In case you want to participate in a bracket challenge but aren’t sure where to start, here are a few websites offering substantial prizes if you can pick the winners:

Rival.com offers a $1 million pot to anyone who can pick a perfect bracket.  There are other prizes for those who are somewhat less than perfect.

ESPN offers $10,000 to the person who picks the most correct wins.

CBS Sportsline is also offering $10,000.

Fox is offering a 60 inch flat screen HDTV.

AOL is offering a 42 inch flat screen plasma HDTV.

Want to create your own challenge?  Head over to Pick Hoops and set it up.

Want help picking your bracket?  Check out the following for recommendations and expert picks:

Yahoo Sports expert predictions

Mike Greenfield’s Power rankings

ESPN’s Bracketology predictions

College HoopsNet’s Predictions

Haven’t a clue who to choose?  Use Coke Zero’s Bracket-O-Matic.  (I ended up with Florida A&M versus Belmont in the Finals, with Florida A&M winning by setting it to complete Cinderella and Underdog.  That would be a tournament worth watching.  Upsets in every game—  wouldn’t that be fun?  The Twilight Zone of college basketball.)  If you’re feeling more serious, then use Team Ranking’s Bracket Brains.

My underdog favorite?  Vanderbilt.  I was there when they won the NIT in 1990, and I would love to see them win the NCAA Tournament.

With the NBA’s All Star Game quickly approaching some of the brightest stars will be unable to shine because of injuries. Three of the biggest stars in today’s NBA will not be able to participate in the game due to medical reasons. Yao Ming has been sidelined since December with a fracture in his right leg. Yao was voted in by the fans as a starter but will be unable to play on any level for another 2-3 weeks. The Phoenix Sun star Steve Nash will have his starting position up for grabs because of an injured shoulder. Allen Iverson, who was traded to the Denver Nuggets earlier this year, will not display his abilities due to an ankle injury. Perhaps this year’s biggest surprize, Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz, will also miss the star-studded event because of a knee injury.

Along with the All Star Game, all of the other fan favorites will be back including: The Rookie vs. Sophmore Game, All Star Celebrity Game, Slam Dunk Competition, Three-point Shootout, Skills Challenge and Shooting Stars Challenge. Tyrus Thomas, Dwight Howard and Gerald Green will challenge the reigning champion Nate Robinson in the Slam Dunk competition. The celebrity game will feature the likes of Reggie Bush, Nelly, Jamie Foxx and Michael Clarke Duncan. The three-point shootout will feature Gilbert Arenas, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Damon Jones, Jason Kapono and Mike Miller.

The action will begin on Friday night and will conclude on Sunday with the NBA All Star Game. While injuries have plagued the West squad, the East should have it’s roster intact. In total there are six players who will be making their first appearance in an All Star game, but plenty of fan favorites will be having repeat appearances. The NBA All Star Weekend is a very unique sports scene and is always an enjoyable watch. All of the action will be televised nationally on TNT.

As the NBA season approaches its All Star break it has become increasingly clear that the Western Conference has far more depth and talent than the rival Eastern Conference. With a little over 40 games played now for each team, the East has only one club with at least 27 wins: the surprise Washington Wizards. The West on the other hand, has 6 teams with more than 27 wins.

The Atlantic Division leading Toronto Raptors are at an even .500 winning percentage right now and have a record of 23-23. Of the three division leading teams in the Western Conference, none of them have fewer than 30 wins.

It is unusual to see such a large imbalance of power in professional sports, but it may end up being a detriment to the Western Conference teams. Not only do they have to compete with each other throughout the season, but they must also jockey for position in the playoff races as well. Many believe that just getting through the playoffs in the West will leave a team too drained to make an impact in the finals, much like the Dallas Mavericks last season.

The West is loaded with legitimate title contenders and there are still plenty of teams who could make a late playoff push. Denver and Golden State have each made significant trades that could help them make a run at the playoffs. This year’s chase for the Western Conference Title could go down as one of the best of all time.

Here are the results of our last poll:

Who will be the 2007 MVP in the NBA?

