LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were not carrying ''Help Wanted'' signs around the Miami Heat practice floor on Wednesday. The mood was not grim, voices were not hushed and scowls were not prominent. The way the Heat see it, their series with Indiana begins anew tonight, and the Pacers sound like they agree.

Indiana will play host to Miami in Game 3, after grabbing home-court advantage away from the reigning Eastern Conference Champions with a 78-75 win Tuesday in perhaps the most offensively baffling night in Heat history when, for the first time in the franchise's 24 years of existence, only two players scored more than five points in a game.

Just about everyone wearing Heat colors struggled, and James and Wade both misfired on key chances in the final moments.

The Pacers were hardly scoring juggernauts either. Still, Indiana was good enough to knot the series, and head home with even more confidence than the ample amount they brought to the start of the matchup. In short, the Pacers got everything they wanted in Game 2.

Instead of the get-out-and-go style that the Heat prefer, Indiana turned Tuesday's matchup into more of the ground-and-pound variety. Pacers coach Frank Vogel calls it smash-mouth basketball, and others may just call it plain old ugly. But it suits Indiana just fine, and unless Miami gets at least one win on the Pacers' floor, Vogel's team will pull off something that few people might have thought possible. James had 28 points in Game 2, Wade had 24. The rest of the Heat had 23, the offense sorely missing Bosh, who's out indefinitely with a strained abdominal muscle.

Miami missed all but one of its 16 tries from 3-point range, is 1 for 22 from deep in the series, and lost for the first time in its last 14 Playoff games at home against Eastern Conference opponents.

So now, the Heat will have to advance the difficult way.

James wore one of the NBA MVP headbands the Heat gave out in his honor to fans at Game 1 during Wednesday's practice, Wade answered light-hearted questions about his fashion sense and why gaudy eyeglass frames are all the rage across the League these days, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra sounded far from downtrodden when talking about what he saw on the tape of Game 2.

Simply put, the Heat insist they're not panicking after one loss, even though it brought back memories of Playoff failures from a year ago, when they lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.

It was Miami's lowest scoring total at home in the James, Wade and Bosh era, and down the stretch the Heat just couldn't get a point. In Miami's final seven possessions, James took only one shot, getting blocked by Paul George. He passed the ball twice on the play where a layup try from Wade hit the rim with 16 seconds remaining. He had an assist on one possession, missed two big free throws on another with 54.3 seconds left, and did not get a touch on three of those trips. Miami said it was satisfied with the shots it got in Game 2, even though everyone not named Wade or James shot a combined 9 for 34.  There will be some tweaking of things before Thursday night, but the tape told Spoelstra there were parts of Game 2 where things went Miami's way, sans for the not-so-small measure of the ball going in the basket.

Doug Collins walked into his postgame press conference Monday night and looked stoic, just as he had after Game 1. On both occasions his team had just finished playing in a one-point game. And though the first was a defeat, the second was a victory.

The coach’s demeanor was steady and calm. Sure, he was disappointed his team had lost on Saturday, and proud of how it played to win Game 2.

But Collins, who will soon turn 61, is cognizant that more is going on here then the Sixers playing with house money as an eighth seed; they have evened a second round series against the Boston Celtics, at a game apiece despite entering the NBA Playoffs as a heavy underdog to even win a game in the first round matchup with the Chicago Bulls.

During the final 3:17 of Monday night’s Game 2, with the Sixers up two points, it started to look like Sixers fans were in store for Game 1 déjà vu. Kevin Garnett, who, if feeling old, has managed to channel his energies into coming through in the guts of games, did just that. With a little more than three minutes remaining, Garnett went back door on a pick and roll where Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen switched defensive assignments. Garnett ignited the Garden crowd with an alley-oop dunk; he was fouled on the play as well by Turner. Sixers’ fans could never have known then that that play was just what Turner needed, as he hates to be outdone.

Before shooting his free throw, Garnett walked to half court, talking feverishly to himself, all of which was being shown on the big screen. The crowd noise grew louder and louder and its enthusiasm for having the Sixers right where they wanted them became even more noticeable, but Garnett missed his free throw and the teams were tied at 69.

