LeBron James and the Miami Heat turned Game 2 into a laugher Sunday night, thanks in part to a sequence from James that blew the doors off the front of AmericanAirlines Arena.

With the Heat taking a close game and turning it into a blowout late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, LeBron finally woke up from the nap that he seemed to be taking for the first 32 minutes of the game.

The Heat found themselves up by 19 points three-and-a-half minutes into the final period, but LeBron saw the opportunity to put an exclamation point on the entire game with a few amazing plays.

It all started off as he sized up Tiago Splitter on the big man's drive to the basket. As LeBron lurked far underneath the hoop, nearly out of bounds, Splitter took off and cocked back for an explosive dunk. James timed it and stopped him at the top of his attempt.

Everybody watching at home let out a collective grunt of exhilaration as the people in Miami went completely bonkers. Twitter followed suit.

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David “Deacon” Jones (pictured), the defensive end who was credited for using the word sack to describe how he knocked down quarterbacks on the field, passed away at his Southern California home on Monday night of natural causes. He was 74 years old, according to USA Today.
Jones was a legendary player that other players idolized and was often referred to as “one of the greatest players in NFL history.” Jones played for the L.A. Rams from 1961 to 1971, San Diego Chargers from 1972 to 1973, and signed on with the Washington Redskins in 1974, marking the end of his stellar career.

Former Rams head coach George Allen once referred to Jones as the “Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football,” while the New York Times pegged the gridiron great as the “Most Valuable Ram of All Time.” Jones was voted to the NFL’s 75 Year All Time Team and was inducted in to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

Jones was a legendary player that other players idolized and was often referred to as “one of the greatest players in NFL history.” Jones played for the L.A. Rams from 1961 to 1971, San Diego Chargers from 1972 to 1973, and signed on with the Washington Redskins in 1974, marking the end of his stellar career.

Former Rams head coach George Allen once referred to Jones as the “Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football,” while the New York Times pegged the gridiron great as the “Most Valuable Ram of All Time.” Jones was voted to the NFL’s 75 Year All Time Team and was inducted in to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

An assistant coach at South Carolina State, who was leaving and had taken a position at Mississippi Vocational, convinced Jones and a handful of other Black players that he could get them scholarships to his new school.

When Jones and the players went to the college, though, they were not allowed to join their White team members at motels and were relegated to sleeping on shoddy cots at the opposing school’s gymnasiums.

The Rams selected Jones in 1961, and he quickly became one of the team’s “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line of players along with Rosey Grier (pictured second from right), Lamar Lundy (pictured far left), and Merlin Olsen (pictured second from left).

These four men are now considered to be one of the best defensive lines in all of NFL history.
Now the only surviving member of the Fearsome Foursome is Grier who is 80. Jones reportedly was also the first to make use of the head slap in order to get a jump on the opposing offensive linemen.

Even though the game of football does eventually wind up taking its physical toll on players, Jones managed to miss only six games out of a possible 196 regular season encounters in his 14 NFL seasons. The Rams’ unofficial stats show Jones with 159.5 sacks for them and 173.5 for his career.

Throughout the years, “the Father of sack,” who was known for his sense of humor and humanitarian spirit, took on quite a few memorable acting roles on classic TV commercials and memorable shows like “The Brady Bunch,” “The Odd Couple,” and “Bewitched.” He also appeared in the 1978 Warren Beatty film “Heaven Can Wait.”

In later years, Jones continued his work as CEO of his own foundation, which was set up in 1997. He also traveled to the Middle East on numerous occasions to visit the troops.

R.I.P., Deacon, you’ll really be sorely missed!
 

PARIS -- Serena Williams knew, of course, that 11 years had passed since her only French Open championship.

She also knew, of course, what happened a year ago in Paris: the only first-round Grand Slam loss of her career, to a woman ranked outside the top 100, no less.

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Eager to repeat the elation of 2002, and motivated by the disappointment of 2012, Williams used terrific defense and her usual powerful hitting in Saturday's final, closing with a crescendo of aces -- three in the last game -- for a 6-4, 6-4 victory over defending champion Maria Sharapova to collect a second Roland Garros title and 16th major trophy overall.

"I'm still a little bit upset about that loss last year," the No. 1-ranked Williams said with a chuckle, her shiny new hardware an arm's length away.

"But it's all about, for me, how you recover," she continued. "I think I've always said a champion isn't about how much they win, but it's about how they recover from their downs, whether it's an injury or whether it's a loss."

As she spoke those last few words, her voice choked and her eyes welled with tears. There have been low moments for the 31-year-old American -- none worse, perhaps, than a 10-month stretch ending in 2011 that included two foot operations and treatment for blood clots in her lungs -- but she's enjoying a high point right now.

Saturday's victory was her 31st in a row, the longest single-season streak in 13 years. Williams is 43-2 with six titles this season.

