Look, there are very few rules here at Dos Minutos, but one of them is: Any time the Heat win a game on the road on a last second goaltending dunk by the highly polarizing Michael Beasley against a team that was in the Finals last year, and the game is televised live in Scotland - we go eight thoughts instead of the traditional six! International style! You feel me? Let's go!
8 Thoughts
1) Jason Williams, the starting point guard on the Heat's '06 Championship team, took last year off, and returned this season as Orlando's backup. Forced in to a starting role with Jameer Nelson injured, Williams blistered the Heat all night long: 25 points, 4-6 threes. Stepped to the line up 1 with 9 seconds to go, missed a pair. Miami called timeout, struggled to get the ball inbounds at halfcourt, then got it to DWade on the move. Wade got to the foul line, pulled up for a floater that looked to be drifting slightly wide left...and out of nowhere, Supercool Mike Beasley went up over the cylinder, grabbed the ball, and dunked it through the hoop with a second to go. Ballgame. Orlando protested the blatantly illegal basket vociferously - even Jermaine O'Neal, running downcourt to celebrate, kept looking back nervously over his shoulder for the basket to be waived off. Get on the bus, get out of town...Not sweating the call: President Quentin Richardson, out again with the tweaked back and resplendent in velvet, and again the first one to Dwyane Wade to celebrate the win. Somehow President Q always finds Wade before anyone else - after viewing tonight's rousing finish, M.Minutos has suggested a "President Cam" for a dedicated look at just how many bodies Q has to throw out of the way to get to Wade first...
2) But we digress. Best win of the year for Miami, which found itself down 11 on the road to the deepest roster in basketball with 8 minutes to go and Wade floundering with only 8 points. Coach Spo went Defcon 1: he moved Wade to point guard, inserting James Jones and Cook as shooters, with Jermaino and Haslem up front. Wade is, easily, the best point guard in basketball - only Chris Paul is remotely in the discussion. He is an outstanding ballhandler and has flawless court vision. Playing the point also allows him to survey the defense from the top to get his own offense. On this night? 16-0 run in three minutes, part of a 16 point individual fourth quarter from Wade. Time and again he does things not to be believed. He can't play point guard full time because he'd be out of gas by Christmas - but when times are tight, it is generally Miami's best lineup...Good move tonight by Spo.
3) Just thought we should mention here that James Jones fouled out with 9 seconds to play, precipitating the two aforementioned missed Jason Williams free throws. When Mike Beasley checked back into the game to replace Jones, with the Heat needing a bucket to win, someone at Casa Dos might have said, "this kid will never f-ing make a shot in a spot like this." I could be wrong, but it sounded a lot like someone might have said that. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't Scotland's Faither, who has been pleading with Coach Spo to play Beas at the end of games for over a year now. Hey, if he had known it was going to be this easy, he probably would have played him. Yet another example of why I love Scotland...
4) Jermaine O'Neal. I'm not going to say he outplayed Magic superstar Dwight Howard; but he played much harder than Magic superstar Dwight Howard, and produced 13 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks against Howard, who had 12, 16, and zero. A second quarter skirmish between the two, triggered by a Howard forearm shiver to Jermaino's chest, led to several minutes of "Tilt Jermaino," an alternate personality who voraciously pursues rebounds out of his area, and tries to drive the ball through Dwight Howard's considerable chest everytime he touches it. Surprisingly effective. As he stomped off the court with a minute to go in the half, "Tilt Jermaino" had a wild eyed smirk, bordering on psychotic. "That's a quiet look of contentment on Jermaine's face," opined Heat play-by-player Eric Reid, always one to take a "glass half-full" approach.
5) Okay, so we all remember last holiday season when former Heat forward Shawn "Bad Santa" Marion snapped at a girl to open the Christmas present he brought to her house as part of the Heat's community outreach program. Tonight's halftime featured a look at the Heat's annual Thanksgiving feast in Overtown, a poor section of Miami, always a highlight of any Heat fan's holiday season. Midway through the feast, Jermaino, engaged in a hotly contested game of Connect Four with a six year old girl, finally made his row, thrust his fists in the air and crowed, "I told you I am the champ at this!" Hey, these economically challenged six year old girls are never going to get anywhere if you coddle them. Later in the segment, Jermaino explained his perspective on the event, "anytime you can come out here and conversate with these people a little bit, that's a great thing." Just what I was thinking.
