Elias Says ...
A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports.
A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports:
NBA
• Will Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony both be able to continue taking shots at their customary paces? Iverson ranked either first or second in the league in field-goal attempts per game in each of the previous eight seasons (1998-99 through 2005-06). He leads the league again this season, but Anthony is right behind him on the list of leaders: Iverson (24.4), Anthony (24.0), Gilbert Arenas (21.8), Joe Johnson (21.4).
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• Iverson is averaging 31.2 points per game this season. Only one other player in NBA history changed teams during a season with his scoring average at 30 points per game or higher at the time. That was Wilt Chamberlain, who was averaging 38.9 points per game when he was traded from the Warriors to the 76ers in Jan. 1965.
• Iverson's career average is 28.1 points per game. Four players in NBA history were traded with a higher career average at the time: Wilt Chamberlain, twice (he was averaging 41.5 points per game in Jan. 1965, when he was dealt from San Francisco to Philadelphia, and 36.0 points per game in July 1968, when he was traded from Philadelphia to Los Angeles); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (30.4, Milwaukee to Los Angeles in June 1975), Oscar Robertson (29.3, Cincinnati to Milwaukee in April 1970) and Bob McAdoo (28.2, Buffalo to New York, in Dec. 1976).
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NFL
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It's the second time in three seasons that Marty Schottenheimer has had a quarterback chosen for the Pro Bowl; Drew Brees earned that honor in 2004. That equals the total of Pro Bowl QBs for Schottenheimer in his 18 previous seasons as an NFL head coach (spanning 1984 to 2003). Bernie Kosar (1987 Browns) and Steve Bono (1995 Chiefs) were his other Pro Bowl quarterbacks.
Bill Parcells also does not have a long list of Pro Bowl quarterbacks. It's only the fifth time in his 19 years as an NFL head coach that he's had a quarterback chosen to play in Honolulu. The other seasons were 1985 (Phil Simms), 1994 and 1996 ( Drew Bledsoe), and 1998 (Vinny Testaverde).
NHL
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Blake also had the last "natural" hat trick by an Islander against any team; he scored three straight goals against Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2003. Blake had only four goals in 29 career games against the Rangers before his three-goal burst on Monday night.
• The Ottawa Senators lost to the Bruins 7-2. It was the fifth time in calendar year 2006 -- and the third time this season -- that the Senators lost a game by a margin of five goals or more, matching their total of such losses from 1999 through 2005 combined. The only NHL teams with as many five-goal losses since Jan. 1 as Ottawa are Washington (eight), Philadelphia (six) and Phoenix (five).
• The Blues jumped out to a 3-0 lead and beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh 4-1. It was only the third game this season in which St. Louis had a lead of three goals or more. That's the league low this season; the Bruins only had three such games before Tuesday, but they scored the first five goals of their game in Ottawa and went on to a 7-2 win over the Senators.
• The Sabres, who dropped a 3-1 decision at home to Ottawa on Saturday, lost 5-2 to the Canadiens in Buffalo on Tuesday night. It marked the first time this season that the Sabres lost consecutive games in regulation time. That leaves Anaheim and Montreal as the only NHL teams that have not gone pointless in two straight games this season.
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• Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier scored his 200th career goal in the Lightning's win in Washington. Lecavalier, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 NHL draft, is the first player from that draft class to reach the 200-goal plateau. The only other 1998 draftee within 50 goals of Lecavalier is Philadelphia's Simon Gagne (the 22nd overall pick), who scored his 177th career goal on Tuesday night.
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• When the Devils' Johnny Oduya scored a goal Tuesday night it marked the first tally by a New Jersey defenseman at even strength in New Jersey's 33 games this season. The last NHL team to go that long from the start of a season without an even-strength goal by a defenseman was the 1964-65 Rangers, who went their first 49 games of that season without such a goal.
• Colorado's 7-6 win over Edmonton was the 12th game in the "new NHL" (i.e., since the start of the 2005-06 season) in which both teams scored at least six goals. There were only six such games in the three seasons prior to the lockout combined (two each in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04).
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MLB
• Brad Radke made his retirement official at a press conference on Tuesday. Radke, whose last major-league appearance was a Game 3 loss at Oakland in the ALDS finale, made 377 regular-season starts in his career, all for the Twins. The only pitcher in major-league history to end his playing career with a postseason appearance after starting at least 300 games, all for one franchise, was Sandy Koufax (314 major-league starts, all for the Dodgers). Koufax's final appearance was a Game 2 loss in the 1966 World Series.







