Look who’s back on top.

For the first time this 2012 NBA basketball season, the Boston Celtics found themselves in strange and foreign territory after their 100-79 victory against the Timberwolves last night. Yes people, they are alone in first place in the Atlantic Division.

They reached that destination largely because Kevin Garnett was in a very familiar place. The talk coming in was about the Wolves’ new Kevin, but KG showed Love no love, going after his replacement in the local pantheon on both ends of the floor. Garnett made 12-of-18 shots on the way to 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Love hit just 5-of-18 for 22 points to go with 11 boards.

”I think it’s always personal,” Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. ”He won’t tell you that either way, but I think everyone’s up when they come back. Kevin is the best player to ever play here. Kevin Love has a chance to be that, as well, or one of them.”

Garnett did speak about it afterward, but even louder was his fourth quarter, in which he made 5-of-6 shots from the floor for 10 points while Love was sputtering to three. ”It was just a situation where I know Kevin doesn’t really play a lot of defense,” said Garnett, adding a slight laugh. ”But he does get a lot of rebounds, and he shoots a lot of 3′s. But I felt like I had the advantage and I took it. It wasn’t nothing more than that.”

”(Rajon) Rondo called my number, and I know this building…”

Looks like the rest of the league will have two more reasons to hate on the Miami Heat now.

The Miami Heat is doing just fine this 2012 NBA basketball season, so much so that many people still see them winning the NBA title at the end of he season despite the surge of the Chicago Bulls in the East and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West.

But by the looks of things, it seems the Miami Heat will be adding two more superstars to their already ridiculous roster. As if the collection of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh wasn’t enough, these guys could be adding both Steve Nash and Jason Terry.

Steve Nash and Jason Terry are aging veterans on the downside of stellar NBA careers. Both players are set to become free agents this summer, and with neither ready to hang up his sneakers just yet, they’re keeping their options open.

One of the top point guards in the game over the last decade, Steve Nash has the steady hand and passing ability that teams with championship aspirations need. The Miami Heat are one such team, but would a move from the desert to the beach make sense for the 38-year-old point guard?

”I would listen,” Steve Nash said when asked how he might respond to…

That’s despite missing out on winning two races already.

The 2012 F1 season is now two races old and Lewis Hamilton hasn’t won a race yet. He concedes he’s missed out on some vital points already this season but is confident he’s in the Championship fight.

Despite starting the first two rounds of the Championship on pole position, Lewis Hamilton has yet to claim a grand prix victory, finishing third in both events. The Brit was undone by his teammate Jenson Button in Australia before Sebastian Vettel also got the better of him.

It was more of the same in Malaysia where the rain and pitstops issues did not help his cause, allowing Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez to surge ahead.

“I should have 50 points, but I don’t,” Hamilton said. “Yeah, we would love to have 20 points more, but at least we’ve had consistency and we’re there in the fight.”

“We should be proud of ourselves. The team have done a fantastic job to get us where we are,” he added. “We’ve been the quickest in qualifying in both races, so there are many positives to take, rather than looking at the negatives.”

“So I’m massively excited ahead of the next two races and I’m going to go and prepare the best way I can. The main thing is I need to pick up my race pace. I spoke to Fernando and Sergio afterwards and they had lots of understeer whereas I had lots of oversteer.”

“Maybe I’m setting the car up too aggressively, so I might make…”

Looks like Fernando Alonso is back in the title picture.

In case you didn’t know, Fernando Alonso came up with a surprise win during the second grand prix of the 2012 F1 season. Yes, Ferrari finally got one but as far as Jenson Button is concerned, he’s not worried at all.

Jenson Button has all but written off Fernando Alonso’s title challenge, saying his deficit to the Ferrari driver is “not the worry.” Fernando Alonso claimed a surprise victory ahead of Sergio Perez in Sunday’s Malaysian GP as the wet conditions detracted from the Ferrari F2012′s weak points.

His win put Fernando Alonso at the top of the Drivers’ standings, five points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and a further five in front of Jenson Button. However, the McLaren driver, who finished outside the points in Sepang after colliding with an HRT, reckons it’s the man in second and the off-the-pace Red Bulls who are his biggest threat and not Alonso.

“Even after such a bad race – and that’s hopefully my bad race for the year gone – I’m still only 10 points off the lead, and that’s Alonso in a Ferrari. That’s not the worry,” Button said.

“I’m also only five points behind Lewis, who is the guy in a competitive car, so (it’s) still not bad considering the day I had. Lewis is definitely my main rival, and you have to say the Red Bulls as well.”

“Those are the guys I still think are the main ones at this point…”

That means trouble for Mark Sanchez.

Tim Tebow’s love of New York has nothing to do with pastrami and rye, or Times Square, or even Madison Ave.: The real reason Tebow loves New York is because he feels he can beat out Mark Sanchez and become the Jets’ starting quarterback in the 2012 NFL football season.

Yes, Timsanity — and an explosive quarterback controversy — starts now. A major factor in this decision made by Tim Tebow to come to New York over Jacksonville, his hometown, is that he sees a clear path to resuming his career as a starter, sources tell the Daily News.

The New York Jets will start Tebow off in a limited role as the Wildcat quarterback — GM Mike Tannenbaum must have said 20 times that Sanchez is the starter and Tebow is the backup — but what other backup flies cross-country on a private jet, as Tebow did Thursday from Van Nuys, Calif., to Morristown, N.J., only to disembark to an adoring crowd of Tebow-ing fans? (The plane’s tail number? N15QB.)

What other backup quarterback arrives with the guarantee that he will get on the field?

If Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow play like they did last year…

Jeez, what a mess.

