Sports

MIAMI—Dwyane Wade did something the NBA hadn’t seen in more than 31 years. It still wasn’t enough to take down the sharpshooting Toronto Raptors.
Andrea Bargnani scored a season-high 25 points, and Jermaine O’Neal added 16 points and 17 rebounds, as the Raptors were 8-for-8 on three-pointers in the second half to overcome Wade’s huge effort and beat the Miami Heat 101-95 last night.

PITTSBURGH—The Bengals are coming off the NFL’s first tie in six years; the Steelers are only a few days removed from the league’s first 11-10 game since, well, never.
With little time for either team to recuperate or prepare, might something curious happen again when AFC North rivals Cincinnati (1-8-1) and Pittsburgh (7-3) play tonight? Like, perhaps, the Bengals actually making a game of it?
The NFL brags anything can happen on any given Sunday, but this is only Thursday, so maybe that’s too much to expect.
Then again, maybe not.

Roberto Luongo showed his Vezina Trophy-winning form in a match-up between two of the NHL’s top goalies.
Henrik Lundqvist? Not so much.
Alex Burrows scored two of Vancouver’s five goals against Lundqvist as the Canucks feasted on turnovers last night in a 6-3 victory over the host N.Y. Rangers.
The match-up of Vezina Trophy favourites Lundqvist and Luongo fizzled as the New York netminder was gone 5:33 into the second period after allowing five goals on just 17 shots.
“You never know in this game,” said Luongo, who made a season-high 39 saves. “Things happen.”

DETROIT — It would be hard to find better value anywhere in hockey.
The Detroit Red Wings are set to release $9 tickets for some of their December and January games. The defending Stanley Cup champions will put the tickets on sale Friday with a limit of four per customer.
The Red Wings are currently third in home attendance this season with an average of 19,753 over seven games at Joe Louis Arena. That’s about 98 per cent of capacity.
Detroit will play 13 times on home ice over the next two months.

VANCOUVER — George Taylor has accomplished a lot in his life.
He was a varsity athlete, a lawyer, a member of Ontario’s provincial parliament and eventually the province’s solicitor general.
He’s received countless certificates, awards and plaques for his achievements, and he’s had dozens of photographs taken at dozens of important events.
But there’s one photo he always makes sure has a spot on the wall — one of him carrying the torch for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.—Phil Dawson wasn’t about to quit during Cleveland’s latest fourth-quarter meltdown. Turned out, neither did the rest of the Browns.
With a confident nod to coach Romeo Crennel, Dawson went out and calmly hit a career-long 56-yard field goal with 1:39 left that sent visiting Cleveland to a 29-27 win over the Buffalo Bills last night

Tracy McGrady feels like he’s back to square one with a troublesome left knee that gave out on him again. At least his Houston Rockets seem able to pick up the slack if he’s going to be sidelined.
Luis Scola scored 23 points, and Yao Ming added 19 points and 12 rebounds, as Houston made a second-half surge without its injured seven-time all-star to beat the host Oklahoma City Thunder 100-89 last night.
Off-season pick-up Ron Artest also had an injury scare, but the Rockets still had enough firepower to hand the tumbling Thunder their eighth-straight loss.

The Ottawa Senators’ offensive woes continued—and they weren’t alone as Canadian teams mustered a measly four goals in four games in NHL action last night.
The Senators reunited the potentially potent line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza before yesterday’s match against the host N.Y. Rangers, but it made little impact as Ottawa fell 2-1 in a shootout.

It turns out the Toronto Raptors have some depth at point guard.
Will Solomon filled in for an injured Jose Calderon yesterday and had 15 points and 11 assists, leading Toronto to a 107-96 win over the Miami Heat that snapped a two-game losing streak.
“I was happy. Will knows what he’s doing, he’s a professional,” Chris Bosh said after the game. “We were behind him, we gave him a lot of support coming in, and we didn’t make a big deal out of it, we weren’t in his face like, ‘Will, you’ve got to do well,’ we just said, ‘Play ball, we’re supporting you.’

LANDOVER, Md.—Tony Romo celebrated the go-ahead touchdown pass by bouncing up and down like a little kid and patting teammates on the back with his left hand—carefully avoiding any further damage to his heavily-wrapped right pinkie.
A few minutes later, Terence Newman celebrated a fourth-down stop by running around with both arms outstretched—like a child imitating an airplane.
Romo and Newman were back last night, and so are the Dallas Cowboys, who put themselves firmly back into the NFC playoff race with a 14-10 victory over the Washington Redskins.