Scoreboard

Raptors make playoffs

Written off several times in the final month of the season, the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers proved their doubters wrong.

With victories Wednesday night on the final day of the NBA regular season, the undermanned Raptors and the revamped Pacers made it to the playoffs with the help of one last major meltdown by the underachieving Milwaukee Bucks.

The Raptors clinched a playoff spot by defeating Cleveland 103-85, while Indiana got in with a 103-80 victory over Philadelphia. The playoffs begin Saturday with Detroit-New Jersey, Utah-Sacramento, Seattle-San Antonio, and Orlando-Charlotte.

A key athlete for the New England Patriots in Saturday's NFL draft isn't even in college. Drew Bledsoe spent the past nine years with the Patriots and figured to stay much longer.

Now he wants out, but New England is in no hurry to trade him even though a deal might bring a first-round draft choice to a team whose opening pick is the 32nd overall. But a deal would leave them without a strong backup to Tom Brady.

Bledsoe suffered a chest injury last year and lost his job to second-year pro Brady. "I don't know where anybody's going," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "They're all under contract so, I would expect them to be in training camp."

Sunday's London Marathon produced two of the greatest performances in history, with Khalid Khannouchi shattering his own world record and Britain's Paula Radcliffe Â- in her debut Â- running the second-fastest women's time (2:18:55) on record (the record is 2:18:47.) Khannouchi, a 30-year-old American born in Morocco, clocked 2 hours, 5 minutes, 38 seconds in the 26.2-mile marathon, besting his old mark set three years ago in Chicago (2:05:42). "That was a tough race," Khannouchi said. "With the quality of the field that we had today, everyone had to work so hard to win. Thank God, I had the strength at the end to win."