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Wimbledon 2013: Time, TV schedule, live streaming for Sunday's matches
Jeff Burton gets caught up in a last lap accident, finishes 16th at Daytona
NASCAR Daytona 2013: Kurt Busch finishes sixth, moves into top 10 in points
Sympathy for the Pulis
NASCAR Daytona 2013 results: Jimmie Johnson completes Daytona sweep
NASCAR Daytona 2013: Late wrecks take out Patrick, Hamlin, Gordon, Kenseth, others
NBA Free Agency: Bucks agree to 3-year deal with Zaza Pachulia
Dan Connor arrested at Philadelphia International Airport

Wimbledon 2013: Time, TV schedule, live streaming for Sunday's matches

Posted: 07 Jul 2013 03:00 AM PDT

The women's singles final is in the books and a crazy two weeks at Wimbledon is about to wrap up. On Sunday, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic will take on No. 2 seed Andy Murray for the men's singles championship, and the match should be plenty exciting.

Djokovic and Murray both managed to avoid being upset like many of the other top seeds. Both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were eliminated very early on this tournament.

In the semifinals, Djokovic won a marathon against No. 8 seed Juan Martin Del Potro, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7-2), 6-7(6-8), 6-3. Del Potro recently beat Djokovic in the Olympics, so when he evened things up to force a fifth set many wondered if that might be the end for the No. 1 seed.

Murray had a tough time in the quarterfinals against Fernando Verdasco, relying on a comeback from a two-set deficit to earn a spot in the semifinals against No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz. Murray bested Janowicz after losing a tiebreak in the first set. Murray eventually won 6-7(2-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Sunday's matchup promises to be exciting, with many picking Djokovic.

If you're watching on television, you can tune into ESPN at 9 a.m. ET. Their coverage runs through 3 p.m., at which point ABC will air an encore of the finals matchup. If you prefer to watch online, there's WatchESPN.com if you qualify, in addition to Wimbledon's official live video page.

Jeff Burton gets caught up in a last lap accident, finishes 16th at Daytona

Posted: 07 Jul 2013 01:15 AM PDT

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Despite getting caught up in the final accident of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, on the last lap, Jeff Burton limped his damaged Kwikset Chevrolet across the line in the 16th position.

Burton consistently ran near the 20th-25th positions all afternoon, unable to make a lot of ground in the draft, after starting the race in 17th.

Prior to the race, Burton expressed concern that drivers would struggle to pass and that was certainly the case for the No. 31 team, causing team owner Richard Childress, crew chief Luke Lambert and Burton to agree that riding in the back to avoid the crashing would be the way to proceed.

After surviving the first three accidents, Burton had finally placed himself in position to perhaps score a top-10 but the final accident included the No. 31 and Burton was unable to fully navigate the carnage.

Rode around all night to hopefully miss the wrecks Got in one anyway. #plateracing
— Jeff Burton (@RCR31JeffBurton) July 7, 2013

Burton exited the car unharmed but immediately walked off to his motorhome and left the track, promising to catch-up with SB Nation via a follow-up interview over the next few days.

The race continued the trend of competitive cars, derailed by accidents and misfortune. Burton remains outside of the top-20 in the championship standings and is looking for wins to hop back into wild card contention.

The race is over but bonus content from the weekend at Daytona International Speedway will continue over the next few days so check this space often.

Onwards to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Daytona 2013: Kurt Busch finishes sixth, moves into top 10 in points

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 10:35 PM PDT

Kurt Busch escaped the numerous wrecks that collected so many others and was rewarded with a sixth-place finish in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

More importantly, the finish moved him up five spots in the standings to ninth overall and put him in position to claim a spot in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.

"That's awesome to have a good run like that and stay out of trouble and post a nice top 10," Busch said. "We've made little mistakes here, there, and everywhere. When we start putting it together, it's now starting to bear the fruit and we've moved our way into the top 10 in points. So that's pretty cool."

In his first season with Furniture Row Racing, Busch started the year slowly and at one point was ranked as low as 29th. But beginning with a third at Charlotte there has been a dramatic uptick in performance for the single-car No. 78 team.

