MIAMI – The Band of Brothers, bedecked in Band-Aids, have finally punched back.

After days of the Indiana Pacers' browbeating and posturing, led by tough-but-empty talk from Danny Granger, the Miami Heat delivered what looks like a knockout blow Tuesday night in a 115-83 Game 5 destruction of a team they recently couldn't seem to solve. And now Indiana, once so full of bravado, has been called out by no less than team president Larry Bird.

"I can't believe my team went soft," Bird told the Indianapolis Star late Tuesday. "S-O-F-T. I'm disappointed. I never thought it would happen."Miami's Udonis Haslem flagrantly fouls Indiana's Tyler Hansbrough in Game 5. (Reuters)

It started to happen early in the second quarter, after the Pacers' Tyler Hansbrough came down hard with an arm across the face of Heat guard Dwyane Wade.

"I thought it was uncalled for," Wade said after the game, adding, "My face is not the ball."

[Related: Heat's Mike Miller keeps hustling in only one shoe]

Wade was shaken up and cut, blood trickling down the right side of his face in

Read More »from Heat retaliate after Pacers' hit on Dwyane Wade with force, nastiness and LeBron James

MIAMI – Deep in the NBA playoffs, you have to make some sacrifices. You have to check your ego at the door. And sometimes you have to leave your shoe on the sideline.

Late in the third quarter of the Miami Heat’s Game 5 romp over the Indiana Pacers, shooting guard Mike Miller lost his left shoe with LeBron James starting a post-rebound run up the court. Instead of pausing to put his sneaker back on as James went ahead, Miller tossed it toward the scorer’s table and jogged ahead wearing only one shoe. The home crowd ate it up.

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Everyone expected a whistle to stop the dram-edy, but the play kept on and Miller made several trips up and down the court as his sock got looser and looser. There was Miller in one shoe, spotting up at the 3-point line waiting for a pass. (Now that would have been fun.) There was Miller hustling back to defend. And there was Miller, throwing a hand in the face of the Pacers’ David West as he

Read More »from Mike Miller hustles in only one shoe during Heat's blowout of Pacers

MIAMI – Dear Chris Bosh,

We’re sorry.

Love, America

Chris Bosh has been a punching bag since he arrived in Miami. He’s soft, people said. He’s the weak link. He completes the NBA cast of "Two And A Half Men."

But on Tuesday night, when the playoffs turned into a brawl – when the Miami Heat needed to be the Miami Street – Bosh’s teammates were missing some brass knuckles. And after the Heat lost home-court advantage in a 78-75 Game 2 defeat, when the rough-and-tumble Pacers did a celebration jig on Miami’s floor, all the home team could do was glare and retreat.

Dwyane Wade and the Heat missed Chris Bosh in Game 2. (Getty Images)The stats tell a simple story: Nobody on the Heat other than Dwyane Wade and LeBron James scored more than five points. That’s enough of an endorsement for Bosh. But behind the stats lies something more troubling for Miami: Wade responded strongly when the game got more physical, but nobody else did. The Chicago guy did his best Isiah Thomas impression, dragging his team almost all the way back to a come-from-behind

Read More »from Heat fail to fill void left by Chris Bosh

MIAMI – Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1 win, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looked the NBA's MVP in the eye and said, "You cannot get tired."

Normally, LeBron James starts the final quarter on the bench, but the coach decided the game was too close, Chris Bosh was out with an injury and, as Spoelstra put it, "We needed him."

James did not get tired. He had 16 points in the fourth quarter alone to help his team run away from the Pacers. The newly minted MVP was unstoppable down the stretch.

But why did it even come to this?

Game 1 was surprisingly close throughout, and the Heat didn't take control until the final minutes. James scored only six points in the first half. He attempted two free throws. It seemed like every play was James hustling the ball up court, slamming on the brakes, peeling back and then throwing it to someone else. That's even what happened leading up to Bosh's injury: James was close enough to the basket to finish or draw a foul, but he

Read More »from LeBron James' brilliant destruction of Pacers can't mask his maddening habits

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – So who's Rickie Fowler's childhood hero?

