Pushed hard in the opening round, Derrick Rose wasn’t letting out any sighs of relief once the Chicago Bulls found out they’d be facing Atlanta in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

It’s all well and good that he won’t have to worry about getting flattened in the lane by Dwight Howard after the Hawks knocked off Orlando in six games, but he’s not expecting an easy ride, either, in a series that starts Monday at the United Center.

The Bulls got all they could handle from Indiana while taking out the Pacers in five games, and Rose expects more of the same from the Hawks—except, maybe, the hard fouls.

Read the rest of this entry…

Three teams – and three of the NFL’s highest-profile quarterbacks – have represented the AFC in the past seven Super Bowls, a trend that can continue Sunday at Heinz Field with a victory by Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Don’t expect the New York Jets to be intimidated.

The sixth-seeded Jets have gotten through Peyton Manning and Tom Brady to punch a ticket to their second straight AFC championship game, leaving Roethlisberger’s Steelers as the last obstacle to their first Super Bowl appearance in 42 years.

Read the rest of this entry…

The Packers and the Bears first met in 1921, when the Bears were the Staleys, the N.F.L. was the A.P.F.A., and F. Scott Fitzgerald was 25 years old. A trainload of 300 Packers fans, joined by a brass band in woodsman costumes (the Cheeseheads came later), traveled to Chicago to watch the 20-0 loss. Pete Stinchcomb opened the scoring with a 45-yard touchdown, then Pard Pearce set up a second score with that pinnacle of 1920s innovation, a forward pass, to Dutch Sternaman.

“After several wallops at the line Pard Pierce finally bucked through for a touchdown on a quarterback plunge,” read a newspaper account of the game. Oddly enough, the Bears used the same series of plays against the Seahawks last Sunday.

Read the rest of this entry…

Nobody thought this series would be so loopsided, Even the Magic are surprised at how easily they’ve handled the third-seeded Atlanta Hawks, who finished just behind Orlando in the Eastern Conference standings.

Orlando has won by an average of 29 points, going up 3-0 in the series with a 105-75 blowout Saturday that was the worst home playoff loss in Hawks history. Game 4 is tonight, and about all Atlanta has to play for is a bit of pride.

Read the rest of this entry…

Hungry after taking a 3-0 lead on the San Antonio Spurs with a fifth straight playoff win, The Phoenix Suns look to close out on the Spurs and become the first team in the 2010 playoff to advance to the Conference Finals.

Only a week ago were the Spurs being hailed as perhaps the best No. 7 seed in NBA history after impressively dumping Dallas in six games. Now they are looking like, well, like just about every other seventh seed in NBA history.

Read the rest of this entry…

In Game 3 LeBron James soared for dunks and stepped back for long jumpers, sending an immediate message to the Boston Celtics that he could not be guarded, sore elbow or no sore elbow.

With Game 4 today on Mother’s Day, the Celtics know that if James can’t be stopped, then Pierce must get started.

Read the rest of this entry…

The Jazz and Lakers are meeting for the third straight year in the Western Conference playoffs. And just like the previous two, the Lakers lead 2-0 as the series comes to Utah for two games that the Jazz know are crucial to any aspirations they have of knocking out the defending NBA champions.

Both teams have had a few days to recover after the Lakers’ 111-103 win on Tuesday. Game 3 is in Salt Lake City, where the Jazz seem to hold a home-court advantage against every team other than the Lakers. Los Angeles hasn’t gone winless in Utah since the 2004-05 season and added a playoff win here each of the last two years.

Read the rest of this entry…

Hunched over his desk and looking very much like a coach trying to find a way beat the NBA’s hottest team, Atlanta Coach Mike Woodson kept shaking his head as he glanced at a television showing highlights from the Orlando Magic’s latest win.

Orlando has gone more than a month since its last defeat, a 112-100 setback at San Antonio on April 2. The Magic has won 12 straight since then, the last six of those in the playoffs. Going back even further, they are on a 26-of-29 roll, clearly a team peaking at just the right time of year.
Read the rest of this entry…

The Phoenix Suns may have too much fire power for the Spurs. Phoenix is forcing San Antonio to play “their” game and the Spurs don’t have a prayer unless they can’t slow key role players such as Jason Richardson and Grant Hill down, and when you have end of the bench player Channing Frye making 5 trey bombs in a game, its time to wrap it up and call it a day.

Only Fourteen teams in NBA history have climbed back from a 0-2 deficit, among them the Spurs in 2008 against New Orleans. But an frustrated Popovich was in no mood to reminisce about that after losing Game 2 on Wednesday night.

Read the rest of this entry…

The Celtics shocked the world by stealing one in Cleveland leaving the LeBron and company in disbelief. James hasn’t been his usual aggressive self when he is pain free and his elbow seems to really bother him. The banged-up Celtics and Cavaliers used the long layover between Game 2 on Monday night and Friday night’s third game to recover from the bumps and bruises they’ve acquired so far in the rough-and-tumble series.
Read the rest of this entry…