No question. But if their loss to the Bucks is an indication to the kind of heat Miami can dish out, then LeBron is in trouble.

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra predicted before Sunday’s game against the Bucks that the team with the most energy would likely win. “This game won’t be about the schematics,” Spoelstra said in the opening remarks of his pregame news conference.

“It will be about a team that’s had a day off and a team that played last night. Who can bring a higher motor and more activity consistently will win this game.”

He was correct. The Bucks outhustled the Heat, which had trouble executing basketball fundamentals such as passing the ball. The Heat had 22 turnovers, recorded just nine assists and scored just 82 points, their lowest output so far this 2012 NBA basketball season.

So Spoelstra gave his players an off day Monday to rest their bodies and prepare for what will surely be an emotionally charged game Tuesday. The Heat plays host to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team LeBron James used to play for, which went 1-4 against the Heat last season.

Monday was just the Heat’s second off day this season and first since Dec. 26, the second day of the season.

“I love days off; I’m sure everybody does,” forward Chris Bosh said. “When you’re going for seven or eight…”

He better.

With one of their former drivers, Kimi Raikkonen, making his return to F1, the pressure is on Lewis Hamilton to get back to championship form this 2012 F1 season.

Yes, McLaren is expecting an intense in-house fight this season as Lewis Hamilton attempts to get back at team-mate Jenson Button for beating him last year.

Last year’s Championship, which was marred by controversy both on and off the track for Lewis Hamilton, was the first in which the Brit had been beaten by his team-mate. And McLaren’s Neale reckons it could be just the spark that Hamilton needs to turn his fortunes around.

“Drivers don’t like being beaten by their team-mate, and world Champions don’t like being beaten by anybody else either,” he said during the Autosport International Show.

“Given the nature of Lewis being a fiercely competitive and driven individual, that was never going to sit easy with him. But it certainly wasn’t an annus horribilis for Lewis by any means because we did win multiple races, but by his standards and ours it was a year for some learning and reflection.”

“A lot of work has gone on over the winter to build a car to enable both guys to come back and get the job done, and for Lewis a chance to reflect on 2011 and come back as the man he’d like to be.”

The McLaren managing director, though, insists…

That, is easier said than done.

When the Baltimore Ravens travel to Foxborough, Mass., for Sunday’s 2012 AFC championship game, they may face more than just one opponent in the New England Patriots.

How come? Because the Baltimore Ravens will be tasked with contradicting a history of dominance at Gillette Stadium, where, since 2002, the New England Patriots have won more regular-season games (67) and postseason contests (eight) than any other team in the NFL.

The New England Patriots have dropped just two playoff games at home, but both losses occurred in back-to-back years beginning with the Ravens’ 33-14 demolition in the 2009 postseason. Still, the Ravens understand the challenge that awaits them.

”I think anytime you get a team that plays really well at home, they are in a lot of games and they are winning a lot of games,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. ”If you give [fans] something to cheer about, they are going to be loud and they are going to be positive for that team.”

”That is the biggest thing with playing there. They have a good football team. They win a lot of games. They are in a lot of games. There is never really a point in the game where they are not excited about what is going on with their team. I think it is our job to go in there and play the way we can play and try and play well so we can take them out of it as much as we can.”

They need too, especially with a trip to Super Bowl XLVI at stake…

The Giants believe so.

A new generation of Giants receivers has come to praise Eli Manning as they head for their matchup with the 49ers with a ticket to Super Bowl XLVI at stake.

These New York Giants do not throw their hands up in disgust on the rare occasions Manning overthrows them, or doesn’t see them. They do not read his placid expressions as a sign of passivity. They marvel at — not mock — his quiet leadership approach.

Here is Jake Ballard, the second-year tight end and, like Victor Cruz, an undrafted rookie in 2010, quoting from the receivers’ Book of Eli with the hours counting down to the NFC championship game Sunday at Candlestick Park against the San Francisco 49ers.

“There’s a lot of pressure coming into a season on a team like this,” Ballard said. “And if you walked in and are working with a veteran quarterback, and you make a mistake and he’s ripping you apart, putting you down or making it obvious on the field that it’s your fault, then that would make a tough situation even worse.”

“Eli doesn’t approach it that way. I know that when me and Victor came in, we didn’t know everything and we still don’t. But when we made a mistake, ran the wrong route, he always took the time to help us. That’s what good leaders do. They realize the team’s not just made of vets. You have to be willing to accept other people’s mistakes and Eli is great with that, one of the best.”

Ballard shrugged and continued: “I don’t know how he was…”

It’s a classic matchup of offense against defense.

The old adage in football is that defense trumps offense because it is far easier to destroy something than it is to create it, which means that if you are the New England Patriots, this Sunday’s 2012 AFC Championship Game means trouble.

With the advent of new rules that protect quarterbacks and defenseless receivers over the middle, 2011 was shaping up to be the season where old football adages came to die. Running the ball, playing good defense, and controlling the time of possession were always what it supposedly took to win. This season, the 15-1 Green Bay Packers, the 13-3 New Orleans Saints, and the 13-3 New England Patriots, especially after the scoring barrage they pulled last week against the Denver Broncos, thumbed their nose at those adages.

Can the Baltimore Ravens stop Tom Brady?

In the very first game of the 2011 season, it was Saints at Packers on Thursday night and defense was nonexistent. Both teams combined for 76 points and 876 yards of offense. Nearly 900 yards of offense, points aplenty, and superstar quarterbacks showing off their multimillion dollar arms.

