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ATLANTA — Adrian Gonzalez sees no reason to praise any of the pitchers who are shutting down the Padres these days.

“It comes down to, it doesn’t matter who the pitcher is out there,” said Gonzalez, the best hitter on the team. “Could be a young guy or an inexperienced guy or a veteran guy. Doesn’t matter. We’re just not producing.

“As a team, we’re not doing it.”

Gonzalez was speaking after the team’s 16th defeat in the past 20 games, a 5-2 setback at Turner Field Wednesday night.

For the 16th time this season — or 47 percent of the contests — the Padres scored two runs or fewer.

It’s one thing for a Padres offense to go thirsty in April, when cooler weather tends to make Petco Park play as if it were the Deadball Era.

As for the pitching the Padres faced in April, manager Bud Black said he’s never seen better pitching for one month since he entered the majors in 1981.

But the Padres — poor at slugging, dismal at getting on base, prone to striking out and able to combine slow footspeed with bad baserunning — are still doing almost nothing of substance on offense.

Almost every night, they continue to put their starting pitcher on a tightrope. Wednesday night it was Randy Wolf who worked without a safety net, opposite a stout, athletic Braves offense that is averaging more than six runs per home game and has Mark Kotsay as its No. 8 hitter.

When Wolf put a 2-2 game into the home team’s hands by loading the bases with none out in the seventh, Black enlisted Joe Thatcher, he of the 6.75 ERA. Thatcher gave up a single, a sacrifice fly and two more singles.

Ballgame.

“It’s really hard,” Wolf (2-2) said of the team’s struggles. “It’s very difficult. I play the game because I want to win and obviously we’re not doing that. It’s very frustrating.”

If you want to dig really deep, you could chalk up Wednesday night’s striking talent disparity to Braves scouts who are so adept at finding amateurs and the Padres’ two-decades-long underachievement in that area.

From 1988 through 2006, the Padres were the only National League team that never got one 20-home run season from a homegrown player; in that same span, the Braves got 45 seasons of at least 20 homers from nine players.

This Braves lineup, loaded with homegrown producers such as Chipper Jones, Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur, is so deep that Kotsay was in the No. 8 hole with a .308 batting average. “That’s a good eight-hole baseball player,” Wolf said.

Kotsay, hitting a slider that Wolf said was a good pitch, singled with two outs to put the Braves ahead 2-1 in the second. The Padres’ Tadahito Iguchi tied it in the sixth, scoring on Kevin Kouzmanoff’s double play after leading off with a single, stealing second and reaching third on Gonzalez’s single. The Padres were done scoring, though.

So it was left to Padres pitchers to be perfect from there, and they fell short. Picking on Wolf’s first two pitches of the seventh, the Braves smacked a double and single, and Kotsay came back from 0-2 to earn a walk off Wolf’s 86th pitch.

Enter Thatcher, a left-handed sidewinder. Black would let him face four right-handers. The first, pinch-hitter Greg Norton, hit a go-ahead single off a 1-2 pitch. The Braves pulled away, and right-handers against Thatcher improved their average from .320 to .351.

Black had better luck demoting struggling Jim Edmonds one spot to the sixth hole, but even after Edmonds went 1-for-2 with a walk, Black lifted him for pinch-hitter Callix Crabbe.

Before the game, General Manager Kevin Towers declined comment when asked if the club is planning to release Edmonds. The Braves, meantime, are pleased with Kotsay, whom they acquired cheaply from Oakland last offseason, at a time when the Padres decided to get Edmonds instead.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Lakers celebrated Kobe Bryant’s MVP award the best way possible.

oo much Magic in Game 3
Bryant had 34 points, eight rebounds and six assists Wednesday night, and the Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 120-110 to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals and remain the NBA’s only unbeaten team in the postseason.

The series shifts to Utah for Games 3 and 4 on Friday night and Sunday. The Jazz had an NBA-best 37-4 home record this season, but one of the losses was by 11 points to the Lakers on March 20.

