Knees

Kentucky's basketball team received the news it dreaded when freshman forward Nerlens Noel was declared out for the season because of a torn ligament in his left knee. Noel tore his anterior cruciate ligament on Tuesday night when No. 25 Kentucky lost at Florida. An MRI test revealed the injury, and the 6-foot-10 forward will have surgery in the next two or three weeks. The projected recovery period is six to eight months. :: Defending champion Roger Federer cruised into the second round of the ABN AMRO tournament, beating Grega Zemlja , 6-3, 6-1, at Rotterdam, Netherlands.

  Kentucky freshman center Nerlens Noel suffered a knee injury during the Wildcats' 69-52 loss to the Florida Gators on Tuesday. Noel, who was expected to be among the top picks in the 2013 NBA draft, collided with the base of the basket, hyperextending his left knee. You can watch the incident above, but it's not pretty. Noel screams in agony throughout the video. He was carried off the court by teammates Archie Goodwin and Julius Mays and then taken to a hospital.

A bruised right kneecap kept Chris Paul from playing in nine consecutive games recently for the Clippers, and it bothered him to miss that much time. But Paul already knew what could happen if he came back too soon. Paul first injured the knee on Jan. 12 against the Orlando Magic. He sat out three games, returned and played in two more before reinjuring the knee against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 21. And even when Paul returned to the court Friday night against the Miami Heat, he wasn't quite the same player, his rust showing after being out for 17 days.

MIAMI - Chris Paul will get to his knee in a minute. First it's time to discuss the reason his hand was patting Eric Bledsoe on the rear the previous night, with the Clippers' understudy point guard showing his mentor he's ready for a starring role. "I tell people all the time," Paul said of Bledsoe, the emerging talent who scored 27 points during a victory Wednesday over the Orlando Magic, "he's a starter in this league coming off our bench. " Paul then shifted to why his feet scurried over to referees during a second-quarter timeout in the Magic game, the savvy spokesman contending that Matt Barnes shouldn't have received a technical foul for throwing the ball off the basket stanchion and pointing out that Barnes wasn't upset with the officiating.

LAKERS AT BOSTON When: 5 PST. Where: TD Garden. On the air: TV: TNT; Radio: 710, 1330. Records: Lakers 23-26; Celtics 25-23. Record vs. Celtics (2011-12): 2-0. Update: After losing Rajon Rondo because of a season-ending knee injury, the Celtics are 5-0, including victories over Miami and the Clippers. The Celtics continue to hold off Philadelphia for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Lindsey Vonn will miss the rest of the ski season after crashing during the super-G at the world championships Tuesday in Schladming, Austria, and being airlifted to a hospital. Vonn tore her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in her right knee and has a lateral tibial plateau fracture, according to a statement by U.S. ski team medical director Kyle Wilkens on the team's website. The injury ends Vonn's quest this year for a fifth overall World Cup title.

All it took was a moment. Lindsey Vonn landed hard and tumbled face first with a piercing shriek. Just like that, her season was done. The star American skier was on the ground with two ligaments in her right knee torn, a bone in her lower leg broken. The cascading fall down the slope during the super-G at the world championships at Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday knocked out the four-time World Cup champion for the rest of the season. The U.S. team said in a statement it expects her back for the next World Cup season and the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which start a year from this week.

More shocking than Tuesday's news from Austria that American alpine star Lindsey Vonn had suffered a major right knee injury during a race was the official word that Vonn is expected to be back in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Expected back as what, an official greeter in a walking cast? Then again, maybe it isn't that shocking. Maybe they all know Lindsey Vonn. Maybe she told doctors she would be back as they were airlifting her off a mountain in Schmalding, Austria. How do you doubt Lindsey Vonn?

A Southern California surgery center charged teacher Lynne Nielsen $87,500 for a routine, 20-minute knee operation that normally costs about $3,000. Despite the huge markup, the Long Beach Unified School District and its insurer, Blue Shield of California, paid virtually all of the bill from Advanced Surgical Partners in Costa Mesa. Blue Shield mailed the $84,800 check to the high school Spanish teacher last month and told her to sign it over to the surgery center. Nielsen said she was outraged and refused to send the check.

When: 5 PST. Where: Target Center. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 980, 1330. Records: Clippers 33-13, Timberwolves 17-24. Record vs. Timberwolves (2012-13): 2-0. Update: Blake Griffin has become the man for the Clippers with Chris Paul out with a bruised right kneecap. Griffin averaged 23.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.2 steals in five games last week. He is the first player since LeBron James, from April 3-9, 2005, to average 23-plus points, nine-plus rebounds, six-plus assists and two-plus steals when playing five games in a single week.