Young drove in 112 runs for the Twins in 2010

As his teammates prepared Friday evening for their series opener at Yankee Stadium, Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom, accused cheap louis vuitton sunglasses of a hate crime. Police said he used an anti-Semitic slur against four men and tackled one of them. Young, 26, was intoxicated during an early morning physical confrontation with the men outside the Hilton New York along Sixth Avenue, Detective Joseph Cavitolo, a New York police spokesman, told the Free Press. The misdemeanor charge — aggravated harassment — is punishable by up to a year in jail. The charge was submitted as a hate crime "because of a belief and perception regarding … religion (and) religious practice," according to the court document filed Friday night. Just before he was released on a $5,000 bond, Young issued a statement apologizing and saying he wants to "improve myself as a person and player." "I sincerely regret what happened last night," Young's statement read, which was released through his attorney, Daniel Ollen, and a New York-based public relations firm. "I apologize to everyone I affected, the Ilitch family, the Detroit Tigers' organization, my teammates, my family and the great Tigers fans that have supported me since Day One," the statement continued. "I take this matter very seriously, and assure everyone that I will do everything I can to improve myself as a person and player." Young's statement did not specifically address the allegations. Ollen, his attorney, also released a statement, saying, "There are many false allegations" in the case. "I am confident that the legal process will separate fact from fiction and discredit these reports," it read. According to police, the confrontation began about 2:30 a.m. after a group of four men spoke with a panhandler wearing a yarmulke outside the hotel. "They have a discussion, and the panhandler leaves," Cavitolo told the Free Press. According to court documents and police, the anti-Semitic slur and the physical exchange came next: Words were exchanged between Young and the men, at which point Young allegedly said, "You bunch of (expletive) Jews." Taylor OK'ed phrasing> Young, listed at 6 feet 3 and 240 pounds, pushed and shoved one of the men, then tackled him to the ground, causing minor injuries to the man's elbow. Young then followed the man, 32, into the hotel's lobby. It was not immediately clear whether the man, who refused medical attention, is Jewish, Cavitolo said. Called to the scene, police interviewed witnesses and the victim. A short time later, police said Young was sent to a nearby hospital because he was intoxicated. He was returned to police for fingerprinting and paper work. He was escorted into a police car from the building — amid a knot of reporters — about 11 a.m. As details of the allegations developed during the day, the Tigers officially said little, citing club policy not to comment on pending legal matters. At Yankee Stadium, manager Jim Leyland deferred all questions about Young to Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers' president and general manager, who was expected to talk before the game but didn't. Asked how the incident might affect his lineup, Leyland louis vuitton lady vest wouldn't address the question, simply stating that his lineup was already posted outside the clubhouse. He had inserted Don Kelly into leftfield — Young's position — and he used newcomer Brad Eldred as his designated hitter. Because of the pending legal situation and alleged involvement of alcohol, none of Young's teammates would address the matter, either. For those same reasons, Major League Baseball is unlikely to suspend Young or take any other disciplinary action — at least until the legal issues are resolved. Baseball precedent, however, suggests that Young likely will go through professional evaluation in the sport's Employee Assistance Program. This probably will be similar to what baseball had Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera do after his drunken driving arrest in spring training last year. "We are looking into the situation, but because it is a police matter, we cannot comment further," said Pat Courtney, spokesman for Major League Baseball. On Thursday night, the Tigers traveled to New York after a 1-6 home stand. They are staying at the Hilton New York on Sixth Avenue — also known as the Avenue of the Americas. The hotel is a favorite spot for professional sports teams. Only five blocks north of Times Square, the hotel is one of the city's largest. By day, it bustles with tourists and the business activity of Midtown. By night, it is home to dozens of sidewalk food vendors, many of them selling chicken kabobs and halal food. One vendor, who wanted to remain nameless, said that, on most nights, say between 2:30 and 3 a.m., especially from Thursday to Saturday, patrons spill from nearby bars and pubs and queue up at the trucks, looking for something hot and spicy. The food vendors set up on both sides of Sixth Avenue at 52nd Street, just across from the hotel entrance. The Tigers acquired Young from Minnesota on Aug. 15 in their push to win the American League Central. The deal sent minor leaguer Cole Nelson and a player to be named (another minor leaguer, Lester Oliveros) to the Twins. Young played leftfield for the Tigers, homered in his first at-bat and helped boost the offense down the stretch as the Tigers won their first division title since 1987. In 40 games, he drove in 32 runs and hit eight home runs. In the playoffs, he added five more homers. In the off-season, the Tigers signed Young to a one-year contract worth $6.75 million. He will be a free agent after this season. Dombrowski said after the 2011 season: "It's not a priority" to try to sign Young to a multi-year deal during the off-season. "We want him to be with us (longer) and get a feel for him. He only joined us for a short time. We would rather have him be with us and go from there." Young drove in 112 runs for the Twins in 2010, with 21 homers and a .298 average, but he had only 32 RBIs in 84 games in 2011 before he was traded to the Tigers. So far this season, Young has batted fifth, behind superstars Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Like most of his teammates, Young has struggled at the plate in recent weeks. He is hitting .242 with only one homer and five RBIs in 18 games. He went a combined 0-for-10 with two walks in his last three games, all losses to the Seattle Mariners. Young, a right-handed hitter born in Montgomery, Ala., was the No..1 pick in the 2003 draft, selected by Tampa Bay. He received notoriety for an April 2006 incident in the minor leagues. After a called third strike, he whipped his bat and hit the umpire on the arm. He was Louis vuitton for women shoes 2012 new arrival on sale black suspended 50 games. Young's older brother, Dmitri, played five seasons for the Tigers. The club let him go less than a month before it made the playoffs in 2006.

