Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler earned automatic bids to the semifinal rou

TSNs Jack Armstrong offers his thoughts on Game 7 in the Pacers-Heat series, the road ahead for new Raptors GM Masai Ujiri, the new head coaches in Charlotte and Sacramento, the abilities of Knicks head coach Mike Woodson and the distinguished career of Grant Hill. 1. Game 7 - Pacers at Heat: Im thrilled. A little drama and suspense. We havent had as much as wed like this spring in the NBA Playoffs. Got it for this one. Lots of talk (deservedly so) about the offensively inept play of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, the play of the Pacers inside and of course, LeBron James. With all that being said, to me the area I will zero in on Monday night above all else will be the Pacers offence vs the Heat defence in a do-or-die road Game 7. Im a huge believer in the fact that your defence and rebounding carry you consistently throughout the season because offence comes and goes. The Pacers defence and rebounding has been sound. The Heat, when theyre at their absolute best, play defence with a purpose that defines quickness, ball pressure, organized help and recovery, tight rotations and dont let you get comfortable at all. They force you to take low percentage shots, force turnovers and get the high-octane running game going with dunks and 3s on the back end. I havent seen enough of that. If Im the Heat, its all about the defence and rebounding, grit and energy and the offence will feed off that. If they do that at home, theyve got a great chance to win. The Pacers must exhibit offensive toughness. To win huge road games, you have to take care of the ball, control the tempo and have wonderful shot discipline and shot-making ability late in the shot clock. This is the game within the game that will give me the sense throughout the night of how the personality of the event will be defined. Enjoy! 2. Masai Ujiri (Raptors): Congrats to the new Raptors GM. Lots of heavy lifting ahead. In his brief career as the Nuggets GM, he has shown the willingness to be a bold/aggressive executive, yet has the attributes of a thoughtful and patient makeup that suits him well. Hell need to plot a course that benefits the organization in the years to come, getting it on a consistent playoff path (in the weaker Eastern Conference compared to the West that he dealt with in Denver) rather than worrying about short-term gratification that feels good but doesnt lay the proper long-term foundation. Simply put, decisions are made with the best interests of the organization in the long-term at all times and gradually you begin to get it turned around. Do whats right in your mind and heart after careful deliberation and never cave into the need for popularity and approval. Those characteristics are vital and having known him for a while, my sense is that he will stay very focused on what his vision is and not allow himself to lose his way. As Ive said it countless times before, its a tough job but the Toronto franchise has immense potential as an NBA city and has greatly under performed for 18 years. Do it right and it will get right. 3. Steve Clifford (Bobcats) and Michael Malone (Kings): Both guys hired as NBA head coaches this past week. Ive known both of them for a long time and consider them friends. I was thrilled for both of them. Theyve paid their dues big-time and are more than ready. As is the case most times when youre 0-0 as an NBA head coach, you normally dont get a good job, you get a challenging one that will do a number (not a good one) on the start of your career W-L record. The way I judge performance is how they lay the groundwork/foundation for gradual/incremental improvement that sets their franchises up for the turn-around in a few years. Rome wasnt built in a day and the Bobcats and Kings surely wont be either. Thats not an excuse in any way, shape or form for Clifford and Malone, instead its the reality of the uneven, and many times unfair, business of coaching. Certain jobs are a lot more messed up than others. Im a huge believer in the fact that you see if its working or not in Year 3. Im convinced that these two guys will absolutely work their tails off and so will their players (or theyll be traded/waived) and youll start to see the process of creep-crawl-walk-run in front of you. Doubt theyll be off and running in two years but by Year 3, theyll be on their feet and competing with folks. They will impact positive change. They wont be out-worked by anyone nor will they be out-coached, I can assure you of that. Good basketball men. 4. Mike Woodson (Knicks): Knicks fans are obnoxious. Some folks are wondering if hes the right coach for them. Seriously? 18 wins and only six losses last year after taking over for Mike DAntoni and 54 wins and Atlantic Division Title this Year. Havent had one of those since the 90s. Back-to-back playoff berths. He built in Atlanta and hes built in New York. Is he Phil Jackson or Red Auerbach? No. Is he a good coach/leader? Definitely. Does he have a championship roster? Far from it. Miami, Indiana, Chicago (when healthy) and possibly Brooklyn (with a stable coaching situation) are better. He might be in a similar situation in New York that he was in Atlanta; yery good team for short stretches but not good enough over the long haul. 5. Grant Hill (Clippers): Announces his retirement. Awesome NCAA player at Duke. Terrific early career with Detroit and then injuries did him in. Battled back and had a nice finish to his career. Class act - gentleman - team player - professional. Great Run. Has lots to be proud of. Im sure hell be heard from in a big way in retirement. Has got it. 