6) Same piece: not to get too wishy-washy, but Udonis Haslem demonstrated again why he is my favorite person who has ever played for the Heat. You could see him smiling, and taking the time to look each person who approached him right in the eye. He grew up in tough neighborhoods in Miami, and no player has ever been happier to win a title for his hometown than Udonis was is 2006...And he has been an absolute model citizen. Not only has Udonis never been in trouble, never complained about his role on the team, never caused any distraction of any kind - he's never even not played hard. Love UD.
7) Orlando came as close as you can get to a "whitewash" without getting it in the second quarter: four white guys (Redick, Gortat, Ryan Anderson, JWill), and one French black guy (Pietrus). A French black guy? Does that even really count as being black? It does? Mon Dieu - so close!
8) Okay, so The Captain and I are at Hooters last weekend watching Jimmy Johnson wrap up his fourth straight Nascar point championship, or whatever it is called - you know, car racing, the regular cars, not the little low ones with only one seat and your head out. So The Captain has a few too many cold ones and he is starting to get a little boorish - he hates Johnson, he likes Carl Edwards because he drinks milk and does a backflip off his car when he wins a race ("nothing wrong with a little flair," says The Cap). So this big redneck guy is like, Carl Edwards can't hold Johnson's jockstrap, but he is getting all technical, like, Don't you understand that Edwards can't drive with restrictor plates, and The Captain is like, Freak you. So eventually the redneck is like, Come say that to my face, so The Captain goes over to him, says, "Look, man, the fact that your mom and dad happened to conceive your pasty white ass on the hunk of soil known as the United States of America doesn't make you Luke Skywalker," grabs the guy's basket of wings, dumps it in his lap, turns on his heel, and leaves. My hero!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Heat 102 Hornets 101
6 Thoughts
1) The Heat break a three game losing streak with a tenuous win at home over New Orleans without their best player, point guard Chris Paul. If you want to make the playoffs, you can't lose home games to middling teams playing without their best player. Miami blew two double digit halftime leads, got down by 4 late, and clawed back to win. Now 8-5 - it wasn't pretty, but it's in the bank.
2) Former New York Knick coach, and current ABC announcer, Jeff Van Gundy like to say the NBA is a "make or miss" league. In the last minute of the game, Udonis Haslem made an open 12 foot baseline jumper - his signature shot - to tie the game at 100. Hornets rookie Marcus Thornton made just 1-2 free throws to give the Hornets a 1 point lead. Udonis then made a double clutch, leaning, legs-splayed, elbow jumper - off the glass - to put the Heat up one with 20 seconds to go. After a timeout, the Hornets cleared out the top and let their best player, power forward David West, go one-on-one with Jermaine O'Neal. West pulled up from 18, pump faked Jermaino part of the way by, leaned out to elude JO's effort to recover, and fired a miss off the rim - ball game. Make or miss league.
3) Speaking of the aforementioned Thornton, a rookie from LSU, he took the "I Hate What They Did To Me" performance - the phenomenon in which a player whom a team traded comes back and haunts his former team for the rest of his career - to a whole new level. Named, of course, after former Heat power forward Kurt Thomas, whom Miami traded after a promising rookie season for Jamal Mashburn. Thomas say out nearly two full years with a broken foot after the trade, only to emerge in the late 90s as a primary nemesis on the arch rival Knicks, announcing his arrival to town for one game by proclaiming "I hate what they did to me." Thomas is still playing, by the way, at the approximate age of 50 - one can only imagine it is to get one more shot in at the Heat some way, some how. In any case, Thornton was drafted by the Heat in the second round this past summer, specifically for New Orleans, who coveted him, and immediately swapped two future second round picks for him. He spent approximately seventy seconds in the Heat organization. And yet, here he was tonight, apparently hating what we did to him, scoring 24 points on 5-7 threes. Imagine what he would have done if they hadn't traded him until the next day.