The Sixers, who were shooting 38 percent for the game at the time, and 9 for 15 from the foul line, proceeded to make their final three field goal attempts and six free throws to win 82-81.

The Sixers didn’t actually score last; Kevin Garnett did. But his buzzer-beating three, with his Celtics trailing by four, went down only after the Sixers got a key defensive stop, when Garnett was called for an offensive foul with 10 seconds remaining. The illegal screen call on Garnett gave possession to the Sixers and Lou Williams' two free throws to put the Sixers up five eventually ended the game.

Seeing people mature is, as Collins said, something special to watch. For example, Evan Turner pulled himself out of not just a shooting slump, but also an erratic, frustrating game to make plays at both ends of the floor, which had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. He drained two field goals and two huge free throws, blocked a shot and grabbed a rebound all in the final three minutes. In other words, Turner did it. The Sixers did it. And now, the series is not only even, but also competitive, heading back to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4.

Chris Paul played with an aching right hip and Blake Griffin’s sprained left knee stiffened up during the game. If the Clippers were truly a two-man team, then they would have been in trouble facing elimination by the Memphis Grizzlies.

Good thing the guys on the Clippers’ bench want to keep playing.

Kenyon Martin’s 23-footer put the Clippers ahead to start a fourth quarter in which backups scored 25 of their 27 points, helping Los Angeles’ other NBA team beat Memphis 82-72 Sunday and advance to the Western Conference semifinals. In short, the Clippers’ bench was the MVP. 

The Clippers reserves outscored Memphis’ bench 41-11 to help Los Angeles clinch its first Playoff series since 2006 and only the franchise’s third overall. They also helped the Clippers avoid becoming the ninth NBA team to blow a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series and now Los Angeles heads to San Antonio for a second round starting tonight. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said they will regroup Monday and focus on the Spurs then, as he wanted his team to enjoy the series win for a little bit.

Chris Paul scored 19 points despite his strained right hip flexor, and he was the only starter to score in the fourth quarter. Paul was so confident of victory he bought plane tickets for his wife and son to San Antonio on Saturday.

Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol each had 19 for Memphis, which lost a Game 7 at Oklahoma City a year ago in the second round of the playoffs. Zach Randolph had a game-high 12 rebounds. Unfortunately, no one on the Memphis bench stepped up the way the Clippers’ reserves did.

The Clippers had missed two chances to clinch this series, including an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter Friday night, which is why Martin huddled the Clippers together at the start of the fourth quarter Sunday to make sure it didn’t happen again.

The Clippers trailed 56-55 after three quarters until Martin’s jumper started an 11-2 run, and they led by as many as 11 down the stretch. Los Angeles finished off the win by hitting 9 of 10 free throws in the final 3:26. The Clippers also managed to out-rebound the Grizzlies 46-44 for only the second time this series. Memphis got away from the inside-out approach that won the last two games. The Grizzlies outscored the Clippers 36-24, but Randolph said they took far too many jumpers instead of feeding the ball to Gasol and himself. The Grizzlies also went cold at the worst time, hitting a series-low 32.5 percent Sunday, and only 4 of 18 in the fourth. After Gasol drove through the lane for a one-handed dunk with 3:09 left, Memphis didn’t score another field goal.

LeBron James spent two days trying to figure out the right words. An assistant jotted some ideas on note cards, which were ignored. So when the moment came to deliver his NBA MVP acceptance speech, James spoke emotionally about family, charity, history and what the Miami Heat organization means to him.

James accepted his third NBA MVP award Saturday, making him the eighth player in League history to win that many. For any sports fan who doesn’t know, the others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Moses Malone. Unfortunately for LeBron James, the only aspect of this discussion his sports critics appear to be focused on is the tidbit about each of the others all having won NBA Titles.

James received 85 of a possible 121 first-place votes from a panel of sports writers and broadcasters who cover the League, with fans on NBA.com combining for one vote. He earned 1,074 points, topping Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (889 points, 24 first-place votes), the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Paul (385, six first-place votes), the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant (352, two first-place votes), and San Antonio's Tony Parker (331, four first-place votes). James lauded the other top candidates for the MVP, and lauded his teammates and those around him even more.