In case you didn’t know, the New Orleans Saints have secretly rewarded its players with money for taking out some players from the opposing team. Yup, they wanted to win a Super Bowl bad and that’s exactly what they got, by all means necessary.

But after the rest of the league found out all about it, all the great things the Saints did were virtually erased as the organization heads to the 2012 NFL football season as the team the rest of the league will be gunning for now after this scandal. Yes, the Saints will be the ons with a bounty on their heads now.

New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton released a statement on the team’s website Friday afternoon addressing the team’s bounty scandal. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Payton for a year as part of the penalties the league implemented against the team Wednesday for running a bounty program from 2009-11. Payton’s statement reads:

“I share and fully support the League’s concerns and goals on player safety. It is, and should be paramount. Respecting our great game and the NFL shield is extremely important to me.”

”Our organization will implement all necessary protections and protocols, and I will be more vigilant going forward.”

”I am sorry for what has happened and as head coach…”

Looks like he’s determined to win this one after missing out on the top of the podium in Melbourne.

Yes, Lewis Hamilton set the pace in Malaysia for the second grand prix of the 2012 F1 season in what proved to be very standard first practice, lacking in both drama and excitement.

The McLaren driver had a brief tussle with Sebastian Vettel for the P1 slot midway through the session with duo swapping places four times.

But, in the end, it was Lewis Hamilton who was quickest with a 1:38.021, which put him half a second ahead of the reigning World Champion.

Nico Rosberg was third quickest with Michael Schumacher fourth as Mercedes put their innovative DRS-activated F-duct to good use on the long Sepang straights. However, the duo were still eight-tenths adrift of Hamilton’s best.

Romain Grosjean continued his impressive run with Lotus as he claimed fifth place ahead of Mark Webbber and his more illustrious team-mate Kimi Raikkonen while Paul di Resta was eighth.

Jenson Button was in ninth place after an oil leak meant he was not able to see out the session, completing just 15 laps.

It was another worrying session for Ferrari with Felipe Massa 13th, 1.875s off the pace, and Fernando Alonso down in 15th place. The Spaniard spent a good part of the session in the pits and only set a lap time in the latter half of practice.

HRT were again at the very back of the pack, over seven seconds off…

Talk about a confidence boost.

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari should not expect a sudden leap to the front of the field in Malaysia and could in fact finish even worse than they did in Australia this 2012 F1 season.

Ferrari had a disappointing start to their campaign with neither Fernando Alonso nor his team-mate Felipe Massa making it into the final top-ten shoot-out in qualifying. And although they showed better race-pace on the Sunday in Melbourne, they were still nowhere near fighting for a podium finish with Alonso down in fifth place. Massa failed to finish after crashing out.

Alonso has warned that the problem last time out was not the track, it was Ferrari‘s lack of competitiveness, which he expects will continue in Malaysia.

“I don’t think the change of circuit will make much difference to us. We have tested at Jerez, Barcelona and then we went to Australia and I think, for all teams, the cars here are pretty much identical to the first race, so there will not be any surprises here,” he said.

“We will try and adapt the car to the circuit. In pure performance, we are not as competitive as we would like, but in the race anything can happen: if you make a good start and have a good pit stop strategy you can put yourself in a decent place.”

“We will try and do the same again and score as many points as possible even if we cannot expect any miracles here. In Australia no one thought we could finish fifth as there were many people quicker than us, but in the race, with events that happened…”

Ugh.

About eight hours after announcing a trade for Tim Tebow, the Jets actually completed it Wednesday night, ending a surreal day when one of the most popular and polarizing athletes in the country was sent to the NFL’s most prominent city heading towards the 2012 NFL football season.

The New York Jets acquired Tim Tebow, whose unorthodox quarterback style has divided football coaches and executives in the same way his devout Christianity has earned him a fervid following of fans, from the Denver Broncos after a brief but fierce pursuit that was almost derailed by a disagreement over money.

In joining the New York Jets, Tim Tebow becomes the highest-profile backup quarterback in the NFL, a crossover phenomenon who will diversify the team’s offense but whose presence could undermine the incumbent Mark Sanchez, who recently agreed to a lucrative new contract.

Tebow is also a somewhat incongruous fit, an outspoken Christian playing in a city known for its extensive night life and a part of a franchise made famous by the bachelor stylings of Joe Namath and currently known for the profane speeches of its coach, Rex Ryan.

”I think New York is unique; if there’s anyone that can handle it, it’s Tim…”

And Chris Mullin was the one who paid the price the most.

Chris Mullin took the hardwood of Oracle Arena to be honored and have his number 17 retired from the rafters. Unfortunately for him, all the fans cared about that night was how they can voice out their displeasure towards the warriors organization for trading away Monta Ellis this 2012 NBA basketball season.

It was a night to honor Chris Mullin, to salute one of the franchise’s greatest players and hang his No.17 jersey from the rafters. And yet none of that mattered. As soon as Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob took the microphone to recognize Mullin Monday night, the boos rained down. Louder and louder still, until Mullin and former Warriors great Rick Barry asked the sold-out crowd to have mercy on Lacob.

Turns out, Warriors fans had come not only to support Mullin, but also Monta Ellis. Five days after the Warriors traded Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for injured center Andrew Bogut, the franchise’s fans aimed their ire at Lacob during Mullin’s halftime retirement ceremony – a surreal scene that left the owner shaken.

The Golden State Warriors owner stopped his speech for Chris Mullin after the monsoon of boos drowned him out.

“Look, fans are upset that we traded one of their favorites,” Lacob said after the Warriors’ 97-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “That’s all I can attribute that to. What I feel bad about is…”