4) Mario Chalmers strung together his second excellent game in a row after scoring a career high 30 Friday. Tonight it was 12 points on 5-8 shooting, with 9 assists against just 1 turnover. More importantly, he aggressively sought out plays, driving in the paint looking to finish or dish - it was no accident that Haslem's game winning jumpers both came off passes from Emcee after penetration. The Heat organization spent all summer defending Chalmers, and their decision not to pursue a veteran point guard to supplant him - before this weekend, that decision looked questionable at best. These last two games, Chalmers finally started to look like he may yet justify their confidence in him. He is quick, he is a good ballhandler, a good shooter, and a fairly solid decision maker. They need him - desperately - to make plays off the dribble, if only to give Dwyane Wade an occasional rest. Keep it going, Mario.
5) Chris Paul, sidelined by a sprained ankle, was resplendent in a houndstooth sport coat over a crisp white dress shirt on the Hornet bench. Look endorsed by Dos and O.Minutos, panned by M.Minutos, who is disinclined to like anything Paul does because she considers him "snerdy" - a specific combination of snide and nerdy (black guys only). Also warrants mentioning he once, with extreme petulance, punched an opponent in the breadbasket in college - during a game, on purpose. One of the highlights of that, or any other, college basketball season...
6) Okay, so someone wrote in to ask me: "what do you think about Oprah leaving her show?" What? Oprah still has a show? I must be missing, like, the last 22 seasons on DVD...
1) The Heat break a three game losing streak with a tenuous win at home over New Orleans without their best player, point guard Chris Paul. If you want to make the playoffs, you can't lose home games to middling teams playing without their best player. Miami blew two double digit halftime leads, got down by 4 late, and clawed back to win. Now 8-5 - it wasn't pretty, but it's in the bank.
2) Former New York Knick coach, and current ABC announcer, Jeff Van Gundy like to say the NBA is a "make or miss" league. In the last minute of the game, Udonis Haslem made an open 12 foot baseline jumper - his signature shot - to tie the game at 100. Hornets rookie Marcus Thornton made just 1-2 free throws to give the Hornets a 1 point lead. Udonis then made a double clutch, leaning, legs-splayed, elbow jumper - off the glass - to put the Heat up one with 20 seconds to go. After a timeout, the Hornets cleared out the top and let their best player, power forward David West, go one-on-one with Jermaine O'Neal. West pulled up from 18, pump faked Jermaino part of the way by, leaned out to elude JO's effort to recover, and fired a miss off the rim - ball game. Make or miss league.
3) Speaking of the aforementioned Thornton, a rookie from LSU, he took the "I Hate What They Did To Me" performance - the phenomenon in which a player whom a team traded comes back and haunts his former team for the rest of his career - to a whole new level. Named, of course, after former Heat power forward Kurt Thomas, whom Miami traded after a promising rookie season for Jamal Mashburn. Thomas say out nearly two full years with a broken foot after the trade, only to emerge in the late 90s as a primary nemesis on the arch rival Knicks, announcing his arrival to town for one game by proclaiming "I hate what they did to me." Thomas is still playing, by the way, at the approximate age of 50 - one can only imagine it is to get one more shot in at the Heat some way, some how. In any case, Thornton was drafted by the Heat in the second round this past summer, specifically for New Orleans, who coveted him, and immediately swapped two future second round picks for him. He spent approximately seventy seconds in the Heat organization. And yet, here he was tonight, apparently hating what we did to him, scoring 24 points on 5-7 threes. Imagine what he would have done if they hadn't traded him until the next day.
4) Mario Chalmers strung together his second excellent game in a row after scoring a career high 30 Friday. Tonight it was 12 points on 5-8 shooting, with 9 assists against just 1 turnover. More importantly, he aggressively sought out plays, driving in the paint looking to finish or dish - it was no accident that Haslem's game winning jumpers both came off passes from Emcee after penetration. The Heat organization spent all summer defending Chalmers, and their decision not to pursue a veteran point guard to supplant him - before this weekend, that decision looked questionable at best. These last two games, Chalmers finally started to look like he may yet justify their confidence in him. He is quick, he is a good ballhandler, a good shooter, and a fairly solid decision maker. They need him - desperately - to make plays off the dribble, if only to give Dwyane Wade an occasional rest. Keep it going, Mario.
