You can throw those games out of the window though because the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls both took the season series from the Miami Heat, but fell to them in the playoffs.  Despite what Miami did to the Bulls and Celtics the Mavericks are going to present something the Heat have not seen during the playoffs, a team that has four or five players who can put up big games.  The entire Mavericks team is shooting the ball at a high percentage right now, and that will be a big change from the Bulls lack of difference makers on offense.

The Mavericks are looking to avenge their 2006 Finals loss to Miami after they went up 2 – 0 and then watched the Heat win four games in a row to take the title.  The only players left from that 2006 team are Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, and the 2010 version of the Mavericks is a different animal to deal with than the 2006 version.

Keys for Dallas to win

Dallas will win if they can stop the dribble penetration of the Miami Heat, and force Wade, Bosh, and James to be primarily jump shooters.  This will give Dallas more opportunities to take advantage of their size in the paint and create second chance opportunities.  The Mavericks have an overall size advantage against the Heat, and they will need to win the rebound battle in order to win this series.  Some or all of Miami’s big three will get hot at different times during the series, and the only way to weather that storm is for Dallas to not foul and rebound when they miss shots.

Putting Wade, Bosh, and James on the free throw line repeatedly is what killed the Bulls, Dallas needs to play disciplined defense, rebound the ball effectively, and utilize the match up advantages they have with Dirk in certain situations.  The final key is for the Mavericks bench to outplay the Heat’s reserves significantly because they have an advantage there with JJ Barea and Jason Terry coming off the bench.

*One key note the Mavericks had Caron Butler for those games, and he will not be playing in this series.

Keys for Miami to win

The formula for Miami is relatively simple to win this series, they will not have a size advantage against Dallas and will need to take quality shots.  That means Wade, Bosh, and James getting in the lane drawing fouls on Tyson Chandler, Dirk Nowitzki, and Shawn Marion which will get them off the floor and allow the Heat to score easy points.  No one can match up with Lebron James, so the Heat always have an advantage there,  and the Mavericks will probably put Deshawn Stevenson on him.  Jason Kidd is a few steps behind Dwayne Wade, so whomever has Kidd on them will have an advantage.  The Mavericks are big in the paint and Bosh may struggle a bit this series because the Mavericks do defend the post well, it will be dribble penetration by James and Wade that will break this Mavericks defense down.  The Oklahoma City Thunder had a lot of success getting in the lane with Russell Westbrook finishing a the rim, the Heat have two of the best in the game at that.

The Heat play solid defense, but it’s going to be tough for them to slow the Mavericks down with the amount of offensive talent and shooters they roll out there.  The Heat will need quality minutes from their bench to help supplement the scoring from the big three, if the bench can contribute enough points and rebounds then the Heat can win this series.

Sports Session Prediction – Dallas Mavericks win in 7 Games

Whether warranted or not, there is one glaring disparity between the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat in their conference finals matchup. It isn’t a tangible discrepancy, such as free throw attempts or second chance possessions. It is an intangible that has been looming over the Miami Heat all season, and now looms larger than ever after the Heat’s Game 1 loss to the Bulls. So, what is it?  Pressure.

The Heat’s season has been riddled with scrutiny intense enough to make Barack Obama blush. And as the playoffs have progressed, the intensity of that scrutiny has reached new heights. After its poetically dramatic Game 5 win over the Boston Celtics, many assumed the worst was over with for the guys from South Beach, and that there was now a clear path to the franchise’s second championship.

But as the Heat’s Game 1 meltdown in Chicago indicated, that assumption was dead wrong.  The season-long attention with which the media has showered the Heat has created the perfect remedy for the higher seeded Bulls to “upset” the most hated team in America.  While being incessantly analyzed by the national media, the Heat’s 58-win season, good for third-best in the NBA, was deemed underwhelming by the majority of the basketball universe.

On the contrary, the Bulls began the season with no major expectations outside of the city of Chicago. Their biggest off-season story was that LeBron James didn’t sign with them. The Bulls flew under the radar and finished the season boasting a league-best 62 win season. Considered by most to be overachieving, the Bulls haven’t been getting the credit they’ve rightfully deserved.