Bryant received his Most Valuable Player trophy from NBA commissioner David Stern in a brief ceremony before the game.

“I’m at a loss for words, I don’t know what to say,” Bryant said as the Staples Center crowd of 18,997 roared its approval and chanted M-V-P. “I love you guys so much. We’re going to play until June. Let’s get this party started.”

The 29-year-old Bryant was a runaway winner of his first MVP award, receiving 82 first-place votes and 1,100 points to far outdistance New Orleans’ Chris Paul in the voting of 126 media members. The results were announced Tuesday.

Following the presentation, Bryant’s wife and two young daughters gave him with a bouquet of flowers at center court.

Derek Fisher, who played for Utah last season, added 22 points, Pau Gasol scored 20, and Lamar Odom had 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Lakers, who shot 57.4 percent from the field and made 35 free throws - 22 more than the Jazz.

Seven Utah players scored in double figures, led by Deron Williams, who had 25 points, including three 3-pointers in the final minute, and 10 assists. Paul Millsap added a career playoff-high 17 points and 10 rebounds, Mehmet Okur scored 16 points and Andrei Kirilenko added 14. Okur and Kirilenko both fouled out in the final minute.

Carlos Boozer was held to 10 points - all in the second half. He played less than seven minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

The Jazz outrebounded the Lakers 58-41 in Game 1, but lost 109-98. They won the battle of the backboards again 41-37, but shot 44.6 percent while attempting a season-high 101 shots - 33 more than Los Angeles.

The Jazz outscored the Lakers 11-4 to get within five points with just under six minutes to play. But a jumper by Sasha Vujacic, a 3-pointer by Fisher and a free throw by Gasol extended the Lakers’ lead to 105-94 with 4:26 left.

A three-point play by Kirilenko made it 107-99 before Bryant fed Gasol for a dunk with 2:40 to go, and the Jazz weren’t closer than six points after that.

The Jazz drew within nine points early in the third quarter before Bryant outscored them 9-4 by himself to make it 82-68. A 3-pointer by Williams with 1.5 seconds left in the third quarter trimmed the Lakers’ lead to 93-83.

The Lakers led 55-40 before Williams made a 3-pointer for his only points of the first half. It was 63-49 at halftime, and it might have been worse for the Jazz had Millsap not scored 13 points - three more than his previous playoff high.

Williams and Boozer combined to average 39.9 points during the regular season and 35.8 points in Utah’s first seven playoff games. They totaled three points in the first half of Game 2.

The Lakers made their first six shots, but trailed by one before Bryant scored six points and Odom added four during a 13-0 run that gave them a 25-13 lead. Boozer left with two fouls and Utah coach Jerry Sloan picked up a technical before Ronnie Brewer’s jumper ended the spurt.

The Jazz drew within eight before two 3-pointers by Fisher and a basket by Ronny Turiaf made it 33-18 at the end of the first quarter. Boozer was scoreless when he went to the bench again just 19 seconds into the second quarter after picking up his third foul, and didn’t return until the second half.

Notes: Only 13 of the 211 teams that lost the first two games in a best-of-seven NBA playoff series have overcome that deficit to advance. … Teams coached by Phil Jackson are 39-0 when winning the opener of a playoff series - 24-0 with the Chicago Bulls and 15-0 with the Lakers. … Sloan is fourth on the all-time regular-season wins list with 1,089 victories and Jackson ranks sixth with 976. Jackson is the overall leader in the postseason with 185 wins while Sloan is sixth with 91. … The Lakers have a 15-3 record at Staples Center against the Jazz since the arena opened before the 1999-2000 season.
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By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer
Sun May 4, 5:35 PM ET
PITTSBURGH - Marian Hossa scored his second goal of the game 7:10 into overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied after giving up a two-goal lead to beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Sunday and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in seven years.
 
Sidney Crosby began a rush into the Penguins end with a pass to Pascal Dupuis, who attempted to give it back to Crosby. The puck trickled away but ended up on Hossa’s stick, and he beat Henrik Lundqvist from the slot for his fifth of the playoffs to end New York’s season. The Penguins won the series 4-1.