5) Chris Paul, sidelined by a sprained ankle, was resplendent in a houndstooth sport coat over a crisp white dress shirt on the Hornet bench. Look endorsed by Dos and O.Minutos, panned by M.Minutos, who is disinclined to like anything Paul does because she considers him "snerdy" - a specific combination of snide and nerdy (black guys only). Also warrants mentioning he once, with extreme petulance, punched an opponent in the breadbasket in college - during a game, on purpose. One of the highlights of that, or any other, college basketball season...
6) Okay, so someone wrote in to ask me: "what do you think about Oprah leaving her show?" What? Oprah still has a show? I must be missing, like, the last 22 seasons on DVD...
Friday, November 20, 2009
Raptors 120 Heat 113
Part 1
Somehow due to a technical snafu, we lost the first part of our post. To summarize briefly: Emcee Chalmers career high 30, Miami down 23 in second half, cut it to 1 with 3 minutes to go, Beasley good night, but couldn't finish huge play at rim down the stretch, Bosh best player on the court. That ought to do it.
Somehow due to a technical snafu, we lost the first part of our post. To summarize briefly: Emcee Chalmers career high 30, Miami down 23 in second half, cut it to 1 with 3 minutes to go, Beasley good night, but couldn't finish huge play at rim down the stretch, Bosh best player on the court. That ought to do it.
Raptors 120 Heat 113 pt 2
4)cont.:
5) We've said it before, but any game involving Bennett Salvatore as a referee is bound to be bizarre - that how you get a game where one team is down 23 a minute into the third quarter, and down 4 6 minutes later. Miami and Toronto shot a combined 70 free throws - that's a lot of whistles. Bennettmania!
6) No jokes tonight. When you lose three in a row, no jokes, no booty calls, no nothing. We would like to mention that we got several complaints about our review of Sarah Palin's Goin' Rogue, which we found odd, since the review was positive in nature. One disgruntled reader asked repeatedly: "Why is that funny? I don't get it? Why is she talking in a black slave's voice?" That's a great point - I don't know. It just seemed funny. To me. Sometimes these things are subjective...
next game: Sunday vs. New Orleans, and if all goes well, future Miami Heat point guard Chris Paul.
-----------------------
5) We've said it before, but any game involving Bennett Salvatore as a referee is bound to be bizarre - that how you get a game where one team is down 23 a minute into the third quarter, and down 4 6 minutes later. Miami and Toronto shot a combined 70 free throws - that's a lot of whistles. Bennettmania!
6) No jokes tonight. When you lose three in a row, no jokes, no booty calls, no nothing. We would like to mention that we got several complaints about our review of Sarah Palin's Goin' Rogue, which we found odd, since the review was positive in nature. One disgruntled reader asked repeatedly: "Why is that funny? I don't get it? Why is she talking in a black slave's voice?" That's a great point - I don't know. It just seemed funny. To me. Sometimes these things are subjective...
next game: Sunday vs. New Orleans, and if all goes well, future Miami Heat point guard Chris Paul.
-----------------------
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Hawks 105 Heat 90
6 Thoughts
1) Ouch. Second night in a row. Just, ouch. Second night in a row a team was too long and too athletic. Don't know how this occurred to me, but every Heat starter is undersized for his position - and only Wade and Chalmers are plus athletes. That's disturbing. Ouch.
2) The Hawks, who vanquished the Heat in the playoffs last year, are flying, off to a very impressive 10-2 start. It is a talented group that has grown up together, suffered through tough times as youngsters, were considered wildly enigmatic, and now they have started to put it all together. Heat sideline reporter Jason Jackson asked the most enigmatic Hawk, Josh Smith, what the key to the hot start has been: "We have made a conscious decision that we are going to play defense every night." Okay! Good idea! By the way, this is Josh's sixth season!
3) Yes, where in the world is Dwyane Wade? Third straight poor - very poor - game for Dee Dub. 15 points on 6-18 shooting. On the road, against a good team - Miami has no chance if Wade scores 15 on 6-18. No chance. He seems tired and lifeless over the past week. I think Mike Beasley's poor play might be depressing him...