The way some around the Heat see it, Saturday could have been a fourth straight MVP for James. His numbers this NBA season are extremely comparable to last season, when he finished a distant third in the MVP race behind Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard. Similar numbers with much better results and James understands why. A year ago, following all the fallout that accompanied his decision to leave Cleveland and sign with Miami, James realized there was no way he was going to have voters back him for a third straight season. Long before the results were in, James knew the 2011 MVP wasn't going to be his. Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo won the MVP while playing for the Buffalo Braves in 1975. McAdoo said James had to deal with "absolute hate" last year after his move to Miami, and some believe the repercussions kept him from getting as many MVP votes as he may have deserved a year ago. Fortunately, that's no longer a problem.

Yet with that no longer being a problem, it was hard to watch the sports media coverage of LeBron winning his third NBA MVP without wondering why it’s so hard for certain basketball has-beens to leave their bias at home. For whatever reason, it’s no longer good enough for a player to be the best in the NBA. For whatever reason, winning three NBA MVP awards is little more than irrelevant because LeBron James has zero NBA Titles under his belt. 

With that said, this simple question merits asking. Does LeBron James need to win a NBA Title for the entire sports world to respect his talents the way they do Michael Jordan’s? Despite its historical significance, is the winning of a third NBA MVP really as irrelevant as some NBA critics make it seem because he lacks a League Championship? Should the Miami Heat fail to beat the tough Indiana Pacers, or simply fail to win the NBA Title, will this third League MVP ultimately be referred to as proof of LeBron’s great skill and complete lack of closing ability a la Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant?  

The underdog card has been dealt to the Indiana Pacers but will not be played. To even suggest to the coach or players the team is in that role against the mighty Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals is to draw an unequivocal response to the contrary. Ask coach Frank Vogel and he will say something along the lines of not being interested in being the underdog. Simply put, the Indiana Pacers don't feel like a team that should be seen as the underdog in any way, shape or form during this NBA Playoff series. In truth, the opinion isn’t without merit, as the Pacers were the hottest team in the East coming into the Playoffs. Sure, the Miami Heat have home-court advantage, but the Pacers are a team that’s won seven straight on the road and happens to be one of the best road teams in the League. Also working in their favor is the simple face the Pacers are playing with a great deal of confidence.

After Vogel took over the team midway into last season, the Pacers wound up finishing 20-18 returned to the NBA Playoffs for the first time in four years and did so as an eighth-seeded that pushed top-seeded Chicago much harder than anyone outside the Indiana locker room believed possible. Indiana went 42-24 in Vogel's first full season to earn the third seed in the East, just one slot and four games behind Miami. Since the NBA trade deadline acquisition, when Leandro Barbosa joined the team, the Pacers have gone 21-7, including a 4-1 first-round victory over the Orlando Magic. In case you’re wondering, the Miami Heat went 19-10 during the same span. Moreover, among the aforementioned Pacers’ victories was a 15-point decision over the Heat on March 26^th. 

While Miami has operated in the national spotlight ever since the union of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Pacers have basically played basketball in the shadows of anything resembling a NBA spotlight. The major sports networks have ignored them and they have received only token coverage in national publications. In short, this NBA Playoff series is what’s needed to thrust them into a national sports spotlight.

Vogel has already thrown the first verbal grenade of the series; calling Miami "the biggest flopping team in the NBA" and saying it will be interesting to see "how much flopping they (officials) reward." Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said the series "will feel like it's played in a cage" because of the Pacers' penchant for physical play. 

Simply put, the question is this simple. Is it wise for the Indiana Pacers to poke a sleeping bear like the Miami Heat? Given the way Miami wasn’t challenged in any of the games against the New York Knicks, why take the chance of providing extra motivation beyond the simple need to advance to the next round? Think about it. Before various verbal jabs, the Indiana Pacers were a very talented team featuring players who most NBA fans wouldn’t recognize in a game of pick-up basketball at the local YMCA. Yet now, the Pacers are a team that just put itself in the sports spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

In case you’re a confused NBA fan; as the final horn sounds on every home victory, the Philadelphia 76ers blast confetti all over the court and in the stands as a gratuitous gesture of celebration.

