowl to the week prior. Pro Bowl players from the Super Bowl teams such as Peyton Manning and Drew Brees watched from the sidelines.

It was Houston’s Matt Schaub who got the AFC to a quick and early lead with a 33 yard hook-up to Johnson just over 3 minutes into the game and then another touchdown pass to Denver’s Brandon Marshall. He finished with 189 yards on 13-of-17 attempts and took home the MVP award. 

The game saw a lot of big plays including AFC replacement, David Garrard, throwing for 183 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown to Vincent Jackson. Jackson himself made seven catches for 122 yards and Chad Ochocinco had a 40-yard reception. DeSean Jackson scored on a 7-yard pass from Rodgers and a 58-yard pass from Donovan McNabb, his regular quarterback with the Eagles.

Coming into Sunday’s game angainst the Jets, the Chargers were heavy 7.5 point favorites. Betting action action was pretty even against the spread at LinesMaker but the consensus was that the Chargers were pretty much a lock to win outright. It was not be, however, as the Jets forgot to follow the script and shocked most everyone with an upset victory.

With San Diego down 17-7, Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding missed a 40 yard field goal with 4:38 remaining in the game. The Chargers did score a touchdown with 2:14 left, but on the ensuing onside kick they were unable to recover the ball. The Chargers could not stop the Jets from getting a first down and watched as the clock ran down on their season and Super Bowl hopes.

Jets rookie running back Shonn Greene came through with a 100+ yard performance for the second straight playoff game. He had 23 carries for 128 yards and a touchdown. His 53-yard touchdown is the longest postseason run in Jets franchise history and gave New York a 17-7 lead with 7:26 left on the clock in the fourth quarter.

Brett Favre connected for four touchdowns and Ryan Longwell kicked three field goals in leading the Vikings in a convincing 44-7 victory over the New York Giants.

Favre completed 25 of 31 passes for 316 yards with no interceptions in under three quarters of play. He reached 4,000-yards passing for the sixth time in his career and set an NFL record by throwing 30+ touchdowns in a season for the ninth time.

Eli Manning passed for 141 yards for the Giants. New York’s only score was on a one yard run by Danny Ware in the fourth quarter.