Sidney Crosby to take next step, cleared to join morning skates

Penguins center Sidney Crosby (FSY) has been cleared to return to Pittsburgh's morning skates on gamedays, but he will not participate in full practices, according to general manager Ray Shero.

Crosby, the Penguins' captain who has been out since Jan. 5 with a concussion, will travel with the team to Florida and take part in the morning skate Thursday before the game vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"It's a natural return for his progression here. His rehab has been ongoing," Shero said. "He's doing well with it, but at the same time, as a manager, I have no expectations of him coming back and playing in the regular season. That's not going to happen."

The next step is a full practice, and then perhaps a return to game action. Pittsburgh hopes to have him on the ice for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The game vs. the Lightning appears like a potential first-round preview.
Crosby began individual workouts on March 14 and has reported no setbacks.
"I just wanted to make sure there's not any miscommunication here as to where we're coming from. There's no strategic plan from myself and (coach) Dan Bylsma (FSY) to reintroduce him in our lineup at any certain day or time," Shero said. "This is a complex injury. I think we all know that. I think we're happy as to where he is in terms of getting back on the ice. His off-ice program is continuing, which is good. That's really where we are."
With a chance to make a statement in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday, the Penguins lost to the Flyers 5-2 at home. Now four points behind the Flyers — and Philadelphia has a game in hand, as well — it's more likely that the Penguins grab the No. 4 seed and gain home-ice advantage over the Lightning.
Crosby had 32 goals and 66 points at the time of his injury. Despite playing just 41 games, he is still the team's leading scorer.
"He's been dealing with this for almost three months. He does know his body well. He knows his injury at this point," Shero said. "My expectation, at this point, is that he's not going to push himself too much, but he'll push himself enough where he feels good. And if he doesn't, he'll pull back a little bit."

Eagles great Bednarik remains in serious condition

Bethlehem native and former Philadelphia Eagles great Chuck Bednarik remained hospitalized Thursday for a still undiagnosed condition that a St. Luke's-Fountain Hill spokeswoman described as "serious."

Bednarik, 85, established himself as an icon in the Lehigh Valley more than half a century ago for his contributions to the Eagles' 1949 and 1960 NFL championship squads. He lives in Upper Saucon Township with his wife, Emma.

"They're still running tests. They still don't know the cause," said Ken Safarowic, Bednarik's son-in-law. "But his heart is as strong as when he was playing, and he is conscious and he just wants to get out of there.

"I'd like to say he's resting comfortably, but I don't know that Chuck can ever rest comfortably. That's just the way he is."

Safarowic also said Bednarik likely will remain hospitalized for a few more days.

"He's tired, but he wants to get out," said Safarowic, who lives in Dresher, Montgomery County.

Bednarik was taken to the hospital originally on Wednesday because of shortness of breath and dizziness.

Before landing in the Hall of Fame in 1967, Bednarik attended Liberty High School before going off to fly bombing missions over Europe in World War II. It wasn't until after the war that he began his college career at Penn.

In his NFL days, Bednarik was best known for being the league's last true two-way player, playing both offense and defense. He was a center and middle linebacker for most of his career, but had stopped playing defense before the start of the 1960 season, which remains the last in which the Eagles captured a league title.

However, he was asked to help out at outside linebacker because of extensive injuries to teammates in 1960. Because of that, he starred in and was the controversial subject of one of the most brutal plays in league history. It was marked by a famous photograph that forever shows him hovering in celebration over New York Giants running back Frank Gifford, knocked unconscious by Bednarik moments earlier to seal an Eagles' victory during the season.

Bednarik has maintained since that day that he wasn't celebrating the hit and hadn't even realized at the time that Gifford had been knocked out.

"We were leading the game," Bednarik said of the hit in a previous interview with The Morning Call, "and Gifford ran a down-and-in route. After he caught the ball, he took two or three steps and I waffled him chest high. His head snapped back and the ball popped loose. It was retrieved by Chuck Weber, and when I saw that, I turned around with a clenched fist and hollered, 'This [expletive] game is over!' "

Nevertheless, Gifford wasn't able to play football again until 1962, Bednarik's last year in the game.

If anything, Bednarik was overqualified for the brutality of yesterday's NFL when he entered the league in 1949.

"I was already a killer," he said of his 30 bombing missions over Europe during World War II.

Bednarik enrolled at Penn immediately after the war and in 1948 became the first lineman to win the Maxwell Award, given to college football's top player. He also finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting that year, leading the Eagles to select him with their top pick in the 1949 NFL Draft.

Ironically, Concrete Charlie, who acquired that nickname because of his second job as a concrete salesman and not because of his legendary durability, missed the first two games of his NFL career with an injury. However, he missed just one more the rest of his fabulous career.

Bednarik and the rest of the surviving members of the 1960 championship team were honored by the Eagles in a special series of ceremonies last fall, culminating with an event on opening day against the Green Bay Packers. That 1960 club is the last Eagles' team to win an NFL title.

Since his retirement, Bednarik has had a love-hate relationship with the Eagles, who have retired his No. 60 jersey.

