MIAMI (Reuters) – Rookie Norris Cole shined for the Miami Heat as they beat Boston 115-107 on Tuesday to maintain their impressive start to the National Basketball Association season and hand the Celtics their second consecutive loss.

The Heat, beaten by Dallas in last year’s NBA finals, dominated for much of the game and led by 15 points at halftime, but the Celtics created some tension late in the fourth quarter and twice reduced the deficit to three inside the final three minutes.

Cole, a surprise draft pick out of Cleveland State, showed great confidence and steel to score 20 points, 14 of them in the fourth quarter and made four assists, proving instrumental in the nervy final moments.

For once, the ‘Big Three’ of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were overshadowed as fans left the arena chattering about the exciting potential of Cole.

“If it was football, he’d get the game ball,” James said of his fellow Ohio native, who came up with a crucial three-pointer to restore a five-point lead just as Boston were sensing an unlikely comeback.

“This kid he’s one of those diamonds in the rough, one of those kids who are very mature and we knew we had a gem in him,” said Wade, who ended up with 24 points and eight assists.

“The biggest thing was to be able to take those shots and not be afraid of the moment, he’s the kind of player who thinks that is what he should be doing.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy has a big decision to make ahead of the defending Super Bowl champions’ final game of the regular season: should he stick with a winning combination or rest his key players ahead of the playoffs?

The Packers (14-1) have already secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs after clinching the NFC’s top seed with a 35-21 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

But having lost their chance of a ‘perfect season’ with last week’s defeat to Kansas City, Green Bay now have nothing at stake for their last game, against divisional rivals Detroit, who have also qualified.

On the surface it appears an easy decision. Give some of the second-string players their chance to shine while keeping the top players away from the risk of injury, ensuring quarterback Aaron Rodgers is healthy and has his full supporting cast available to him when it really counts.

“There is something to be said about trying to finish the season well though…and it would be nice to finish out the season, the way we started with a strong showing in a home game,” said Rodgers, the favorite to win this season’s Most Valuable Player award.

“That being said I think you have to take into account the health of your football team, we have some guys banged up and we will see what Mike says this week.”

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose all shined as the NBA tipped off in style on Christmas Day with some sparkling action putting aside memories of the five month long lockout.

The Miami Heat immediately showed why they are title favorites by beating last season’s champions the Dallas Mavericks, while the New York Knicks enjoyed a surprise victory over the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden and the Chicago Bulls produced a great comeback to beat the Los Angeles Lakers.

The games were part of a five-game opening day to the delayed and reduced 66-game regular season after the dispute between players and owners over a new collective contract ended earlier this month.

When they finally reached a new collective bargaining agreement, that was ratified on December 8, the teams had just 17 days to get their rosters filled, hold brief training camps, complete a couple of warm-ups and get ready for Sunday’s openers.

The opening day quickly gave fans a taste of what was at risk with some great displays from top performers.

The Heat ruined the Mavericks’ championship celebrations with a resounding 105-94 victory led by standout performances from James and team-mate Dwyane Wade in Dallas.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Miami Heat stumbled at the final hurdle last season and for the team’s ‘Big Three’, whose stunning formation transformed the franchise, the 2011-12 National Basketball Association (NBA) campaign simply has to be the year.

All-Stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh came together in dramatic fashion in 2010 as free agents with the explicit goal of bringing multiple NBA championships to Miami.

After a turbulent season where the team faced unprecedented attention and at times extraordinary criticism, Miami advanced to the NBA Finals where they lost the best-of-seven series in six games to the Dallas Mavericks.

By most standards that would be considered an excellent achievement for a team that began the season with a radically altered roster and had little time to adjust to each other’s style of play.

But the Heat are not most teams. They are the team which by bringing together a trio of top players and promising glory, simply has no possibility of accepting second best.

“We didn’t come together to reach the playoffs, to win a playoff series. We came together to win the NBA Finals,” James told reporters during training camp.

James has little choice but to talk big as it would be headline news if the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player were to countenance anything other than the ultimate prize. But for his team mate Bosh, there is justification for confidence.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – Tim Tebow, the most-talked about quarterback in the National Football League, goes up against one of the most successful of the past decade when the Denver Broncos host Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Sunday’s marquee game.

The game is one of many this week with playoff implications as the NFL enters the final three weeks of regular season play, but no matchup is more keenly anticipated than the clash of two AFC divisional leaders.

The AFC East’s Patriots need a win to clinch their place in the post-season while the AFC West’s Broncos are desperate for a victory to keep their momentum towards the playoffs going after winning seven of eight games since Tebow was named starter.

Tebow, the unorthodox, college-style quarterback whose very public displays of religiosity have polarized opinion and whose technique led many critics to write him off as a pro, has simply been the story of the 2011 NFL season so far.

The 24-year-old signal caller is well aware his counterpart in Sunday’s game represents, in many ways, the gold standard in the NFL. After all, Brady has won three Super Bowls, was named the most valuable player in two of the championship games and has earned six Pro Bowl selections.

“He’s a master of so many things at the quarterback position,” said Tebow. “He’s been one of the best in the league for a long time.”

MIAMI (Reuters) – Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross fired head coach Tony Sparano on Monday but his goal of restoring the franchise to their glory days will require much more than a big name replacement.