By looking at specific neurons in this part of the brain

Birds are famously good navigators. Some migrate thousands of miles, flying day and night, even when the stars are obscured. And for decades, scientists have known Louis Vuitton shoes, cheap louis vuitton sunglasses sale, 60% off that one navigational skill they employ is an ability to detect variations in the earth’s magnetic field. How this magnetic sense works, however, has been frustratingly difficult to figure out. Now, two researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Le-Qing Wu and David Dickman, have solved a central part of that puzzle, identifying cells in a pigeon’s brain that record detailed information on the earth’s magnetic field, a kind of biological compass. “It’s a stunning piece of work,” David Keays of the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna wrote in an e-mail. “Wu and Dickman have found cells in the pigeon brain that are tuned to specific directions of the magnetic field.” Their report appeared online in Science Express on Thursday. Kenneth Lohmann at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who also studies magnetic sensing, said in an e-mail that the study was “very exciting and important.” Navigating by magnetism includes several steps. Birds have to have a way to detect a magnetic field, and some part of the brain has to register that information; it seems likely that another part of the brain then compares the incoming information to a stored map. The Baylor researchers have offered a solution to the middle step. They identified a group of cells in the brainstem of pigeons that record both the direction and the strength of the magnetic field. And they have good, but not conclusive, evidence to suggest that the information these cells are recording is coming from the bird’s inner ear. Dr. Dickman said this research “is still something we want to pursue.” They did not work on the third step, but Dr. Dickman said a good candidate for the location of that map was the hippocampus, the brain region involved louis vuitton brooch in memory of locations in both birds and humans. A well-known and often-mentioned study of London taxi drivers showed that experienced drivers with a mental map of London had a hippocampus larger in one area than people without their experience. In some birds that hide seeds and return later to their caches with astonishing accuracy, the hippocampus grows and shrinks seasonally, presumably as they map their hiding spots. Efforts to understand the magnetic sense in birds have gone in several directions. Some researchers have offered evidence for chemical reactions in the eyes sensitive to magnetic signals, while others have looked at neurons in the beak containing minute amounts of magnetite, a mineral that is affected by magnetic fields. Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Keays and colleagues reported in the journal Nature that the idea of neurons in the beak was a nonstarter. There were indeed cells with magnetite, but they were not neurons. The magnetic sense remained a mystery. The Baylor researchers did a kind of step-by-step tracking of what areas in pigeons’ brains were responding to variations in an artificial magnetic field that they created. They focused on activity in the brainstem, one of the most primitive parts of the brain, partly because in earlier work they had shown that this area of the brain received signals from a part of the inner ear. By looking at specific neurons in this part of the brain, the researchers found that the bird’s orientation determined which neurons were active. Each neuron was tuned to respond to signals from one direction. The neurons also registered the strength of the magnetic field. Other brain regions are also active in response to magnetic stimulation and may be involved in the magnetic sense, Dr. Dickman said. And although he does not provide an answer to how birds detect magnetism, the research clearly falls on one side of a debate over whether magnetite is involved, or whether chemical reactions in the eye may be the key. Dr. Keays said the research gave strong support Louis vuitton shoes discount for women sale outlet to the magnetite idea and the hypothesis that “a population of undiscovered magnetoreceptive cells reside in the pigeon’s ear.” As Dr. Lohmann said, the discovery “will no doubt inspire much additional work in the future.”

