Rose Out Rest of Season

Brian Kersey/Landov

With 1:22 minutes left in the game the worse fear of the Chicago Bulls came true as Derrick Rose went down during play yesterday against the Philadelphia 76ers.  Medical personnel for the team rushed to the floor to tend to Rose, who had to be helped off the court to the locker room.  Rose was later taken to the hospital where MRI results showed that the Bulls superstar had torn the ACL in his left knee and the Chicago Bulls announced late Saturday that Rose would miss the remainder of the season due to the injury.  Rose ended the game with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assist in the Bulls' 103-91 victory over the 76ers.  D. Rose has been plagued by injury all season and only played 39 out of 66 games during the regular season due to turf toe, back spasms, pulled groin and a foot injury.  Playing without Rose will be a challenge for the Bulls throughout these playoffs but the team had some success during the regular season with Rose being on the bench.  The question becomes how will they get over this hump in order to make a championship run.

South Beach Butt Whooping

Marc Serota - Getty Images

Well the playoffs began today at full speed and the Knicks looked like they were still asleep from the night before.  Lebron James dominated the game and chants of MVP started streaming through the American Airline arena before the game even reached halftime.  The Heat outscored the Knicks 30-13 in the 2nd quarter alone and going into halftime Lebron went on a 9-0 run for the Heat, ending the first half with 23 points.  At halftime the heat had almost as many free throw attempts as the Knicks had turnovers and the Heat led 54-31 at the half.  The lead for the Heat, who did not trail the entire game, reached as high as 37 points, including a 31 point lead in the 3rd quarter in which the Knicks did not score a single point until Stoudemire made 2 free throws with 9 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.  After going up by 31 points, the Knicks went on a 9-0 run that was sparked by Stoudemire free throws and cut the Heat lead down to 22 points.  But the effort was not enough for the Knicks as New York had 22 turnovers throughout the game with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the Heat pushed the lead to 81-47 at the end of the 3rd quarter.  Through 3 quarters the Knicks had 24 turnovers and the heat capitalized off of that scoring 34 points off of the Knicks turnovers.  Lebron ended the 3rd quarter with a killer 3 pointer with 1.4 seconds left in the quarter and did not need to score anymore for the Heat with Miami ending the game on top 100-67 over New York.  In the end Wade had 19 points, JR Smith led the Knicks with 17 points and Lebron led the way with 32 points.  The next game in the series will be Monday at 7:00pm.

Iman Shumpert left the game during the 3rd quarter with a knee injury.  Shumpert was hurt on a non-contact play and had to be carried off the court and was taken to a local hospital during the game for a MRI and testing.

UPDATE: Shumpert is expected to miss 6-8 months after surgery according to the New York Knicks.  Shumpert suffered a torn left ACL and lateral meniscus during Saturday's game against the Miami Heat.

NBA Playoffs 1st Round Lineup

The shorten NBA regular season has now come to an end and the anticipated Playoffs are here with games beginning tomorrow April 28th.  In the East with the fight to the finish the Chicago Bulls topped the Miami Heat again this season with the best record in the East and the San Antonio Spurs, who got off to a slow start came out with the best record in the West over the west favorites OKC Thunder.

1st Round Lineup:


East
(1) Chicago Bulls vs. (8) Philadelphia 76ers

• Game 1 April 28, 2012 @ 1pm on TNT

(2) Miami Heat vs. (7) New York Knicks

• Game 1 April 28, 2012 @ 3:30pm on ABC

(3) Indiana Pacers vs. (6) Orlando Magic

• Game 1 April 28, 2012 @ 7pm on ESPN

(4) Boston Celtics vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks

• Game 1 April 29, 2012 @ 7pm on TNT

West

(1) San Antonio Spurs vs. (8) Utah Jazz

• Game 1 April 29, 2012 @ 1pm on ESPN

(2) OKC Thunder vs. (7) Dallas Mavericks

• Game 1 April 28, 2012 @ 9:30pm on ESPN

(3) LA Lakers vs. (6) Denver Nuggets

• Game 1 April 29, 2012 @ 3:30pm on ABC

(4) Memphis Grizzlies vs (5) LA Clippers

• Game 1 April 29, 2012 @ 9:30pm on TNT

2012 NFL Draft

(AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

With the 1st round out of the way it is no shocker that the Indianapolis Colts chose Andrew Luck as the number 1 overall draft pick.  With Luck going number 1 he became the 4th Stanford quarterback to be draft with the first overall pick, joining the likes of John Elway in that honor.  With Luck being drafted first last night a quarterback has been selected with the first overall pick 12 times in the last 15 drafts, which includes the Carolina Panthers choosing Cam Newton first last year in the 2011 draft. Below is the complete list of the draft picks from the first round and make sure you tune in tonight for the next round of the draft on ESPN.

Kentucky Wildcats 2012 NCAA Champions

The 2012 NCAA tournament got off to a rough stuff with a lot of star teams shocking everyone by being eliminated in the first round, including Duke and Missouri.  But Kentucky stuck around through the tournament and became the NCAA champions like a lot of people had predicted.  Although most had the Wildcats facing the UNC Tar Heels in the finals, who eventually was eliminated during the elite 8, Kentucky was able to defeat the Kansas Jayhawks last night 67-59.

Kansas outscored Kentucky 32-26 during the 2nd half of action, but after going down 41-27 at halftime Kansas was unable to fight back from the huge deficit to upset the Wildcats.  Kentucky's Lamb led the Wildcats and Jayhawks in scoring with 22 points and Taylor was the leading scored for the Jayhawks with 19 points.  Monday night's victory is Kentucky's 8th NCAA basketball title and is its first title sine 1998.  

Kentucky Forward Davis ended the night with 16 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists, and 3 steals.  Although Davis had an off shooting night, scoring his only field goal with 5:13 left in the game, he was still able to have a major part in the Wildcat victory.  Marquis Teague, brother of Atlanta Hawks Jeff Teague, added 14 points to the Wildcats final 67 points.  

"Nobody even expected us to be here in the first place, for us to have a great season and we did.  We were able to compete for a championship. We had a great year." -Kansas Guard Travis Reliford

Kansas was truly the underdog in Monday night's game.  The first half it was obvious that Kentucky was going to run and run and run the entire game and Kansas was having a hard time keeping up, but in the 2nd half Kansas fought back and was able to keep up but not good enough as Kentucky ended up defeating Kansas 67-59.