Bulls

Facebook Inc. is certain to make a dramatic entrance to the stock market Friday with its hotly awaited initial public offering. What's less certain is whether you should buy the stock. Enthusiasts have salivated for months over the prospect of buying into Facebook's surging growth rate and untapped advertising potential. They hope Facebook can mimic the stratospheric rise of Google Inc. in its early years, when its shares ballooned from $85 at its 2004 IPO to nearly $750 barely three years later.

Chivas USA today AT NEW YORK RED BULLS When: 4 p.m. PDT. Where: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J. On the air: TV: Univision Deportes. Records: Chivas USA 4-6-1, Red Bulls 8-3-1. Record vs. New York: First meeting. Update: This game lost much of its intrigue when Chivas USA had its new star, former Red Bull striker Juan Agudelo, called up to the U.S. national team Sunday. Chivas defender Ante Jazic (Canada)

In a recent letter to The Times, T. Downey of Glendale suggests a boycott of Tecate beer as a measure of our disgust and revulsion at the annual running of the "bulls" (calves) in that city. The barbarism and brutality of this event has been well-documented by the media. Downey's idea is a good one and may well be carried a step further by letting the mayor of Tecate know why we will no longer drink his city's cerveza. Address your protests to: Alcalde Cesar Moreno Martinez de Escobar, Tecate, Baja California, Mexico.

In arguably one of the biggest trades in the franchise's short history, Chivas USA on Thursday acquired striker Juan Agudelo from the New York Red Bulls in exchange for defender Heath Pearce and allocation money. Moments later, Chivas announced another deal, sending midfielder Michael Lahoud and allocation money to Philadelphia in exchange for Union defender Danny Califf. Agudelo, a 19-year-old rising star with the U.S. national team, has six goals in 33 matches with the Red Bulls over the last three seasons.

at Atlanta 118, Chicago 83: Jamal Crawford scored a season-high 29 points for the Hawks, who opened the second half with a 20-4 run. The Bulls have lost four games in a row and nine of 10. They trailed by as many as 30 points in the third quarter. Detroit 90, at Philadelphia 86: Rodney Stuckey scored 27 points and made the winning basket with 8.7 seconds left, sending the 76ers to their 11th consecutive loss. Allen Iverson scored 11 points for the 76ers and tied the score, 86-86, with 1:06 left.

MIAMI AT CHICAGO Saturday at 5 p.m. TV: NBA TV. In a welcome development, the attention the Heat gets now is for stuff that happens on the court, as opposed to conspiracy theories and dumb TV specials. This will be the fifth game of a five-game trip that began with Friday's win in Milwaukee and will take them to the West Coast and back... with the big question being whether anyone can beat them on the way. They're 20-1 since starting 9-8 when Coach Erik Spoelstra seemed to be dangling, including their Christmas rout of the Lakers.

NO. 1 CHICAGO VS. NO. 2 MIAMI Season series: Chicago, 3-0. Key stat : At 28.8 points and 8.2 assists, Derrick Rose scores or assists on 45 of the 95 points his team is averaging in the playoffs, but his 45% shooting during the season is down to 42%. Outlook: If these teams haven't clashed much to date, this marks the launch of the blood feud that should dominate the East for years. Aside from climate differences and the fact one favors red and the other black, they're like the same team.

How pathetic and unexpected to find Web Buzz publicizing an event that is nothing more than animal abuse in the guise of a religious festival ["Taking the Bull by the Horns in Spain," by Jen Leo, July 5]. The running of the bulls is an archaic, uncivilized display of cruelty to animals. After the run through the streets the animals are exhausted and kept in the bullring where their fate is sealed. Isn't it thrilling to watch these animals in the throes of death, gasping for their last breath?

Re "Pit Bull Kills Dog," July 12. As evidenced by two recent incidents in Canoga Park, neither innocent humans nor helpless pets are safe from pit bulls--not even in their own yards. While we still want to believe that "it is not the dog, just the owner," we must finally admit we are faced with an entirely different strain of dog now--one that is being inbred, abused and / or trained into a frenzied insanity. A few years ago an attack on a human by a pit bull was almost unheard of, but today [the dogs]

The running of the bulls in Tecate, Mexico, which was scheduled to take place today and Sunday has been postponed until next weekend, organizers of the event said Friday. The tradition of running bulls through the streets of Tecate was postponed out of respect for the survivors of Thursday's earthquake in Mexico City, said Raquel Martinez, one of the organizers. The festivities will be held next weekend.

