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Washington Nationals center fielder Elijah Dukes left Friday night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies in the seventh inning with a strained left hamstring.

By DAVID MARTINDALE Kobe Doin’ Work, a sports film from acclaimed director Spike Lee, is literally all Kobe Bryant all the time.On April 13, 2008, during the Los Angeles Lakers’ next-to-last game before the playoffs that season, Lee fixed 30 cameras and multiple microphones on the nba mvp.Whether Bryant was on court and in the thick of the action or biding his time on the bench (where he spent the entire fourth quarter of a blowout victory over the Spurs), the cameras dutifully documented his every move.The goal was to make a basketball film like no other, but the results are mixed. The film, which makes its TV premiere at 7 tonight on ESPN, offers insights into how a great player goes the extra mile to be great. Yet it also often feels like the ultimate PR vanity puff piece.Lee is just lucky that Bryant, who scored 20, didn’t spend the whole game in foul trouble.The director talks about this unique project:What inspired you to film a basketball game in this way, fro

Did the Giants build their ballpark on an old burial ground? Are the spirits of the aggrieved finally deciding to go all Amityville on this franchise? In less than 24 hours, Edgar Renteria hurt a hamstring, Travis Ishikawa got smacked in the eye with a...

Jake Fox continues to rake and Tony Thomas is nursing a sore hamstring. Iowa Cubs After scoring 15, 18 and 17 runs in their first three games in Colorado Springs, the Iowa Cubs could only manage four runs tonight and that wasn't enough as the Cubs lost to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, 8-4. Mitch Atkins tough season continued tonight as he surrendered eight runs in 4.1 innings. Atkins gave up seven hits, two of which were home runs. Atkins walked five and struck out three. One of the runs against Atkins was unearned. Kevin Hart provided 2.2 innings of shutout relief. He was touched for two hits, but struck out three and didn't walk a batter. First baseman Jake Fox hit his minor league leading 16th home run tonight in a 1 for 3 effort. It was a two-run shot in the sixth inning. Fox also walked once. Left fielder Doug Deeds also homered, his third on the year. Deeds was 2 for 5 with two runs scored and two RBI. Catcher Chris Robinson and shortstop Andres Blanco were both 2 for 4. Te

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The los angeles lakers are confident they can wrap up their western conference semi-final against the houston rockets on Sunday, despite having driven their fans to distraction with wildly erratic performances.

Game 6 of the western conference semifinal series between the los angeles lakers and houston rockets was the most watched basketball game ever on ESPN.

Salivating for a Celtics-Cavaliers matchup in the East finals? How about a Kobe-LeBron duel in the NBA Finals? Sound good, right? Not to the Rockets and Magic, who have other plans, Ken Berger says.

With the Lakers struggling to get past the Rockets, maybe it's time to believe the Nuggets will win the West, Kevin Hench says.

Go with Boston and L.A. on Sunday when the NBA's Finalists from last June are playing in Game 7s. Start with the biggest reason: The Lakers and Celtics will be playing at home. That means friendly rims, friendlier whistles.

The Star-Tribune reports Vikings WR Sidney Rice is still not 100 percent recovered from the knee injury he suffered last season. Rice is currently working out in Miami while trying to prepare for the season. 'It's getting better,' Rice said of his knee. 'I can really tell that it's getting better. I'm not 100 percent yet. But I'm running routes full speed and feeling pretty good. The coaches were watching me run the other day and they can tell I'm making progress with it. I'm not too far off from it. But I should be ready coming into training camp. ... I still feel a little pain when I do get up to full speed or when I'm getting close to it. My main thing is strengthening my quad and my hamstring. I've been doing a pretty good job. When we start these OTAs I'm going to be spending extra time in the training room running in the pool on the treadmill and doing little exercises. Those exercises help me out a lot.'