So here we are, the Bulls up one game to none and the pressure mounting on the Heat. In Game 1, the overlooked Bulls relished their first true opportunity to prove themselves, while the Heat looked vastly over matched while attempting to prove itself for the 93rd time this season.

Chicago played like a team with nothing to lose, shooting confidently from deep (47 percent) and relentlessly crashing the offensive boards, snagging 13 more than its Miami counterparts.

To be honest, no one will blink an eye if the Bulls lose this series. They are playing a team with two roster spots reserved for two of the best basketball players on the planet, players who came together for the sole purpose of winning championships, and to start doing so immediately.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are lead by the 22-year-old MVP Derrick Rose, whose breakthrough season also warranted Most Improved Player consideration. He, unlike LeBron, has no playoff reputation to correct. He, as well as the rest of his team, has nothing to lose. But unfortunately for the Heat, it believes it has something to prove.

At this point, Chicago’s season has already been credited as a success by everyone not named Derrick Rose or Tom Thibodeau.

On the other hand, the Miami Heat’s season will be considered a failure unless it brings the Larry O’Brien trophy back to South Beach.

The Heat has bounced back from adverse situations all season long, and is undoubtedly prepared to do so again against the top-seeded Bulls.

Doing so, however, will unquestionably be the highest hurdle of the Miami Heat’s season thus far, as it will have to overcome a team with nothing to lose and out to prove that it is as good as its 62-20 record indicates. And after the shellacking the Bulls gave the Heat in Game 1, those 62 wins are beginning to seem like an accurate reflection after all.

The NFL draft started on Thursday and ended on Saturday, and like many expected the Carolina Panthers took Cam Newton with the first pick in the draft.  That wasn’t the most controversial pick though, as Florida State’s Christian Ponder was taken by the Minnesota Vikings with the 12^th pick in the draft.  Many had Ponder as a late second/early third round pick, and the Vikings taking him so high is a bit puzzling.  There was a run on QB’s in the first round with four taken in the first twelve picks, and a majority of the rest of the first round was defensive players.  The sad thing is that only one running back (Alabama’s Mark Ingram) was taken in the first round, if you would have watched the draft about six years ago running back used to easily go in the top ten.

NFL

The NFL lockout is back in force after a short hiatus last week.  A St. Louis appeals court could determine as early as Monday whether the league deserves a permanent stay of an injunction granted to the players in Minnesota to block the lockout.  The NFL owners were granted a temporary injunction so that the three judges ruling on the case would have enough time to determine if they should grant a permanent injunction.  Players started arriving at facilities on Friday to workout, only to end up locked out again by Friday afternoon.  This is really going to hurt draft picks from this past weekend’s draft as they have team playbooks, but are not allowed to talk to coaches to decipher and explain the plays to them.

NBA

The Boston Celtics were dominated by the Miami Heat in Game 1 99 – 90.  The game was chippy throughout with both teams committing hard fouls and talking trash throughout.  This started to get out of hand when Paul Pierce and James Jones got into it after Jones committed a flagrant foul on Pierce, which prompted Pierce to get face to face with Jones.  Shortly after that Dwayne Wade ran through a screen set by Pierce and after Pierce barked at Wade the official gave him a second technical foul throwing him out of the game.  Boston looked rusty and out of sync the entire night, and the layoff may have had something to do with that.  The Heat need to hold off on any premature celebrations they won the first game of the series at home, all Boston needs to do is win game 2 and mission accomplished.

NBA

Zach Randolph and the Memphis Grizzlies powered their way to another playoff upset – not that he considers it one.  Randolph had a playoff career-high 34 points and 10 rebounds, Marc Gasol added 20 points and 13 boards, and the Grizzlies outmatched the Oklahoma City Thunder inside for a 114-101 victory in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday.  The Grizzlies have announced that they are for real as they beat the Spurs in six games, and handled Oklahoma City on Sunday.  Is it too early to say that the Grizzlies may be title contenders at this point?

College Football

North Carolina State head football coach Tom O’Brien announced Friday that Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson has requested and been granted a release so that he can pursue opportunities in football at another university if he so desires.  This is a puzzling move because Wilson was one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC last year, and for this information to come out of the blue is questionable.  There may be things that happened behind the scenes at NC State which led to this, but right now no one knows anything.