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Cory Sarich also scored for Colorado (3-0-0), which is off to its best ever start. CONCORD, N.C. -- Denny Hamlin didnt just have an engine failure with 26 laps remaining Sunday in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.It was an engine failure that all of a sudden gave four other drivers a whole lot more hope of advancing out of the second (quarterfinal) round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.With four drivers sitting outside the top 30 and four drivers eventually being eliminated after the quarterfinal round, having five drivers finish outside the top 30 means that at least one driver who had trouble Sunday will advance.Kevin Harvick fell out of the Sprint Cup race with 183 laps remaining because of an oil pump bearing coming apart and left the Cup garage at the time 27 points behind the driver eighth in the standings. As other Chase drivers had trouble through the event, he is now just eight points out of the transfer spot with two races left in the quarterfinal round.I went to sleep and woke up and had gained 25 points or whatever it was, Harvick said after completing the Xfinity race later in the day. It definitely was a better situation than what it was when we first fell out. Its still not what you want, but it definitely could be a lot worse.Harvick is 12th in the standings after his 38th-place finish thanks to that faulty oil pump bearing.Weve had some crazy stuff go wrong this year and I guess you could just add that one to the list, Harvick said. But weve been here before, so we know what weve got to do.What he had to do got a whole lot easier after Hamlins issue. Hamlin, who finished 30th and sits in eighth, has a three-point edge on Austin Dillon (32nd, crash) and Chase Elliott (33rd, crash) and six points on Joey Logano (36th, two crashes). Hamlin is 16 points behind seventh-place Martin Truex Jr., and if he didnt have a problem, all of those who did would likely have been at least 19 points from the current cutoff spot.You at least have a chance now because there for a while, it was looking like four and that wasnt very good odds, Harvick said. The odds definitely got better. You at least have another option [other than winning].As crazy as this thing can be, anybody can have trouble, so it can even up pretty fast.Four of the drivers -- Hamlin, Harvick, Logano and Elliott -- would not surprise anyone if they win one of the final two races of the round at Kansas and Talladega. Dillon hasnt run as much up front, but he also could be a threat at Talladega.Were going to quite possibly our best racetrack, said Logano, who swept the round last year. I think Charlotte and Kansas are our two best racetracks, so I felt very confident going into this round and I had a very good car today.Im looking forward to getting to Kansas and seeing what weve got and seeing if we can break through to get a win, but, if not, a solid points day. We can manage with what weve got, but we cant afford to make any miistakes with Talladega coming up.ddddddddddddhile Elliott doesnt have a win, he has been knocking on the door. He led 103 laps at Charlotte.Its unfortunate for us, Elliott said after his crash. But we just have to have more race cars like we had today and I think we will be fine. ... We can just try to have another car like we had today and not make any mistakes next week.The driver who made the mistake Sunday was Truex. After Dillon took two fresh tires instead of four on a pit stop, Truex accidentally turned him on the ensuing restart. That crash collected Elliott and others.I flat-out ran Austin over, Truex said. It was stupid. He got going pretty good and started to spin his tires a little and I tried to give him a shove to get him going thinking I was going to help him out.I guess I hit him way too hard. I thought I was square and we were good. ... I feel awful for him and [his crew chief] and his guys and all the other guys I tore up. I just misjudged it. Just a stupid move.And there could be more stupid moves. There are two races left in the round.Each race youre going to have a handful that are going to have issues -- Kansas I dont think will be any different, and Talladega we know will be crazy, Hamlin said.Thats why were not out of it by any means. We just have a little hole we have to dig out of.Xfinity Series: Koch the big surpriseIn the Xfinity Series, Blake Koch was the big surprise as he finished 12th Sunday night at Charlotte to finish seventh in the first round. He had a two-point edge on Darrell Wallace Jr., who had a one-point edge on Ty Dillon for the final spot.Opening-round winners Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler earned automatic bids to the semifinal round, while Justin Allgaier, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed, Erik Jones, Koch and Wallace advanced on points. Dillon, Brennan Poole, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones failed to advance.Koch, whose Kaulig Racing team started this season and moved during the year to a shop it bought on the Richard Childress Racing campus, had finishes of 11th,14th and 12th to advance.I thought it would take an average finish of 10th, but some people took themselves out of the Chase and we knew we couldnt do that, Koch said. We have been making our cars better. ... We had a pretty good race car this weekend. We raced real hard and the car stayed together for 200 laps.Erik Jones -- a favorite to win the Xfinity title -- was the only driver to go from outside the bubble to advancing. He finished fifth and ended up moving up four spots to sixth in the standings with a six-point cushion on the cutoff.I tried to keep my mind off it all week, Jones said. I went golfing a couple of times ... and tried not to think about it. I played good, so that was a good omen for me. ' ' '