South Florida Voices

Mateo’s Hoops Diary: Max and Gabe Deserve Their Flowers
Friday was graduation day for Max Strus and Gabe Vincent. Both, in their time with the Miami Heat, turned from undesired prospects to must-have role players that helped the group make history. With their services, the Heat reached its seventh NBA Finals, this time as the second eighth seed and the first Play-in group to ...
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Midseason Awards for the Surprising Miami Marlins
We find ourselves at the halfway point of the 2023 MLB season, and the Miami Marlins are currently not only in second place in the NL East, but 13 games over .500 and holding one of the NL Wild Cards spots. This is a situation that has been nothing short of a dream come true ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Suns create new star trifecta with trade for Bradley Beal
Peacetime in the NBA lasted three days following the Nuggets’ parade through Denver. Phoenix swiped Bradley Beal from suitors, sending back expired goods in Chris Paul that might be surrendered, plus acquired a pointless asset in Landry Shamet with some sloppy seconds. Real deal Beal and the Wizards finally divorced after 11 years with zero ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Heat is a team to be proud of
A tale of two arenas; Monday, one side was bathing in champagne and the other likely in tears. Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and coach Michael Malone, at separate times, embraced the fans waiting for them behind the line ropes in the tunnel. Then Ömer Yurtseven passed the hallway with his suitcase, looking like he’d seen ...
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Pressure Point: Heat, Panthers give S. Florida rare gift, face challenges
The malaise felt today in South Florida is the hangover from two exhilarating months of thrills and delights from an improbable dual championship pursuit by the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers ending with an abrupt thud on consecutive nights. These two teams in very different sports linked by geography adhered to parallel scripts all the ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Nuggets beat Heat in Game 5 to win first NBA championship
The crowd roared as confetti rained on the Denver Nuggets, holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy for its first time. As the final minutes of Game 5 faded, family members of players and coaches rushed through the tunnels to join their people. Public relations agents, ex-players down to the ball boys and security guards were walking ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Nuggets push Heat to the edge of the cliff by going up 3-1 in the NBA Finals
At the Heat’s postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said that every time his team got within six and eight points, the Nuggets were able to push the lead back over double digits. In real-time, it was like watching an older sibling raise an object out of reach of a younger one. A mixture of man ...
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GAME 3 Stanley Cup Final: Florida Panthers gear up for the biggest game of their season as series shifts to Sunrise
SUNRISE -- The situation the Florida Panthers find themselves in is less than ideal, but it's not the end of the world -- yet. The Stanley Cup Final transitions from Vegas to Sunrise on Thursday night with Game 3 between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers taking place at FLA Live Arena. Vegas ...
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Who is Next?: Five Marlins 1st Round Draft Targets
The 2023 MLB draft is just a month away, and while Marlins fans have come to expect a dose of disappointment on draft day, the Marlins have a fantastic opportunity to add offensive talent to a system that certainly needs it. Analysts within the industry have set expectations that there is a strong crop of ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Nuggets storm the Kaseya Center and take a 2-1 lead in the Finals
Through three games in the Finals, the road squad has won twice, shooting down any misguided speculation of a boring series. One coach has already burned his troops for a good sound bite, and the other has unfairly lost his cool after hearing a fair question. As Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat win Game 2 in Denver, evening the NBA Finals
Max Strus uncorked the Heat’s offense in the first quarter, scoring 12 of the Heat’s first 26 points. Nuggets were caught in pindowns or, in some instances, left him unbothered as he fired away on the perimeter. In the fourth quarter, Duncan Robinson lit up the Nuggets for 10 points on four of five shots ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat fall to Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals
A yellow shirt covered every purchased seat in Ball Arena before tip-off in anticipation of the Nuggets’ first NBA Finals game. Minutes before the action, the boos from the crowd muzzled the voice of Denver’s public address announcer Kyle Speller introducing the Heat players. To start, the visiting team was working hard for buckets, and ...
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The Long And Winding Road Home | Sixth Ring Canes
The innings were running out. Miami had won 5 series in a row, but having lost the opener to Duke in a critical series, the Canes found themselves down 5 in the 8th. Miami has a flair for the dramatic, earning the nickname "Cardiac Canes." But this felt a bridge too far. Duke is a ...
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Miami Heat fans should Love what veteran has provided
Seven years ago, Kevin Love played 30 minutes for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where he was a +19 in Cleveland’s four-point victory and a major catalyst in their historic comeback over the Golden State Warriors after falling behind 3-1. In Monday’s Game 7 victory over the revitalized Boston Celtics, ...
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Florida’s veterans and former champions prepare the Panthers for the Stanley Cup Final
SUNRISE -- From the moment they put on their first pair of skates, young hockey players dream of winning the Stanley Cup. Whether they pretend to be Bobby Orr in 1970 or Patrick Kane in 2010, scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal has probably played out in more than a few hockey players’ backyard fantasies. ...
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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat beat Celtics in Game 7 and will advance to the NBA Finals
The Miami Heat are returning to the Finals for the seventh time, avoiding a spot on the wrong side of history by not blowing a 3-0 lead. The squad is also the second eighth seed to advance to the championship round behind the 1999 Knicks and the first play-in group to win the conference. Jimmy ...
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