Poor draft decisions and questionable trades offers a bigger clue to what needs fixing at the Dolphins than merely the disappointing results achieved by Sparano and his staff.

The departure of the passionate Sparano, after four years in charge of the team marks the end, the failure, of the project put in place by former football supremo Bill Parcells.

When Parcells, a two-time Super Bowl winner as a head coach, was appointed executive vice-president of football operations he was charged with turning around a team which had just endured a 1-15 season under Cam Cameron.

Cameron was fired, Sparano hired and Parcells also brought in Jeff Ireland, who like Sparano was part of his team at the Dallas Cowboys.

Parcells also ferried in a number of former Cowboys assistants and specialist coaches onto the Dolphins staff.

In 2008, the first year of the new regime, Miami won the AFC East division to reach the playoffs where they lost in the wildcard round to Baltimore.

MIAMI (Reuters) – LeBron James became the man U.S. sports fans loved to hate when he left Cleveland for the Miami Heat last year and many celebrated when he stumbled in the NBA finals, losing to the Dallas Mavericks.

Prior to the 2010-11 National Basketball Association (NBA) season, James bragged about multiple championships for Miami’s ‘Big Three’ but was heckled after his first attempt to win one with his new team fell short in June.

But this year at the Heat’s annual media day in the American Airlines Arena, the two-times NBA Most Valuable Player was not talking about proving critics wrongs or silencing the boos.

With the wrangling of the NBA lockout now over, James looked and sounded relaxed, appearing more at ease with himself than at any time since he left his home state of Ohio for South Florida.

“It was a tough season for myself. If I look at my numbers over the course of the whole season, I played pretty well, but I wasn’t who I was, it was a tough transition – coming here, going through what I went through, it was something different. But I will learn from it and I am back to who I am now,” James told a news conference on Monday.

“I always had to prove myself. It may have looked like it was easy but it was never easy, knowing where I came from, you had to prove yourself every day growing up where I grew up.

“Last year was one of the first years where I said – ‘OK, I’m going to prove everybody wrong’ … I was just so blinded, so out of whack. You try to do so many things that you kind of forget who you are and what got you to that point.”

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Miami Dolphins fired head coach Tony Sparano and named assistant coach Todd Bowles as his replacement on an interim basis, the National Football League (NFL) team said on Monday.

Sparano led the Dolphins to an AFC East title in 2008, his first season in charge, but that proved to be his only winning season and Miami has been unable to return to the playoffs.

Miami are last in the AFC East with a 4-9 record with three games remaining in the regular season and Sparano’s position has been vulnerable after a 0-7 start to the 2011 NFL campaign.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told a news conference that a “thorough search” would begin to find the team’s next head coach and confirmed that Bowles would be interviewed for the post.

“When I purchased the team I said there was nothing more important to me at all than being a winning team and bringing back the glory to Miami that it had in the past,” said Ross.

“There has been a lot of distraction, a lot of speculation over whether Tony will stay or go and I think, in the interests of the football team and the development of this team, that this is the time that we need to make a change.”

Ross also confirmed that general manager Jeff Ireland would remain in his position.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Houston Texans and New Orleans Saints both booked their spots in the National Football League (NFL) playoffs with wins on Sunday while the unbeaten Green Bay Packers secured a first-round bye with their 13th win.

The Texans (10-3) wrapped up the AFC South division title with a 20-19 comeback victory at the Cincinnati Bengals to clinch their first playoff berth since joining the league in 2002.

The Saints (10-3) advanced with a 22-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans while the Packers crushed the Oakland Raiders 46-16 to earn the luxury of skipping the first round of playoffs but lost top wide receiver Greg Jennings to injury.

The reigning Super Bowl champions were untroubled against the Raiders and were able to rest quarterback Aaron Rodgers after he threw for two touchdowns and 281 yards.

Green Bay led 31-0 at the break and pulled Rodgers in the third quarter with the outcome already beyond doubt and coach Mike McCartney perhaps worried about another injury to go with the loss of the influential Jennings.

Rookie quarterback T.J. Yates set up the win for the Texans with a six yard touchdown pass to Kevin Walter with just two seconds left on the clock. The conversion sealed Houston’s seventh straight victory.

Houston trailed 16-3 at halftime and were 19-13 down with just 2:21 left when Yates led a 13-play drive from his team’s 20 yard line to complete the comeback.

MIAMI (Reuters) – If a run of three home wins suggested the Miami Dolphins had turned the corner after their miserable 0-7 start to the season, Sunday’s 26-10 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was a reminder of the team’s limitations.

Talk that head coach Tony Sparano’s future at the team might be saved after last week’s win over Oakland is likely to be muted after the Eagles made nine sacks and won with relative ease after scoring 24 points in the second quarter.

The Dolphins also had quarterback Matt Moore knocked out of the game with a head injury leaving them in the latter stages with J.P. Losman.

Crucially, Miami’s offensive line struggled without the presence of tackle Jake Long who was injured early in the game.

“Jake’s our cornerstone out there, to be missing him means an uphill battle from there on,” said guard Richie Incognito.

Not for the first time, Sparano’s players defended him.

“I don’t know that you could say that he has done a bad job,” said linebacker Kevin Burnett. “You look at everything that has happened around this organization, he has done a good job with this team.