The Toronto Raptors signed Croatian guard Roko Ukic to a three-year deal Wednesday.

Ukic, who was the Raptors’ second-round pick (41st) in the 2005 draft, played in Italy last season with Lottomatica Virtus Roma. He averaged 11.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals in 19 games, shooting 54.5 percent from the field.

He began his professional career in 2000 with KK Split in Croatia, where he spent four seasons. He played in Spain for two more years, winning the Spanish national championship twice.

Larry Bird’s impact on NBA basketball history was immediate. For the 1980 season Larry Bird led the Celtics to superstardom legacy. Bird was named the league’s Rookie of The Year and was voted onto the Eastern Conference All Star-Team. He was honored with this title all for all of his twelve seasons of his career in the NBA. He was scoring 12 points per game, 10 rebounds per game, an outstanding 143 steals and second in assists.

In Bird’s second professional season- he led the Celtics to the NBA Playoffs. Larry Bird helped the Celtics’ deficit by helping them overcome and winning the last three games, which propelled the Celtics into the NBA Finals. They defeated the Houston Rockets in six games.

In 1984 Bird earned the award for Most Valuable Player by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven game final. The following year, the Boston Celtics would have another incredible winning year by defeating The Rockets in six games. Bird again was honored with the Finals MVP Award for that year, averaging 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

In 1987 Bird made his final appearance for the Celtics against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons. That year the Celtics ended up losing to the unmatched Lakers in six games and to the Detroit Pistons in 1988.

Bird’s body continued to deteriorate to injuries to debilitating back problems and to bone spurs in his heels. Both these conditions would eventually lead to his retirement in 1992. Unwilling to stop due to injuries, he joined Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan to play in the United States basketball team for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Names the “Dream Team”- they defeated their competition to win the Gold Medal for the United States Basketball Olympic Team.

Larry Bird’s NBA honors include; elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame (1988), NBA champion (1981, 1984, 1986), NBA Finals MVP (1984, 1986), NBA MVP ( 1984, 1985, 1986), Nine-Time All-NBA First Team ( 1980-88), All NBA Second Team (1990), All-Defensive Second Team (1982, 1983, 1984), NBA Rookie of The Year (1980), One of the Fifty Greatest Players in NBA History (1996), Olympic Gold Medalist (1992).

The Golden State Warriors signed first-round pick Anthony Randolph to a contract Tuesday.

Based on the league’s rookie scale, Randolph will make about $1.4 million his first season and about $1.5 million in his second as the 14th overall pick. All rookie contracts for first-round picks are guaranteed the first two years, with options for the next two.

Randolph, who turned 19 on Tuesday, averaged 15.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.26 blocked shots per game in his one college season at LSU.

Randolph is currently playing in the summer league for the Warriors, where he scored 30 points in his debut last week.

Online poker remains an ever-popular activity online, with some competitors winning millions in poker tournaments or cash games. Online poker is available to all levels, whether you’re a newbie who can only risk $50, or a high stakes aspiring pro with a fat bankroll. Your Online Poker Site and You The first step to starting an online poker career is finding the right online poker site. Do your research and see how the best sites stack up against each other before making a choice. Look for the best poker bonus online. Remember that even if you make a bad choice, you’re okay, since you’re not committed to playing at any one site. Look for sites that have good traffic for the games you want to play and that have a graphic interface you find pleasing. Also, if you are an American, remember that not all sites accept players from the U.S. Playing Online Poker Decide what kind of poker you’re going to play. You can play cash games, where you can get up or buy more chips at any time, tournaments, where you pay a fixed buy-in and you play until you run out of chips, or sit-and-gos, which are smaller, unscheduled tournaments. You can play any of these or all of them, but most players will find a preference for one or the other. Getting Better at Online Poker There are a number of great books on online poker, but the best way to improve is to practice. Start at small stakes where mistakes won’t do too much damage to your bankroll, then, as you gain a better understanding of the strategies involved, move up to more challenging stakes.

Chauncey Billups is 6-3, an All-Star guard for the Detroit Pistons. One of his nicknames is “Smooth.”

Kendrick Perkins is 6-10 and 280 pounds of hulking, plodding center for the Boston Celtics. He’s not a bad player, but he’s so nondescript he has no nickname, other than “Perk.” He’s such a banger that it might as well be “Tree” or “Oak.”

So when a defensive mix-up left Perkins covering Billups in the open court of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday, you could feel confident that Billups would cross up Perkins on a dribble and whip right past him.

It should happen 100 out of 100 times, even with Billups’ hamstring bothering him. At least if Billups is paying attention.

Naturally, he wasn’t, and Perkins, a man who is averaging 0.3 steals a game in his career, took the ball mid-dribble.

He stole it from Billups like he knew what he was doing. Of course, he didn’t really know what he was doing, evident when Perkins tried to dribble up court only to bounce the ball off his knee and get his feet tangled up like a center is supposed to in the open court.

Must-win situations are not a familiar place for the San Antonio Spurs.

They survived one Thursday night, earning the chance to play in another.

The defending champions beat the New Orleans Hornets, 99-80 in Game 6, staying alive and forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday in New Orleans.

“That’s what you want to have, an opportunity,” said Spurs point guard Tony Parker. “That’s why Game 6 was huge. We won the game and now we have an opportunity to win a game on the road.”

Manu Ginobili scored 25 points, Tim Duncan had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Parker added 15 points to tie the Western Conference semifinals.

The Spurs cruised through last year’s playoffs and to their fourth title in nine seasons without ever facing the threat of elimination.

Before Thursday, the last time San Antonio faced a must-win game was 2006, when they were down 1-3 to the Dallas Mavericks, then came back to force a Game 7 and lost in overtime.

Someone is going to have to beat the Celtics in Boston to keep them from winning their 17th NBA title.

Cleveland is hoping for one more chance.

Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 16 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo added 20 points and 13 assists as the Celtics beat the Cavaliers 96-89 on Wednesday night to move within a win of the Eastern Conference finals.

Game 6 is Friday night in Cleveland.

“We know it’s a win-or-go-home situation. We’ve got to approach it that way,” said LeBron James, who scored 23 of his 35 points in the first 20 minutes and then went cold again. “We’re a very good team at home. But a LeBron James team is never desperate.”

Paul Pierce scored 29 points and helped shut James down for much of the second half. The Cavaliers forward had 23 points with 3:50 left in the first half but made just one basket in the next 20 minutes as Boston erased a 14-point deficit and took the lead for good.

ust when it appeared the Los Angeles Lakers needed Kobe Bryant the most, he provided the least.

The strategy, planned or otherwise, worked to perfection.

Bryant scored 26 points despite not attempting a field goal in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers extended the stunning home success by NBA teams in the second round of the playoffs by beating the Utah Jazz 111-104 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Lakers, who never trailed, can advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2004 with a victory Friday night in Utah. But if form prevails, the teams will be playing a seventh and deciding game Monday night at Staples Center, where Los Angeles has a 17-3 record against the Jazz since the arena opened before the 1999-2000 season.

Home teams have won 19 of the 20 games played in the second round. The Lakers are the top-seeded team in the Western Conference, meaning they have home-court advantage through the first three rounds of the postseason.