The Penguins, the Eastern Conference’s worst team only two years ago, will meet the cross-state Philadelphia Flyers, the conference’s worst team last season, in the first all-Pennsylvania conference final. The teams haven’t met in the postseason since the Flyers’ six-game victory in a 2000 second-round series best remembered for Philadelphia’s five-overtime win in Game 4, which occurred eight years to the day Sunday.

The Rangers, down 2-0 but desperate to swing the series back to New York for what would have been a Game 6 on Monday, got back into the game by scoring twice in less than 90 seconds to tie it early in the third.

Lauri Korpikoski, a 2004 first-round draft pick playing in his first NHL game on a hunch by coach Tom Renney, scored 2:03 into the period with only the second Rangers shot in nearly 17 minutes.

Korpikoski’s wrist shot from the right circle may have deflected off Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney, who chose not to come out to challenge only Korpikoski’s second career shot. Michal Rozsival, partly making up for his three penalties in the second period, got the first assist.

Given life in a game — and a season — that was beginning to look lost, the Rangers came back to tie it 1:22 later as Nigel Dawes scored on a backhander while cutting across the slot off Scott Gomez’s setup, a shot similar to that he missed in the game’s opening minute.

The turnaround appeared to stun the young Penguins and their towel-waving crowd after a dominating second period in which Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 17-4 and held them without a shot for nearly 15 minutes.

The pivotal moment of the period may have been when New York’s Chris Drury was unintentionally clipped and bloodied by Penguins forward Ryan Malone’s stick in front of the Pittsburgh net only 92 seconds into the period. Both benches seemed to expect a 4-minute high-sticking penalty — play was stopped briefly to clean up the blood — but there was no call.

There was one when Drury drew a high-sticking major, against Malone no less, late in the third, putting the Rangers in a precarious position to end the game and begin the overtime. But the Rangers killed it off despite being down a man for the first 2:41 of the overtime, but the Penguins used the momentum they regained by constantly pressing on the power play to get Hossa’s game-winner a few minutes later.

Jaromir Jagr, the leading scorer in the playoffs with 15 points, didn’t get a goal in perhaps his last game for New York, though he told NBC that he wants to play for another four seasons and would like to stay with the Rangers. He was a force throughout the game, drawing three of the first four penalties against Pittsburgh after getting three goals in the previous two games.

Hossa, casting aside his image of being a player who can’t score in the playoffs, made it 1-0 with a hard wrist shot from below the right circle 8:45 into the second after the Penguins quickly moved the puck from one side of the ice to the other on passes by Crosby and Malone.

Evgeni Malkin made it 2-0 about 4 minutes later with his fourth goal of the series and sixth in nine playoff games. He carried the puck into the left circle following a faceoff win, lost it briefly while making a spin move, only to retrieve it while fending off Drury and threw a backhander past Lundqvist. Malkin gave Drury a hard shove as he began his celebratory fist pump.

But for all of their domination in the period, the Penguins couldn’t get the third goal that might have decided the series and, as they did in rallying from three goals down in Game 1 before losing 5-4, the Rangers had a comeback in them.

Notes:@ Pittsburgh is 37-1-3 this season when leading after two periods. … Korpikoski replaced F Colton Orr. … The Rangers went 0-2 in overtime playoff games this spring. … Before this season, Hossa had 13 goals in 55 career playoff games.
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By STEPHEN HAWKINS, AP Sports Writer
2 hours, 38 minutes ago
DALLAS - The Dallas Stars have finally made it back to the Western Conference finals. It took the eighth longest game in NHL history to do it. Brenden Morrow scored a power play goal 9:03 into the fourth overtime as the Stars eliminated the pesky San Jose Sharks 2-1 in a game that ended early Monday morning — the longest game in the NHL playoffs this season, and the longest in San Jose history.
 
The Stars are going to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they returned to the Stanley Cup finals the year after winning the franchise’s only championship. They will face Detroit, which wrapped up its second-round sweep of Colorado on Thursday night.

