Decision means players likely to finish season

A federal judge extended his preliminary injunction against the NFL’s suspension of five players for violating the league’s anti-doping policy, a move their lawyer said will let them play the rest of the season.

In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson asked both parties to propose a schedule by Dec. 22 for further proceedings that would lead to an eventual hearing on the merits of the case, a process that could take months. The regular season ends Dec. 28.

Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints were suspended last week for four games each. They tested positive during training camp for a banned diuretic, bumetanide, in the dietary supplement StarCaps.

•Patriots’ Cassel back at practice: Matt Cassel returned to practice with the New England Patriots after missing Wednesday’s workouts following his father’s death.

Although the Patriots made no announcement, Cassel is likely to start on Sunday against the Raiders.

•Schobel’s season ends: Defensive end Aaron Schobel was placed on injured reserve because of a nagging left foot injury that has forced the Buffalo Bills’ top pass-rusher to miss most of the season.

NBA

Celtics make history

Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Doc Rivers can boast they accomplished something Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Bob Cousy and Red Auerbach never did when their Boston Celtics teams were ruling the NBA: open a season 21-2.

Allen and Pierce scored 22 points apiece, Garnett nearly had a triple-double, and Boston beat the Washington Wizards 122-88 in Washington for a 13th consecutive victory and the best start in the history of the storied franchise.

Portland falls to Utah

Mehmet Okur scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half and added 10 rebounds in the Utah Jazz’s 97-88 victory over Portland. Paul Millsap had his 10th straight double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Brandon Roy had 33 points for Portland, tied with Utah for second place in the Northwest Division.

College Football

Finalists honored

Heisman Trophy finalists Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow were winners at the college football awards in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Bradford won the Davey O’Brien Award, beating out Texas’ McCoy and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell as top quarterback.

McCoy was the Walter Camp Player of the Year, leading the All-American team, and Tebow won the Maxwell Award for the second year and was also given Disney’s Spirit Award for service off the field.

•Gill lands interviews: Turner Gill interviewed for coaching vacancies at Auburn and Syracuse, raising the possibility he might leave Buffalo after turning around the school’s football program.

However, ESPN.com reported that New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Doug Marrone has accepted the head job at Syracuse.

•Rutgers A.D. out: Robert E. Mulcahy said he was fired as Rutgers athletic director after refusing a request by university president Richard L. McCormick to resign.

College basketball

Villanova survives

Scottie Reynolds scored 18 points and sank the winning free throws with 4.8 seconds left to lift No. 15 Villanova to a 59-56 win over Saint Joseph’s in Villanova, Pa.

Reynolds was fouled on a driving layup down the lane to put the Wildcats (9-1) in position for the victory over their city rival. The 87-percent free-throw shooter made the first and swished the second for a 57-56 lead.

Golf

Sorenstam in hunt

Annika Sorenstam started the final tournament of her career with a 2-under-par 70, four shots off the lead at the Dubai Ladies Masters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Johanna Head of England opened with a bogey-free 66 to lead Anja Monke of Germany by two shots.

Hockey

Penguins explode

Petr Sykora ended the longest streak in NHL history without a hat trick by a player who had scored at least two goals in a game and paced the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 9-2 rout of the New York Islanders in Pittsburgh.

Pascal Dupuis also had his first career three-goal game, Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Sidney Crosby set up three goals in Pittsburgh’s first nine-goal game since beating the Flyers 9-4 on Feb. 7, 2001.

•Hartnell leads Flyers with hat trick: Scott Hartnell had a hat trick and the Philadelphia Flyers staged their biggest comeback in 20 years by erasing a four-goal deficit in the third period and beating the Carolina Hurricanes 6-5 in a shootout victory at Philadelphia.

Miscellany

Petty talks merger

The economic turmoil buffeting NASCAR widened as one of the sport’s most venerable teams, Petty Enterprises, announced merger talks with the Gillett Evernham Motorsports team.

Petty also parted ways with former champion Bobby Labonte, who had driven the team’s famed No. 43 Dodge in NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup Series for the last three seasons.

•Agbeko retains title: Joseph Agbeko earned a 12-round majority decision over William Gonzalez to retain his International Boxing Federation world bantamweight title at Newark, N.J.