Sports 2000

The NBA regular season began Tuesday. Boston won at Cleveland, 95-89. Washington beat host Dallas, 102-91. Portland defeated visiting Houston, 96-87. The Lakers held off the Clippers in a battle of Los Angeles, 99-92.

Philadelphia rolled to a 27-7 lead at Washington Monday then cruised to a 27-17 victory. The Eagles improved to 4-2 while the Redskins sank to 2-5.

The LPGA is expected to announce Wednesday that Michael Whan, currently the president and CEO at Mission-ITECH Hockey, will be its new commissioner. Whan once worked at Taylor-Made and Wilson. Whan replaces Carolyn Bivens, who was ousted by players this summer.

The NBA exhibition season ended Friday but the league’s officials have agreed to commissioner David Stern’s terms for a new collective bargaining agreement. The officials will meet in New Jersey Saturday to begin a weekend minicamp before the regular season starts Tuesday. The lockout ends after a month. Replacement officials worked every exhibition game. Apparently, union referees don’t need a training camp.

Rickie Fowler and Greg Owen share the 36-hole lead at the PGA Tour event in Scottsdale. The second round of the Castello Masters will be finished Saturday. Robert Allenby and Martin Kaymer are tied for the lead so far.

Calgary (9-6-1) clinched a CFL playoff spot by thrashing visiting Edmonton (7-9), 30-7. Hamilton (7-9) defeated host Toronto (3-13), 26-17.

Rutgers (5-2) dispatched host Army (3-5), 27-10, tonight. College basketball is a week into practice but it’s hard to get motivated to follow basketball until after football season.

Detroit dismissed Indiana, 72-56, and Phoenix ran past Los Angeles, 103-94, to claim 1-0 series leads in the WNBA conference finals. Indiana and Phoenix will each host Game 2 Friday.

Bobby Cox will retire as Atlanta’s manager after next season. Cox is the winningest manager in Braves history. He managed Toronto before starting his 20-year stint in Atlanta.

Houston fired manager Cecil Cooper last week. Cooper was 171-170 in his 25 months at the helm. About two weeks remain in the season.

NCAA President Myles Brand died last week. He is probably best known for firing basketball coach Bob Knight when he was president of Indiana University.

The NHL regular season begins Oct. 1. NBA training camps are about to start with replacement officials set to work exhibition games after negotiations with the officials’ union collapsed earlier this week.