After winning the first three games in the series, the Stars finally knocked out the Sharks on the third try and avoided having to go to San Jose for a deciding game. The win came after having two apparent goals disallowed following video reviews in Game 5, and Evgeni Nabokov’s sensational glove save early in the first overtime of Game 6 — well before midnight.

Brian Campbell was called for tripping close to the Dallas net before Morrow scored the winner, deflecting in a pass from Stephane Robidas. It was the fourth overtime game in the series, and the fifth game decided by one goal.

Marty Turco had a franchise-record 61 saves for the Stars. Nabokov stopped 53 shots.

San Jose thought it had a game-winner midway through the third overtime, with Ryane Clowe poking a puck around Turco. Clowe and nearby teammates wearily lifted their arms, but the puck was under the goalie’s glove and not in the net. The Sharks even had a power play in the third overtime when Nicklas Grossman was called for hooking, but couldn’t convert.

The game last 5 hours, 14 minutes — ending the third-longest in Stars history. They lost the other two.

Nabokov’s incredible glove save 1:31 into the first overtime kept the game going and prevented a series winner by Brad Richards.

Nabokov made a stab of Richards’ one-timer, grabbing the puck with his glove sweeping just inside the post and the puck above the goal line. Referee Tim Peel was behind the net and quickly waved off the goal even though the red light lit up. The play was reviewed by off-ice officials, who determined the puck didn’t completely cross the goal line.

But Nabokov seemed confident, shaking his head as if to say “No goal” when he stood up after the whistle. And it wasn’t a goal, one of his 17 saves in the first extra period.

Mike Ribeiro had three chances to score in the final 75 seconds of the first overtime. He was rejected on a pair of bang-bang attempts, then with 47 seconds left had another shot that deflected off Nabokov and then the crossbar.

Turco was sprawling out of the crease when he stopped two shots by Sharks captain Patrick Marleau with just over 8 minutes left in the first overtime. The first shot rebounded off the upper body of the goalie, who later had a kick save when Joe Pavelski — who scored the Game 5 winner in overtime Friday night — shot.

San Jose played in overtime without Milan Michalek, who was face down on the ice when regulation ended after taking a hard hit from Morrow. Michalek, who scored the go-ahead goal in Game 4, had to be helped off the ice, and never returned to the bench. He was later shown on TV leaving the locker room with his left arm in a sling.

After some spectacular saves by Turco, he appeared off-guard when the Sharks got even 1-1 only 1:39 into the third period. Craig Rivet knocked down the puck in the right circle, then Ryane Clowe spun and knocked it toward the net. The puck skirted the inside of the right post and went in for Clowe’s fifth goal of the playoffs.

At the end of the second period, three Sharks were swarming near the net when Turco pushed away a shot by Jonathan Cheechoo with his stick. That came about a minute after his pad save on a shot by Tomas Plihal.

Antti Miettinen scored on a rebound 4:49 into the second period to give Dallas a 1-0 lead.

Sergei Zubov took a shot that ricocheted off Nabokov, who then collided with Niklas Hagman. There was no whistle, and Nabokov lost his stick in a desperate dive to his right trying to stop Miettinen’s putback.

Turco got a break soon after that, when a shot by Pavelski from the side slid through the crease between the posts and the goalie on his back.

The game was only 72 seconds old when Joel Lundqvist checked Douglas Murray into the corner and knocked out a piece of the plexiglass.

Lundqvist also had two early scoring chances in front, but couldn’t get his stick on passes from Richards and Ribeiro. Those came after Jere Lehtinen’s pass to a charging Ribeiro, who had an open gap to shoot before a smart penalty by Craig Rivet prevented a shot.

Dallas couldn’t convert with the man advantage.

Notes:@ The previous longest game this postseason was Game 4 of the Eastern Conference series between Philadelphia and Washington that lasted 86 minutes, 40 seconds. … Stars C Stu Barnes missed his third straight game since taking a hard hit to the head in Game 3 on Tuesday night. … Zubov was in his 108th playoff games for Dallas, the third most in team history behind Mike Modano (167) and Neal Broten (115).
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By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer
Sun May 4, 6:51 PM ET
 AUSTIN, Texas - Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was charged with failing a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers.
Benson faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.