4) Okay, the Mike Beasley joke was just to make sure Faither was reading. Mike was pretty good tonight. Had the opportunity to play more minutes - Udonis Haslem out for a game or two as the result of a bad fall last night. Mike played 33 minutes - would have been more but he was saddled with foul difficulty. Tough matchup against Josh Smith, who is taller and far more athletic - and more experienced. Also, has consciously decided to play defense this season..Mike got the ball in the hoop: 21 points on 8-15, and grabbed 9 rebounds. Did a little better with his decision making - several times squared up to the basket, took a hard dribble or two, and shot the open shot. That should be his bread and butter right now. Let's just leave it at that. He wasn't perfect, but he got some stuff done.
5) Heat play-by-player Eric Reid seemed a little down due to the beatings the past two nights. Failed to finish stories with his usual panache. Late in the third quarter rookie referee Marat Kogut was caught on replay making a call. "He has a fascinating background, Tony," Eric advised his partner, Tony Fiorentino, "he was born in the Ukraine..." That was it. Quite a facinating background indeed. Okay!Let's cheer up! There's a book review coming up in # 6!
6) Okay, great, time for another book review: Been readin’ Goin’ Rogue by Sarah Palin. And I have to tell ya, it's pretty gosh darn interestin’. One of the most awesomest sections is when Sarah is tellin’ her husband Todd about thinkin’ about runnin’ for Vice President, and why she is havin’ such a hard time decidin’. Here’s a little piece of it:
“Lawz a-might-y, Pappy, I do declare, I’z jus’ cant decides what to do.”
“Uhhn.”
“Ol’ man McCain, he’s a sayin’ that’s wez can beats Obammy and Massa Biden, but I’z ain’t too sho. I do declarze iff’n I run, I wud be missin’ you and the younguns so powerfulz much.”
“Uhhn.”
“You knowz Bristol , she bin tomcattin’ aroun’ theze parts, tho’ I shorely do likes this Levi, he sho’ nuff seemz like a bright boy.”
“Uhhn.”
“Why, Pappy – so whatchu thinks?
“Uhhn.”
“Thankz, Pappy, youse right! I'z gon' do it!”
Powerful stuff! Can’t wait for Chapter 2!
1) Ouch. Second night in a row. Just, ouch. Second night in a row a team was too long and too athletic. Don't know how this occurred to me, but every Heat starter is undersized for his position - and only Wade and Chalmers are plus athletes. That's disturbing. Ouch.
2) The Hawks, who vanquished the Heat in the playoffs last year, are flying, off to a very impressive 10-2 start. It is a talented group that has grown up together, suffered through tough times as youngsters, were considered wildly enigmatic, and now they have started to put it all together. Heat sideline reporter Jason Jackson asked the most enigmatic Hawk, Josh Smith, what the key to the hot start has been: "We have made a conscious decision that we are going to play defense every night." Okay! Good idea! By the way, this is Josh's sixth season!
3) Yes, where in the world is Dwyane Wade? Third straight poor - very poor - game for Dee Dub. 15 points on 6-18 shooting. On the road, against a good team - Miami has no chance if Wade scores 15 on 6-18. No chance. He seems tired and lifeless over the past week. I think Mike Beasley's poor play might be depressing him...
4) Okay, the Mike Beasley joke was just to make sure Faither was reading. Mike was pretty good tonight. Had the opportunity to play more minutes - Udonis Haslem out for a game or two as the result of a bad fall last night. Mike played 33 minutes - would have been more but he was saddled with foul difficulty. Tough matchup against Josh Smith, who is taller and far more athletic - and more experienced. Also, has consciously decided to play defense this season..Mike got the ball in the hoop: 21 points on 8-15, and grabbed 9 rebounds. Did a little better with his decision making - several times squared up to the basket, took a hard dribble or two, and shot the open shot. That should be his bread and butter right now. Let's just leave it at that. He wasn't perfect, but he got some stuff done.
5) Heat play-by-player Eric Reid seemed a little down due to the beatings the past two nights. Failed to finish stories with his usual panache. Late in the third quarter rookie referee Marat Kogut was caught on replay making a call. "He has a fascinating background, Tony," Eric advised his partner, Tony Fiorentino, "he was born in the Ukraine..." That was it. Quite a facinating background indeed. Okay!Let's cheer up! There's a book review coming up in # 6!