You see, the Sixers’ first-year ownership group entered this NBA season overloaded with gimmicks meant to make the game of basketball more enjoyable for a fan base accustomed to a decade of rooting for a franchise stuck closer to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings than the top. Of course slashed ticket prices, over-the-top pregame introductions and videos tinged with nostalgia from the Sixers’ glory days only go so far for providing memorable moments for the fans in the seats.

Simply put, every single sports team has to win to keep a city interested.

Tonight, the 76ers are one Game 6 victory against the Chicago Bulls away from the franchise’s biggest win in nine years.

During that period of time, Allen Iverson left, and came back and left again. Larry Brown won a NBA Title in Detroit, and then trekked to New York and now, improbably, back to college at SMU. Billy King bet the future on Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Willie Green. Former No. 1 overall picks Joe Smith, Glenn Robinson and Chris Webber all made pit stops in Philadelphia. The Sixers won with Jim O’Brien on the bench and suffered with Eddie Jordan. Ed Snider sold the team. All of that has happened since the Sixers last won a Playoff series in 2003.

Yet tonight, as they face the top-seeded Bulls, the Sixers will truly have a milestone worth celebrating if they can pull out the win and, if it happens, the Sixers might even shoot that confetti budget right out the door.

The Sixers are trying to become the fifth No. 8 seed to win a first-round series against a No. 1 seed. In case you’re wondering, Memphis eliminated San Antonio last season, Golden State did it in 2007, New York in 1999 and Denver pulled off the rare feat in 1994. Granted, the Bulls have no interest in joining the wrong side of history, though it seems imminent when some NBA fans would agree it feels like the Sixers have pulled pins out of their spell kits and poked the voodoo dolls of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Rose, the defending NBA MVP, tore the ACL in his left knee late in the Bulls’ Game 1 win, Noah missed a game with a sprained left ankle, and Gibson left Game 5 clutching his right ankle, though he vowed to play Thursday. Clearly, the Sixers have the injuries to credit for their 3-2 series lead.

Of course reality says there aren’t many fans of the Sixers who will worry about the sports world critiquing the way they defeated an injury-ravaged Bulls team. In truth, Philadelphia fans will likely head to the home game wearing their Philadelphia Sixers Victory Series Watch, with a Philadelphia Sixers Hard Hat and matching Philadelphia Sixers Bike Jersey. Sixers’ fans watching from home will surely hang up a Philadelphia Sixers Vintage Print and pull out their Philadelphia Sixers Large Court Runner or Philadelphia Sixers Putting Rug to impress fellow NBA fans watching the game. At work before the game, true Philadelphia fanatics will sip hot coffee from their Philadelphia Sixers Coffee Mug with the confidence of a basketball fan who knows their team is a win over the Bulls away from finally winning a NBA Playoff series. Heck, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some Philadelphia Sixers Foil Balloons on display to let the sports world know tonight is all about the Sixers.

If the numbers are to be believed, then the New York Knicks' season is about to end. Of the other 101 teams to lose the first three games in a best-of-seven NBA series, none ultimately prevailed and only 10 managed to stave off elimination twice.

That doesn't mean the Miami Heat are leaving anything to chance.

For the past two days, the Heat have stewed over and stared at the tape of what went wrong at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, when a litany of things — 11 missed free throws, 16 missed 3-pointers, two blown double-digit leads, giving up a 19-2 run in the third quarter and having all that capped by a botched play at the end of regulation — added up to an 89-87 loss that extended the Knicks' season. When the teams' Eastern Conference first-round series resumes tonight, the Heat expect to be sharper.

Miami leads the best-of-seven 3-1, and needs only a home win Wednesday for a ticket to the East Semifinals. Throughout NBA history, seven teams rallied from down 3-0 in a series before losing in six games, and another three extended things all the way to Game 7 before succumbing. Of course, not only are the Knicks dealing with long odds, they're doing so with a short bench.

