Following a highlight packed Friday night, attention now shifts to Saturday night who many believe to be the crown jewel of the All-Star weekend festivities. For those of you planning the check out the action on tap on Saturday, we’ve provided a schedule of all the events that’s scheduled below.

All-Star East/West Practice & Player Interviews, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | NBA TV
• Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, 1:30 p.m. | NBA TV
• 2012 NBA Development League All-Star Game presented by 26 Seconds, 2 p.m. | NBA TV
• Commissioner Stern news conference, 7 p.m. | NBA TV
• NBA Tip-Off, 8 p.m. | TNT
• NBA All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm, 8:30 p.m. | TNT
- 2012 Haier Shooting Stars (1st Event)
- 2012 Taco Bell Skills Challenge (2nd Event)
- 2012 Foot Locker Three-Point Contest (3rd Event)
- 2012 Sprite Slam Dunk (4th Event)
• NBA TV All-Star Weekend Presented by Kia Motors, 11 p.m. | NBA TV

Of course the center piece will be the Dunk Contest with four intriguing participants: Derrick Williams, Paul George, Jeremy Evans and Chase Budinger. The Three-Point Contest sees reigning champion James Jones defend his title against the likes of Kevin Love, Ryan Anderson, Anthony Morrow, Mario Chalmers, and Kevin Durant.

We are back with the twentieth week of our Premier League predictions challenge, where our panel of experts give their predictions for each match on the English Premier League calendar. If you need a refresher on who’s taking part in the competition and the rules behind it all, click on the link above to get caught up.

Last Week’s Results
Before we proceed to the Premier League week 26 predictions, let’s take a look at the results from the past matchday. Green highlight represents a correctly guessed match.

Current Standings
Here are the overall standings after week 25 ranked according to money ‘earned’. There has been another huge change in the rankings this week with Oli taking pole position for the first time in the campaign. We might have our very own Jeremy Lin moment here as Dave has come back from being several hundred pounds in the red, to now climbing within 40 pounds of top place.

Week 26 EPL Predictions:
Here below you can find the Barclays Premier League predictions for week 26. The Premier League odds for week 26 have also been included for transparency’s sake.

We’ll be back next week with the Premier League Predictions Challenge week 26 fallout and records of each punter so make sure to stay tuned as we find out whose sporting opinion is REALLY worth listening to.

The second leg of matches in the UEFA Europa League completed last night, and there was a general lack of big shocks with most expected teams going on and booking their spot in the last 16. This means that we have some juicy matchups for the next round, which we go into below.

UEFA Europa League Last 16

Here are the match-ups scheduled for the Round of 16:

Metalist vs Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon vs Manchester City
FC Twente vs Schalke 04
Atletico Madrid vs Besiktas
Standard Liege vs Hannover 96
Valencia vs PSV
AZ vs Udinese
Manchester United vs Athletic Bilbao

It’s good to see some English clubs in the mix as it looks like there will be none left in the Champions League in the quarterfinals. At this stage, the Manchester clubs are the clear favorites to take the trophy home but you never know in football as all teams are capable of pulling an upset over a two leg affair.

Real Madrid play Russian outfit CSKA Moscow on March 14 in the Champions League Last 16 Second-Leg, the Spaniards drew in Moscow but in order to secure qualification in the return fixture, they must carry out a series of different tasks.

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring just before the hour mark to give Madrid the lead in a bitterly cold Russia on Tuesday night

Real Madrid looked like they were going to return to Spain with a healthy lead from their First-Leg Champions League Last 16 match in Moscow on Tuesday night, but a lasp of concentration made them pay the price as they conceeded in stoppage time.

Before the game, there was much speculation about who manager Jose Mourinho would choose for the match. The former Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan boss said before the match: “I’ll pick the players I think are best suited to the playing conditions.” So what he meant by this was – I’ll pick a defensive formation filled with players who are able to scrap and fight in bitterly cold conditions.

