Weekend Sports Preview
The NBA All-Star Game and the Daytona 500 highlight this weekend in sports, with full slates of NHL and college basketball and a California PGA event also on the schedule.
All-Star weekend gets underway on Friday night, with both a celebrity game and the annual rookie/sophomore challenge. This year's rookie roster includes the likes of Kevin Durant, Mike Conley, Al Horford, and Yi Jianlian, while the sophomores will be led by Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. The rookies have won just twice over six games.
Saturday will then feature the D-League All-Star Game and the skills competition, while the actual NBA All-Star Game is set to tip off after 8:00pm ET on Sunday night. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, and Kevin Garnett were selected as the Eastern starters (although Garnett is injured and will not play). Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, and Yao Ming are the starting five for the West.
Meanwhile, NASCAR's biggest event of the year is scheduled to get underway at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Jimmie Johnson, the defending series champ and the 2006 Daytona 500 winner, will start from the pole Sunday. He'll be looking to fend off new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who claimed the Bud Shootout.
Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500 last season, while Jamie McMurray took the checkered flag in the Pepsi 400 on that track last July. Jeff Gordon has six career Sprint Cup (formerly Nextel Cup) wins at Daytona International Speedway, most recently in 2005. Gordon, though, trails Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., and Tony Stewart on the Vegas odds list for this race; that trio of favorites is at 6/1 odds, while Gordon is behind at 7/1.
The National Hockey League doesn't have a marquee event this weekend, but it does have a full slate of games on all three days. Friday night features three divisional matchups in Washington at Florida, Columbus at Detroit, and Dallas at Anaheim, while Atlanta goes north to New Jersey to play the Devils and Los Angeles hosts the Flames.
Los Angeles is back in action on Saturday night, but they'll be on the road to take on the Coyotes in Phoenix. Other western clashes on Saturday include St. Louis at Nashville and Edmonton at Vancouver. In the east it will be Philadelphia at Montreal, Boston at Toronto, Atlanta at the New York Islanders, Florida at Carolina, Buffalo at the New York Rangers, Washington at Tampa Bay, and a rematch between New Jersey and Ottawa.
Sunday then features eight more games on the ice, include matinees Colorado at Chicago, Detroit at Dallas, and San Jose at the New York Rangers. Also that day are Columbus at St. Louis, Montreal at Philadelphia, Pittsburgh at Buffalo, and Nashville at Minnesota, with the Flames also going south to Anaheim for a matchup with the Ducks.
In college hoops action there's a rare contest involving a ranked team on Friday night - No. 22 Pittsburgh will play a road game against Marquette. Most of the top teams, though, aren't in action until Saturday; that day's schedule includes the top-ranked (and unbeaten) Memphis Tigers taking on the UAB Blazers at Birmingham's Bartow Arena.
Other games involving Top 10 teams on Saturday include No. 8 Georgetown vs. Syracuse, Virginia Tech vs. No. 5 North Carolina, Colorado vs. No. 3 Kansas, Cleveland State vs. No. 9 Butler, No. 4 Tennessee vs. Georgia, and No. 7 Stanford vs. Arizona. As well, No. 10 Michigan State will have a tough road game against No. 13 Indiana. No. 2 Duke (vs. Wake Forest) and No. 6 UCLA (vs. USC) will return to action on Sunday night.
Finally, the PGA Tour will wind up its stop at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California this weekend . Phil Mickelson entered the Northern Trust Open as the 7/1 Vegas favorite, with Vijay Singh at 10/1 odds, and Jim Furyk just back of those two at 12/1 odds. Both Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald were pegged with 15/1 odds, while Vegas listed defending champion Charles Howell III farther behind at 40/1 odds
Great weekend on tap!