The originator is probably the same changing wind patterns

Most of the ice being lost from Antarctica is going louis vuitton sunglasses as a result of warm water eating the fringes of the continent, scientists say. The researchers used a satellite laser to measure the thinning occurring on ice shelves - the floating tongues of ice that jut out from the land. The team's analysis found the shelves' shrinkage could not be attributed simply to warmer air temperatures. Rather, it is warm water getting under the floating ice to melt it from below. This is leading to a weakening of the shelves, permitting more and more ice to drain from the continent's interior through tributary glaciers. Previous studies have already indicated that warmer waters are being driven towards the continent by stronger westerly winds in the Southern Ocean. The researchers say the new understanding has major implications for their ability to reliably project future sea-level rises as a result of Antarctic ice loss. "What we realise now is that we're looking at a very sensitive system," Dr Hamish Pritchard, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told BBC News. "Previously, you would have thought that we needed a lot of warming in the atmosphere to get a substantial loss of ice from Antarctica - because it's such a cold place. But louis vuitton men bags what we show is that that's not necessary; you don't need radical change. "All you need are quite subtle changes - such as a change in the winds - and that can produce effects at the edges of Antarctica that then lead to a loss of a lot of ice." The research is published in the journal Nature but has also been presented here at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, Austria. Weaker shelves Pritchard's team used the laser altimeter on Nasa's Icesat spacecraft to map the changing thickness in 54 ice shelves around Antarctica. The survey incorporated some 4.5 million data points between 2003 and 2008. The researchers draw on modelling work and information from a range of other studies to explain the thinning observed by Icesat. Twenty of the shelves were assessed to be being melted from below by warm ocean currents. Most of the 20 are in West Antarctica, and show thinning up to seven metres per year. In every single case, the glaciers on land that feed into these shelves have recorded accelerated movement over the same period. This will have drained many billions more tonnes of ice into the ocean, contributing to sea level rise. The explanation, simply put, is that the shelves Classic lv sunglasses outlet 2012 new sale online discount no longer have the strength to impede glacier flow in the way they once did. "When ice shelves completely collapse - and we've seen that before - the grounded glaciers behind them will speed up; we know that," explained co-author Helen Amanda Fricker of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, US. "But what this study is showing, which is very new, is that you don't need to lose the shelf entirely for this to happen; just a reduction in the thickness of the ice shelf is enough to allow more of the grounded ice behind it to flow off the continent." Future scenarios One key tell-tale that warm water is at the root of the thinning is shape of the sea-floor. Some of the greatest melting has been seen where deep troughs cut across the continental shelf, allowing the water easier access to the shelves' undersides. The picture is not uniform all around Antarctica. Indeed, on the peninsula - the long stretch of land pointing towards South America - the shelves show a different set of thinning symptoms, which very probably can be tied to a warming atmosphere. But again, the originator is probably the same changing wind patterns. "Strong westerlies go up over the chain of the peninsula mountains and these winds descend, they warm up, melting the surface of the shelves on the eastern side. So, although we have two different melting mechanisms, the ultimate cause is the same - it's the wind," said Dr Pritchard. Colleague and co-author Prof David Vaughan said the research provided new understanding to help scientists gauge the likely impact of future ice loss on ocean height. "This is one study within a programme called ice2sea, which is a European Union-funded programme that's aimed at improving our projections of sea-level rise. "The idea is that we go and study some of the processes that are causing ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to change, and that allows us to improve the models burberry ties for projection of future sea level rise." The ice2sea project will be releasing its projections into the 21st and 22nd centuries later this year.