• Lebron James: 35% (61)
• Dwyane Wade: 30% (52)
• Other: 10% (17)
• Kobe Bryant: 9% (15)
• Steve Nash: 6% (11)
• Dirk Nowitzki: 6% (10)
• Yao Ming: 5% (8)
• Chauncey Billups: 1% (1)

Total Votes : 175

The NBA has decided to nix their new balls. I kind of wondered how long it would last. There is a big difference between leather balls and synthetic ones. Good call by the NBA.

You can visit Fox Sports News for more details.

The NBA is changing the official game ball this season. It’s been 35 years since the last official ball change. It seems players aren’t all too happy with it. Maybe it will help your team, maybe it will hurt your team. It will definitely take players time to get used to, so we will shall see how that affects game play.

For more on the new balls, check out this click2houston article.

What do you think, should they have brought in new balls or were the old leather balls good enough?

The draft last night was full of trades. It seemed like everytime I turned around there was another trade. In total there were 15 announced trades on draft night. Wow!

So what do I think about the draft last night?

Well, I am going to start things off by saying that at least my hometown Houston Rockets had a better draft than the Knicks. That isn’t saying much though. The Rockets can’t disclose what they are doing, but it sounds as if they will be getting Shane Battier from Memphis and be giving up Rudy Gay (who they picked eighth) and Stromile Swift. Needless to say the fans in Houston are generally not happy with this move. Rudy Gay has huge upside potential and this team needed to get younger and more athletic and instead they will be getting older and slower. That said Shane is a proven veteran and will give them some outside scoring, but I personally don’t like the deal. The Rockets made some people in Houston forget that the Texans passed on Vince Young and Reggie Bush.

I really liked what the Portland Trailblazers did on draft night. They managed to move some of their bloated contracts and pick up some quality players that will really help them rebuild this team.

Other teams that I thought had really good drafts are Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, and Minnesota.

Most teams seemed to get players that helped them in areas of need, with the exception of the New York Knicks who won the “what in the world???” award for the night.

That’s my take on last night’s draft, hope everyone has a happy fourth!

In our last poll, we asked,

Who is going to win the 2006 NBA Championship?

And the final tally was:

Miami Heat: 62% (13)
Dallas Mavericks: 38% (8)

Total Votes : 21

So you picked it right!

I managed to stay up to see the end of the game and WOW what a finish! Game 5 last night was really, really close. Either team could have won it, but Dwayne Wade’s heroics won out again and Miami took game 5 over the Dallas Mavericks 101 to 100.

There was a very controversial call at the end of the game involving a time-out at the end of the game. It cost the Mavericks the chance to inbound the ball at half-cout with 1.9 seconds on the clock. The chances are that it would not have made a difference, but it might have made the difference. It appears as though it was the player’s fault, but not being on the court it is hard to know exactly what happened.

Dwayne Wade scored 43 points, his last of which was the game winning free throw with 1.9 seconds on the clock. He has been truely phenomenal in the play-offs and gets my vote for favorite to win the NBA’s MVP next year.

I think this series will go seven games, and whether or not Miami wins it you have to be impressed with Dwayne Wade’s play.

nba playoffs dallas mavericks dwayne wade Miami Heat

Miami’s motto for the year has been “No Excuses” and you can see the effect it has on the team. Dwayne Wade has certainly taken the creed to heart.

Miami really dominated the game tonight. D. Wade is amazing! The other day he could barely walk and today he had something like 36 points (I haven’t looked it up just going by memory). Shaquille O’Neal picked his game up today as well with something like 17 points and 13 rebounds and 2 block (again going from memory).

Anyway, it was fun to watch if you are a Heat fan, otherwise much like the game 1 blowout from Dallas it wasn’t much fun to watch if you were on the losing side.

Now that the series is tied up who do you think is going to win?

I am kind of leaning towards Miami, even though I know the safe pick would still be Dallas at this point. With home court advantage, it’s hard to pick against Dallas. Even though I live close to Dallas, South Florida is where I grew up so unless the Heat were playing against my current hometown Houston Rockets, I have to choose Miami. I guess if Dallas were playing anyone except the Heat or Rockets I would be rooting for them.