Including his sixth Saturday night at Daytona, Busch has amassed five finishes of sixth or better in his previous seven starts. He is also now the highest in points he has been since the penultimate race of the 2011 season and this is the highest Furniture Row has ever been this late in the year.

What Busch has yet to do, however, with Furniture Row is win. Although he has come close several times this season, his winless streak sits at 60 races heading into next week's event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"We have a long way to go, and yet we still are getting better," Busch said. "I'm just real proud of these guys and the effort that we've put forth and just a big thanks to Barney Visser (team owner) and Furniture Row and Chevy and everybody that's on board.

"It's great. We're there, but we've still got a bit of work to do."

Sympathy for the Pulis

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 10:00 PM PDT

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of managerial dismissal. There's the straight-up sacking, which tends to follow an unsustainably poor series of results or the irretrievable loss of a dressing room. Then there's the upgrade, where the man in situ isn't exactly failing, but is nevertheless jettisoned in favour of somebody that's been identified as better in some way or other. Think Nigel Adkins, whose disturbingly intense middle-manager stylings were deemed less appealing than Mauricio Pochettino curious hair. Or Roberto Mancini, who was brutally sunsetted when Manuel Pellegrini emerged as the preferred candidate to exemplify the desired holistic approach of the major stakeholders going forward.

So what to make of Tony Pulis's removal from the Stoke dugout? While largely unlamented, the Welshman's departure from Stoke City is, in some ways, the most interesting of all the managerial contortions that marked the end of the last Premier League, as it doesn't really fit either of the definitions above.

Here are Stoke's five Premier League seasons expressed through the medium of numbers:

	Position	W	D	L	For	A	GD	Pts
2008/09	12	12	9	17	38	55	-17	45
2009/10	11	11	14	13	34	48	-14	47
2010/11	13	13	7	18	46	46	-2	46
2011/12	14	11	12	15	45	46	-1	45
2012/13	13	9	15	14	34	45	-11	42

Pretty exciting stuff. Looking at the most recent season, then, it's perhaps possible to discern some signs of decline. Nine wins, 34 goals, and 42 points are are either the lowest or joint-lowest across the five seasons. On the other hand, it's important to remember that points are not gained in isolation from the rest of the league, and that this season's 13th place finish is an improvement on last season's 14th. Also, with just 45 goals conceded, last season was Stoke's best defensively since coming up.

But stagnation is a word that's been put forward. It's a cruel word, bringing to mind as it does an abandoned and unloved backwater, seething with hideously furry life, noxious and repulsive to the eye and the nose. (Those of you that enjoy mocking Stoke can pop in your own punchline to that one.) It's also not entirely accurate: Pulis's Stoke were, if a touch malodorous at times, still a perfectly serviceable lower-end-of-mid-table Premier League side, and showed every sign of continuing in that vein. The same kind of thing is true of all the other adjectives being used to explain Pulis's sacking: stale, and so on. None of them are quite right, because all of them imply a decline, a descent into obsolescence, that doesn't quite chime with the results.

Was he wasting money? Looking just at transfer fees -- which is stupid, but is the way the conversation generally goes -- it's possible to notice with a gasp that Stoke's net spend (KLAXON) over the last five seasons is third in the Premier League, behind only the fuel-injected Chelsea and Manchester City. But that's not so much down to expensive purchasing, since their gross spend is only the tenth. It's down to a slightly weird inability to sell anybody for anything significant. £88,825,000 spent, only £8,650,000 recouped. Perhaps the process of Pulisification renders previously useful footballers unsuitable for wider consumption, like abused animals; or perhaps Stoke aren't too fussed about resale value, which is its own brand of extravagance. But it's not as simple as 'he bought loads of expensive players that turned out to be crap'; more like 'he bought a few expensive players who didn't really change anything'. As for the wage-bill -- real money too, folks! -- last season Stoke were 14th in the Premier League; bang on, just about.

Note: those figures came from transferleague.co.uk (http://www.transferleague.co.uk/), which for all I know could be nonsense. Still, you've got to trust somebody, and it might as well be a random site on the internet. And there are of course a few 'undisclosed' fees knocking around as well. But it's probably indicative, if not perhaps entirely precise.