Iman Shumpert tore a knee ligament in Game 1, and Baron Davis left Game 4 with a catastrophic knee injury. Shumpert won't play for months, Davis is out at least a year, and the Knicks ended speculation Tuesday by saying Jeremy Lin's recovery from knee surgery will not allow him to play in the rest of the series against Miami regardless of how long it goes. A’mare Stoudemire returned for Game 4 after slicing open his left hand by striking a metal-and-glass case holding a fire extinguisher moments after the Knicks dropped the second game of the series. At the time, the odds of him and the Knicks playing again in Miami didn't look good. But here they are, and Stoudemire spent part of Tuesday saying how his team has a chance to do something special.

Now, while most NBA experts believe the Miami Heat will ultimately work their way to through the Eastern Conference, this could be it for the New York Knicks. Until the start of the next NBA season, this is the last time New York fans will see Carmelo and A’mare. Until then, this is the last time fans of the Knicks will see their beloved Jeremy Lin watching from the sideline because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself against Miami again. 

Of course the youngster still gets a NBA pass because it’s thanks to Lin that people in New York are proudly walking the streets in their New York Knicks Bike Jersey while constantly checking their New York Knicks Victory Series Watch to make sure they don’t miss tip-off for tonight’s game against the Heat. Thanks to Jeremy Lin and the win streak he sparked, fans of the Knicks saw their New York franchise hit a hot streak that gave fans enough pride to walk a dog that’s now wearing a New York Knicks Dog Jersey. Thanks to the Linsanity-inspired win streak, Knicks fans pulled out their New York Knicks Shower Curtain and placed their New York Knicks Large Area Rug in an area that’s in plain sight for the sports world to see and envy. It also goes without saying the New York fans have been working out with their New York Knicks Stainless Steel Water Bottle and New York Knicks Fitness Towel in hand to make sure the sports world knows the Knicks are, once again, NBA relevant. And tonight, as they face-off against an old school rival in the Miami Heat, it will with the hope of watching their Knicks force a Game 6 back at the Mecca of the NBA.

Remember how LeBron James immediately lived up to the hype when he came into the NBA as an 18-year-old and averaged 20.9 points, 5.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds? Well, the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper is making Sports Illustrated look quite wise in its choice of teen-age cover subjects back in June 2009.

As with LeBron James, sports fans can't fully appreciate Harper by looking at his numbers, though the numbers are impressive. The young Harper is hitting .308 in eight games with five doubles and has more walks than strikeouts. But still, even if MLB fanatics put Bryce Harper’s sweets baseball stats to the side, there’s still his energy and attitude, both of which make him worth watching as sports fans saw on national TV this past Sunday night.

As with LeBron, watching this guy grow up is going to be something for both fans of the Washington Nationals and all Major League Baseball lovers in general to enjoy. Now, all he needs is a nickname, though most would agree King Bryce isn’t going to fly in the typically no-fun, old school MLB circles.

In the eight games Nationals fans have gotten to see Bryce Harper, they have seen an array of plays. And before a national audience on Sunday night against a Division rival, he added more. He stole home in the first inning after being plunked in the backside, and was the only National player to solve Phillies starter Cole Hamels, notching two hits off of him. He stretched a soft single to left field into a double. He helped save a run with a sliding catch and with the threat of his strong arm. Harper’s impact has not only added spark to the Nationals, especially at a time when the offense has been ravaged by injuries, it has shown that his game and style of play make him among the most electrifying and potent players in baseball. Since his debut on April 28^th, Harper is tied for the most doubles in the Major Leagues with five, which has him tied with Chicago Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair in that span of time.

In the eighth inning, Harper, 19, did what he has, in a week, already become known for around MLB, namely play super aggressively. He smacked a high, inside changeup from Hamels over the shortstop and into shallow left field. Halfway to first base, Harper looked ready to stretch the single into a double, and it helped that Juan Pierre, not known for his arm, in left field. Ultimately, Harper slid head first into second base safely. Harper also singled in the third inning, his first at-bat after his brush up with Hamels, taking an inside pitch and hitting it the other way. Much has been said and written about Harper not only as a prospect, but also since his debut over a week ago. But, in all fairness, the Kid, as Johnson calls him, has shown why already and endeared himself to many, including his veteran teammates.

