Pat Riley

Cavaliers: Despite shooting 29.6 percent (21-for-71) from the field, Cleveland went to the foul line shot 36-for-43 on free throws in its 85-78 loss at New York on Monday night. The Cavaliers' 21 field goals were just two above the NBA record for the fewest, held by Indiana in 1985 and San Antonio in 1997.Lakers: Los Angeles won its fourth straight game with a 97-91 victory at Phoenix on Monday night. Los Angeles is now 3-0 under new coach Kurt Rambis and 4-0 since Del Harris was fired.Nets: Keith Van Horn's last-second basket gave New Jersey a 99-97 victory over Boston on Monday night, ending the Nets' six game losing streak.

Although he never came out and said he was going to retire, Los Angeles Lakers vice president Jerry West sure sounded like a man ready to walk away from his job when he held a news conference last week. The question for the Lakers now is if West walks away, will Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant follow?Agents for both players said last week that West has been such an integral part of the organization that each would consider other options if West departs. O'Neal can opt out of his seven-year contract next year, and Bryant will become a free agent after next season.

As he spoke of the previous meeting against the Chicago Bulls, Washington Bullets forward Juwan Howard called it "a game we should have won." When the name Michael Jordan later came up, Howard didn't even want to be a part of the discussion."

A delegation from the Miami Heat -- led by coach and team president Pat Riley -- met with Juwan Howard and his agent for three hours early yesterday in an attempt to persuade the free-agent forward to head south.The Heat was the last team to meet with Howard during the initial rounds of talks, which began with the Bullets on Thursday evening and ended with a session with the Heat that ended at 5 a.m. yesterday.Miami is the team with the most money to spend during the free-agent sweepstakes (a reported $13.1 million)

NEW YORK -- After four seasons during which he led the New York Knicks from mediocrity to the brink of an NBA championship, Pat Riley resigned yesterday as the team's coach, citing philosophical differences with management over the scope of his power.Madison Square Garden president Dave Checketts said he was surprised by the reasons Riley gave, calling them "unfair" and "not factual."It was a sudden, confusing conclusion to one of the most successful eras in Knicks history."While the decision was extremely difficult and was made with great soul-searching and sadness, I am convinced that this is in the best interest of both parties," Riley said in a statement released by a public relations firm.

Fact: Cal Ripken is 62 games shy of retired Hiroshima Carp third baseman Sachio Kinugasa's world record of 2,215 consecutive games played. Barring rainouts, injuries and work stoppages, Ripken would tie the record on June 12 at Detroit and break it on June 13 at Kansas City.Opinion: My Final Four prediction (clip 'n' save): Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, UConn.Fact: Says sports agent Jack Sands: "I have represented over 300 players in the last 25 years, people like Ozzie Smith and Carlton Fisk and Dwight Evans, extraordinarily fine people on and off the field.

PURCHASE, N.Y. -- For four years, Pat Riley has preached total commitment and devotion to the team concept and to his vision of how a National Basketball Association title can be won.On Monday, Riley said it was time for his New York Knicks to give as they've never given before, because the alternative is a quick exit from the playoffs."

This is starting to get serious.The Washington Bullets were picked to finish last, they have no superstar and they won only 24 games last year.And look what's happening.This team -- and its No. 1 draft pick, Juwan Howard, is still unsigned -- started with a win over Orlando.Oh, boy, take that, Shaquille O'Neal. Shame on you, Magic.Then the Bullets went to Chicago and won. OK, maybe Da Bulls didn't take the game seriously enough, but the Bullets' record was then 2-0.Next came the only game the Bullets have lost -- and the one they should have won.They blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead and lost to Philadelphia, one of the NBA's weakest teams.

Lenny Wilkens, who in his first season with Atlanta guided the Hawks to a 57-25 record, an improvement of 14 games over last season, was rewarded yesterday with his first NBA Coach of the Year Award.His team won Atlanta's first Central Division title since 1987 and tied the New York Knicks for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The 57 wins tied a franchise record and made Wilkens the second coach to surpass 900 career victories."I never thought we'd be that successful, but felt I could make a difference," he said.

Things are settling down in Charlotte, where the young Hornets have recovered from their 1-2 start and regained their voices.Of course, it was a little slow there for a while with the $84-million man, Larry Johnson, dragging his right leg around like Chester in "Gunsmoke."Johnson hurt himself with a bit of typical exuberance, tomahawk dunking in a charity game, stressing a disk in his back. When he returned, his leg was so weak he could barely dunk. He went five games before he had one last week against the Boston Celtics.