Tiger? Phil?

Try Jeremy McGrath.

Yes, golf's latest sensation has patterned himself after the "King of Motocross," and you might be surprised what helps steady Fowler's mind when he needs to make a big putt.

Rickie Fowler grew up a motorcross fan but gave up riding to play golf. (Getty Images)

Because as Fowler explains to his dad, how could he be nervous on a golf course after countless times barreling at top speed over a mammoth dirt hill?

"We used to go to the desert and ride," said Rod Fowler after his son's 66 vaulted him into third place at The Players Championship on Saturday. "There would be jumps as big as that tree, and he was the first one to hit it. He was unbelievable at riding."

Rickie was just as suited for motocross greatness as he was for golf greatness. Rod rode motorcycles from his youth and took Rickie out often as a boy. Rickie's dad met McGrath one day at a Carl's Jr. when he blew some train horns at him while passing by, scaring the Supercross icon half-to-death. Rod

Read More »from Rickie Fowler's rising popularity a product of lessons from motocross legend Jeremy McGrath

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – "Is Tiger going to make the cut?"

That was the question floating around The Players Championship all afternoon. At first the answer was, "nope," then "definitely." But really, the answer isn't nearly as important as the fact that this question was being asked for a second week in a row.

Tiger Woods stopped the talk of missing the cut with a string of four birdies. (Getty Images)

Is Tiger going to make the cut? Seriously? Here's a guy who once went more than seven years without missing a cut. He could have played the final hole of some major tournaments holding the clubface and striking the ball with the grip and still won. Here's a guy most people thought was the greatest golfer who ever lived, and now he's fighting to be better than average? Which is it?

If you walked the course with him Friday, you got whatever answer you wanted. You saw the greatest golfer who ever lived, and you saw the slightly-above-average pro golfer. Tiger was both – surprisingly, frustratingly, both.

On the 7th fairway, he had 125 yards to the pin after a

Read More »from Tiger Woods excites and disappoints all in the course of 18 holes

So the greatest swimmer who ever lived is going to call it quits at age 27.

That's what Michael Phelps told "60 Minutes" – that he'll retire after the 2012 Summer Olympics in London – and I think he means it – for now. But four years from now, when the 2016 Olympic Games roll around? I think he'll be in the pool in Rio.

Back in 2008, after winning the gold medal in the 400 individual medley in Beijing, Phelps swore he was done with the most exhausting event in the sport. And who could blame him? He owned the event, destroying world record after world record. Watching him dominate the 400 IM was like watching Usain Bolt run the 100 meters – that is if Usain Bolt also did the long jump, pole vault and hammer throw. But the 400 IM takes a special kind of masochism, and Phelps was delighted to be done with it.

That's how he felt in 2008. But now?

After smoking the field in the 400 IM a few weeks ago at a Grand Prix in Indianapolis, Phelps was asked if he might add the event

Read More »from Michael Phelps will have a hard time walking away from the pool

Martin Brodeur can rely on 20 years of NHL experience as he drives the Devils deeper into the playoffs. (Reuters)The Devils started on the road in the playoffs and kept advancing, even though nobody really expected it. And before long, other teams fell away, and New Jersey was closing in on a Stanley Cup nobody picked them to sniff.

The year was 1995. Martin Brodeur had just turned 23.

That year, like this year, nobody took the Devils too seriously until it was too late. That year, like this year, the praise for the playoff surge went away from the goalie, at least for the most part. Back then it was the New Jersey “system” that most credited for the team’s unexpected success. This year it’s Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk.

That’s fine. The left wing lock was important. So are the forwards this season. But let’s be plain about something: The only consistent difference over the past generation between the New Jersey Devils and the rest of the Eastern Conference is goaltending. That’s why the Devils hang around. That’s why every other team implodes. Including the Flyers. Right now.

Read More »from Martin Brodeur: Devils goalie continues to baffle shooters on the ice and pundits off of it