Sports Agenda For Friday (5/13/11) Voorhees Edition
Big Story:
Okay, for all you triskaidekaphobics out there, today is probably not the day for you to go outside.
For the rest of us….Happy Friday The 13th.
Now we get to see the Eastern Conference Finals everyone wanted to see, the Chicago Bulls versus your Miami Heat. It's going to be Derrick Rose and a bunch of stiffs for the Bulls versus LeBron, Bosh, and Wade and a bunch of stiffs for the Heat. We'll get into that a little more later.
The Marlins hit the field again tonight and even if the NFL lockout goes into the season, we may still have football on Sundays!
Let's knock out this agenda with Manny Pacquiao power.
Heat: (next game Sunday @ Chicago Bulls, 8:00 p.m., TNT)
The ESPN talking heads and the national media will be pulling for the Bulls in this series like nobody's business. If you want to really get nauseated with Bulls love listen to Michael Wilbon, who has such a man-crush on Bulls guard Derrick Rose it's not even funny.
Let's look at some numbers: Bulls had the 12th best offense in the league and the best defense in the league. The Heat had the third best offense in the league and the 5th best defense in the league during the regular season.
But, the Bulls have been knocked around by the Pacers and Hawks in the last two rounds.
Further, Derrick Rose is accounting for 42.2 percent of the Bulls offense. Quite simply, shut down Derrick Rose and the Bulls are dead in the water. Or, you can let him get his 40 and deny the rest of the guys anything.
The Heat will throw Mario Chalmers and Dwyane Wade at Rose to guard him throughout the game. They may even have LeBron guard him at times. LeBron and Wade can shut him down and Chalmers is good enough to slow him down. Plus, if Rose is going to face a much tougher defense from the Heat than he has seen all year long.
Quite simply, the Heat have the most athletic defense that Rose has seen in the playoffs.
For the Heat, Wade has to be the man and be physical with Rose on the defensive end of the floor. But, he also needs to penetrate and get to the hole with LeBron early and often.
Chris Bosh is also going to have to come up big here. The Bulls have Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer. While Boozer will likely be guarded by Joel Anthony, Bosh will need to take Noah to school. Bosh is the key to the pick and roll for the Heat as he often sets the screens. He needs to roll off of that and go hard to the hole and make Noah pay if he gets too far outside.
Now, the Heat are going to be facing the toughest defense they will see in the playoffs. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau is a defensive beast and he will have his team ready to go early and often. He will use more of his bench than the Celtics did which means Erik Spoelstra will have to continually manage the matchups with his bench.
If you love basketball, this is going to be a series to watch. The Bulls can slow the Heat down, but I just don't see the Bulls being able to win 4 games against the Heat.
Take the Heat in 6 games in this series.
Marlins: (@ Washington, 7:05 p.m., Fox Sports Florida)
The Marlins return to the field tonight with a winnable series against the Washington Nationals.
The Fish toss out Chris Volstad to face the Nats lineup. Volstad is 2-2 on the season with a 5.73 ERA. The 6'8" righty has given up 4 home runs this season in 33 innings pitched.
The Marlins really need Volstad to regain some control that he had last year to help give the back end of the pitching rotation some umph.
The Nationals best players are either in the minors, Bryce Harper; or injured Stephen Strasburg. Still, the Nats have given the Marlins fits and the last time Volstad faced them on April 6, he got a no decision after pitching 5 innings and giving up 4 hits and 1 earned run.
The Fish finish off the series on Sunday before heading to New York for a two game stint against the Mets. The Marlins then return home for a short homestand against the Cubs and Rays.
Pro Football Update:
Well, it's not exactly pro football but kudos to the PAC 12 for laying the groundwork for possibly playing on Sunday.
Fox owns the rights to the PAC 12 and the network just hired the great Gus Johnson to be the lead play-by-play guy for their college football.
Now, the PAC 12 has said, if the NFL isn't playing on Sunday, we'll be ready to do it.
Good job to the PAC 12.
Hey, it's not pro football, but with Johnson calling the games and the PAC 12 being loaded with talent…it'll probably be more fun to watch anyways!!!!!