So maybe instant karma isn't gonna get you. The Food Court Lunch blog proposes the idea that "what goes around, comes around" doesn't seem to apply when it comes to sports and lists several examples of "karmic anomalies." Here are some of them: * Phil Mickelson: "Three majors wins. Thirty-four PGA Tour wins. Perhaps the greatest left-handed golfer ever. And, by all accounts, a monumental [a word here that can appear in b, but not here]. So annoying, in fact, that he makes Vijay Singh seem palatable."

Pat Riley has no definitive plans to go anywhere, dismissing published reports that he was leaning toward vacating his coaching role with the Miami Heat after the season to focus on his front-office duties. Riley said before Miami's game last night against the Milwaukee Bucks that he was being philosophical when talking about the dual roles he holds, and about potentially stepping aside. "I always re-evaluate," Riley said. "I'm one of those guys, a good old Irish Catholic who worries a lot, so I re-evaluate all the time.

Good morning -- Pat Riley -- When you get that surgery, will you receive a designer artificial hip?

Bruce Springsteen was blaring through the speakers. "Come on up for the rising," the Boss crooned. And in the middle of a packed Dallas hotel ballroom early yesterday morning, Pat Riley, sore hip and all, danced with joy. That was the song played in the Miami Heat's home arena just before tip-off of every NBA Finals game, a song Riley referenced often around his team, part of the never-ending motivational ploys that, at long last, carried the Heat to...

Pat Riley kept saying it wasn't about him. The coach and vice president of the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat hasn't been wrong about much this season, even if the way he got to where he is has a lot of wrong about it. But on the night the team he built finally reached the NBA Finals, he was wrong about whose victory this really was. It was a win for Shaquille O'Neal - but Riley pulled the trigger on one of the great thefts of all time, from...

Depending on the whims of Charlotte Bobcats coach/president Bernie Bickerstaff, something remarkable could happen on the NBA sidelines this offseason. Nothing. A league that changes coaches more often than the Heat changes playoff color schemes could wind up returning each of the 30 who ended the season on the bench. Almost all of those in the most tenuous positions - from Golden State's Mike Montgomery to Atlanta's Mike Woodson to Toronto's Sam Mitchell to Minnesota's Dwane Casey to Seattle's Bob Hill - have received recent votes of confidence.

Once upon a time - actually, thrice upon a time - Pat Riley walked away from a team he had coached to the very top, or near it, at least partly because the players he had pushed to the limit had tired of having their buttons pushed so hard and so often. Riley wasn't the first, or last, coach to sense that his message, after having delivered it at such an intense pitch for so long, was being tuned out. He was one of the first to acknowledge it, though. Most recently, he copped out two years ago when he quit the Miami Heat four days before the season began, saying the team "needs a new voice, a new energy, a new philosophy."

"It's not only great players who have trouble walking away from the game. Great coaches do, too. ... There is no rational explanation for a 60-year-old to delay hip surgery and put his house plans on hold so he can try and convince a group of pampered millionaires to play harder than they have been." Tim Dahlberg Associated Press, on the coaching return of Pat Riley (above) "I would go to battle with T.O. any day of the week. A lot of people don't understand him." Freddie Mitchell Former Philadelphia Eagles receiver, on his ex-teammate, Terrell Owens

Good morning --Pat Riley -- Taking over the Heat should bring you back to your playing days - people are calling it a force-out. Question of the day Should Orioles players express their displeasure by asking to be traded? No one has a more pressing right to question the Orioles' commitment to winning than a blue-chip player like Tejada. It's like hiring a top mechanic to work on a race car. Only, after he signs the contract, you present him with a Swiss Army knife and tell him that's his toolkit.

MARYLAND Murder trial to go to jury Attorneys finished closing arguments yesterday in the weeklong trial against Nakie Harris, 30; Richard Royal, 21; and Terrence Smith, 24, who are charged with murder, conspiracy and witness intimidation in an attempt to kill Harwood Community Association president Edna McAbier Jan. 15. pg 1B Three teens killed in fire Keedysville and nearby Boonsboro High School are in mourning after a fire Sunday tore through a...