The New York Jets backed into the playoffs after the Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Washington Redskins on a field goal in overtime.  The Jets were on the losing end of a surprising shootout with the Chicago Bears, in a game that was supposed to feature two of the NFL’s best defenses.  The Bears squeaked out a 38 – 34 victory after Chris Harris intercepted Mark Sanchez’s pass with about fifty seconds left in the game.  The Jets have real problems on defense, they have not had any pass rush for the past several games and Matt Forte went for over 100 yards rushing on them.  If the Jets don’t get these issues fixed then they can forget about winning any games in the playoffs, it was a wasted effort as Mark Sanchez played well in the loss.

The Miami Heat blew out the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas day by 16 points. It was relatively unexpected that the heat would dominate the defending world champions in that manner, but Lebron James notched a triple double en route to the win.  Kobe Bryant was miffed by his teams performance, and vowed that they need to correct the lackluster attitude they came into the game with.  The Heat are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, and they seem to be coming together as a team as the Big three learn how to play with each other.  Much can’t be read into that game though as the season is not even half over, all the Heat did was announce that they will be a force that has to be dealt with in the NBA.

It seems that the Sacramento Kings are mulling sending their young big man DeMarcus Cousins to the NBA D-League. This comes after head coach Paul Westphal has had several incidents with Cousins that he deemed unprofessional.  Cousins made a chocking motion towards an opposing player while he was shooting free throws, and that caught the ire of Wesphal who has removed Cousins from the starting lineup.  Cousins has proven he can be a productive NBA big man, and  his only issues center around his immature attitude (but what do you expect from a 19 year old).  At some point Cousins will get it, and Westphal needs to make sure that happens.  Sending him to the D-League is not going to do anything to develop his attitude into a productive one.

Terrelle Pryor and four other Ohio State Buckeyes received a five game suspension starting at the beginning of next season for receiving improper benefits and selling game tickets.  The NCAA said all can still play in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas on Jan. 4. Ohio State’s first five games next season are against Akron, Toledo, Miami, Colorado and Michigan State. Ohio State plans to appeal, hoping the number of games might be reduced.  The players supposedly sold the items because their families needed money, and the discount on the Tattoo’s were just something that happened.  Either way it seems that the Buckeyes season next year is over before it even started, and it seems very likely that some of the suspended players will declare for the NFL draft.  The NCAA needs to make some changes and rid itself of these archaic rules, what is the difference if the players sold the items when they were out of college rather than in college?  It’s amazing that something is given to you that you now own, but you are not allowed to sell it.

Mike Singletary was fired by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night after two disappointing seasons, including a 5-10 showing this year for a franchise expected to win the NFC West.  Singletary’s fire and passion seemed to consistently put him at odds with players at times, and yet another one with quarterback Troy Smith on Sunday that might have been the worst of them all.  Smith would not back down as Singletary prodded him after a poor interception, even with teammate Tedd Ginn putting a towel over Smith’s face.  The loss officially eliminated the 49ers from playoff contention, and sealed Singletary’s fate.  Unfortunately, he was saddled with several poor quarterbacks which undoubtedly did him in when it was all said and done with, hopefully he will land on his feet somewhere.  The 49ers are now in search of a GM and a  head coach to try and bring this franchise back to prominence, I guess Singletary will have to wait to get those winners he was looking for.

Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh made headlines when they all chose to play for the Miami Heat this season.  There have been many articles and discussions about this team and their chance at winning a championship, and the backlash from Lebron leaving Cleveland was so bad that the city burned his Jersey and the owner trashed him in the media.

There has definitely been a lot of hype building up to the start of the regular season, and on Tuesday night everyone tuned in for the first game with the Heat’s big 3 playing together.  With all of the bandwagon fans watching in anticipation the Miami Heat lost to the Boston Celtics 88 – 80, where the Heat set records for lowest first quarter scoring total and lowest first half scoring total in a game since 2007.

The score was not a reflection on how bad the Heat were beaten in this game.  Of course there are a lot of explanations for the performance, Dwayne Wade’s first time playing since the start of training camp with a hamstring injury.  This was also the first time the Heat’s big 3 have played together for an extended period of time, so they do not have any familiarity with each other’s games yet.   Also, playing the Boston Celtics one of the best defensive teams in the NBA did not help them get off to a good start either.

