What to Watch For: Sharks Tested on the Road and Dwight Howard Interested in the Warriors?

What a weekend we had in the Bay Area. Even without the most popular San Francisco Giants and 49ers in full-season stride, the area can still manage to entertain a sports fan and keep them on the edge of their seat in the meantime.

Bay Area Sports Talk did that covering the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am throughout the entire week, most notably Sunday when Phil Mickelson bullied Tiger Woods to a final round 64 and the victory.

In other Bay Area news......

-The San Jose Sharks will continue their nine-game road-trip tonight against the Washington Capitals after being virtually out-played by a recently impressive St. Louis Blues team. The Sharks were shut-out 3-0 with two of those goals coming in a 5-on-3 power play for the Blues. they will hope to rebound against Alex Ovechkin and the Caps tonight in a back-to-back game on the road.

This is a huge stretch of game for the Sharks, if you haven't noticed. The SAP Open has taken over the HP Pavilion, which forced the Sharks on the road for a substantial amount of time. This year, the time is nine games just as the team was getting into a bit of a stride.

The stretch of games is their biggest test of the season, and it is also their final run of games before a possible Martin Havlat recuperation and pending comeback to the team. The road-trip will also run right up to the February 27 trade deadline, where GM Doug Wilson is rumored to be very active.

-Dwight Howard has said that he is not interested in the Golden State Warriors one bit, but that did not stop ESPN's "salary-cap analyst" Tom Penn from making a bold prediction sending Monta Ellis, David Lee and Ekpe Udoh to the Magic for Howard.

Penn's argument was that the Magic are hopeless, and Howard knows that and wants out. However, Orlando will not want to trade him to the list of teams Howard has set before his GM. That may move Howard to broaden that list just a bit, including the Warriors in it.

Sorry to Penn, but Howard won't agree to it and the Warriors won't accept it. The only part that would agree to it is the Magic's front office. A dream at best.