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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It looked as if everything was coming together for the Sacramento Kings.DeMarcus Cousins was keeping his cool while putting up All-Star numbers. Second-year coach Michael Malone had his team playing defence, and the Kings were consistently beating Western Conference contenders.One illness ended all that.Cousins came down with viral meningitis more than two weeks ago, and neither the franchise centre nor the Kings (11-13) have recovered yet. Sacramento has gone just 2-7 without Cousins — who remains out indefinitely — heading into Tuesday nights home game against Oklahoma City, which had its own health-related problems while NBA MVP Kevin Durant and co-star Russell Westbrook were out with injuries.Malone was fired late Sunday night and assistant Tyrone Corbin was promoted to interim coach. A person with knowledge of the moves confirmed the change on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced it yet.While season-long goals cant be accomplished before Christmas, the Kings and Thunder know they can sure be wrecked.How teams handle such critical times can go a long way in determining their season. That was basically the message Malone gave to his players last week.I told our guys, We have no idea when DeMarcus is coming back. So we need everybody to man up and play to the best of your ability, Malone said before his dismissal was announced.Houston has been able to manage injuries better than any team in the league.Dwight Howard missed 11 straight games with a strained right knee before returning Saturday against Denver. The Rockets (18-5) went 8-3 without the All-Star centre.The Thunder thought they could limit the damage when Durant and Westbrook went down. Instead, they started 3-12 and are trying to make the long climb back up the crowded West standings.Westbrook returned Nov. 28 after sitting out 13 games with a broken bone in his right hand. Durant came back Dec. 2 after missing the teams first 17 games with a fractured right foot.Both believe there is enough time left to get the Thunder back in a strong playoff position.___Here are some other things to look for around the NBA this week:WINNING WARRIORS: The Golden State Warriors have won a franchise-record 16 straight games, which is almost halfway to the NBA record of 33 in row set by the Los Angeles Lakers during the 1971-72 season. The Warriors play at Memphis on Tuesday and host Oklahoma City on Thursday.LANCE VS. LEBRON: Lance Stephenson and LeBron James will meet for the first time since last seasons memorable run-in during the Eastern Conference finals between Indiana and Miami, when Stephenson was caught by television cameras blowing into James ear. Both are with new teams now, but they still figure to match up against each other when Stephensons Hornets visit James and the Cavaliers on Monday night.BIGGEST LOSERS: Philadelphia gained national attention by starting 0-17 and coming within one loss of tying the record for worst start to a season. But the Sixers have hardly been the only big losers this season. Detroits 13-game losing streak ended with a win at Phoenix on Friday. Charlotte had a 10-game losing streak. Utah had a nine-game skid. The New York Knicks have put together losing streaks of 10 and seven in a row already.GARDEN SPOILER: As if things couldnt get any worse for the Knicks, its beginning to look like a very real possibility that Golden States Steve Kerr — who spurned an offer from mentor Phil Jackson to coach in New York over the summer — could coach the Western Conference in the All-Star game at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 15. The coaches of the teams with the best record in each conference will head the All-Star teams, so long as they didnt coach last years game. The Warriors entered Monday night with an NBA-best 21-2 record.BIG THREE: San Antonio beat the Knicks 109-95 on Wednesday without Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spurs are just 5-10 in games the Big Three sit out since they became teammates in 2002.___STAT LINE OF THE WEEK: Blake Griffin scored 45 points, including a 3-pointer as time expired, to lift the Los Angeles Clippers to a 121-120 overtime win against Phoenix last Monday night. He joined Dwyane Wade and Gilbert Arenas as the only players to score at least 45 points and hit a buzzer-beater in the same game in the last 10 seasons.___AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.___Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP Minkah Fitzpatrick Jersey . Moments after his Brooklyn Nets teammates ran out onto the court to congratulate him following their 100-98 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, Johnson could only shake his head at scoring only 13 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Custom Miami Dolphins Jerseys . Colorado came up big against Chicago last spring, and repeated that performance Tuesday night. Varlamov stopped 36 shots and Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche in a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks. http://www.authenticdolphinspro.com/Came...olphins-jersey/. A spokeswoman for the NLRB says its "a very incremental move" and does not necessarily indicate the board is close to a finding in the case. NFL owners filed an unfair labour charge against the players union in February, arguing that the union was not negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement in good faith. Jason Taylor Jersey .J. -- Richard Sherman, Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch deservedly draw the attention