The heat looked like a bunch of guys that never played together before, and they all shot horribly from the field for the most part.  The Celtics made them into jump shooters, and none of them are particularly great ones to begin with, and the fact that the Heat do not have an sort of viable big man made it even worse since they were going up against Shaq and Jermaine O’neal.  The Celtics had the team chemistry and the lock down defense to frustrate the Heat, but the upside for Miami is that most teams in the NBA will not be able to create those kinds of problems for them.

Most nights the Heat will be able to win on talent alone, and they only time they looked in rhythm was with Bosh and Wade on the bench.  That is why Lebron ended up with 31 points because when he was out there with four D league players it made him comfortable just in like when he was in Cleveland, so he knew what to do; take the ball and score.  With Wade and Bosh on the floor Lebron is lost, he can’t be selfish because it’s Wade’s team, and he wants to make sure to get Bosh involved as well.

I am sure this team will find a way to work things out, but it is going to be hard to win a championship.  Lebron and Wade are basically the same player, and Chris Bosh is not big enough to play center.  With no dominant post presence and a severe lack of jump shooters, teams will pack into a zone and make the Heat beat them from the perimeter.  It will be interesting to see how they match up with the Lakers because right now, it does not seem that they will match up well.  If they can’t beat the Lakers then all that hype and hoopla was for nothing.

Virginia Tech Ruined Any Hope of a National Title Shot For Boise State. The Hokies embarrassed themselves this weekend by losing to James Madison at home; it probably had a lot to do with the short week after having just played on Monday.  It is no excuse though; the Hokies have a lot more talent than James Madison and dropped the ball big time in this game.  Boise State who beat the Hokies the first week of the season have a good chance to run the table, and were going to make their case to be in the National Title game based around the Virginia Tech win.  The Broncos lost several first place votes in the polls this week as a result of the Virginia Tech loss, and even if they run the table they will lack the impressive wins to get them into the big game.

South Florida had their shots to beat the Gators. The South Florida Bulls led their game against the Florida Gators 7 – 0 for a majority of the first half, but five turnovers by the Bulls allowed the Gators back into the game and an eventual blow out.  The game did reveal that the Gators are not as strong as once believed, and that South Florida has the athletes to play with just about every team in the country.  The Bulls need to find a solution at quarterback; B.J. Daniels threw too many interceptions although he did move the team with his running ability.  The Gators for the last two weeks have been bailed out by outstanding runs by Jeff Demps, but as they get into tougher games won’t be able to count on that every game.

Kevin Durant led the United States Basketball team to a gold medal at the world championships. It is the first time in 16 years that the United States has won the gold medal at the world championships.  Kevin Durant led the U.S. team throughout the tournament, and in the title game scored 28 points in the game.  Durant set a record for the most points scored throughout the entire tournament with his most recent performance added to the totals.  They defeated Turkey 81 – 64 in blow out fashion using t he fact that people called them the “B” team because “A-list” stars like Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade were sitting at home.

Arian Foster had a record day in defeat of the Indianapolis Colts. Maybe all the Texans really needed was a running back like Arian Foster. But, who couldn’t use a rusher capable of a team-record 231 rushing yards and three touchdowns against Indy’s supposedly improved running defense? Houston might be a pass-first team most games, but against Indy, head coach Gary Kubiak had the good sense to feed Foster the ball 33 times and running him for more yards than anybody ever had against the Colts.  Peyton Manning seemed frustrated the entire game as his young receiving core dropped pass after pass, and finally seemed to  hold on to the ball in the second half.  By then it was too late, and surely their change came as a result of a tongue lashing from Manning.

Calvin Johns was robbed of a touchdown late in the Detriot Lions loss to the Chicago Bears. Driving late in the game Lions backup quarterback Shaun Hill threw a pass into the end zone that was snagged out of the air by Calvin Johnson aka: Megatron for what seemed to be a touchdown pass.  But Johnson lost control of the ball after getting two feet, a knee, and a hand on the ground in the end zone.  Based on the letter of the law in the NFL the process of a catch was not completed and the pass was ruled incomplete, the Lions went on to lose the game.  Was it a touchdown pass?  No doubt it was, and the rule probably needs to be amended.  But at the same time Johnson could have helped himself; instead of tucking the ball under his arm after making the catch he held it out with one hand.  Then has he landed the ball hit the ground in his hand and flew out of bounds, had he simply tucked the ball they win that game.

