Big Story:
Obviously, the Heat's performance last night in Chicago was pretty bad. I know Chicago has Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, and Joakim Noah, but the Heat have the Three Kings and….um….hmmm….Mario Chalmers?

The game last night showed that while the Heat are good, they are probably at least a year away from competing for the NBA Title.

There were also big moves at the NBA trade deadline and at the NFL franchise tag deadline. Plus, the Panthers didn't lose!!! Course they didn't play either.

Let's get it rolling faster than Derrick Rose could blow past the Heat on today's agenda.

Heat: vs. Washington Wizards (7:30 p.m., Sun Sports)
We'll get to Washington in a second, but Thursday night's game showed two things. One, even on the Bulls' best night, they are only 4 points better than the Heat, and Chris Bosh couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat last night.

Seriously, Bosh had one more made shot last night than I did. If he's playing that bad, it's not that bad that the Heat lost by only 4 points.

One thing I did notice was that the starters played a ton last night. Four players hit at least 40 minutes. That's going to make the playoff run really tough for these guys, especially Dwyane Wade.

The other things of note are that Luol Deng shutdown Lebron and the Heat shot 17 percent from 3 point range. Okay, I can probably shoot that well from 3 point range. Chalmers has been stepping up his game since the All-Star break, which is a positive development for the Heat. The team is also shooting better from the foul line.

So tonight the Heat come home to welcome in the Washington Wizards. Now, I don't want to say anything is a guarantee, but the Heat have this one in the bag. The Wizards, I believe have won a whole 1 game on the road this season. The team's young point guard, John Wall, is openly questioning his teammates' effort. In other words….fresh meat.

The Heat are 6 games up on the Magic and percentage points behind the Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

Panthers: @ Atlanta Thrashers (7:30 p.m. Fox Sports Florida)
If the Panthers play and no one is there to see them lose…do they still lose? The Panthers are fading fast and if the Thrashers beat them tonight and the New Jersey Devils win, the Panthers will drop to 13th in the Eastern Conference. That would put them roughly 3-4 points ahead of 14th place and Ottawa would be in sight for the worst record in the Eastern Conference.

Go get em Tiger.

NFL:
No news on the negotiations for a new CBA, but there was a big move made by the Dolphins last night. The team franchised nose tackle Paul Soliai and will continue to try to work out a long-term contract with him. For Soliai, he'd be smart to sign the contract now. It's a one-year deal worth 12 million plus. That's 25 times what he made last year….KA-CHING!!!

The NFL Scouting Combine gets rolling this weekend and I'll have some things Friday and then again next week on who came out ahead and who the Dolphins may be able to pick up in the later rounds.

I'll be taking a look at the possibility of Jeremy Shockey and some other players.

NBA Trade Deadline:
The one big move for Heat fans was the Celtics dumping Kendrick Perkins. He was in the final year of a contract, but he would still have helped the Celtics playoff hopes. Danny Ainge is looking to rebuild the Celtics for the future because he knows their version of the big three is getting up there in age and will start breaking down ASAP.

But, he's mortgaging the future at the cost of today. We'll see just how good their big three are soon.