LITTLE ROCK — Seriously, these guys are pros?
The Denver Nuggets finished 0 of 22 from three-point range Thursday night in a 101-93 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, setting an NBA record for three-point futility.
In fact, 74 of Denver’s 93 points came in the paint and 17 came at the free-throw line.
The previous record was set by the Trail Blazers just nine days earlier in a victory over the Toronto Raptors. Portland missed all 20 of its three-pointers.
“The best thing about tonight was [the Nuggets] beat our record of 0 for 20,” Portland forward Nicolas Batum told reporters Thursday. “We’re almost as happy about that as the win itself.”
Said Nuggets Coach George Karl: “The rhythm of the game was not in our favor and our guys seemed to be worn out a little bit. If you make two threes, it’s a different basketball game - a totally different game. It’s not time to panic or anything. We just didn’t have enough shooters out there.”
Unfortunate talk
San Francisco 49ers placekicker David Akers is the latest athlete to find out how negative Twitter can be.
Akers received a death threat on Twitter on Wednesday night, which led him to delete his account, @DavidAkers2.
“You f++++t if you miss one more field goal you about to get your entire life ended,” @RIP_ FreeLaddin tweeted.
The @RIP_FreeLaddin account also has been deleted, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Akers has missed 10 of his 35 attempts this season after setting an NFL record for field goals made last season with 44. The 49ers worked out free agents Nate Kaeding and Billy Cundiff earlier this season but kept Akers instead.
Hearing stars
Dallas Cowboys linebacker Ernie Sims is questionable for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints after sustaining a concussion Dec. 16 in an overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But defensive coordinator Rob Ryan expects Sims to play Sunday.
“We’ll see how he does,” Ryan said. “I think last week he started hearing other voices in his head so we took him out of the game.
That was the problem, and he started to listening to them too.
That was really bad when he started listening to the other guy.”
They said it
Dave D’Alessandro of the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey on Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams: “This has less to do with how you play - which is bad enough, you readily admit nowadays - than how you act, which is just one evening gown shy of a diva.”
NBC’s Jay Leno, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton passed out and sustained a minor concussion: “Apparently, she heard the Lakers won two games in a row.”
Headline at the satirical sports website sportspickle.com: “Vikings to wait to donate [Adrian] Peterson to science until after Week 17.”
Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska, on the Mayan prediction that the world would end Friday: “Which means Ball State vs. UCF could be the last football game ever played. . . .
Naw, I’m still skipping it.”
Quote of the day
“We make a lot of sacrifices in November and December for the sake of March. We want to be a factor when March rolls around.” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson on the Razorbacks’ challenging nonconference schedule
Sports, Pages 22 on 12/22/2012