Week Ahead

THURSDAY 5/8
Chicago Fire at D.C. United
Slow starts are nothing new for United . D.C. began last season with three straight losses, then rallied and finished with the best record in the league. To turn things around now—United is last in the East—D.C. will need more production from Luciano Emilio (right). Last year's MLS scoring champ has just one goal in six games.
ESPN2 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY 5/9
Lakers at Jazz, Game 3
Chris Paul (page 34) wasn't the only young Western Conference point guard to have a breakout series in the first round of the playoffs. Utah 's Deron Williams (left) shot 53.0% from the floor and 59.1% from behind the arc as the Jazz knocked off Houston in six. Williams struggled in Game 1 against Los Angeles, though, missing 13 of 18 shots in a 109--98 loss.
ESPN 9 p.m.

In Theaters: Speed Racer
The 1960s anime TV series comes to life. It's the story of a race car driver named Speed Racer (if that's your name, really, what else are you going to do for a living?) and his quest to win The Crucible, a grueling race that claimed his brother's life. Starring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), this flick will have your motor running faster than you can say, "Go, Speed Racer! Go!"

SUNDAY 5/11
Red Sox at Twins
Looks like Manny Ramirez got ahead of himself when he vowed to hit his 500th career home run by the start of May. He's been stuck at 496 since April 19. But, Manny being Manny, he's already looking forward to bigger things. "I'm going to have more than 500. I'm already there," he said. "I'm going to 600." The Sox are willing to overlook his temporary power outage (and his fuzzy math): He's got 23 RBI and is hitting .317.
ESPN 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 5/14
Under One Roof
Admit it. There have been times when you've said to yourself, "Terrell Owens must be one heck of an actor, because nobody can really be that odd." T.O. will pretend for real on this sitcom in a guest spot as Flava Flav 's long-lost brother—a role that might not be too much of a stretch.
MyNetworkTV 8 p.m.

SI PICK OF THE WEEK

THURSDAY 5/8
Players Championship
Many have called the Players Championship golf's fifth major, including Phil Mickelson, who said so back in February. It's probably no coincidence that Lefty happens to be the defending champ. But he's won just two tournaments in the year since and been plagued by iffy putting. He'll try to right his woes with a new putter (it's longer since he grew an inch from an intense stretching regimen) and without the pressure of a lurking Tiger Woods , who's recovering from knee surgery.
Thursday-Friday Golf Channel 1 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday NBC 2 p.m.