Harper is still learning to harness some aspects of his talent. He tracked down a deep fly ball to left field in the ninth inning, reaching for it with his glove and dropping it, narrowly missing what would have been a tough catch. At first, Nationals officials were worried that Harper was being rushed into Major League action too soon because of a need to spark an injured offense and may have to be sent back to the Minor Leagues. Even though he was hitting .250 at Class AAA Syracuse, his performance in the Major Leagues since has alleviated those concerns.

With that said, the question is simple. Can a phenom like Bryce Harper bring new baseball fans to the Nationals’ ballpark? Can Harper be the type of MLB athlete who has female MLB fans wearing Washington Nationals Earrings? Does Bryce carry enough star power to have Washington fans sporting a Washington Nationals Silk Tie and Washington Nationals MVP Watch to the office? Does a young, unproven MLB star-in-the-making bring enough cache to the table to engage baseball fans to a level where they proudly attend games wearing a pair of Washington Nationals Sunglasses, with Washington Nationals Rope Necklace and matching Washington Nationals Jersey Pouch? 

In Atlanta, MLB fans suddenly found themselves stocking their Atlanta Braves Refrigerator and Atlanta Braves Beer Refrigerator with enough supplies for a baseball watch party featuring their squad against the Colorado Rockies. For the sports fans who didn’t know, two of Major League Baseball’s oldest players, Jamie Moyer and Chipper Jones, had a war of words which ultimately led to Atlanta stomping all over Colorado. In addition to that, these same Atlanta fans likely had no spare time throughout the weekend because when they weren’t supporting the Braves, odds are they were sporting an Atlanta Hawks Hard Hat and Atlanta Hawks Bike Jersey as the team continued its rough matchup in the NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics.

Elsewhere in the wide world of sports, NBA fans in Chicago have seen their franchise go from being a number one seed to being a team that’s one loss away from becoming the fifth NBA franchise in League history to go down as a 1^st seed against the 8^th seed. Of course on the flipside of that topic, NBA fanatics in Philadelphia have hung up their Philadelphia Sixers Vintage Prints, strapped on their Philadelphia Sixers Retro Watch and put on their stylish Philadelphia Sixers Bike Jersey with growing hopes of watching their Sixers pull of a tremendous upset.

In the NHL, there hasn’t been a dull moment in any of the series’ featuring several talented teams in search of the Stanley Cup. Be it the Phoenix Coyotes against the Nashville Predators, the New York Rangers against the Washington Capitals or even the Los Angeles Kings versus the St. Louis Blues; the simple truth is there hasn’t been one dud of a NHL Playoff series that bored hockey fans to sleep a la Oklahoma City versus the Dallas Mavericks. Even though the NHL isn’t super popular with the average sports fan, there’s just no denying the excitement contained within each NHL Playoff game, which is the main reason any sports fan should give the Stanley Cup a chance.    

As if all that wasn’t enough of a reason to keep every sports fan seated on their Sports-Themed Furniture since Friday night, there’s even more.  In UFC, the fast and talented Nate Diaz can now say he’s elite. If you had any remaining doubts about that after his throttling of Donald Cerrone last December, you probably don't after he became the first man to finish Jim Miller at Saturday night's UFC on FOX 3. Think about this. Miller is a man who's stepped into the cage with current lightweight champion Ben Henderson, current No. 1 contender Frankie Edgar, and the last No. 1 contender Gray Maynard. None of them finished him and none of them came close; but Diaz did it, and in a scheduled five-round fight, needed less than two of them to pull it off. Also taking place in the fight world on Saturday evening were two spectacular boxing bouts. The first featured the up-and-coming Saul Alvarez defeating “Sugar” Shane Mosley in a tremendous 12 round battle, and the second saw Miguel Cotto lose to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a match that will easily goes down as the toughest of Floyd’s career. Even though some boxing critics tend to mock Mayweather Jr. for his lack of legitimate opponents, there isn’t one sports fan who watched this fight without completely respecting the way Floyd dominated Cotto, and did so in a way that proved he could take a beating and still put on a boxing clinic like few ever have in the sports’ history.     