Or was it all, at heart, down to the eternal question of style? Here are Stoke's five seasons in the Premier League expressed through the medium of song:

Whether you viewed Stokeball as a perfectly legitimate variation in style, or as an offensive practice that could make angels weep, is of course a matter of taste. But aesthetics colours even the most clear-eyed of perceptions, and it's hard to escape the thought that had Pulis's Stoke achieved the same results but in a manner more soothing to the neutral, and more pleasing to the sensibilities and shin-bones of their opponents, then the talk would be less of stagnation and more of promise, less of the bad and more of the good. That's quite heartening, in some ways, since it implies that there is at least a little bit of desire for showmanship left in football.

But at the same time, it's tough not to feel just a little bit sorry for Pulis. After all, he's not been sacked for being rubbish, and he's not been sacked because there's definitely somebody better. Things weren't stagnant, they just weren't getting any prettier: the water is still perfectly fine, but it's time to think about getting some fish, or maybe installing a fountain. He's been sacked aspirationally, by a chairman who thinks there's something better out there and wants to be free to find it, even if that journey begins with the appointment of the most miserable man in football. In the final reckoning, Tony Pulis is perhaps the first manager in the history of football to fall victim to the seven-year itch. Do please enjoy the mental image of Mark Hughes trying in vain to control his billowing skirts.

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More in Soccer:

• Early Premier League transfer window roundup

• Stephan El Shaarawy isn’t going anywhere

• Jonjo Shelvey sold to Swansea

• Transfer rumours from SB Nation and our team blogs

• Full coverage of the NWSL

NASCAR Daytona 2013 results: Jimmie Johnson completes Daytona sweep

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 09:44 PM PDT

It's hard to have a hands-down, class-of-the field car in a restrictor-plate race, but don't tell Jimmie Johnson, who dominated Daytona Saturday night in uncharacteristically decisive fashion -- and reached another milestone at the Birthplace of Speed.

In a wild race that featured two massive wrecks on the last lap alone, Johnson beat Tony Stewart to the finish line in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway to record the first season sweep of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the 2.5-mile tri-oval since Bobby Allison accomplished the feat in 1982.

As Johnson crossed the line at the end of a green-white-checkered-flag finish, the second of the two multicar accidents erupted behind him. Kevin Harvick stayed in front of the melee to run third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip.

"Glad I was ahead of all the chaos," said a relieved Stewart, who rode in the back for much of the evening before making his move to the front in the closing laps.

Johnson was ahead of the chaos, too, and above the fray -- head-and-shoulders above it. Driving a No. 48 Chevrolet SS nicknamed "White Lightning" for its blue-on-white Lowe's paint scheme, Johnson led 94 of 161 laps and executed key restarts flawlessly as the leader late in the race.

The victory was Johnson's fourth of the season -- tying Matt Kenseth for most in the series -- and the 64th of his career. He leads second-place Bowyer by 49 points in the series standings with eight races left before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set at Richmond.

"Had a great horse to ride; got White Lightning in Victory Lane," Johnson said after climbing from the car. "It's tough to [dominate] at a plate track. Especially with how tight the rules are. I think I showed strength early, and a lot of guys were willing to work with me and help me through situations.

"I don't know if I really made a bad move tonight, so I'm pretty proud of that."

Johnson was doubly proud to join Allison, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough as the only drivers to sweep both Sprint Cup races at Daytona in a single season.

"Gosh, growing up in Southern California and watching Bobby Allison, and I remember where I was the day [Bobby's son] Davey passed away (after a 1993 helicopter crash at Talladega)," Johnson said. "That's how much the Allison family meant to me.

"I always thought it was great to watch Bobby and Davey race, and to do anything Bobby has done is pretty special."

The five-time champion led the field to the restart on Lap 133 and stayed in the top spot until a wild six-car crash near the entry to the tri-oval on Lap 149 stacked two-thirds of the field and wrecked the cars of Denny Hamlin (who slammed nose-first into the frontstretch wall), Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, AJ Allmendinger, Dave Blaney and David Reutimann.

