Phils get early lesson from Braves about perils of defending title

PHILADELPHIA — Only moments after Phillies manager Charlie Manuel raised the 2008 world championship flag in center field, the Atlanta Braves strongly signaled it was a whole different year, silencing the early celebratory cheers with a trio of long home runs within 20 minutes of the season’s start, plus eight superb, scoreless innings by new Braves ace Derek Lowe, who allowed only two hits.

The planned all-night celebration here lasted only a few minutes past the first pitch, as it turns out. Good cheer can be ephemeral here, where Santa Claus has good days and bad, and Phillies fans grew quiet, appearing to have taken literally Phillies slugging star Ryan Howard‘s pregame advice to his team to “turn the page” and forget about that championship season.

The ring ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, so more good memories are promised. This was generally not a night for nostalgia, though.

YEah Cleveland Won YEAH

Back to basics. Back to winning. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t need long to remember what’s made them so good.

Locked into attack mode from the start, LeBron James scored 38 points — 18 in the first quarter — and Mo Williams and Delonte West added 22 apiece as the NBA’s best home team avoided its first three-game losing streak by beating the San Antonio Spurs 101-81 on Sunday.