And finally, as if all that weren’t enough, NASCAR fans got to use their NASCAR Branding Iron on Sunday while watching fan favorite Brad Keselowski get a huge push from Kyle Busch to win for the 2^nd time at the Talladega Superspeedway. Prior to that, the need for speed was fulfilled when “I’ll Have Another” won the Kentucky Derby and, if you’re a sports fan still not believing how action-packed the weekend was, there’s also the fun rivalry between Danica Patrick and Sam Hornish Jr., which reached a new level at Talladega Superspeedway, when Patrick intentionally turned Hornish into a wall.

With all the sports media hype surrounding Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto, is there anyone wondering who else is boxing that night?

Well, in the featured undercard spot on the Mayweather vs. Cotto card is a clash between one of the brightest young stars in the sport of boxing, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, and the faded but still recognizable "Sugar" Shane Mosley. It's not the best fight in the world from a competition standpoint as Mosley has shown little ability to be competitive since his shocking beating of Antonio Margarito, but the idea behind the matchmaking is to get Alvarez a big win over a big name on a big platform.

Sporting red hair, which earned him his nickname as "Canelo" (Spanish for Cinnamon) and a 39-0-1 record despite only being 21 years of age, Alvarez has become a huge star for Mexican fans. He and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. represent the big name boxers the country needs as Eric Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez and their generation slide closer to hanging up their gloves. Canelo is likely the best hope for long term success, being of a higher quality than Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., and not having already picked up a similar positive post-fight drug test. Since Oscar De La Hoya took the liberty of announcing the fight on Twitter by saying Sugar vs. Cinnamon, the match-up has felt lame. No one with experience around boxing truly feels that the 2012 version of Shane Mosley is a threat to hand the young star his first loss; but that's ultimately not the end game here.

Alvarez's name was originally bandied about as a potential Mayweather opponent for Saturday's date around the time when it was clear that Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao was not going to happen. Canelo is promoted by Oscar's Golden Boy Promotions, who have taken the official promotional duties for Mayweather's bouts since his 2007 win over De La Hoya. It made for a profitable match-up on paper, especially given the date. Putting Floyd against a Mexican superstar with a passionate fan base on Cinco de Mayo seemed like an ATM of an idea.

Ultimately, Cotto was available and still represents the third biggest draw in the sport. It's also debatable how much longer that will remain the case. So once they were able to get Cotto signed on for the date, also eliminating him as an option for Pacquiao's next fight, it pushed Canelo into the Mosley fight. A win by both Floyd and Alvarez will likely set the wheels into motion for a late 2012 or early 2013 fight between the two men. De La Hoya said at the presser yesterday those would be the plans in the near future, and seemed sure the near future meant post-Mayweather's jail time and post-another round of pretending Floyd vs. Manny might really happen.

Simply put, most true boxing fans would gladly watch Floyd take on young, hungry fighters in bouts that will draw money and work to build the next generation of stars. A loss for Canelo at 21 or 22 isn't going to be something that destroys him, if he's competitive; he'll come out of the fight an even bigger star. Of course, this is boxing, and the most obvious plans can be wrecked by a single punch. Maybe Mosley is going to have something to say about his status as a stepping stone. Heck, maybe Miguel Cotto will have something to say about Mayweather, Jr. thinking he’s just another over-the-hill opponent like most boxers the alleged best in the business tends to fight. After all, can the average sports fan name a single legitimate boxer Floyd has fought who wasn’t past his prime or en route to retirement?

Of course when all is said and done, regardless if you tune in to see Mayweather Jr. vs. Cotto, or the undercard match featuring Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. "Sugar" Shane Mosley; is this not simply an occasion for sports fans to stock up their Sports Themed Mini Refrigerator with tons of food, their Sports Themed Beer Refrigerator with heaps of ice cold beverages and fire up their MVP College Barbeque Grill for a phenomenal boxing watch party?