Dexter Pittman

  After banging with the Chicago Bulls for five games that physically felt like twice as many, the Miami Heat spent Thursday recovering from their second-round bumps and bruises.    But they also appreciate the fight has only begun, that there is a team...

   The Miami Heat still don't know who. But at least they know when.    With the New York Knicks defeating the Indiana Pacers 85-75 Thursday night, forcing that Eastern Conference semifinal series to a Saturday Game 6, the schedule for the Eastern...

     Yes, it is time for the yearly one-word rant now that the NBA has bestowed all of its annual individual awards: Why?     Actually, more to the point, the issue should be: When?     As much as anything, it is the Coach of the Year balloting, or,...

Q: Ira, when Jason Collins announced that he was gay, it got me thinking about the major impact he could have on a team like, say, the Heat. Collins has long been known as being a great teammate and heavy positive influence in the locker room. And at 34,...

Udonis Haslem, eyewitness, was talking this week about his Heat teammate, LeBron James. He was talking more broadly about the phenomenon of how an athlete, if he is great enough, rare enough, can seem to reach a mountaintop and then somehow keep climbing....

|TODAY| |COLLEGE SOFTBALL| Northern State at Winona, 1 p.m. doubleheader   |TV SPORTS| Major League Baseball—Philadelphia Phillies at Cincinnati Reds, 6 p.m. (ESPN); Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Minnesota Twins, 7 p.m. (FXSP) WNBA...

   The NBA got it right when it came to the All-Star ballot. It got it all wrong when it comes to the media vote for the 2013 All-NBA teams.    Moving away from the stodginess of we-always-have-done-it-that-way thinking, the league changed the All-...

   Before Erik Spoelstra could wish Pat Riley a happy 68th birthday Wednesday he first had to find him.    "Pat has actually been very busy," Spoelstra said. "Every game you put on TV, if there's a college game going on, he's at it. I don't care, he can...

THE LAST EMPEROR 1. MIAMI (39-14) Not sure how Heat expects to win another title without Dexter Pittman. (1) 2. SAN ANTONIO (44-13) Prop bet that Baynes would outscore Paul renders Las Vegas bust. (3) 3. OKLAHOMA CITY (40-15) Paying luxury taxes...

While the biggest news as the NBA's trade deadline came and went Thursday was that there was no real big news, several transactions that did take place are making headlines a day later now that the dust has settled. Ronnie Brewer gives the Oklahoma City...

The NBA’s trade deadline was D.O.A. There was little movement of note Thursday, unless you count part-time starting shooting guard J.J. Redick going from one bad team (Orlando) to a middling playoff contender (Milwaukee) as part of a six-player...

|TV SPORTS| Auto Racing--NASCAR Nationwide Series, DRIVE4COPD 300 pole qualifying, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2) Men’s College Hockey--Michigan at Ohio State, 5:30 p.m. (Big 10 Network); Yale at Quinnipiac, 6:30 p.m. (NBCSN); North Dakota at Denver, 9 p.m....