The collector car market, which slumped with the economy, is coming back along with the rest of the auto industry. But don't expect to pick up a classic Tucker or Duesenberg without ponying up money like a Facebook executive. Many of these cars are selling for well over $1 million. By one measure, the value of collectible cars has surged 33% since the depth of the recession in 2009. The Hagerty collector car blue-chip index - a Dow-like gauge that averages the values of 25 of the most sought-after collectible automobiles of the postwar era - climbed to $1.25 million from $940,000 in September 2009.

Apparently the Angels aren't the only ones who aren't getting what they paid for. Just a few miles down the freeway Major League Soccer's Galaxy has put together the most expensive collection of stars in its sport too. And though that brought them a title last year, the embarrassment of riches has been just that — an embarrassment — so far this season. After Saturday's 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Joel Lindpere's first-half goal, the Galaxy has already lost as many games this year — five — as it did all of last season.

Rajon Rondo had a triple-double with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists to lead the Celtics to a 90-84 overtime victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks on Friday night and give Boston a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series. Game 4 is Sunday night. Ray Allen returned after missing almost a month and scored 13 points in 38 minutes. Kevin Garnett had 20 points and 13 rebounds and Paul Pierce scored 21 points one game after leading Boston with 36 points and 14 rebounds.

The Galaxy goes before a national television audience again Saturday when it plays host to the battered New York Red Bulls on ESPN. But are Major League Soccer's defending champions ready for their latest close-up? "We need to start showing people why we were champions last season," midfielder David Beckham said after training Friday. "At the moment it's not right at all. All the way through the team. " In fact the not-ready-for prime time players, at 3-4-1 after two months, have lost just one fewer game then they did all of last season.

Would you buy a puppy from Chris Brown? It's not a theoretical question: The R&B singer actually has a handful of 2-month-old American pit bull terrier puppies for sale online at $1,000 a pop -- and boy are they cute. (What, you expected ugly puppies? They're puppies , for goodness'  sake.) The fuzzy munchkins do, however, have to compete with a picture of Breezy that's also on the CB Breeds website , which rep Maureen O'Connor confirmed to the Associated Press is the real deal, set up by her animal-loving client.

BEN BOLCH'S RANKINGS, COMMENTS THROUGH SATURDAY LIFE IS ONE BIG EGG HUNT 1. CHICAGO (43-13) Joakim Noah high on another list: Bleacher Report's 100 Ugliest People in Sports. (1) 2. OKLAHOMA CITY (40-15) Trendy pick to win it all needs to hold off Spurs to get top spot in West. (2) 3. MIAMI (39-15) Like Cruise in "Cocktail": "Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end. " (3) 4. SAN ANTONIO (39-14) Spurs are up there in dog years but probably aren't built to last in playoffs.

One loss in the playoffs, and The Times' Mark Heisler (May 10) is ready to proclaim that the emperor (the Bulls) has no clothes. That the loss came against the New York Giants masquerading as the Knicks matters not. Even Heisler's revered Lakers were never held to such an impossibly lofty standard. He goes on to "expertly" unmask the Bulls bench as "one Smurf." This is the same bench that was extolled throughout the regular season, even by Heisler. But considering the source, this is the same Heisler who recently told all of us to forgo any entertainment, in a sort of weird collective mea culpa, and to simply mail our cash to the gangs in South Central L.A. Don't be hurt, Mark, if we all disregard both of these missives.

Bad night for the greatest team in basketball history. A funny thing happened on the way to immortality. While riot cops deployed in sweet home Chicago, the Bulls, who had spent two days bestowing every known honor upon themselves, turned into a lump of clay, taking a 107-86 pounding at the hands of the Seattle SuperSonics that should cut down the superlatives here for a day or two. Greatest team in history? How about Michael Jordan and 11 schleppers? Typically, they took it badly.

CHICAGO AT OKLAHOMA CITY: Sunday at 10 a.m. PDT. TV: Channel 7 This isn't really the possible Finals preview many will tout it to be, unless you expect Derrick Rose to sit out the playoffs. Then again, the way things have gone for Chicago's star guard this season, you never know. He has been sidelined for three lengthy stretches, most recently by a groin injury that has forced him to miss the Bulls' last nine games. There remains no timetable for his return. Chicago is expected to have Richard Hamilton back after he sat out 12 games because of a sprained right shoulder.