Benson was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. A call to Benson’s agent was not immediately returned.

Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers aboard when he was stopped by a Lower Colorado River Authority officer for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer’s boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.

“When Benson did not pass the test, he presented himself as a threat to the officer and argued about whether or not he would be taken to land to have a follow-up field sobriety test performed on land and refused to put on a life jacket,” the authority said in a statement.

The officer had to use pepper spray to subdue Benson. He then refused to leave the officer’s boat and authorities had to drag him to a car to be taken to the Travis County jail, the authority said.

Chicago coach Lovie Smith said he’s still trying to figure out exactly what happened in Texas.

“I haven’t had a chance to speak with Cedric yet, but any time we’re talking about one of our players getting arrested you’re disappointed in it,” Smith said Sunday at the end of the Bears’ three-day rookie minicamp in Lake Forest, Ill.

Bears officials said general manager Jerry Angelo was out of town Sunday and unavailable to comment.

Benson has had legal problems before.

He was sentenced to eight days in jail in 2003 for a misdemeanor trespassing charge after forcing his way into an apartment to look for a reported stolen TV. In 2002, misdemeanor drug and alcohol charges against him were dropped.

Benson rushed for more than 5,500 yards and 64 touchdowns at the University of Texas, going for 1,000 yards in four straight seasons.

The 25-year-old has done little since the Bears took him with the fourth pick of the 2005 draft.

As a rookie he couldn’t beat out Thomas Jones and rushed for 272 yards in nine games. He was more effective the next season while sharing time with Jones, going for six touchdowns and 647 yards.

Last year, Benson took over as the featured back after Jones was traded away. He rushed for 674 yards, four touchdowns and 3.4 yards a carry before going on injured reserve in November.

In three years with the Bears, Benson has rushed for 1,593 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 3.8 yards a carry. He’s also missed 13 games.
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By JIMMY GOLEN, AP Sports Writer
Sun May 4, 5:20 PM ET
BOSTON - Kevin Garnett took a behind-the-back pass from Paul Pierce, slammed in the dunk to make the lead three dozen points and then slashed his hand across his throat to signal what the Atlanta Hawks already knew. “It’s over,” he told the crowd. The game. The series. The surprising little scare Atlanta put into the NBA’s best.
Garnett had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Pierce scored 22 points, and the Celtics turned back the pesky Hawks with a 99-65 victory Sunday in Game 7 of their playoff series to advance to the second round.

Next up: LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 1 is Tuesday night.

“They’re a group that’s defending Eastern Conference champs,” Garnett said. “To do anything, you’ve got to go through them. “It’s good that we have home-court advantage. I think it should be a good series.”

The Celtics started the celebration early, holding the Hawks to 10 points in the second quarter and doubling their 18-point halftime lead in the third.

The fans yelled “We want Cleveland!”

The public address announcer explained how to buy tickets for the second round.

And, in the background, the new Boston Garden shook with Gladys Knight and the Pips singing that the Hawks were “Leaving on a Midnight Train” to Georgia.

“I wish we could have played all of our games in Atlanta,” said coach Mike Woodson, whose team won all three home games but never came close to stealing one in Boston. “Nobody thought we had an opportunity to even win a game in this series. We battled them right to the end. We just didn’t have it today.”

Rajon Rondo, who missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the Game 6 loss that forced the series back to Boston, had 10 points and six assists, taking his lumps on a key play. Kendrick Perkins had 10 points and 10 rebounds before joining the rest of the starters on the bench in the formality of a fourth quarter, just like the Celtics did for much of the regular season.

Boston went 66-16 for the league’s best record — 29 games better than the young Hawks team that earned the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The home-court advantage proved pivotal against an upstart team that fed off its own crowd but wilted on the road, losing four times by a total of 101 points.

