Show Prep

Okay, here's the deal.  I'm filling-in for the morning host on a sports talk station this week and I wanted to talk about some of the interesting items I routinely find on the "Elias Says" section at ESPN.com and I figured the easiest way for me to access the information while I'm on the air is to simply post it here and bring up "Everybody" while I'm on the air.  So here it is.  We in the business call this "show prep".  You might (rightly) call it stealing.

For the record, I will be on today, Friday the 12th, from 6-9am Eastern.  YOU CAN LISTEN HERE.  (Click on the "Listen Live" tab near the top of the page, of course.)

Be nice.  Try not to laugh out loud unless I happen to say something intentionally funny, okay?

SUNDAY’S GAMES

Kevin Martin scored 27 points and Aaron Brooks scored 25, but that wasn't enough as the Rockets fell, 110-107, to the Pistons in overtime. It was the first time in 25 years that both starting guards on the visiting team scored at least 25 points at Detroit. (Note that neither Martin nor Brooks needed the OT period to reach the 25-point mark.) The last teammates to do so were World B. Free and John Bagley in a Cavaliers victory on April 5, 1985. The last time Detroit won a home game in which their opponents starting guards both scored at least 25 points was January 30, 1976 against the Kansas City Kings. Jimmy Walker (27) and Nate Archibald (26) were KC's guards in that game.

Jarome Iginla has recorded three hat tricks this season, all in road games. Iginla is the first player in Flames history (Atlanta or Calgary) with three road hat tricks in one season and the first player on any NHL team with three in one season since 1999-2000, when Pavel Bure of the Panthers and Petr Nedved of the Rangers each had three.

Roberto Luongo stopped 33 of 35 shots on goal in the Canucks 4-2 win at Nashville. Luongo has a 15-2-3 record with a 2.48 goals-against average in games in which he faced at least 35 shots over the last two seasons.

Jeff Deslauriers made 22 saves in the Oilers 2-0 win over the Devils, becoming only the fifth rookie ever to defeat Martin Brodeur by posting a shutout. The others were Carey Price (2008), Ray Emery (2006), Michael Garnett (2005), and Jason Muzzatti (1996).1996

MONDAY’S GAMES

The Cavaliers became the first NBA team to reach 50 victories this season, lifting their record to 50-15 with a 97-95 win over the Spurs. In each of the past two seasons the first team to win 50 regular-season games had only 12 losses at that time and then went on to win the NBA title - the Celtics having done that in 2008 and the Lakers last year.

It's the first time that Cleveland has been the first NBA team to reach 50 wins in a season.

The Hornets' 135-131 victory over the Warriors marked the first NBA game this season in which the losing team scored at least 130 points. Back in the 1990-91 season, there were 13 regulation-length NBA games in which the losing team scored 130-or-more points; but in the 19 seasons since then, there have been only 11 such games.

But rare as such games are, the Warriors have specialized in them. In fact, of the last seven regulation-length NBA games in which a team scored at least 130 points and lost, the Warriors have been the victims four times. Bay Area fans, do you remember the 143-133 loss at Portland in 1993, the 144-135 loss at Memphis in 2007 and the 154-130 loss at home to the Suns last year?

The Stars pulled a rabbit out of a hat in Washington on Monday night, beating the Capitals, 4-3, via a shootout after going into the third period trailing, 2-0, and having been outshot, 42-16, at that juncture. Since the NHL began recording shots on goal more than 50 years ago, only two other teams won a game in which they were losing at the end of the second period and had given up at least 40 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes. Oddly, the other teams to do that both won, 4-3, on the road in overtime: the Oilers on March 17, 1993 against the Rangers in New York (trailed, 3-1, and outshot, 45-23, through two periods) and the Predators on Nov. 11, 2008 at San Jose (trailed, 2-1, and outshot, 43-18, through two periods).

the Stars accomplished something that hasn't been done in quite some time against the Capitals in Washington - defeat them despite trailing by two goals at the end of two periods. The Caps had won their last 66 home games when leading by two-or-more goals heading into the third period, tied with the Wild for the longest current streak in the NHL. Their last such loss, whether in regulation, overtime or shootouts, had been more than eight years ago - on Nov. 8, 2001 vs. Carolina.

TUESDAY’S GAMES

Jarome Iginla had a goal and an assist for the Flames in their 4-2 win at Detroit. Iginla's goal ended his 19-game regular-season goal drought against the Red Wings. It was the longest goalless streak versus one team of Iginla's 13-year career; his next-longest droughts were 13 games against Edmonton and Dallas. Since Iginla's last regular-season goal against Detroit on March 3, 2004, he's scored 196 goals in 378 regular-season games versus all other NHL teams.

The Maple Leafs were 0-9 in games decided by an overtime goal this season until Nikolai Kulemin scored with 50 seconds remaining in extra time to earn Toronto a 4-3 victory against Boston on Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs' nine straight overtime losses tied the single-season NHL record since the five-minute OT format was introduced in 1983-84 (ties or games settled by a shootout excluded). The mark was set by Minnesota in 2001-02 and equaled by Montreal in 2002-03.

Mikael Samuelsson recorded the first three-goal game of his nine-season NHL career to help the Canucks overcome a 4-1 deficit and beat the Avalanche in Denver, 6-4. Not only was it Samuelsson's first hat trick, it was the first time that he scored more than one goal in a regular-season road game. His seven previous multiple-goal games in regular-season play all came on home ice

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

Rick Carlisle has a .588 career winning percentage (376-264) as a head coach in the NBA. Only 13 men who coached at least 500 NBA games have a winning percentage as high as Carlisle's, but until Wednesday's victory over the Nets, he was the only one of them without a winning streak of at least 13 games on his resume. Among that group of coaches, Carlisle, Tom Heinsohn, Chuck Daly and Gregg Popovich are the only ones without a winning streak of more than 13 games.

The Jazz beat the Pistons for the tenth straight time, costing to victory after leading 63-43 at halftime. It was the second time this calendar year that the Pistons trailed by at least 20 points at the intermission of a game at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Detroit faced a 26-point halftime deficit in a loss to the Sixers on January 9. The Pistons trailed by 20 or more points at halftime in only one home game over previous eight years (2002 through 2009).

Chauncey Billups scored a game-high 25 points, including a pair of three-pointers, to lead the Nuggets to a win at Minnesota. Billups has made at least one three-point field goal in each of his last 33 games, one game shy of the longest streak of his career (34 straight games for the Pistons in 2005-06). The only NBA player to fashion a longer streak of that kind than this season than Billups is Houston's Aaron Brooks, who has at least one three-pointer in each of his last 36 games.

Tyler Myers scored the first goal and assisted on three others in the Sabres' 5-3 win over the Stars. Myers tied the Sabres record for points in one game by a rookie defenseman, a mark set by Phil Housley on Oct. 17, 1982 against Edmonton, in his fourth game in the NHL (also one goal, three assists).