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Serena Williams, 31, became the oldest woman to win a major title since Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon at age 33.
"She is playing extremely well," Sharapova said. "She's a competitor."

Sharapova is known for her grit on a court, too. She entered Saturday ranked No. 2, the winner of her last 13 French Open matches, and the only active woman other than the Williams sisters with more than two Grand Slam titles. But she doesn't seem to stand a chance against Serena, who has won their last 13 encounters.

This was the first major final between women ranked 1-2 in more than nine years -- the first at Roland Garros in 18 -- and yet it really was not all that close. Particularly at crunch time.

Under a cloudy sky, and amid a breeze that blew dust in both players' eyes, Sharapova began well enough, saving four break points in the first game, then breaking in the second, prompting plenty of murmuring in the stands.

The next game went to 40-15 on Sharapova's serve, one point from a 3-0 lead. That's when Williams got going. A 13-stroke exchange culminated with a forehand that forced Sharapova's backhand error and started a four-point, break-earning run for Williams. She got to 2-1 with an overhead smash she punctuated with a staredown, a raised left fist and a loud "Come on!"

That fist was aloft again a half-hour later, when Williams' cross-court forehand winner helped her break to lead 5-4, and she served out the set.

Sharapova saved five break points in the second set's opening game, but that merely delayed what everyone expected. Williams got the last break she would need two games later, and it was made possible by the sort of baseline scrambling she did all day. Sharapova struck a forehand down the line that would have ended the point against most opponents, but Williams got the ball back, and with an extra shot necessary, the Russian slapped a forehand into the net.

On break point, Sharapova smacked a 109 mph serve, but Williams' strong return forced another mistake. Now Williams merely needed to hold serve the rest of the way, and half of her 10 aces came in her last two service games.

Sharapova observed that Williams serves "harder than David Ferrer," referring to the man who will face seven-time champion Rafael Nadal in the men's final Sunday.

Serving at 5-4, Williams recalled, "I was just so nervous. I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to hit groundstrokes.' No joke. The one groundstroke I did hit went, like, 100 feet out. I thought to myself, 'Look, Serena, you've just got to hit aces. That's your only choice.'"

Simple as that, huh? Well, with her, yes.

She started with an ace at 118 mph. After a wild backhand miss -- not 100 feet out, but maybe 10 -- she hit an ace at 121 mph. She got to 40-15 with a backhand winner and crouched down, hand to her face, aware she was one point away.

One more strong swing delivered the fastest ace yet, 123 mph. Williams flung her racket and dropped to her knees.

A few minutes later, Williams was addressing an appreciative crowd in French, telling them about her "incroyable" victory and noting she considers herself a Parisian. She owns an apartment in the city and has been working with French coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

"She feels a bit at home here," Mouratoglou said.

Williams hadn't been back to the final in Paris since beating her sister for the 2002 title. From 2003-11, she lost in the semifinals once, the quarterfinals four times, the third round once, and missed the tournament three times because of injury. Then came last year: Williams was 17-0 on clay when she arrived in France, then quickly 17-1.

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"She was so devastated by that," said her mother, Oracene Price.

Soon after, Williams began practicing at Mouratoglou's tennis academy. And however demoralizing that loss was, it turned out to be career-rejuvenating. Since then, Williams is 74-3 and has won three of the last four Grand Slam tournaments.

She is the oldest woman to win the French Open in at least 45 years, and the oldest at any Grand Slam since Martina Navratilova was 33 at Wimbledon in 1990.

"I really believe age is a number at this point, because I have never felt so fit. I feel great. I look great," she said, laughing at her own joke. "If I see someone that's 31, I'm like, 'You're old.' Then I'm like, 'I'm 31.' But I don't feel it at all."

At the moment, no current players can keep up with her.

If she keeps playing like this -- if she maintains her focus and, most importantly, stays healthy -- the real challenge is how she will stack up with past greats of the game.

"I feel like I definitely want to continue my journey," Williams said. "If it means I stop at 16 or if it means I have more, I definitely want to continue my journey to get a few more."

She's won the sixth-most major titles in the history of tennis, which dates to the 1880s. Add two more, and she'll equal Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert with 18. Would anyone be surprised if Williams got there by the end of this year?

The only women with more are Margaret Smith Court (24), Steffi Graf (22) and Helen Wills Moody (19).

"For Serena, nothing is out of reach," Mouratoglou said. "If she really wants something, it's very difficult to stop her."

Shortly after Saturday's match ended, Williams found Mouratoglou near the players' lounge and wrapped both of her arms around his neck for a long embrace. Then they headed down the stairs leading to the locker room. Williams told Mouratoglou she wanted to go do some cool-down exercises to stretch her back.

Wimbledon begins two weeks from Monday. There are more matches to win, more trophies to collect, more history to be made.

"I want to go out in my peak. That's my goal," Williams said. "But have I peaked yet?"