LA police officers hit him more than 50 times with their batons

We saw his face a bloody, pulpy mess. And in 1992, when the four Los Angeles police officers who beat him after a traffic stop were acquitted, it touched off louisvuitononline anger that affected an entire generation. Now, 20 years later, this is the face of Rodney King, and this is what has happened to him in the interim. He's been a record company executive and a reality TV star among many other things. To millions of Americans, though, he will always be either a victim of one of the most horrific cases of police brutality ever videotaped or just a hooligan who didn't stop when police attempted to pull him over. He's indisputably the black motorist whose beating on a darkened LA street led to one of the worst race riots in American history. It's been an up-and-down ride for King since he went on television at the height of those riots and pleaded in a quavering voice, "Can we all get along?" He's been arrested numerous times, mostly for alcohol-related crimes. In a recent interview with The Associated Press he said, "I still sip, I don't get drunk." He has been to a number of rehab programs, he said, www.louisvuitononline.com including the 2008 appearance on "Dr. Drew" Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab" program. Still, he was arrested again just last year for driving under the influence. It was his fear of being stopped for drunken driving on March 3, 1991, King said, that initially led him to try to evade police who attempted to pull him over for speeding. After he did stop, four LA police officers hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of it and turned a copy over to a local TV station. After a jury with no black members acquitted the officers on April 29, 1992, the city's black community exploded in rage. Fifty-five people died, more than 2,000 were injured over three days. King received a $3.8 million settlement from the city, but said he lost most it to bad investments, among them a hip-hop record label he founded that quickly went broke. He makes money these days taking part in events like celebrity boxing matches. He's also promoting his just-published memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption." A tall, physically imposing man who is disarmingly louis vuitton online friendly, self-effacing and soft-spoken, King, 47, maintains he is happy. "America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all," he says. "This part of my life is the easy part now."

It is due continue its science observations until 2017

It is like a huge snowball fight and it is taking cheap beats by dr dre place in the outer Solar System around Saturn. Scientists working on the Cassini probe have witnessed small clumps of ice ploughing through one of the gas giant's main rings - its F-ring. As they plunge through, the km-sized ice balls leave glittering trails behind them referred to as mini-jets. Some of these collisions trace quite exotic shapes Monster Beats Studio MLB Milwaukee Brewers in the F-ring that look like barbs on a harpoon. The research has been presented here at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, Austria, by Carl Murray, a Cassini imaging team member based at Queen Mary University of London, UK. The F-ring is the outermost of Saturn's main rings. It is located 3,000km beyond the bright A-ring and has a circumference approaching 900,000km. The Cassini imaging team had been watching the 40km-wide Prometheus moon dance along the edge of this ring for some time. The moon's gravitational perturbations regularly produce channels and ripples in the F-ring, and it was known some of the disturbed ice particles could clump together. But it was assumed collisions or tidal forces in their orbit around Saturn would soon break these clumps apart. "We know that Prometheus, as well as producing louis vuitton shoes regular patterns, is capable of producing concentrations of material in the ring," Prof Murray explained to BBC News. "We just call them large snowballs, and if these things can survive - because Prometheus will come around to the same part of the F-ring again and interact with them again - they may grow, and maybe these are what form the moonlets that collide with the core of the F-ring." Cassini's archive of pictures would certainly seem to suggest they can survive and play their own game in the F-ring. The discovery was somewhat lucky. It was while observing Prometheus one more time that Prof Murray and colleagues noticed a jet in the ring that could not have been formed by the moon or by a quasi-moon referred to simply as S6, which is known to cross right through the ring gucci sunglasses on occasions. And when the team examined 20,000 images stretching back over Cassini's seven years at Saturn, the researchers found 500 examples of similar rogue jets. System simulation It is clear the ice balls collide with the F-ring at slow speed - about two meters per second. The jets they produce in their wake are about 40-180km long. In some instances, it is the jets of lone rogues that are seen. In other cases, there is evidence that groups of ice balls have ploughed through the F-ring en masse to produce a series of jets. Saturn's rings are composed primarily burberry outlet of water ice. Although the rings extend some 140,000km from the centre of the planet, their average thickness is far less than 100m. Apart from their great beauty, scientists are fascinated by the rings because they can be used as a model to study Solar System formation. Some of the behaviours seen in the rings are probably very similar to the ones that occurred in the disc of material that collected around the infant Sun more than four and a half billion years ago, and which eventually gave rise to the planets, Saturn included. "The rings of Saturn are simply our closest example burberry bags of an astrophysical disc," Prof Murray told the BBC. "We're trying to understand the processes going on in Saturn's rings because they're direct analogues for processes that went on in the early history of not only our Solar System but other planetary systems as well. "These are discs of gas and louis vuitton handbags dust where larger objects form and start influencing the material around them, and then the whole system evolves." Cassini is a cooperative mission between the US, European and oakley sunglasses Italian space agencies. The spacecraft entered into orbit around Saturn in 2004. It is due continue its science observations until 2017, when it will then be commanded to destroy itself in the atmosphere of the gas giant. Scientists are keen to avoid any chance Buy beige burberry watches discount on sale 2012 fashion that parts of Cassini will end up on Saturn's moons Enceladus or Titan (targets of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life) and contaminate them with any Earth bugs that have survived all these years on the spacecraft.