Some people fall in the pro-defense category of football fans. For the millions of viewers who tuned in that night to watch the return of the NFL, especially the fans tuning in from the Wisconsin and Louisiana regions, it’s likely they align with the offense.

Now, four months removed from that opening day pinball game…

Another thriller?

The last time these two teams met, it was in November, when then one-loss San Francisco 49ers hosted a proven 6-2 New York Giants squad in what many regarded as San Francisco’s first real test of the season.

The Jim Harbaugh-led San Francisco 49ers edged the New York Giants, 27-20, in a thriller at Candlestick. Bringing us to their rematch this Sunday with a trip to Super Bowl XLVI at stake.

The San Francisco 49ers should be riding high with momentum after Alex Smith and Vernon Davis did their best Joe Montana to Dwight Clark impressions in last week’s pseudo-catch to beat the Saints.

And since the 2012 NFC championship game this Sunday will be played at Candlestick park, you can just imagine how rowdy the fans there are going to be there.

As for the New York Giants, their passing game is as better than ever. Pro Bowler Eli Manning finished the regular season with a resounding 4,933 passing yards and Hakeem Nicks is having a Larry Fitzgerald-like postseason with 280 yards and four touchdowns through two games.

Explosive playmaking wideout Victor Cruz always adds a…

With D-Wade still reeling, this will be a test for the Heat alright.

The Miami Heat begin their homestand starting Tuesday as they face their first big test of the 2011-12 NBA basketball season when the San Antonio Spurs pay them a visit.

You know the Miami Heat is in for one tough outing whenever Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra admits to addressing the next three home games as a singular unit at any time. ”We talked about it, and it’s the only time I’ll talk about the week,” Spoelstra said Sunday. ”I think it was important for us to settle ourselves and understand where we are.”

Well, they are currently sixth at 8-4 in an Eastern Conference that looks as top heavy as the Western Conference used to in the heyday of the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, the first two opponents this week.

The San Antonio Spurs come first, Tuesday night. The Heat knows something of the Philadelphia 76ers, the third guest in the homestand Saturday, from dismissing them from the first round of last year’s playoffs. The Sixers still look young, but they are 10-3 after beating Milwaukee on Monday.

Meanwhile, the foibles of a three-game losing streak occupy the Heat’s attention. ”It kind of happens like that,” Heat forward LeBron James said. ”We have our rough games, then teams start to come into our building, and we figure out a way to fix it.”

”The Spurs are playing great basketball, even without…”

And as F1 fans, we couldn’t wait any longer.

Fernando Alonso believes F1 could be in for a vintage year in the coming 2012 F1 season.

How come? Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock lately, there will be no fewer than six F1 World Champions on the grid next season, the most in Formula One for quite some time.

You see, this year, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher will be joined by the returning Kimi Raikkonen in what is, at least on paper, the strongest line-up in the history of the sport.

”It is great years we are having,” Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso told the BBC.

”We just need to enjoy because we don’t know how long we can be racing for these Championships and how many times we will see this number of Champions there.”

”It is great and it puts the level of the Championship higher than ever.”

”We will enjoy the Championship, the spectators will enjoy it. We can have some good races with good emotion.”

However, if Ferrari wants to win any of those races and fight for the title, Alonso concedes his team needs to…

And in case you missed the game over the weekend, the Broncos’ Cinderella run is over.

From a deep hole early in the 2011 season, the Denver Broncos climbed determinedly. They got up and took off on a journey, not stopping until they went much further than expected. The Broncos kept going, traveling to places they had not seen in years. And then, abruptly, the Broncos discovered they had gone too far.

They found themselves on the same field as the mighty New England Patriots in a high-stakes playoff game, with the winner to play in the AFC championship and inch closer towards playing in Super Bowl XLVI.

The Broncos were not worthy. Far as they have gone this season, the 45-10 whipping they received here on a bitter-cold Saturday night from ruthless coach Bill Belichick and his world-class talented New England Patriots proved the Broncos still have a long, long, long way to go.

”Not a bad season but not a great season, either,” said Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, as he walked out of the bowels of Gillette Stadium. ”I want a great season.”

Instead, what Bowlen got was a disgruntled Denver Broncos team and a banged up Tim Tebow who got hurt after his dramatic win in overtime over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tebow was holding his shoulder as he came off the field following his first series of the second half, and backup Brady Quinn started…

Great job Eli. Great job.

The Green Bay Packers’ spectacular 2011 regular season went poof in little more than three hours Sunday as they fell victim to the New York Giants to end their run for Super Bowl XLVI and a second straight Super Bowl title.

For the second time in four years, the underdog New York Giants swaggered into Lambeau Field in the playoffs and crushed what appeared a seemingly inevitable Packers’ ride to the big dance.

Coach Tom Coughlin’s Giants, who won the NFC championship game here in January 2008, upset the Green Bay Packers again by winning the battle at the line of scrimmage, forcing turnovers from a team that rarely turns the ball over and exploiting a defense that up to now had taken away the ball enough to overcome its glaring shortcomings.

On a night of surprises, the Giants produced the rarest of sights: Fans decked out in blue lined the first several rows of Lambeau, stretching nearly the length of the field in seats vacated behind the Giants’ bench in celebration of their team’s 37-20 win over the Packers in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

”Fifteen-and-one was fun, but it doesn’t mean anything,” cornerback Charles Woodson said in summing up the shocked and empty feeling in the Packers’ locker room. ”We play this game for one reason. It’s not for the individual things you do, it’s not for the records. It’s for the Lombardi Trophy, and we fell short.”

The Packers were 7½- to 8-point favorites to win this game…