Lebron James has worked hard to shape his image over his seven years in the NBA; he has a publicly stated several times that he wants to be the first billionaire athlete.  People refer to him as “The King” because of his last name and the fact that some believe he is the best player in the NBA.  Lebron has been very careful to keep his private life out of the limelight, which is relatively easy to do when you play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There is now a new reality for James one that he may not have considered when making “The Decision”.  James now plays in Miami, Florida which is a place where keeping your personal life quiet does not happen all that often.  The media in Miami are much different than the media in Cleveland, and now that he is in a more visible place reporters from all over the country will be snooping around for any information they can get their hands on.

Recently reporter Arash Markazi for ESPNLosAngeles.com had the opportunity to party with Lebron James in Las Vegas, and the subsequent story he wrote about his experiences was pulled by ESPN.  The story chronicled an event that was straight out of a dream for most men, here is an excerpt from the story to give you the full effect.

“About a dozen security guards, moving their flash lights, direct us to a roped off section on the dance floor of Tao next to a couple of apparently nude women in a bathtub full of water and rose petals.

Bottle after bottle of “Ace of Spades” champagne is delivered to the table by a waiter flying down from above the dance floor like some overgrown Peter Pan on a wire. One time he’s dressed like a King, another time as Indiana Jones and another in a replica of James’ No. 6 Miami Heat jersey.

James, who can hardly see the flying figure through his tinted glasses, almost gets kicked in the head on the waiter’s last trip down. He looks at the girls around him and says, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy.”

Toward the end of the night, Boston Celtics forward Glen Davis walks past James’ party and looks at the scene up and down several times like a painting in a museum, soaking in the images of the go-go dancers, the “King” sign and the costumed man delivering bottles of champagne.

Davis shakes his head and walks on.”

“Five security guards are stationed around him, one at each corner of the table he’s about to sit at and another roving around with him, watching his every move. Anyone who takes two steps toward James is stopped and must have James’ approval to come closer.

The waiter bringing him his cup of green tea with a spoonful of honey and a dash of lemon juice makes the cut, as does the scantily clad brunette with a tattoo of a heart on her right shoulder.

She wants to take a picture with him. “I can’t right now,” says James. “Maybe later, upstairs, I’ll remember you’re the one with the tattoo.”

That was during dinner, as James and his entourage head to the club through back hallways in the bowels of The Palazzo Casino and Resort, the story picks up.

“James, now wearing sunglasses in the dark club, immediately stands up on the couch and folds his arms high on his chest and nods his head.  He smiles as he looks at the dozens of people crowded on the dance floor.  Noticing him, they stop dancing and snap pictures as the DJ screams out, “LeBron James in the building!” and plays LMFAO’s “I’m in Miami.”

A giant red crown-shaped cake is brought over to James while go-go dancers dressed in skimpy red and black outfits raise four lettered placards that spell out, “KING”.

This is nothing new for James much like many other athletes, but stories like this about Lebron have only been rumored for the most part.  Very few concrete stories of his off the court activities are out there, this is all part of James’s plan to keep his image on the up and up.  He saw what happened to Tiger Woods and his endorsement deals when Tiger lost control of the information about himself being released to the public.

My problem with this situation is not the fact that James is celebrating his fame by partying it up in Las Vegas, any young red-blooded man would do the same thing.  But the fact that the story was posted on the internet and pulled within a half hour tells me that both James and ESPN did not want the story out there.  ESPN claims the author did not go through proper editing channels and the story was posting prematurely, then later they said the story would not be posted at all.

Why the cover up?  ESPN has invested a lot in Lebron and cannot afford for his image to take a hit in the public eye.  Having a self serving party in Las Vegas is par for the course when dealing with professional athletes.  I think Lebron over did it a bit, and I think he is over playing this “King” moniker a bit too much.  When a majority of the television viewers see themselves as conservative, and a majority of the viewership is struggling financially the last thing ESPN wants is their marketing cash cow viewed in an arrogant light.