I played with him when he came back to Texas

There's no doubt about how Ranger fans fell about now retired catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. That affinity for the 10-time Gold Glove backstop was more than apparent before Beats by dr dre, cheap monster beats headphones outlet Monday's series opener with the New York Yankees. But some say the true mark of a player's impact has on the game is in what his peers say about him. And like the fans, Pudge definitely left a lasting impression on not only those he was teammates with during his 21 seasons in the majors, but also on those he played against. And for a number of current members of the Yankees, including skipper Joe Girardi, seeing one of the greatest catchers to ever don the chest protector call Monster Beats Studio Manchester United it quits had them waxing philosophical about how great Rodriguez truly was. "Tremendous player, one of the greatest catchers of all time. It was enjoyable to have a chance to play against him, for a short time to manage him," Girardi said before Monday's game in Arlington. "It's remarkable what he did on the offensive side, seeing that he played here in the heat that he had to deal with on a consistent basis-2,800 plus hits as a catcher is amazing." Not only is the current New York manager a former catcher himself, but he also has the somewhat perspective of having managed him in 2008, one year before he returned for a second stint as a Ranger. And when asked to specifically name what he remembers most about Rodriguez's short time in the South Bronx, he didn't hesitate in the least. "Just how he went about his business [is what I remember the most]. He was very professional. He worked very hard and he was prepared. He did what you want from a starting catcher," Girardi said. The Yankee skipper also admits that in all his years in and around the great game he has never seen another catcher quite like the man known as Pudge. "Obviously he had great athletic ability back there. I think he could have played other positions," Girardi said. "He was extremely athletic, like Russell [Martin] in a sense, just put up good numbers year after year." However, it isn't just the man guiding the Bronx Bombers who offered kind words about what kind of player Rodriguez was in his over two decades in the show, some of the heavy hitters louis vuitton shoes on the Yankees, including several players who are locks to join him in the hallowed halls of Cooperstown in the near future, also weighed in. When many think of the recent history of Yankee baseball, they think of Derek Jeter and Pudge was definitely someone No. 2 continues to hold in the highest regard. "He had a great career. He could really change games from the catching position because he'd shut down running games. We didn't even try to run on him," Jeter said. "But he could do it all. He could hit, catch, played every day. He's going to go down as one of the greatest catchers of all time." Of course, the perennial All-Star shortstop savored his short time as Rodriguez's teammate in 2008, but he also remembers some pretty epic battles with Pudge. "We had some battles there when he was in Texas. When he was with the Marlins, we played them in the World Series [in 2003]," Jeter said. "He was a teammate for a little while, so there's a lot of stories. He's one of those guys I think when you retire, you sit back and say you had the privilege to play with him." Like Jeter and Rodriguez, Yankee closer gucci sunglasses Mariano Rivera is also a lock to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame once he decides to hang up the spikes. And like his teammates, the New York reliever has nothing but great things to say about his career. "Pudge was one of the elite catchers in his time. What he did was be the best at that position. He was able to do it for so many years and do it well," Rivera said. "We had him as a teammate. It was late [in his career]. Pudge did his thing and his presence on the field was notable. His will and desire to do the right thing, that's what you admire. He's special." Former Ranger and current Yankee outfielder Andruw Jones was never teammates with Rodriguez in New York, but he and Pudge did share the Ranger clubhouse for the tail end burberry bags of the 2009 season, a time the native of Curacao remembers fondly. "I played with him when he came back to Texas, a great guy. I knew Pudge from way before, playing against him and as a personal friend. He was always a great worker and he's a future Hall of Fame catcher," Jones said. "I wish him well. I know he wanted to reach that goal of 3,000 hits, but sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to go. But I wish him well and wish him the best. He's just a great person." Current New York catcher Russell Martin was with the Dodgers in 2008, when Rodriguez was a Yankee. And even though he didn't grow up aspiring to spend the bulk burberry outlet of his time behind the plate, he remembers Rodriguez as being someone who made the position of catcher quite appealing to him as a youngster in his native Canada. "The best way I can explain it, he was just someone that was fun to watch for me. I wasn't necessarily a fan of catchers growing up as a shortstop and a center fielder. But he was a catcher that was fun to watch and I don't remember another one that I thought that was," Martin said. "So that says a lot right there." And since Rodriguez was louis vuitton handbags someone he grew up watching, one aspect of Monday's pregame ceremonies the New York backstop was particularly looking to was seeing the highlight video the Rangers played before first pitch. "That's always cool. Hopefully they'll show some videos of him, what he was able to do back in the day. He's a guy that had a rifle from behind the plate and he made stuff happen on offense as well. He was an exciting offensive player and it'll be fun to see the fans and how they react to him. That's going to be pretty cool," Martin said. But there was one final Yankee to weigh in on Rodriguez and how he impacted the game. Eric Chavez might only be in his second season with the Bombers, but during his 13 seasons oakley sunglasses in Oakland, he got more than a little acquainted with the talented catcher. "Yeah, he was definitely a game changer, that's for sure. Probably him and [Mike] Piazza were the two best offensive players at the catcher position. Pudge just controlled the running game, completely shut it down, saved a lot of runs," Chavez said. "We'd always talk about he liked the pick off, so we wouldn't get good secondary leads. He did a lot more behind the plate than a lot of catchers could do." However, when he was asked if he'd ever been gunned down trying to steal or picked off by Rodriguez, he smiled before offering a quick explanation. "No [he never picked me off], because we Cheapest louis vuitton men t shirts sale white 2012 made it a point not to do it. We weren't a running team in Oakland anyway but we made sure that we were careful on the bases," Chavez said. "We just knew we weren't going to run that night."

