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When it comes to the Heat, it doesn’t take much for Miami’s legion of skeptics to seize on every mistake, miss or misstep. Doubt creeps in, then cascades over this team for which it’s all or nothing.
Back home Tuesday after an 0-2 road trip in Boston, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra challenged his players not only to win the basketball game but also to win the mind game. To assert their will. To be tougher, burn hotter, want more. To match the intensity of the savvy Celtics, and turn it up a notch.
But the Heat could not do it.
Miami bared its vulnerability, again. Miami had its chances but could not capitalize, again.
The Heat blew its precious home-court advantage in a 94-90 Game 5 loss to fall behind 3-2 in the seven-game series.
The questions about the lack of clutch plays and players will come thundering down on Heat heads, just as they did last season.
Whether Miami can ignore the questions and withering criticism as it prepares for Game 6 will be key in determining if they can win Game 6 on Thursday in Boston.
— Linda Robertson The Miami Herald
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College football will institute a playoff starting in 2014.
That seems hardly disputable at this point, thankfully, since the sport’s method for determining a champion remains an outdated and convoluted process that triggers annual hand-wringing. How a playoff ultimately will look is stirring up lively discussion, strong viewpoints and some snide comments that could intensify as conference commissioners seek compromise on a postseason model at several high-level meetings this month.
As it stands, top conference officials differ on the format, the number of teams involved and the selection process. Their differences aired in tones that some liken to a political debate. …
This is not the same as the college basketball selection committee picking the 68-team tournament field. Whatever team gets left out of that postseason probably deserved it and wouldn’t win the title anyway. Imagine the pressure and scrutiny a football committee would endure in choosing between the fourth- and fifth-best team.
— Chip Scoggins Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
