Big Story:
Last night had the promise of being a lot of fun. Instead it turned into a house of horrors for South Florida teams. Now the Panthers face Game 7, the Marlins are mired in a losing streak, but the Heat are just going through the motions and they are fine. Let's knock out the agenda like a Metta World Peace elbow.

Lyrics of the Day:
"I got good lemonade, ah, dixie cups… All flavors and push ups too…I'm your ice cream man, baby, stop me when I'm passin' by…See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy." – from the awesome song, "Ice Cream Man" by Van Halen.

Florida Panthers: (off Wednesday, Game 7 Thursday night)
Yknow, I sat there and watched the game last night and wanted to yell at the team at the first intermission.
Seriously, I couldn't agree more with Jeremy Roenick when he said they were playing "rope a dope" hockey.
[For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it was first widely used to describe Muhammad Ali's style. Basically, the theory is to allow your opponent to literally punch themselves out and then when they make a mistake, you go on the offensive and knock them out.]
The problem is that for the Panthers, they weren't necessarily playing rope a dope as they were playing not to lose.
New Jersey came out like they were storming the Bastille (vague historical reference there for you) and outshot the Panthers almost 3-1 in the game.
Panthers goalie Scott Clemmensen played extremely well, but his offense and defenders couldn't stop the Devils.
I can't tell you how many times the Devils looked like they were playing 6-5 because Florida couldn't clear the puck from their zone.
[FYI: in hockey, the zone is past the red line on the ice closes to your goal on defense.]
Now Florida is looking at Game 7 Thursday night at the Bank Atlantic Center.
I thought Florida could win last night, but now I'm not so sure.
If New Jersey plays like they did last night, Florida doesn't have a chance unless they can find Patrick Roy in his prime to man the net.
What I really want to see Thursday night is for the crowd to be fully engaged.
I loved seeing the Devils' fans last night getting fired up constantly by the team's play and the hard rock being pumped into the arena.
Florida fans have to one up that if the Cats are to win Thursday night.
No word yet on who will be in goal, but if he can go, my guess is that it will be Theodore.

Miami Heat: (off Wednesday, final regular season game Thursday)
Okay, I heard some Heat fans running to the ledge ready to jump this morning.
RELAX.
Here's what you should remember from last night's game.
The Heat reserves played great defense right up until late in the fourth quarter.
Dexter Pittman played well, so did Udonis Haslem, James Jones, and Mario Chalmers.
They could have shot better, but yknow, they aren't bench players for nothing.
Boston kept Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Rajon Rondo on the bench.
Miami was missing the Big 3 plus Ronny Turiaf.
But I'm not concerned with the loss at all.
I actually think it helped a little bit because I saw several shots of the Big Three just dying to get in there and dominate.
I love that kind of competitive fire building inside them.
Plus, getting Pittman, Miller, Joel Anthony, Norris Cole, Juwan Howard, and James Jones good minutes is always good.
If Pittman could ever stop fouling people on defense, I think the kid could improve a lot and earn playing time.
If you wanted something different on Thursday, don't hold your breath.
The Heat are playing the Wizards, which is like facing PBS in a ratings war on television.
The Wizards will probably beat the Miami bench, but it doesn't matter because the playoffs start Sunday!!!!
The Knicks and 76ers are tied with 34-30 records, if they finish tied, it will be the team with more wins against the other that will play Miami.
Loser gets the Bulls.
In reality, either way you look at it, both teams will lose.

Metta World Peace Suspension:
Yknow, at first I thought maybe the Metta World Peace elbow to the skull of James Harden wasn't that bad.
But after I saw several replays in slow motion and remembered what it was like to have a brutal concussion, I leaned towards a significant suspension.
I mean Metta [formerly known as Ron Artest] has been suspended 13 times for 111 games and caused the worst riot in NBA history.
The NBA had plenty of things they could do and they had the opportunity to really send a message that it won't tolerate that kind of thuggery.
Much like a Marlins hitter, the NBA swung and missed.
Look at the examples they could follow: the NHL slapped a 25 game suspension on a player for a shot to the head. The NFL is about to drop the bomb on a slew of players for trying to intentionally trying to injure fellow players.
What'd the NBA do….what David Stern usually does, talk a big game and cower in a corner.
And if you don't think it was intentional, here's what Shane Battier had to say.
"'Not this, Ron.' I've seen him do something like that before, where he wants to let guys know that he's there. That was excessive, of course, but something like it."
Way to go NBA, and you wonder why you can't get any more popular than you are.
The NFL, you will never…..ever…be.

Miami Marlins: (@ NY Mets, 7:10 p.m. Fox Sports Florida)
How poorly have the Marlins been hitting?
I'm waiting for this to be said by the Marlins announcers….
"That's all we got, one god *expletive* hit? Don't worry, nobody is listening anyway."
Josh Johnson pitched as well as you could giving up just one run in 6.2 innings and matching Johan Santana pitch for pitch.
Johnson had nine strikeouts, unfortunately, Santana struck out 11.
The good news: Johnson looks like he's rounding into being a dominant pitcher once again.
The bad news: If the Marlins hitters were any worse, they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with a beach ball.
Tonight, the Marlins send Mark Buehrle to the mound for his first game at Citi Field.
Buehrle has been pitching well this season, let's see if the Marlins bats can finally reward him with some offensive output.
Otherwise, the Marlins lineup can best be described as offensive to watch.

Miami Dolphins/NFL Draft:
Tuesday, Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin said they haven't had discussions about drafting Ryan Tannehill at eight.
Here's the thing about NFL teams right now.
Most teams near the top of the draft want to trade back because they have tons of holes to fill.
They talk up a player to get a team drafting behind them to jump up and get that player then take the player they really want.
It's always done.
But sometimes, when you keep denying, denying, denying and trying to say you're not interested….you may be doth protesting too much.
The Fins are really trying to say they aren't interested in Tannehill.
Which leads me to believe they're probably a lot more interested than they are letting on.
Why do I say that?
Because if the Dolphins downplay their interest in Tannehill, there's a good chance he will drop to them at number eight.

All that and more on CBSMiami.com/sports
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