The interesting part of all this is what if this were Ron Artest, Terrell Owens, or Chad Ochocinco would all of this be covered up so fast?  The answer is no, it would be almost front page news.  Ron Artest at club with a crown on dancing with naked strippers!  That would be the headline, but when it is King James all we hear is silence.  I have a variety of sports sources and I only stumbled across this story purely by accident, once again I am not saying that Lebron cannot party and have his fun.  My only point here is, let’s eliminate the double standard, if Terrell Owens self serving actions get reported on in the media then Lebron should be no different.  Making an ass of himself in public is his choice, but he should not be free from the same scrutiny as everyone else.  Doing crossover dribbles, shooting fake baskets, and faking dunks on signs outside of businesses inside a Casino are all immature and childish things to do.  But who can blame him, all the people around who want his money and to profit off of his fame are going to continue enabling him to act this way.

You can read the original posted article here if you want to see all the details about what went on at the party, this was captured by a few people before it was removed by ESPN.

In an unthinkable turn of events Chris Paul seems to be very close to leaving the New Orleans Hornets, Paul is their franchise player and really one of the only stars on that team.  Paul is trying to get with other NBA stars and create a “super team” much like Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh did in Miami.  This is yet another reason I am not a fan of “The Decision”,  Paul has apparently let New Orleans ownership and front office brass know that now is the time to work out a trade.

So far, the teams interested come in two different directions. One being the teams that have an inherent need and desire to have Paul on the roster. The other being the list of teams Paul would like to go to, now you must note that Paul does not have a no trade clause in his contract so he does not have as much leverage for the coming season to force this.

Right now it looks like the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic are the front runners and two teams that are on Paul’s short list.  The New Jersey Nets seem to be distant suitors for his services, and the Dallas Mavericks are in the mix as well from scattered reports.  Nevertheless, it’s going to take a creative deal to get Paul and the $14.9 million he is owed next season, and the near $34 million he is owed in the two seasons beyond.

Paul has stated that New York his top choice. Combine that with the Knicks comparatively financial flexibility and it appears like the right match.  However, though they did not come through with advantages in this list, the Magic have one advantage pieces to trade.  The Magic could pull it off by trading Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter, and whatever other piece helps match the salaries, and those are more attractive pieces than what the Knicks offer.

That alone should get the Magic in the door first, and for Orlando it would honestly be an upgrade and maybe the change they need to win a title.  It works for them because Nelson is a good point guard, but not the same caliber as Chris Paul.  He makes about $6 million dollars a year, and the Magic can send the failed Vince Carter experiment and his $16.9 million dollar contract to New Orleans for Paul.  The Magic would actually save money, it just makes sense, and the Hornets would get something for Paul.  The best part for the Hornets is Vince Carters contract expires at the end of this coming season, and they could probably resign him to a lesser deal since his skills have regressed.

The Hornets are going to try and salvage their relationship with Paul, but I do not think it is going to work.  The organization is in a rebuilding/cutting costs phase right now and Paul wants to be with a winner.  If they don’t trade him then he will just play out his contract disgruntled for the next few seasons, and then he will leave and they won’t get anything for him.  The Hornets would get better with Nelson and Carter coming to the team, now you have two more threats instead of one and the team would have more depth.

As a Magic fan I hope Paul comes to Orlando, and they send Carter and Nelson away.  The Magic won’t win a title with Carter being a major cog on the team, he has lost too much and still thinks he “has it”.  We will see what Paul does over the next few weeks, and see if the Magic can work a little on him.

Even though the NBA season is over the league has still very much been in the news because of the Free Agency Period.  The only difference this season is that several of the best players in the NBA are available as free agents, and several others opted out of the last year of their contracts.  Many teams who have these players opting out and being free agents have to scramble and do whatever they can to keep their star players.  The recently reported contract offer by the Atlanta Hawks to Joe Johnson is a perfect example of this point.

It’s being reported that the Atlanta Hawks have offered the All-Star guard a maximum contract for six years at $119 million.  I was a bit shocked at the size and terms of the offer because although Johnson is an All-Star he came up small in the playoffs against the Orlando Magic.  He has not proven he can lead a team to the Promised Land in the playoffs, but can make a team very good during the regular season.  Johnson is not a top flight player on the level with Dwayne Wade and Lebron James; he is more of a player that fits a piece of the puzzle with an existing player.