The team consisted of two holding players, Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira, in a usual 4231 system with Karim Benzema leading the line. The starting XI was actually quite a positive one and not what most expected. Cristiano Ronaldo started out on the left and ex-Getafe forward Jose Callejon, who has 3 goals in 5 appearances this term, played on the right.

But this article isn’t a Match Report, no. It’s a analysis of CSKA Moscow’s gameplan and strategy and what Real Madrid have to do in the return leg in order to secure progression to the quarter-finals.

Number 1 – Test out the keeper more

Sergey Chepchugov made his first Champions League appearance for CSKA Moscow this season on Tuesday night as regular stopper Igor Akinfeev is out. And from what I saw, Chepchugov didn’t look that comfortable inbetween the sticks and with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Mezut Ozil firing at him – he’s unlikely to match them. At the Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid must take more shots and test the inexperienced 26-year-old goalkeeper out more.

Number 2 – Stop Seydou Doumbia and you stop the team

Anyone that vaguely follows the Russian Premier League knows that Ivory Coast internationa Seydou Doumbia is one of the best players in the division and argueably CSKA’s most talented individual. Last campaign, the 24-year-old netted 12 times in 15 appearances, this season he’s scored 33 goals in 41 games and he’s one of the Champions League’s top scorers.

The player’s movement and ability to finish is second to none and when presented with a chance on goal, he will take it and make you pay. You cancel the little forward out of the encounter, and you ineviatbly delay Moscow’s game and stop the team attacking wise.

The current La Liga leaders are favourites for the clash on home turf on March 14, but CSKA possess dangers and if they are not allowed to exploit them by Madrid, then it should be a safe passage to the quarter-finals for Jose Mourinho’s side.

The WWE’s straight edge super star CM Punk took time out of his busy schedule this week to address the controversial topic of Chris Brown and Rihanna being back on working terms. CM Punk lit the fuse with a simple tweet that stated ” I would like @chrisbrown fight somebody that can defend themselves”.

Chris Brown wasn’t ready to back down and tried his best to ridicule the WWE superstar for making such a comment: “@CMpunk needs more followers. He’s such a leader! Not to mention the roids hes on has made it utterly impossible for him pleasure a women. @CMpunk contact my assistant and I’ll have em send u an autographed pic for my biggest FAN!!!”

Then this prompted CM Punk to release a short video talking on the subject and saying how he feels Chris Brown didn’t pay his dues on the matter and that picking up some trash on the streets was not sufficient for the beating he put on Rihanna. Punk went as far to say that he would like to fight Chris Brown and teach him a lesson and he believes that Karma (not the wrestler) would one day exact revenge on Chris Brown’s cowardly acts.

Chris Brown was clearly bothered by the video, despite his best attempts to not show it, and he rambled on with the following tweets.

@chrisbrown
@cmpunk the video u just posted was cute! It’s so funny how defensive u are. And the fact that I really don’t know who you are and could give a s— is the funny part! I really hope this 15 minutes of fame is paying you for the long run becuz music last forever! Wrestlers come and go according to ratings!

I miss the real wrestlers! ( Hacksaw Jim duggan, Brett the hitman heart, coco beware, rowdy roddy piper) #Notnopunks. THE ROCK #Notnopunks.

@chrisbrown
Note:today will be the last day I bring @cmpunk existence up!The confrontations that people continuously bring my way are very amusing. Cuz honestly, that s— is too time consuming to argue wit every person who has their own issues to deal with!”

CM Punk replied with a final tweet before his Smackdown appearance which would end up becoming the number 1 trend on Twitter and ultimately make him the winner of this Twitter fight:@CMPunk “#aintnowomanbeater.”

The first round of the Champions League round of 16 is coming to a close tonight with the final two matches of the first series of matches between Europe’s top football clubs.