The accident stopped the race for eight minutes, 53 seconds while track workers picked up the debris. Johnson led the field to another restart on Lap 154 and two laps later, Ambrose, running third, pinballed off Johnson's No. 48 car and knocked the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne into the inside backstretch wall to cause the race's sixth caution.

That set up the green-white-checkered finish that took the race one lap past its scheduled distance of 160 laps.

Harvick, who thought he was in excellent position for the final restart, was clearly disappointed with his third-place run.

"Yeah, we didn't win," said Harvick, who restarted from the inside lane, beside Johnson and with Bowyer behind him, for the two-lap dash to the finish. "That was our expectation coming here, and that's the expectation going to the superspeedway tracks ... I'm kind of disappointed just for the fact that I felt like we were in the right position.

"I felt like the 15 (Bowyer) was going to be a really good pusher, based on the restart before... I'm a little disappointed because I really felt like we were in the right spot, but it's hard to complain."

Johnson had the dominant car, but attrition also helped him, starting with a collision that hobbled four strong cars on Lap 98. The No. 56 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. got loose off Turn 4 and turned sideways, triggering a wreck that collected the cars of Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch. The crash ended the winning chances of all but Busch, whose team effected quick repairs to the nose of the No. 18 Camry on pit road.

Busch rallied to finish 12th despite being a victim of the last-lap crash, but Truex, who cracked the top 10 in points after winning at Sonoma to break a 218-race drought, fell out of the race in 41st place and dropped back out of the top 10.

So did Joey Logano, who blew a tire in Turn 2 on Lap 70 and slammed into the outside wall. A week after working his way into the 10th spot in the standings, Logano was out again after being credited with a 40th-place result.

Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Finishing Order

1. (8) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 161, $327961.

2. (13) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 161, $254490.

3. (26) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 161, $219101.

4. (3) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 161, $182073.

5. (7) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 161, $141365.

6. (22) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 161, $150485.

7. (27) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 161, $148185.

8. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 161, $130715.

9. (19) Casey Mears, Ford, 161, $140373.

10. (21) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 161, $147198.

11. (9) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 161, $158191.

12. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 161, $160488.

13. (32) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 161, $109555.

14. (11) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 161, $108655.

15. (28) David Gilliland, Ford, 161, $125813.

16. (17) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 161, $115180.

17. (10) Greg Biffle, Ford, 161, $125630.

18. (40) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 161, $132413.

19. (39) Terry Labonte, Ford, 161, $116063.

20. (20) Trevor Bayne(i), Ford, 161, $104755.

21. (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 161, $152746.

22. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 161, $119627.

23. (34) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 161, $109305.

24. (43) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 161, $100580.

25. (37) Josh Wise(i), Ford, 161, $100380.

26. (25) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 161, $126294.

27. (42) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, 161, $95430.

28. (36) Scott Speed, Ford, 161, $94805.

29. (12) Carl Edwards, Ford, 161, $132155.

30. (41) David Reutimann, Toyota, 159, $98405.

31. (29) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 157, $94230.

32. (4) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, Accident, 155, $117105.

33. (2) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 154, $129996.

34. (23) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, Accident, 151, $140766.

35. (33) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 149, $101655.

36. (24) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 149, $113305.

37. (35) David Stremme, Toyota, Accident, 127, $93317.

38. (30) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 127, $124571.

39. (14) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 126, $110849.

40. (18) Joey Logano, Ford, 105, $107543.

41. (5) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, Accident, 97, $107710.

42. (31) Michael McDowell, Ford, Vibration, 33, $72135.

43. (6) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, Engine, 23, $97626.

NASCAR Daytona 2013: Late wrecks take out Patrick, Hamlin, Gordon, Kenseth, others

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 09:28 PM PDT

Hard hits and numerous wrecked cars encapsulate the final laps of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The carnage began with 11 laps remaining when Denny Hamlin veered to the right suddenly and into the outside wall. In his wake he collected the cars of Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger and Dave Blaney.

Hamlin not only hit the wall head-on, which was not covered by a SAFRER barrier, but was plowed into with such force by Allmendinger that the backend of his Toyota got airborne.