They offer $119 million, the max contract that can be offered to a player in the NBA?  What were the Hawks thinking?  Don’t get me wrong, Johnson is a very good wing player.  However, he’s nowhere near being a superstar.  This is a guy who is nearly 30 years old, averaged about 21 points a game this past season, playing 38 minutes a game. You think Kobe Bryant is a ball hog? You think LeBron James likes to control the rock most of the time?  Joe Johnson has the ball in his hands nearly 60-65 percent of every Hawk possession.

Some writers are claiming this is the worst free agent contract they’ve ever seen. I am going to take a different approach on this, as I have seen some bad contracts in the past; does Eddie Curry not come to mind?  This move by the Hawks is less about how good Johnson is and more about the Hawks feeling they would not be able to attract any High profile free agents to their team.  For them it was simple math, if they lose Joe Johnson they won’t get Pierce, James, Wade, or Nowitzki which would leave them fighting for Bosh, Boozer, and Stoudamire.  None of the latter three are the missing piece to the Hawks winning a championship, so they felt giving Johnson the maximum was their best move.

If you think about it other than Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson is the best player available as a free agent at his position with Rudy Gay going back to his team.  If Johnson does sign (which I am sure he will) they can then go after a Boozer, Stoudamire, or Bosh to help improve this team.  They definitely are overpaying for Johnson there is no doubt about that, but they are out of viable options for the most part, so they are stuck with him.

Simply put, this deal handcuffs the Hawks, and assures their fans that they won’t be seeing a title in the near future, unless the team can find another player to put on that team.  They have some young talent in Atlanta, but they need to jettison Marcus Williams who is the poster child for underachievement, and bring in another proven commodity to go along with Johnson.  To put it in perspective, Joe Johnson will make the same as Wade, Lebron , and Carmelo Anthony next season if he signs the contract.  There is something wrong with that, but it’s the NBA so you shouldn’t be surprised.

Dwayne Wade’s performance on Sunday proved that he is one of the elite players in the NBA, for all the talk about Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant people forget about Wade.  After putting Heat on his back on his way to a 46 point scoring performance, Wade staved off elimination at the hands of the Boston Celtics.

Dwayne Wade showed once again just how much of a supper star he can be, by scoring 30 of his 46 points in the second half and 19 in the fourth quarter, the Miami Heat extended their series with Boston with a 101-92 win.

Is it guaranteed that Miami will win another game in this series? Absolutely not, we all have to remember this is one game that is all.  Wade will more than likely not carry that hot streak into the next game, and someone else on the Miami Heat’s roster will need to step up and fill the void.

It will take a mighty effort for the Miami Heat to climb out of the hole they’ve dug themselves just to bring the game back to Miami for a Game 6.  Although it will take them playing well, in all truth, as we’ve just witnessed today, Dwayne Wade can carry them on his back.

He did it against Dallas in 2006. Let’s not forget that series. Down 0-2, there was not a single person other than Miami Heat fans (and not many of them, really) who thought Miami had a chance in that series.  Then Dwyane Wade showed everyone in the world that he was one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game, literally putting Miami on his back and willing them to four straight victories.

Can he accomplish such a feat again? History says no. Not a single team in the history of the NBA has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in the playoffs.  But there were positive signs for Miami, although many Heat players did not score other than Wade the hustle plays were in abundance.

The Heat took an early 18-point lead when the Celtics turned over the ball nine times in the first quarter, mostly on careless passes against Miami’s zone. The Heat then allowed the Celts to walk them down over the course of the next two periods. They looked dead when Boston took a seven-point lead, a 25-point turnaround. That’s when Wade got hot, improbably shifting the momentum back to Miami and putting them back up by 11. It was almost as if there were three games within this one game.

Quentin Richardson actually showed signs of his old self, and Michael Beasley made some timely plays as well.  The Heat just need to get scoring from Wade, Richardson, O’Neal, and/or Beasley, then play tough defense and they should be in the game.  If you look at this series the Heat should have won Game One, and if Wade hits the last second shot in Game Three this would be an entirely different scenario.  Hopefully, Wade’s teammates will take some momentum from the effort he put forth this game, and do everything in their power to make every play to win the game.