Didier Deschamps will be hoping to capitalize on Inter's weak form and get Marseille in the quarterfinals

Basel will be hosting Bayern Munich tonight at the St Jakob Park in Basel with the Swiss champs hoping to shock another one of the Europe’s top teams. A lot of people were shocked at Basel’s 2-1 over Man United in the last game of the group stage but since then Basel has tied all 5 games they have taken part in and will desperately need a win against the Bavarians who are tough to beat on home soil.

Inter Milan meanwhile will be traveling to the Stade Velodrome in Marseille for an interesting clash against Olympique Marseille. Inter have struggled mightily as of late losing 5 and drawing 1 of their last 6 matches. They’ve seen their goal lit up on multiplle occasions and will hope for a draw against a side that hasn’t lost since November of last year.

As the back stories show, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan might be the bigger names, but a win is not guaranteed at this stage of the competition, and certainly not against two up and coming teams in Basel and Marseille who themselves are hoping for Champions League glory.

Kobe Bryant was once heralded as a selfish basketball player with no remorse or care for the players around. His personal transformation over the past couple years has been apparent and the latest signs of progress from the Black Mamba came this week when Kobe Bryant stood up for Pau Gasol when he was asked about the media on the matter.

Kobe Bryant first clarified the tough situation that Pau is under by saying, “Pau, it’s hard for Pau because of all this trade talk and all this other stuff, it’s hard for him to kind of invest himself completely or immerse himself completely into games when he’s hearing trade talk every other day. I wish management would come out and either trade him or not trade him.”

He even went further and publicly demanded that Lakers GM Kupchack does something about the whole situation. “I talked to (Gasol) a little bit about it. It’s just tough for a player to give his all when you don’t know if you’re going to be here tomorrow. I’d rather them not trade him at all. If they’re going to do something, I wish they would just (expletive) do it. If they’re not going to do it, come out and say you’re not going to do it. This way he can be comfortable, he can go out, he can play and he can invest all of himself into the game.”

Mitch responded saying he was simply doing his job and attempting to improve the team. This isn’t the first that Kobe Bryant has been critical of the front office and to Kupchak’s defense he has always delivered and equipped the team with enough talent to win two championships and hold on to a player like Andrew Bynum who has emerged as the clear second best center in the league.

Napoli was the first team to put a dent in the Man City armor this year when they single handedly knocked out Man City from the Champions League and proved to the rest of the Europe that Mancini’s side were not invincible. Tonight they have another huge challenge when they take on a struggling Chelsea side who are desperate to get back in the win column, especially in a competition as large as the Champions League.

Can Napoli keep knocking out richer English clubs?

Chelsea have gone 5 Premier League games without a win and are now in 5th place, and out of a CHampions League spot. No one is sure how safe Andre Villas-Boas’ job is, but it’s certain that the team’s performance in this two legged affair against Napoli will go a long way in determining the Portugese manager’s fate.

Chelsea will be able to count on the services of Didier Drogba after the Ivorian returned from his international duty in the African Cup of Nations.

The second leg of the Napoli v Chelsea encounter will take place next week and will determine the quarterfinalists in the biggest club football competition of them all.

Deron Williams took matter into his own hands in order to further extinguish the hype around New York that has rapidly developed following Jeremy Lin’s rise to prominance and the return of Carmelo and Baron Davis.

The All-Star was one of the players that was initially blazed up by the Linsanity, but was clear in his intentions to remove any trace of being a stepping stone by netting 8 threes on the road to a 38 point performance. The Nets handed the Knicks a 100-92 win at the Madison Square Garden which led to the team’s second loss in three matches.

Williams’ heroics also got in the way of the return of Carmelo Anthony to the starting lineup. Baron Davis even made an appearance off the bench and the much heralded JR Smith was making his second appearance for the club. The Nets, who will soon be moving to Brooklyn, set forward a clear resounding message that they will not stand quietly and play second fiddle.

Jeremy Lin finished the game with 21 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals but his shooting was off going 7-18. Carmelo was held to 11 points despite playing 31 minutes while Bareon Davis adeed 3 points in 9 minutes. Jr Smith was 0-5 from three point land and finished with 4 points.