Raikkonen's Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean was third

LeBron James had 32 points and eight rebounds, louis vuitton shoes Norris Cole added 16 points and the Miami Heat pulled away in the final minutes to beat Houston 97-88 on Sunday night and eliminate the Rockets from postseason contention. Mike Miller scored 11 for injury-depleted Miami, which still has a mathematical chance of catching Chicago for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Joel Anthony added 11 for the Heat on 5-for-5 shooting. Chandler Parsons scored a career-high 23 for Houston, which led by as many as 13 in the first half. Parsons tied the game at 83 with a layup late in the fourth, before gucci sunglasses James' 3-pointer sparked an 8-0 run. Manu Ginobili scored 20 points to lead San Antonio to its seventh consecutive victory, beating Cleveland. The Spurs (47-16) moved 1½ games ahead of Oklahoma City, which lost to the Lakers earlier Sunday, in the race for the best record in the Western Conference. A victory over Portland on Monday would secure the top spot in the West for the Spurs, who own the tiebreaker over the Thunder. Cleveland (21-42) lost for the fourth time in its last five games despite the Spurs giving Tim Duncan the night off. With the playoffs right around the corner, the 35-year-old Duncan was the only active Spur not to play. CHARLOTTE, N.C. DeMarcus Cousins had 29 points and 10 rebounds, and Sacramento handed Charlotte its 20th consecutive loss. The Kings had lost nine of their previous 10 games, but this one was never in doubt as they scored 78 points in the paint and led by as many as 35 in the fourth quarter. Tyreke Evans was dominant while slicing his way through a non-existent Bobcats defense, hitting 10 of 11 shots from the field and finishing with 22 points. Kemba Walker had 13 points and 11 assists for burberry outlet the Bobcats, who are nearing the NBA record for futility. If the Bobcats (7-56) lose their final three games, they'll finish with the worst winning percentage in league history. AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Reserve Ben Gordon scored 19 points, including the go-ahead basket, to help Detroit beat Toronto. Gordon's 3-pointer with less than 3 minutes to play broke a 68-all tie and he added four subsequent free throws to keep Detroit ahead. Rookie Brandon Knight also had 19 points to help the Pistons end a two-game losing streak. DeMar DeRozan had 16 for the Raptors, who lost their third straight. MINNEAPOLIS — Charles Jenkins had 24 points and nine assists while playing all 48 minutes to rally Golden State from a 21-point deficit to beat Minnesota. Brandon Rush scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter and also grabbed nine rebounds. Klay Thompson scored 17 points for the Warriors, who snapped an eight-game losing streak. Nikola Pekovic had 19 points and 16 rebounds, and JJ Barea had 14 points and 12 assists in all 48 minutes for the Timberwolves, who announced earlier that All-Star power forward Kevin Love would not play the final two games of the season because of a concussion. DENVER — JaVale McGee scored 17 points, throwing down a half-dozen dunks in the second half, and Denver pulled away to beat Orlando. Danilo Gallinari also scored 17, Arron Afflalo had 15 burberry bags and Ty Lawson 13 for the Nuggets, who swept the two-game season series with Orlando, avoiding the Magic's injured Dwight Howard both times. Ryan Anderson scored 24 points for the Magic, who lost their third straight. Glen Davis added 14 points for Orlando, which also lost guard Jameer Nelson to a calf injury. He left the game in the first quarter and did not return. The sun shined brightly on Denny Hamlin at Kansas Speedway. At the most opportune of times, too. Hamlin's car hooked up after the final pit stop Sunday, just as