6) Okay, great, time for another book review: Been readin’ Goin’ Rogue by Sarah Palin. And I have to tell ya, it's pretty gosh darn interestin’. One of the most awesomest sections is when Sarah is tellin’ her husband Todd about thinkin’ about runnin’ for Vice President, and why she is havin’ such a hard time decidin’. Here’s a little piece of it:
“Lawz a-might-y, Pappy, I do declare, I’z jus’ cant decides what to do.”
“Uhhn.”
“Ol’ man McCain, he’s a sayin’ that’s wez can beats Obammy and Massa Biden, but I’z ain’t too sho. I do declarze iff’n I run, I wud be missin’ you and the younguns so powerfulz much.”
“Uhhn.”
“You knowz Bristol , she bin tomcattin’ aroun’ theze parts, tho’ I shorely do likes this Levi, he sho’ nuff seemz like a bright boy.”
“Uhhn.”
“Why, Pappy – so whatchu thinks?
“Uhhn.”
“Thankz, Pappy, youse right! I'z gon' do it!”
Powerful stuff! Can’t wait for Chapter 2!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Thunder 100 Heat 87
6 Thoughts
1) Beat down in Miami. You could see it coming after an atrocious performance and late escape against New Jersey on Saturday night. Oklahoma City looked long, athletic, quick, and energetic. Miami looked lethargic. Besides Dwyane Wade, who struggled through a 6-19, 22 point effort, Miami doesn't exactly overwhelm anyone physically. Tonight they looked outclassed athletically. They are 7-3 after 10 games, but it's a bit of a mirage - the schedule has been soft, and heavy on home games. With Wade healthy, they a .500 team, maybe slightly better - so they are bound to come back to earth some.
2) Second year Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook absolutely annihilated second year Heat point guard Mario Chalmers. Westbrook, bigger and stronger and as quick as Chalmers, harassed him all over the court, making it hard for Emcee to get Miami into their offense. On the other end, Westbrook bullied Chalmers with 24 points on 9-13 shooting. Westbrook has an especially abrasive personality - taunting, smirking, and swaggering; Chalmers is as mild-mannered a player as there is in the league. It felt like a night where Mario had to stand up for himself physically and emotionally - instead, he got punked.
3) I'm not even going to elaborate on it, except to say that the whole situation is about to get ugly, organizationally-speaking, but Mike Beasley somehow managed zero (0) rebounds in 23 minutes.
4) If there was any bright spot for the Heat tonight - and, really, there was only one - it was Daequan Cook finally starting to show some rhythm coming back from a mild shoulder injury. 17 second half points for Cook, 14 in the fourth quarter, with 4 threes. They desperately need shooting and scoring right now - Cook provided that throughout the first half last year before injuring the same shoulder, and it would be a huge boost if he consistently gives them same kind of shooting off the bench now that he is back.
5) Well, every year you know you are going to see something that you have never seen before. Early in this one, Thunder forward Jeff Green (one of Dos Minutos' Top Ten Least Favorite NBA Players) started a drive approximately 35 feet from the basket, careened slightly out of control, ran over a stunned and stationary Jermaine O'Neal - back from taking a day off against the lowly Nets - and earned an easy charging foul from official Ed Malloy, in perfect position under the basket. Except, young official Brian Forte came running in from nearly midcourt, forty feet from the collision, to call a block on Jermaino, claiming that he was inside the "no charge" line near the basket. Replays showed Jermaino was roughly a foot and a half outside the line - whatever, that happens - NBA officials make bizarrely incorrect calls all the time. Except in this case, there were two calls. The referees huddled, discussed the play, and then decided to assess fouls to both O'Neal and Green and have a jump ball at midcourt. I'm no referee - much like a po-lice, the job description is to make peoples' lives worse, and I'm not with it - but it seems like, out of any decision they could have arrived at, that was the one thing it couldn't be. One guy ran over another guy. Either the second guy was in position, or he wasn't - it's one play - it has to be either a block or a charge, it can't be both. If you want to say, "hey, we don't know - no fouls on anybody, and let's jump it up," fine. Everybody would be fine with that. But to give both guys a foul - that's the only thing it couldn't be, it's the only call you can't make there. On the other hand, it was the call that made the greatest amount of peoples' lives worse at that given moment. Also, the least competent. So I guess we should have expected it.