Whether the Mavs or the Heat win, it will be fun to see a new team win the championship. The series just got a whole lot more interesting tonight…

nba playoffs dallas mavericks dwayne wade Miami Heat

WOW. What an exciting finish!

After the third quarter, I was ready to write a post about how the game was over, but Miami pulled it off with a big comeback in the 4th quartern. Thanks in a large part to the efforts of Dwayne Wade.

Dwayne Wade scored 42 points, and pulled down 13 rebounds in Miami’s 98-96 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

It was really a must win game for Miami. It’s still unlikely that Miami will win the series, but they might. Anyway, it was a fun game to watch.

Game 4 is in Miami Thursday June 15, at 9:00 pm EDT. Do you think Miami can win 2 games in a row?

The Mavericks just finished dominating the Heat in game 2. Coach Avery Johnson is doing an AWESOME job of coaching. He really took Shaq out of his game tonight. The Mavs double teamed Shaquille every time he touched the ball, they even doubled team him some when he didn’t have the ball. It worked really, really well.

Dallas is playing excellent ball and their coaching is superb. I still think this series will go 7 games, but I also think Dallas could easily take game 3 and possibly sweep the series.

Only two teams have ever come back to win the NBA championship after being down 2-0. The Boston Celtics in 1969 and the Portanld Trailblazers in 1977. Will the Miami Heat be the third team to do so? What do you think?

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nba playoffs dallas mavericks shaq Miami Heat

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat tonight 90-80.

Pretty much all I have to say is,

“Wow that Jason Terry can shoot the rock!”

Terry scored 32 points this evening and helped lead the Mavs to a game 1 vicotry over the Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals.

I think the Heat will bounce back and win game 2, but I could be wrong. Prior to this series I thought it would go seven games, but if Jason Terry keeps that up it could be a quick series. We shall see…

Wow, that was an amazing comeback by the Dallas Mavericks against the Suns. The 2006 NBA finals are now set with the Dallas Mavericks facing off against the Miami Heat. I will be rooting for the Heat, but Dallas looks afully good.

It should be a good series. Looking forward to watching it. So who do you think is going to win?

I was on vacation the last few days. Just wanted to say,

“WoooHooo”

I was rooting for the Heat to make it (and win), because I lived in South Florida most of my life. I am stiing here watching the end of the Phoenix Suns – Dallas Mavericks game to see who will be playing them.

Right now, it’s looking like it will be Phoenix, but Dallas is making a bit of a comeback in the third. The fourth quarter has just started.

Anyway, it’s amazing the way Shaq carried the Heat to victory. The Heat are my new choice to win it all. Guess we’ll know soon.

PS. Now it’s a two point game. wow! They have come from 18 points down. Now it’s tied 66-66.

Raja Bell’s appearance in game 4 of the Suns – Mavs series is just what the doctor ordered for the Suns. Raja gave the Phoenix Suns a big spark of energy that carried them to a 106-86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

Leandro Barbosa’s 24 points off the bench was probably the difference in the game, but Raja just being on the court added a big emotional spark for the Suns that was missing in their last two games.

Other notable contributors to the Phoenix victory were Boris Diaw (20 points), Steve Nash (21 points, 8 assists), and Shawn Marion (15 points).

The Suns are becoming the comeback kids of the play-offs. They came back against the Clippers, can they do the same thing against Dallas and make it to the finals or will Dallas bounce back and take the series? We shall see…

Friday the Mavs evened their series with the Suns. The Phoenix vs. Dallas series is looking like a really good series. The Phoenix Suns play the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night on TNT, should be a fun game to watch.

The Heat took a 2-1 lead over the Pistons today. Quite frankly, I am starting to think this series might only go 5 or 6 games. The Heat are looking like the team I expected them to be all season and Detroit is having troubles on offense in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how Detroit responds Monday night.

Anyway, that’s your really quick playoff update. Enjoy the holiday weekend.

PS. Does anyone else think that Dwayne Wade might be the best player in the NBA? He’s pretty awesome!

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nba playoffs dallas mavericks mavs Suns Phoenix Suns dwayne wade Miami Heat pistons detroit pistons