LA QUINTA, Calif. - Patrick Reed left everyone behind last year in the Humana Challenge. This year, hes trying not to get too far ahead of himself.Thats one thing Im going to do, hopefully, different this time than I did last time defending, said Reed, set to begin his title defence Thursday.In his first career defence, Reed tied for 24th in the Wyndham Championship in August.Last year in the desert, Reed shot three 63s to open a seven-shot lead and closed with a 71 for a two-stroke victory. He admitted he was too conservative in the final round after breaking the PGA Tour record for relation to par for the first 54 holes at 27 under, and becoming the first player to open with three rounds of 63 or better.Instead of attacking flags like I did the first three days, I started to play to the middle of greens, Reed said. You need to stick to your game plan and keep firing hard.The 24-year-old Reed is coming off a playoff victory over Jimmy Walker two weeks ago in Hawaii in the Tournament of Champions. Reed has four victories in his last 35 tour starts.The confidence is growing and growing, Reed said. If I have a bad round or if Im struggling, I still have that confidence level to keep going and turn a 75 into a 72 or a 71.He and wife Justine stayed at Kapalua last week for a vacation.Worked on my forehead tan, Reed joked. Seemed like that got more attention than the actual golf game. ... Played like 13 holes, thats it — through the whole week.Phil Mickelson is back, too, after skipping the event last year.Making his first start since the Ryder Cup in September, Lefty stayed away from the three tournament courses before the first round and wasnt available for comment. He played in Ben Cranes charity event Tuesday at the nearby Madison Club and practiced there Wednesday.Mickelson worked with trainer Sean Cochran during his long off-season.Im getting lighter, developing more core strength and speed and increasing my ball speed, Mickelson said on his website.The 44-year-old Mickelson, the 2002 and 2004 champion, is winless in 27 PGA Tour starts since the 2013 British Open.Not winning made it the worst year of my career, Mickelson said on his website. It was a bad year statistically in all areas.The tournament, long known as the Bob Hope Classic, is in the midst of more sweeping changes. Humana is in its final year as the title sponsor and PGA Wests Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus private layouts also are dropping out after the event.Thats a bummer, Keegan Bradley said. Theres a lot of history on those two courses.The tournament was shortened from 90 to 72 holes in 2012 and the celebrity portion of the pro-am field was dropped last year, with only a few special guests left.The perfect conditions, mountain views and low scores remain, though wind could be a factor.Temperatures are expected to reach 73 the first two days, with wind at 7-15 mph Thursday and 5-10 mph Friday. Forecasters expect a high of 80 on Saturday with wind gusts of 20 mph, and a high of 83 on Sunday with wind at 7-15 mph. Morning frost is a slight possibility Friday and Saturday.DIVOTS: Reed and Mickelson will open Thursday at La Quinta Country Club. Reed is paired with Matt Kuchar, and Mickelson will play alongside FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel. ... Kuchar is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 11 in the world. Horschel is 14th, Reed 15th, Mickelson 16th and Zach Johnson 20th. ... Tim Clark withdrew Wednesday. He was replaced by Tyrone Van Aswegen. Ryan Miller Jersey . - Considering where Jeff Gordon was after Richmond, left out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in part due to some late-race shenanigans, he couldnt have been happier on Sunday. Danny Gare Jersey .Derrick Rose scored 23 points, and the Bulls pulled away from the Nets for a 105-80 victory on Wednesday night. Chicago held Brooklyn to 29 points on 26. http://www.authenticsabrespro.com/Rasmus...-sabres-jersey/. JOHNS, N. Derek Roy Jersey . You can, too, Clay Buchholz, if we ignore the sixth inning of Game 2. Doug Fister and Jake Peavy, youre up next in Game 4 and theres a lot to live up to. Jack Eichel Jersey . Summers has seen scant playing time with the Coyotes since being selected 29th overall by the club in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, having played in 47 career NHL games.MIAMI - During the dog days of the regular season, the Miami Heat often spoke about the need to not take any shortcuts on the way to the playoffs. And thats true. That doesnt mean they necessarily enjoyed the 82-game run-up to the best time of year. "None of us," Heat forward LeBron James finally confessed, "are here for the regular season." When this core of Heat players was assembled, the only stated goal was winning NBA titles, which also explains why even getting through the first two rounds of these playoffs basically unscathed only merited a short celebration. Miami is back in the Eastern Conference finals for the fourth straight season, and will visit Indiana in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon. The Heat got there by ousting the Brooklyn Nets in five games, the end of that series Wednesday night being briefly accompanied by a few hoots and hollers in the immediate moments after the clinching 96-94 win was completed. Before long, order was restored to the Heat locker room. Two series wins are nice, but they know the road only gets tougher from here. "Like LeBron said, to be in this position four years in a row, this is the reason we came together four years ago," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "Weve got a lot more work to do but were a team that doesnt take it for granted. Were a team that worked very hard to get to this point, so were going to go to the next round, the Eastern Conference finals and continue to do what weve done, play this game as hard as we can and try to continue to move forward." Indiana ousted Washington on Thursday night. The Heat and Pacers split four meetings in the regular season. "We know what Indianas capable of," Heat forward Chris Bosh said. "Best defence in the league. Despite their struggles, we still see the same opponent in those guys as we did last year and throughout this year." The Heat are now 32-7 in first- and second-round games in the last four postseasons, that stretch coinciding with the start of the "Big 3"; era featuring James, Wade and Bosh teaming up in Miami.dddddddddddd That first year, even that star-studded trio wasnt enough. More pieces were added, like Shane Battier a year later and Ray Allen two years later, and theyve all paid dividends since. Allen kept coming up big at big times in the Brooklyn series, hitting clutch free throws to seal Game 4 and then knocking down a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left to put Miami ahead for good in Game 5. Never mind that Allen had missed 11 of his last 12 3-point tries in the series. Just like last year when he saved Miamis season with the legendary desperation 3-pointer in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio, when the stakes were highest, Allen came through. "We did what we needed to do, when we had to do it," Allen said. "Total team effort." Miami had trailed for the entire second half of Game 5 against the Nets until that 3-pointer by Allen, a shot set up by Mario Chalmers seeing that Brooklyns Shaun Livingston was charging at him and somehow leaving the best long-range shooter in the history of the game wide open. That was the only break Miami needed. "The most important thing is to stay in the moment," Battier said. "And I dont there is anyone maybe in the history of the game who does it better than Ray Allen." Added Chalmers: "Thats a great option when you know you have the all-time greatest 3-point shooter to your left." A year ago, the Heat needed seven games to beat Indiana in the East finals, then seven more to top San Antonio for their second straight NBA title. Thursday was a rest day for Miami, maybe one of the last ones the Heat will truly have before the season ends. On Friday, the real work starts in earnest. "We still have some business to take care of," James said. "But its great to be able to put ourselves in position to get to where we want to go. We never shortcut the process. We understand that each and every game is going to be a challenge for us." 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