“I really had no doubt in my mind how we were going to come out,” Pierce said. “You kind of saw it from the guys after Game 6 on the plane, there wasn’t a lot of talking. We knew that we let a couple of games get away in Atlanta and I knew we were just going to take care of business.”

The skirmishes of the first six games boiled over with 9:09 left in the third quarter, with Boston already leading 51-28, when Rondo got the ball on a breakaway in the third quarter and had only Marvin Williams to beat.

The Hawks forward put an arm across his chest and took Rondo to the floor, where he lay for a few minutes while Celtics coaches and teammates checked on him. The officials immediately signaled a Flagrant 2 foul and, after reviewing the play, threw Williams out of the game.

“I saw it on TV and it did look pretty bad, so I can’t argue that at all. I just want Rondo to know that I would never try to hurt him,” said Williams, who called Rondo a friend since high school. “He knows the type of person I am. … It was a physical series, but I have no bad blood with Rondo.”

Boston coach Doc Rivers also vouched for Williams. “Two good kids playing hard,” he said.

Woodson said it was just the latest in a series full of hard fouls, but he conceded that making the Celtics angry probably wasn’t the best approach.

“This series has been so hard-fought, guys’ bodies all over the floor,” the Hawks coach said. “It probably did energize them some. But I don’t think that was the difference in the ballgame. We struggled right from the start.”

Rondo hit both free throws, the Celtics got the ball and Ray Allen, who hadn’t made a basket since the first quarter, drained a 3-pointer to make it a 28-point game.

Then came showtime.

The Celtics brought out some fakes and behind-the-back passes straight out of the Harlem Globetrotters. Rondo found Garnett underneath for an emphatic dunk — and the menacing gesture that will surely earn Garnett a fine from the league office — with 3:05 left in the third.

A minute later, he got his payback, knocking Zaza Pachulia to the floor on a backcourt pick. Rivers, who earned his first playoff series coaching victory, took Garnett out of the game; he wasn’t needed.

With 10:44 left in the game, Pierce and Rondo joined him on the bench. Pierce, who was fined for what the league called a “menacing gesture” in Game 3, was the only Celtics starter to play more than 30 minutes. Sub Leon Powe was the third-leading scorer, with 12 points and four rebounds in 20 minutes.

Notes:@ Williams, who was sore from a knee-on-knee collision with Pierce in Game 6, started. … The Celtics are 18-5 in Game 7s, but they had not won one since beating Atlanta in the second round in 1988. Counting best-of-five and best-of-three series, Boston is 23-8 in deciding games. The Hawks franchise is 2-8 in seventh games and had not won one since 1961. They are 8-14 in decisive games overall. … Allen was 2-for-11 in the first half, missing all four 3-pointers he tried. … Atlanta scored 26 points in the first half, a record low for a Celtics opponent.
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By JOHN NADEL, AP Sports Writer
Sun May 4, 11:03 PM ET
 LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant, celebrating what is expected to be his first NBA MVP award, did just enough to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to another postseason victory. Bryant had 38 points, six rebounds and seven assists Sunday, and the Lakers made it five straight playoff wins by beating the Utah Jazz 109-98 to begin the second round.
Game 2 will be played Wednesday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to Utah for Games 3 and 4. Word leaked late Friday that Bryant had won his first Most Valuable Player award and he expressed his joy on Saturday. The NBA has declined comment, but Bryant is expected to receive the MVP trophy from commissioner David Stern before Game 2.

The “MVP! MVP!” chants from the capacity crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center began before the opening tip, with the volume increasing significantly when Bryant was introduced with the other Los Angeles starters.

Bryant scored 24 points to help the Lakers take a 54-41 halftime lead, and although they were on top the rest of the way, there were some anxious moments down the stretch.

Pau Gasol added 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Lamar Odom had 16 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 45 seconds to play, and Sasha Vujacic scored 15 for the Lakers.