the sun broke through on an overcast afternoon, and he powered by Martin Truex Jr. for the lead. Hamlin then managed to hold off a late charge by Truex to win for the second time this season. "Whether it was coincidence or not," Hamlin louis vuitton handbags said, "our car definitely felt better when the sun came out. I felt the car lost a lot of grip, but I guess a lot of guys did." It was the Joe Gibbs Racing driver's first win at Kansas. "I felt all day I was behind the 56, and his car looked so superior to the whole field, and we just needed some kind of change -- the weather, an adjustment -- to make something happen," Hamlin said, smiling. "And we got both of them." Pole-sitter and South Bay native AJ Allmendinger placed 32nd, completing 257 laps in his Penske Dodge. He led the first 44 laps at the 11/2-mile oval but had problems with the fuel injection system. "It's just starting to feel like 'Groundhog's Day,' " he said. "I know I'm not the only one here frustrated. We all are. ... Our car was fast out front, and then the gremlins hit us." Jimmie Johnson was third for Hendrick Motorsports, which oakley sunglasses has failed in 14 tries to win the team's 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (seventh) and Kasey Kahne (eighth) also finished in the top 10, while Jeff Advertisement Gordon had engine trouble late and placed 21st. "I was just watching from the third spot, hoping those guys would give me an opportunity," Johnson said. "I just wish I was closer to those guys to race for it." Hamlin's best finish at Kansas had been third last year, and for most of Sunday he was content to ride around during long green-flag runs out of the spotlight. His car Cheapest louis vuitton men t shirts sale white 2012 kept getting better with each stop, though, and his Toyota finally took off at the end. Just as the sun finally poked through on an unseasonably cold day. "They didn't panic," team owner J.D. Gibbs said. "They paced themselves, and I'm glad the sun stayed out a little at the end." Truex dominated most of the day, leading 173 laps (out of 267). It was his third top-five finish of the season, but he's yet to win in 175 races. "Sorry guys, I lost this one for you," a despondent Truex radioed to his Michael Waltrip Racing team. Truex said his final set of tires cost him. He was monster beats the loosest he'd been all race, and that allowed Hamlin to charge into the lead. Formula One: Two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel held off Kimi Raikkonen to win the Bahrain Grand Prix, as the race was held without disruption by anti-government protests that turned violent in the days before the event. Pole-sitter Vettel led from start at the 3.36-mile Sakhir course for his first win of the season. Raikkonen worked his way up from 11th on the grid to finish 3.3 seconds behind for his first podium finish since returning to F1 this season. Raikkonen's Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean was third, followed by Vettel's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber. The race, which was canceled last year because of the unrest in the divided Gulf nation, had been overshadowed most of the week by clashes between riot police and anti-government demonstrators. The race itself, though, was held without a hitch, but because of the fears of trouble, the grandstands were half empty. Vettel's ride to his 22nd F1 win was fairly incident-free, as well. "It was an incredible race," said Vettel, who averaged 120.733 mph for 57 laps. "We had a very good start. I was able to pull away from the pack." It was a historic day for Lotus, as Raikkonen showed he Monster Beats Studio NFL San Francisco 49ers can still compete despite taking a two-year hiatus from F1 to compete in rally driving. "We gave ourselves a chance," said Raikkonen, the 2007 champion.