Sports Agenda For Monday (4/18/11)
Big Story:
Several big stories coming out of the weekend, but the primary one for the Heat is Dwyane Wade's migraine. He missed practice and his status is uncertain, according to the Heat.
Here's the truth: absent being in a coma, Wade is going to play. Book it. Done.
Quite a weekend with the NBA playoffs, and the Marlins are two games back from the Phillies after splitting a weekend series with the team.
Let's slide down the razor blade into a pool full of alcohol and hit the agenda!
Heat: (vs. Philadelphia 76ers 7:00 p.m., Sun Sports HD)
If you missed my summary of the game, which of course was the best writeup of the game in South Florida, click here.
I can also break it down for you like this: 76ers won the first and fourth quarter and were absolutely annihilated in the second and third quarter.
Miami's trend of opening strong and then letting teams back in at the end almost cost them. It's a trend that's been going on for awhile now. They can get away with it against the 76ers, but against a Boston or Chicago, that's got danger written all over it.
Bosh played great Saturday evening, and LeBron played well. D-Wade is going to be the guy at the end of the game to take a shot, as evidenced by him getting the big shot in Game 1.
What I really liked was the Heat guys like Wade, James Jones, Bosh, and LeBron really getting after the loose balls and contesting things, well, until the fourth quarter. If they play with that intensity they had in the second and third quarter, they're not beatable in the Eastern Conference.
Tonight, watch for the 76ers to try and run fast and often against the Heat. Athletically, the 76ers are one of most gifted teams in the league. But they can't settle for 10 foot jumpers. If they want to win, they have to go to the basket hard. The problem is, outside of point guard Jrue Holliday, they don't have a slasher to attack the basket.
The Heat will probably try to run the offense through LeBron and Bosh again, depending on how Wade is doing. James Jones is playing well, so he might be able to give Wade some more time to rest during the game heading into the fourth quarter.
I still say the Heat will likely win in either a sweep or 5 games.
NBA Playoffs:
Man, what a weekend of playoff basketball.
First, I loved watching the Celtics let the Knicks have the game all the way to the end and then stick a dagger in the heart of Knicks fans everywhere. Seriously, let's not have a guy right in Ray Allen's face when he jacks up a three at the end. Oh yeah, before that, let's let KG dunk it on the inbound. BRILLIANT!
Celtics are going to take the Knicks in 5 or 6 games.
Elsewhere, Chicago proved the point that they are beatable, and easily beatable by a good team like the Celtics or Heat. Seriously, they made Tyler Hansbrough look like Michael Jordan. TYLER HANSBROUGH!
Out west, the Thunder are still my team to beat. They won a tough game against the Nuggets and look for a 2-0 lead on Tuesday.
The Spurs are VERY beatable if Manu Ginobli isn't in the lineup. Yes, there's a chance that the Grizzlies could knock the Spurs out of the playoffs. Believe it, or not.
The Lakers loss was a fluke, but they did play pretty poorly. Still, something tells me Phil Jackson doesn't want to go out in his final season losing in the first round of the playoffs. But, I've been wrong before.
NFL Draft:
As the guys at profootballtalk put it best, as the draft nears, misinformation overload is about to hit.
Basically, you're going to hear rumors of teams loving a guy, or that they hate a guy, or that said guy has injury problems. All of it is to try and convince the other teams that they're either going after a player or that they really don't like a player, but hope you'll draft him to get the guy they really like to drop to them.
That said, the big news coming out so far is that Mark Ingram's knees are worrisome. While that may be the case, I'm not sure I was completely on his bandwagon to begin with.
I like the Fins to sign DeAngelo Williams and draft someone like a Daniel Thomas to be a big smashing type back. Thomas will be available in the later rounds. Or, the Fins could go after Mikel Leshoure, who is rocketing up draft boards.
This much I do know, the Fins draft board is already pretty much set. Who's on it and who's not, we'll never know because the Fins are more paranoid than Glenn Beck.
Marlins: (off Monday, next game Tuesday vs. Pirates)
The Fish are all alone in second place in the NL East. They played well against the Phillies, taking one of two games. Still, there are flaws in the Marlins rotation, most notably Javier Vazquez. We'll see if he gets bumped down in the rotation as the season goes on.
Still, after three weeks of play, the Fish are 2 games above .500 and they play the next 8 at the friendly confines of Sun Life Stadium.
They start a very winnable series against the Pirates on Tuesday. Then they get the Rockies, followed by Mrs. Sedano's favorites, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