Bednarik had no time for Leonard Tose, who bought the team in 1961, because Tose snubbed him for the vacant general manager's job.

However, when Dick Vermeil reached out to Bednarik after being named coach in 1976, the relationship was sweet again. After Vermeil left, the relationship soured again until current coach Andy Reid reached out the way Vermeil did when Reid was hired in 1999.

Durant, Thunder frustrate Miami: NBA roundup

MIAMI — Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Russell Westbrook added 18 and the Oklahoma City Thunder frustrated Miami's offence all night on the way to a 96-85 win over the Heat on Wednesday night.

James Harden scored 12 points for the Thunder, who have won five straight.

Chris Bosh had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 21 points and LeBron James finished with 19 for the Heat, who had won three straight and were averaging 114 points in their last two games. The Thunder held them to 38.5 percent shooting from the floor.

It was the first time Durant beat a James-led team in seven career meetings.

Celtics 92, Pacers 80

BOSTON — Jeff Green scored 13 of his 19 points in the second quarter, and Boston coasted past Indiana and moved back into a first-place tie in the Eastern Conference.

The victory left the Celtics and Chicago Bulls (48-18) with the same record in the race for home-court advantage through the conference finals. Boston had lost three of four to fall out of the top spot.

Josh McRoberts had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Indiana. Tyler Hansbrough, who had back-to-back career highs in a pair of victories against the New York Knicks this week, was 4 for 14, scoring 10 and grabbing 11 rebounds.

Magic 93, Bucks 89, OT

MILWAUKEE — Dwight Howard had 31 points and 22 rebounds to lead Orlando to an overtime victory over Milwaukee that wrapped up a winning five-game road trip.

Hedo Turkoglu scored eight of his 19 points in overtime in a game that turned out to be far from easy for Orlando, even though the Bucks were missing centre Andrew Bogut due to a migraine headache.

The Magic went 20 of 35 from the free throw line, with Howard tying a career high with 24 attempts. He made only 13 of them. The misses, as well as two bad plays by Jameer Nelson down the stretch, nearly cost Orlando.

Brandon Jennings scored 23 points and John Salmons scored 20 of his 22 in the second half and overtime.

Mavericks 112, Warriors 106

OAKLAND — Dirk Nowitzki had 34 points and 13 rebounds, and the Dallas Mavericks rallied from 18 points down to beat the Golden State Warriors 112-106.

Jason Terry scored 19 points and Rodrigue Beaubois had 18 to help the Mavericks score 15 consecutive points in the fourth quarter and pull away for the victory. Dallas (48-20) moved into a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for second place in the Western Conference.

Monta Ellis had 26 points and 11 assists, and David Lee scored 22 in another disappointing defeat for a Warriors team seemingly headed for the draft lottery. They built a big lead with an incredible shooting start but couldn't keep pace late.

Dallas came back from big deficits over and over in this one. It was big turnaround from a night earlier, when the Mavericks lost at Portland despite shooting 59 percent from the floor.

Nuggets 102, Hawks 87

ATLANTA — Nene scored 20 points, J.R. Smith added all of his 15 in the fourth quarter, and Denver ran away to another win, beating Atlanta.

It looked as if the game would go down to the wire when Zaza Pachulia flipped in a putback, pulling the Hawks to 72-69 with just over 10 minutes remaining.

But Denver dominated the rest of the way, outscoring the home team 30-18. The Nuggets hardly missed in the fourth quarter, making 12 of 18 from the field -- including four 3-pointers.

Smith knocked down three of those, part of a 6-of-7 fourth quarter after he took only three shots -- and missed them all -- over the first three quarters.

Hornets 100, Suns 95

NEW ORLEANS — Chris Paul had 26 points and nine assists, and New Orleans extended Phoenix's losing streak to four.

Emeka Okafor had 16 points and 11 rebounds for New Orleans. David West added 16 points, including an 18-foot jumper to give the Hornets a 95-88 lead with 29.5 seconds to go.

The Hornets led by as much as 19 in the third quarter but had to hold on against a Suns squad that made 14 3-pointers.

Phoenix was as close as 93-88 when Grant Hill rolled in a 14-footer with 3 minutes left, but New Orleans did not allow another basket until 21 seconds remained, when Jared Dudley, who had 25 points, hit his fifth 3.

Rockets 94, Bobcats 78

HOUSTON — Kevin Martin scored 21 points, Chuck Hayes matched his season high with 17 rebounds and Houston never trailed in a victory over Charlotte.

Chase Budinger scored 19 and rookie Patrick Patterson added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who began the night in 11th place in the West, three games behind Memphis for the final playoff spot.

D.J. Augustin scored 22 and Boris Diaw added 13 for the Bobcats, who've lost nine of the last 11 meetings with Houston. Charlotte came into the game one-half game behind Indiana in the race for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Jazz 119, Timberwolves 104

SALT LAKE CITY — C.J. Miles scored a career-high 40 points and cemented his new starting role as the Utah Jazz cruised to a 119-104 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, giving Ty Corbin his first back-to-back wins as coach.