for what theyve done in getting the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Mark Clayton Jersey . Jones took a beating, the worst one of his record reign, in a bout against Alexander Gustafsson that knocked the light heavyweight champion on the canvas for the first time in his career and put his belt in jeopardy.CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Drawing hard lessons from the Lance Armstrong scandal, global anti-doping authorities are set to move into a new era with tougher sanctions, smarter testing and a new leader. The World Anti-Doping Agency is also pushing to catch drug cheats by pursuing investigations and gathering intelligence -- rather than relying on the blood and urine samples which proved so unsuccessful with Armstrong, a serial doper who never failed a test. A series of proposed changes to the World Anti-Doping Code will be voted on at the World Conference on Doping in Sport, to be held next Tuesday through Friday in Johannesburg. The revised code will take effect on Jan. 1, 2015 -- in time for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. "Weve got a budget of not even the salary that Wayne Rooney earns at Manchester United," WADA director general David Howman told The Associated Press. "I think what you have to do is say, Right, how do you make the bucks you have go as far as they possibly can to get rid of those rotten apples?" In the most obvious deterrent, WADA is proposing to double the standard ban for serious doping offences from two years to four years meaning cheaters would miss at least one Olympics. The move appears to have widespread approval. While current rules allow for four-year bans in aggravated cases, the longer sanctions are rarely enforced and most federations keep to the standard two-year penalty. A previous IOC rule that banned dopers from the next Olympics was ruled invalid by the Court of Arbitration for Sport so WADA consulted a judge at the Court of Human Rights to make sure the latest four-year proposal would stand up to legal challenges. "I cant see it not being accepted to be honest," U.K. Anti-Doping chief executive Andy Parkinson said. WADA is also re-examining testing procedures, placing more importance on police-style investigations and extending the reach of anti-doping agencies to give harsher punishments to the coaches and trainers, the so-called "athlete entourage" that assists in doping -- all factors in Armstrongs case. Armstrong was "surrounded by a lot of rotten apples," Howman said. WADA also proposes lengthening the statute of limitations in doping cases from eight to 10 years. That would allow the storage and re-testing of samples for up to a decade. With these changes being considered, WADA will elect a new president. Craig Reedie, an International Olympic Committee vice-president from Britain, is the only candidate. He is set to succeed former Australian government minister John Fahey as WADA president, taking over on Jan. 1, 2014. New IOC President Thomas BBach also will attend the conference, underlining his commitment to a "zero-tolerance" approach on doping.dddddddddddd And away from the code, WADA and national anti-doping agencies may look to repair broken relationships with some sports. Reedie, close to the federations, may be the right person to lead the move toward detente after previous clashes between the agency and federations, including over allegations that cycling body UCI protected Armstrong or was complicit in his doping. Newly elected UCI President Brian Cookson will be in Johannesburg. Delegations from Jamaica and Kenya also are expected, giving WADA an opportunity to make progress behind the scenes on anti-doping shortcomings in those countries. WADA has already inspected the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission over a breakdown in the testing of its world-beating sprinters in the run-up to the London Olympics last year. WADAs executive committee will likely examine the Jamaica report when it meets on the first day of the conference. Kenya is being scrutinized for a sudden spike in doping offences and the lack of progress in an investigation promised by sports and government authorities a year ago. WADA will meet with Kenyan officials in Johannesburg. Howman praised the United States Anti-Doping Agency for a "superb job" to help bring down Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life. After years of denials, the cyclist admitted to doping after a USADA investigation exposed evidence of his systematic cheating. Howman said some of USADAs work "merits looking at (for) changes that are required in other anti-doping organizations." Despite USADAs eventual success, Armstrongs career still stands as a stark reminder for authorities who couldnt catch him for years. A report commissioned by WADA and delivered this year said drug-testing had been "generally unsuccessful" in catching dopers. The findings from a team led by former WADA head Dick Pound called for the doping body to "readjust its focus." Taking away findings for substances like marijuana and asthma medications, less than 1 per cent of the 250,000 drug tests now administered at huge cost every year were producing positives, the report found, showing no improvement since 1985. Howman said WADA had "totally" taken on board recommendations with regard to testing shortcomings. In one proposed change, the code wants to ensure that testing is smarter and federations tailor it to substances more common to their specific sport. "We have a task to tell the sports what substances they must be testing for," Howman said. 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