Forward Luke Walton, who shot 22-for-31 and averaged 14 points in the Lakers’ sweep of Denver in the first round, played despite an upper respiratory infection and wasn’t at his best, getting five points and three rebounds in 13 minutes.

Mehmet Okur had 21 points and a career playoff-high 19 rebounds for the Jazz, who lost despite outrebounding the Lakers 58-41. Carlos Boozer had 15 points, 14 rebounds and four assists before fouling out with 3:28 left, and Deron Williams added 14 points, nine assists and nine
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While Cadillac busies itself with a 2-door version of the new CTS sedan, the folks over at Coach Builders, Ltd have been busy taking their tops off. The boulevardier CTS gets an insulated, hydraulically-powered roof fitted with a heated glass rear window and cloth headliner. The top also comes in several colors. Judging by this pic, it also looks like a fair bit of work has gone into making the car look good with the top down. No word on what happens to trunk space, however.

It’ll cost you more than a few quarters — $19,000 gets the job done in eight weeks — but that’s the price of exclusivity, right? It’s also employs a manual release, but these things happen when you’re a style pioneer. We’d like to see pics of the car with the top up, because we wonder if this could be the first cloth-topped Caddy truly fit for the younger set.

[Source: Inside Line]

The Chrysler employees who entered the prototype Dodge Challenger in this year’s One Lap of America may have taken the car’s Vanishing Point theme a bit too seriously. Just like in the classic film, the stark white Challenger came face to face with a solid object. The car met its demise in Round 2’s time trial event at Road America after getting loose through turn 1. It then left the track and came to a stop perched atop a tire-wall. This course of events departs slightly from the original movie plot, where the Challenger did not meet its destructive fate until the final frames. The film version also somehow managed to survive its own slew of off road adventures without much harm, proving that Hollywood doesn’t necessarily mimic real life. Fortunately the Challenger driver, Erich Heuschele, came away from his off track excursion unscathed. The crew has reported that the car will be out for the remainder of events, though it was spotted leaving the track under its own power so a return might be a slim possibility. Check out the source link below for more images of the carnage.

[Source: Car Domain Blog]

The first race of the first all-diesel, road racing series in America took place this past weekend at VIRginia International Raceway,

 and we were there, or rather AutoblogGreen was there, to watch it go down. The gorgeous VIR long course proved to be a great setting for the opening round of Volkswagen’s new Jetta TDI Cup series. The new series is both a continuation of VW’s history of grassroots racing, as well as promotion for the new Jetta TDI that launches this summer. Volkswagen had an open casting call earlier this year for young amateur racing drivers and picked the 30 best to run in the promotional series. Prior to arriving at VIR for Friday’s first practice, the drivers had one day of actual running in the Jettas during the driver selection process at the beginning of April. Though the Jetta TDI race cars were slightly modified from their production counterpart for safety reasons, they still managed to retuFollowing two practice sessions on Friday and a 30-minute qualifying session on Saturday, 23-year-old Josh Hurley claimed the number one starting slot on the standing start grid for Sunday’s race. Yesterday afternoon, the field (ranging in age from three, 16-year-olds to one 26-year-old Gary Williams, Jr.) made a clean getaway for the 30-minute race. Although they were cautious at the start, it didn’t take long before cars were mixing it up. Anyone who remembers seeing first-generation (and later) Rabbits and Sciroccos on the track or autocross course would instantly recognize the three-wheel cornering stance of these Jettas during hard cornering. A few laps into the race, the first yellow flag flew bringing out the pace car for a couple of laps while the carnage was cleared. Once they were back under green, the Jettas were door-handle-to-door-handle through the corners as their tires howled. There was action aplenty with lots of lead changes, but ultimately, Mark Pombo crossed the line first with 1.63 seconds covering the first six cars. If you happen to be at one of the tracks where the Jetta TDI Cup is running this summer (check the schedule here), make sure you don’t wander off during this race. You won’t know any of these drivers names (yet), but the action is fun to watch and odds are at least some of these drivers may become household names in time.

Travel and lodging for this media event was provided by the manufacturer
rn 25 mpg… while racing.

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