The game was almost a complete reversal of Friday night's matchup, when the Timberwolves made their first 11 shots en route to a 121-101 rout in Minnesota.

On Wednesday, Miles hit his first seven shots, including four from 3-point range, for 18 points in the opening quarter. His only miss came at the buzzer with a defender in his face.

Kevin Love led Minnesota with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but he got going too late to help the Timberwolves, who have dropped two straight.

Cavaliers 97, Kings 93

SACRAMENTO — Ramon Sessions scored 20 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a rare road victory, 97-93 over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.

Cleveland opened the season by winning three of its first four road games, but had only a March 4 victory in New York since then.

Cleveland, which snapped a four-game losing streak overall, had dropped 28 of 29 road games since Nov. 10.

Marcus Thornton had 23 points for the Kings, who have lost seven of eight. Samuel Dalembert contributed 16 points and 10 rebounds, Francisco Garcia and Beno Udrih both scored 14 points, while rookie DeMarcus Cousins had 11 points and 16 rebounds.

76ers 104, Clippers 94

LOS ANGELES —Jodie Meeks scored 22 points and Jrue Holiday added nine of his 20 in the final 6½ minutes, leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 104-94 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

Elton Brand had 19 points and 12 rebounds, helping the Sixers tie the idle New York Knicks for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Brand played for the Clippers for six seasons and left for free agency as their career rebounding leader and third-leading scorer.

Randy Foye led Los Angeles with 18 points and DeAndre Jordan added 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Arkansas' Ryan Mallett not helping own case with NFL (Herndon)

The NFL combine must have felt a bit odd for Cam Newton. For once, the guy getting drilled about controversial rumors wasn't him.

Newton may have returned from Indianapolis to hear allegations of wrongdoing rehashed anew on talk radio, but he wouldn't trade places with Ryan Mallett this week for $30 million in guaranteed cash.
   
Newton is now being touted as a potential No. 1 overall draft pick -- NFL.com's Charles Davis and the National Football Post have Carolina taking Auburn's Heisman Trophy winner No. 1 in their latest mock drafts.

Finding Mallett in a first-round mock these days is like finding beachfront property in Arkansas.
   
While there have always been questions about Mallett's ball security -- see the ends of the Alabama and Ohio State games -- his stock may have plummeted because of off-the-field issues.
   
Former Rams VP of player personnel Tony Softli posted on the 101ESPN St. Louis website last week that much of the concern about Mallett involves rumors of drug use.
   
"Character and drug use issues are starting to rear their ugly head," Softli wrote. "Heavy rumors of drug use and possible addiction kept him from coming out for the 2010 draft. A lot of people are comparing Mallett to Ryan Leaf."
   
Reporters at the combine asked Mallett about those rumors last weekend, and he sidestepped them like so many hard-charging defensive ends.
   
"I can't control that and that's why I don't really want to talk about it," he said.
   
The questions did not stop, and they won't until draft day in April. But Mallett's performance in the media room isn't what's going to get him drafted next month. It's his performance on the field and in interviews with NFL clubs.

"Like I said, I'm not going to talk about it right now. I've talked about it with the teams. We've discussed it and everything's good."
   
There are no questions about Mallett's arm. He has all the physical tools necessary to be a successful NFL quarterback. But so did Leaf, JaMarcus Russell, David Carr and Kyle Boller.

NFL clubs may overlook character concerns at many positions, but there's a higher risk involved with a quarterback. Committing to the wrong quarterback will ruin a club for several years.

Mallett didn't want to answer tough questions at the combine. But he'd better have good answers for the men doing the drafting or it may be a while before we hear his name called at Radio City Music Hall.

Leon Washington, Seahawks agree to 4-year deal

Leon Washington is getting rewarded for proving he could come back from a gruesome, career-threatening broken leg.

The Seattle Seahawks and Washington have agreed in principle to a new four-year contract after a 2010 season during which Washington was in the discussions for comeback player of the year.

Washington's agent, Alvin Keels, announced on Twitter Tuesday morning that an agreement had been reached in principle between Washington and the team. A Seahawks spokesman said any deal was not yet official.

Washington came to Seattle in a draft-day trade with the New York Jets, but with plenty of questions whether he could return to the Pro Bowl form he showed in New York. Washington sustained a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula in his right leg during a Jets game at Oakland in October 2009.

It didn't take long for Washington to prove he was back. If his sprinting touchdown run during the preseason didn't show Washington still had his burst, his welcome back came in Week 3 against San Diego.

In Seattle's 27-20 win over the Chargers, Washington returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, including a 101-yard sprint to start the second half. He finished that day with 253 yards on kickoff returns, nearly matching Seattle's offensive output of 271 yards.

He was the 10th player in NFL history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game and just the third to have both be for 99 or more yards.

Later in the season, Washington returned a kickoff 92 yards for a score against San Francisco and had a long punt return against Carolina where he was tripped up just shy of the goal line.

Washington tied for the NFL lead with three kickoff returns for touchdowns and averaged 25.6 yards per return, good for eighth in the league. Washington also scored one rushing touchdown. He finished second in All-Pro voting as kick returner behind Chicago's Devin Hester.