Marcin Gortat

At least this time Alex Rodriguez wasn't accused of tipping pitches against his own team. A-Rod and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira confronted ESPN analyst and former Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe on Tuesday for his comments two weeks ago that they thought suggested Rodriguez fed Teixeira verbal signs informing him of the catcher's location before a pitch. "Me, Alex and him talked about it," Teixeira told the New York Daily News.

Given their rich heritage, the Lakers can't really view Game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight as anything more than just another big night out. On the other end of the basketball spectrum, well, the Orlando Magic can actually make franchise history at Staples Center. And maybe it had better. The Magic is still looking for its first-ever Finals victory. Sure, it has played in only one other title round while the Lakers are making their 24th Finals appearance in Los Angeles.

Tony Parker scored 23 points and Matt Bonner hit five three-point shots and the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Utah Jazz, 106-102, Monday night in Salt Lake City for their 11th consecutive victory. Richard Jefferson's three-pointer with 6.5 seconds left sealed the victory for the Spurs, who have not lost on the road since Jan. 29 in Dallas. San Antonio is 7-0 on a nine-game trip. Al Jefferson had 20 points and Paul Millsap 16 for Utah, which fell below .500 for the first time since Jan. 2. The Spurs kept the NBA's longest win streak alive despite injuries to Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter, both expected to miss two weeks.

Not news: an English soccer team, up for sale. News: an English soccer team, up for sale on EBay. Fans of Tranmere Rovers were bemused to find their club up for sale on the popular online auction site, a move prompting an angry response from owner Peter Johnson. Earlier this year, Johnson appointed American firm Dornoch Capital to find a buyer for the club but said on Friday he was shocked to discover it had been listed on the website for 6 million pounds (about $10 million U.S.).

Reporting from Phoenix -- The Lakers didn't play at Staples Center, so it was easy to predict what happened Sunday. They lost to the Phoenix Suns, 102-90, trailing by as many as 27 points at US Airways Center and falling to 5-11 on the road. Kobe Bryant's numbers looked good from afar (32 points, seven rebounds, five assists) but he committed an unsightly 10 turnovers and made only one of eight three-point attempts. Overall, he made 11 of 24 shots. The turnovers were the second-most in Bryant's career, trailing only the 11 he logged in a January 2008 game against Detroit.

Christmas, the cruelest season. . . . It wasn't the Lakers, Heat or Magic who dominated the early going, but those oft-written-off hoary veterans, the Celtics. As usual. From the last four openers to Christmas Eve, Boston has gone an astounding 94-14 . . . a 71-win pace. Not even the Bill Russell teams that won 11 titles in 13 seasons ever did as well in that time frame. The Celtics' best four-year opener-to-Christmas Eve run in the Russell era was 94-26 from 1959-1962.

Blake Griffin and Kevin Love , All-Stars. . . . Duh. Fittingly, if surprisingly, Griffin made it as a rookie and a Clipper . . . if one capable of averaging 27-14-4 last month . . . over Love, LaMarcus Aldridge , Lamar Odom , Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay . That left Love, who may be the first 20-15 player since Moses Malone in 1983, as the best non-All-Star ever, until the NBA named him to replace Yao Ming ...

GOLDMEMBER 1. MIAMI (46-14)    Like Dr. Evil, Magic Johnson must boost $1-million offer to LeBron James. (1) NUMBER 2 2. SAN ANTONIO (48-15)    Spurs' success despite injuries means only Gregg Popovich is indispensable. (2) 3. OKLAHOMA CITY (46-16)    Protective cup sales “Serge” nationwide after low blow to Blake Griffin. (3) 4. DENVER (42-22)    Kosta Koufos dunk around Blake Griffin is payback for Timofey Mozgov. (5) 5. CLIPPERS (44-20)    Hey, Charles Barkley: Matt Barnes is as soft as industrial-grade carpet.

PHOENIX -- It was bad enough that the Clippers just couldn't make any shots, but what made it worse was that they couldn't get any defensive stops when it mattered most. As a result, the Clippers suffered one of those bad losses, by a 93-88 score, to a Phoenix Suns team that just fired its coach and has the second-worst record in the Western Conference. On a Thursday night at US Airways Center when the Clippers made just 40.2% of their shots, they also saw another of their All-Stars get injured.

Brazil won the FIFA Confederations Cup for the second time, beating Argentina, 4-1, Wednesday night behind two goals by Adriano at Frankfurt, Germany. Kaka and Ronaldinho also scored for the defending World Cup champions, who played the tournament without top forward Ronaldo, who was taking a break after his Spanish league season with Real Madrid, and other stars such as Roberto Carlos and Cafu.