August 14th 2010
Sports Bites

The NBA will open its season with a battle of Big Threes, then offer up the new-look Miami Heat against Kobe Bryant and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day. The Heat will debut their All-Star trio of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh at Boston on Oct. 26 against the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics, who are led by their veteran group of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. The Lakers will host Houston in the other opening-night game on TNT, the NBA announced Tuesday. The Rockets hope to have Yao Ming back in the lineup after he missed last season with a foot injury.

Oliver Schniederjans sensed something was amiss when he left a practice round on the wrong side of a friendly wager. He hardly missed a shot around Sycamore Hills Golf Club, made a slew of birdies of his own, felt confident about his pre-tournament preparation — and still walked off the 18th hole wondering if he could go low enough to compete with Justin Thomas. “It just doesn’t seem like it’s hard for him,” said Schniederjans, Golfweek’s second-ranked junior. “It’s almost like he doesn’t worry about his swing. He just gets up there and uses his talent and hits it right at the flag.”

Chelsea slipped to their third defeat of pre-season after going down 2-1 to Hamburg in Germany. Carlo Ancelotti's men threw away a first-half lead as they ended their tour of Germany on a low note. Frank Lampard gave Chelsea the lead on 24 minutes when he tapped home Michael Essien's unselfish pass into an empty net. Hamburg drew level 18 minutes from time when Mladen Petric capitalized on woeful backpass by Yury Zhirkov to fire past Ross Turnbull. The home side grabbed the winner three minutes from time when Heung Min Son found the net.

Two goals in three first-half minutes from Lionel Messi helped Barcelona defeat a K-League All Star team 5-2 in Seoul. There were doubts if the Argentinian star would play but he came off the bench after 28 minutes to rapturous applause from a Seoul World Cup Stadium that was far from full. Without their contingent of Spanish World Cup winners, Barcelona fell behind in the first minute. A mistake from goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto allowed Choi Sung-kuk to roll the ball into an open goal.

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