All drivers involved escaped injury, though Allmendinger initially appeared shaken up as he went to the ground in pain after getting out of his car. He later told the Motor Racing Network that he "hurt the man parts."

The race was red flagged for nearly nine minutes.

"I don't know I just saw somebody spin in front of me," Gordon said afterward. "We all tried to avoid it. I guess it was the No. 11 (Hamlin) and we all tried to avoid them and Matt (Kenseth) got sideways and then I didn't have anywhere to go either. Got the right-front and that just sent the car into the wall."

This was only the beginning of the mayhem.

As two laps after the subsequent restart, Kasey Kahne, who was running second, spun off of Turn 2 following contact with Marcos Ambrose. Like Hamlin, Kahne made heavy contact with the wall, but escaped injury.

Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis, would lay blame on Ambrose, saying "he ran out of talent," according to a report by Speed.

This set the stage for a green-white-checkered finish that featured additional madness and not one but two multi-car incidents on the final lap.

The first took place between Turns 1 and 2 and involved several cars. But wanting the race to finish under the green, NASCAR elected not to call for the caution and allowed drivers to continue to the checkered flag.

And as Jimmie Johnson raced across the start/finish to claim his fourth win of the season, Danica Patrick triggered the second accident.

It began when she broadsided David Gilliland, turning both sideways in front of the field. Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jeff Burton and a host of others were swept up as they sped to the finish.

Patrick had been running in the top 10 and was trying to replicate her finish in the Daytona 500, where she finished eighth. She would unofficially place 14th and acknowledged that she may have been the catalyst.

"It felt like I ran just along the wall but it could have been me that came down in front of the No. 38 (Gilliland)," Patrick said. "It definitely wasn't what I was trying to do at all. I was just following the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.). So, if that's what happened, then I definitely apologize. I lost spots doing it."

NBA Free Agency: Bucks agree to 3-year deal with Zaza Pachulia

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 08:32 PM PDT

Size wasn't exactly a need for the Milwaukee Bucks when the free agency period started. With Larry Sanders, John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova and Ekpe Udoh, the Bucks seemed set up front. Despite that, ESPN's Marc Stein reports the team has come to an agreement with former Atlanta Hawks center Zaza Pachulia.

Stein reports the deal is for three years and $16 million. Pachulia is coming off a season where he averaged 5.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in just 52 games. His season was cut short due to a right Achilles injury he initially suffered in January, which eventually required surgery. While he should be able to play with either Sanders or Ilyasova, his signing with likely mean less minutes for Udoh, Henson or both.

The Bucks also have Gustavo Ayon on their roster, as well as Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who splits time between both forward spots. Soon after the Pachulia signing was announced, Udoh sent out a one-word tweet that may sum up his feelings on the signing.

Sheeeesh
— Ekpe Udoh (@EkpeUdoh) July 7, 2013

Next up for the Bucks is determining what to do with Brandon Jennings. Milwaukee has stated its intent to bring the restricted free agent back and Jennings has said he'd like to return to the Bucks. However, talks between the two sides have yet to heat up.

More from SB Nation:

• Howard picks Rockets | Prada: How Morey got his man

• Ziller: Lakers need a miracle

• Josh Smith signs with Detroit | Iguodala to Golden State

• The NBA's top 90 free agents | All NBA free agency news

• Grading the NBA free agent deals

Dan Connor arrested at Philadelphia International Airport

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 08:31 PM PDT

New York Giants linebacker Dan Connor was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport for carrying a switchblade inside his luggage on Saturday, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. According to the report, Connor was charged with possession of an offensive weapon.

Connor was attempting to enter a terminal at the airport when a TSA officer saw the knife on an X-ray machine and notified Philadelphia police. According to WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, the incident occurred around 9 a.m. ET on Saturday morning.

Also according to WPVI-TV, Connor has already been released from custody on his own recognizance.

The Giants signed Connor to a one-year contract in March and have him in line to compete with Mark Herzlich for the starting linebacker job. Herzlich took the most snaps with the starting defense during team OTAs, however. Connor has started 27 games over the past three seasons.

He is a native of Delaware County, Pa.