INDIANAPOLIS — The Pacers fired coach Jim O’Brien on Sunday after failing to make the playoffs each of the past three years and squandering a promising start this season.
“This isn’t all on Jim. All of us share in the responsibility for where we’re at and where we need to go,” team president Larry Bird said.
Assistant coach Frank Vogel will take over the team on an interim basis. The Pacers went 121-169 under O’Brien.
• Celtics coach Doc Rivers was fined $15,000 for leaving the court too slowly after being ejected from a game in Phoenix on Friday.
• The NBA fined Hawks forward Josh Smith $25,000 for making an obscene gesture during a game Friday against the Knicks.
Ganassi’s team sweeps top spots
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Defending Grand-Am Series champion Scott Pruett drove the last leg in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and held off Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon on the final restart.
Last year Chip Ganassi drivers won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. He now is the only car owner to win the four biggest races in the United States during a 12-month period.
• Motocross racer Nathan Woods, 33, died after crashing during a jump while practicing for a World Off-Road Championship Series event in Taft, Calif.
Daba sets record
HOUSTON — Bekana Daba set a Houston Marathon record in the rain — and that included a bathroom stop.
Daba covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 4 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:07:37 set by fellow Ethiopian Teshome Gelana last year.
Mamitu Daska finished in 2:26:33 to become the fifth straight female champion from Ethiopia.
Jeff Eggleston won the half-marathon in 1:08:17. Colleen De Reuck won the women’s race in 1:16:16.
Footnotes.
Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson successfully defended their Champions Skins Game title in Kaanapali, Hawaii, finishing with seven skins and $310,000 to edge Mark O’Meara and Bernhard Langer by $10,000.
• England’s Paul Casey made a 5-foot par putt on the final hole for a 4-under-par 68 to win the inaugural Volvo Golf Champions in Riffa, Bahrain, at 20-under 268.
• Edgars Maskalans of Latvia won a four-man bobsled World Cup event in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in a combined 2 minutes, 9.34 seconds. Olympic champion Steven Holcomb remains second in the standings after piloting USA 1 into eighth place, trailing Maskalans by 0.69.
• Olympic champion Christine Nesbitt of Canada set a track record in the 1,000-meter speedskating World Cup race in Moscow, finishing in 1 minute, 15.59 seconds. She shaved 0.42 seconds off the mark set by Anni Friesinger of Germany. American Heather Richardson was third in 1:16.18. In the men’s 1,000, Stefan Groothuis finished in 1:08.82 to secure his third World Cup victory of the season.
• No. 8 Iowa extended its unbeaten streak to 73 dual wrestling meets by upsetting top-ranked Penn State 22-13, winning six of 10 bouts.
The Associated Press
