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Big Story:
Yknow, sometimes you wonder if teams just start to believe all of the hype. It sure looked that way when the Heat played in Los Angeles Tuesday night against the Clippers. After winning 21 of 22 games, the Heat lost to the Clippers.

THE CLIPPERS? Are you kidding me, the Clippers?? The Los Angeles Clippers?!?!

Seriously, that's akin to the Florida Gators football team losing to Prairie View A&M. The Clippers have been the laughing stock of the NBA as long as I've been alive. And the Heat go out there and lay an egg. Stunned was the best word I could come up with.

Stunned was also the look the Heat gave Clippers forward Blake Griffin as he soared above them.

The Heat win the FAIL award for the night.

Heat: @ Denver Nuggets (10:30 p.m. (TNT)
Continuing on with the Heat, they now have to pick up their game and head to Denver for their second game in as many nights. The Nuggets, who have more players in limbo than a Hawaiian luau, undoubtedly saw the Clippers game and now are putting together a similar gameplan. Luckily for the Heat, Griffin is such a physical freak, there's only one of him.

The Big Three played around 40 minutes each last night and all scored at least 25 points. Bosh had a double-double with 26 points and 13 boards. But outside of Mario Chalmers, the rest of the Heat team contributed all of 9 points. Yup, 9 whole points.

And can someone please teach LeBron how to shoot a free throw? He missed 3 of his 5 free throws last night.

LeBron still ranks fourth in scoring and Wade is sixth in scoring for the season.

Still….the CLIPPERS?!?!

Panthers: vs. Predators (7:30 p.m.)
Well, if you count on the Panthers' website's official calendar, they haven't played a game since last Wednesday. Nice to see they care about keeping their fan base updated…yknow, both of the fans. The Panthers are at home tonight against the Nashville Predators. The team will continue to ride goalie Tomas Vokoun in the short-term, despite his 92 percent save percentage and .500 record. His replacement would be Clemmensen, but he's below .500 for the season and his save percentage is no better.

The Panthers site 9 points out of eight spot and are in dead last in the Southeast Division.

Seriously, are the Heat the only team in South Florida worth watching anymore?

Dolphins:
The Fins may have gotten caught with their pants down yesterday, even though no one will say anything about it. Safety Chris Clemons had surgery on a groin injury that he suffered earlier in the season. But as the fine folks at ProFootballTalk pointed out, he wasn't on the injury list for any game after he suffered the injury.

Faking the injury list is typical for any Parcells disciple and most NFL franchises. Belichick is king of it. But for a franchise that is now the laughing-stock of the league…I mean the Fins owner made Al Davis look good…anything like this doesn't help their cause.

On a personnel front, there's been some talk in the local media about bringing in a quarterback like Vince Young.

This is about as dumb an idea as you can imagine. Seriously, if you think Chad Henne has problems with the offense, just wait till you see Vince Young not be able to process an offense. He reportedly had to have offensive linemen help call the plays because he couldn't remember them because he didn't prepare.

Let's see, turn over a moribund franchise to a quarterback who can't remember plays or throw straight. I mean hell, why don't we just call up Jamarcus Russell. Oh wait, the Fins have already done that.

Marlins:
36 days until pitchers and catchers report to open training camp.

Miami Hurricanes:
Not a lot, but USC tight end Blake Ayles is reportedly thinking about bringing his talents to South Beach. (That line will stick with this area for a long, long time.) Ayles would have one year of eligibility remaining and would not have to sit out a year. He would also be following new Canes coach Brennan Carroll who coached him at USC.

He may not bring a lot though. In three years, he has 14 receptions for 182 yards and one touchdown. But hey Canes fans, if he wasn't good enough for USC, he may just be good enough to play for the Canes.

Elsewhere around the sports world:
Lost in all the hype of the NFL playoffs is the harsh reality that a lockout is coming on March 1. The current labor deal will end and no new labor deal is even being seriously discussed right now. Instead of having Gene Upshaw and Paul Tagliabue keeping labor peace and making the NFL the beast that it is, we have DeMaurice Smith and his political aspirations versus Roger Goodell. Neither are budging and the owners are more than happy to dig in their heels and shut the game down.

The players want a bigger piece of the pie and the owners want to give up less. Then there's the issue of revenue sharing, which small market teams want and the Jerry Jones' don't want to get into. Seriously though, it's a group of milloniare players and billionaire owners squabbling over money. Cry me a river guys.

The impact it will have on the league calendar is immense. Free agency will not begin on time and teams will have to go into the Draft, which will be held, not knowing if they'll be able to add any free agents. Plus, it's unknown whether a franchise tag, which allows a team to hold onto a star player, will be around and if it is what format it will be in.

LeBron said his Karma tweet wasn't from him. Uh-huh, and those pictures and messages Brett Favre sent weren't from him either.

Duke ran into the FSU Seminoles last night and lost their first game of the season. I don't know what FSU has over Duke but the Noles, no matter how bad their basketball team is, can always sneak up and beat Coach K.

And now…..your daily dose of Fail….Thursday edition.
Simultaneous Dunk Attempt Failure