6) A sobering moment: RIP for Ken Ober, host of MTV’s classic cult 80s game show Remote Control, and a native of West Hartford, Connecticut, my hometown. Also had a starring role on the short-lived television series version of the movie Parenthood. Ken died far too young this week, at the age of 52, of unknown causes. I arrived in my office to a deluge of emails – okay, one, from my brother – informing me of his death. Ken spent more time behind the camera than in front of it as his career progressed, notably on fellow Remote Control alumnus Colin Quinn’s show Tough Crowd on Comedy Central. Most recently, Ken had been a writer and producer on Carlos Mencia’s show The Mind of Mencia, so suicide can’t be ruled out...
Next game: 2morrow, on the road in the Atl, against the hottest team in basketball, and last year's playoff opponent, the Atlanta Hawks. Trouble brewing...
-------------------
1) Beat down in Miami. You could see it coming after an atrocious performance and late escape against New Jersey on Saturday night. Oklahoma City looked long, athletic, quick, and energetic. Miami looked lethargic. Besides Dwyane Wade, who struggled through a 6-19, 22 point effort, Miami doesn't exactly overwhelm anyone physically. Tonight they looked outclassed athletically. They are 7-3 after 10 games, but it's a bit of a mirage - the schedule has been soft, and heavy on home games. With Wade healthy, they a .500 team, maybe slightly better - so they are bound to come back to earth some.
2) Second year Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook absolutely annihilated second year Heat point guard Mario Chalmers. Westbrook, bigger and stronger and as quick as Chalmers, harassed him all over the court, making it hard for Emcee to get Miami into their offense. On the other end, Westbrook bullied Chalmers with 24 points on 9-13 shooting. Westbrook has an especially abrasive personality - taunting, smirking, and swaggering; Chalmers is as mild-mannered a player as there is in the league. It felt like a night where Mario had to stand up for himself physically and emotionally - instead, he got punked.
3) I'm not even going to elaborate on it, except to say that the whole situation is about to get ugly, organizationally-speaking, but Mike Beasley somehow managed zero (0) rebounds in 23 minutes.
4) If there was any bright spot for the Heat tonight - and, really, there was only one - it was Daequan Cook finally starting to show some rhythm coming back from a mild shoulder injury. 17 second half points for Cook, 14 in the fourth quarter, with 4 threes. They desperately need shooting and scoring right now - Cook provided that throughout the first half last year before injuring the same shoulder, and it would be a huge boost if he consistently gives them same kind of shooting off the bench now that he is back.
5) Well, every year you know you are going to see something that you have never seen before. Early in this one, Thunder forward Jeff Green (one of Dos Minutos' Top Ten Least Favorite NBA Players) started a drive approximately 35 feet from the basket, careened slightly out of control, ran over a stunned and stationary Jermaine O'Neal - back from taking a day off against the lowly Nets - and earned an easy charging foul from official Ed Malloy, in perfect position under the basket. Except, young official Brian Forte came running in from nearly midcourt, forty feet from the collision, to call a block on Jermaino, claiming that he was inside the "no charge" line near the basket. Replays showed Jermaino was roughly a foot and a half outside the line - whatever, that happens - NBA officials make bizarrely incorrect calls all the time. Except in this case, there were two calls. The referees huddled, discussed the play, and then decided to assess fouls to both O'Neal and Green and have a jump ball at midcourt. I'm no referee - much like a po-lice, the job description is to make peoples' lives worse, and I'm not with it - but it seems like, out of any decision they could have arrived at, that was the one thing it couldn't be. One guy ran over another guy. Either the second guy was in position, or he wasn't - it's one play - it has to be either a block or a charge, it can't be both. If you want to say, "hey, we don't know - no fouls on anybody, and let's jump it up," fine. Everybody would be fine with that. But to give both guys a foul - that's the only thing it couldn't be, it's the only call you can't make there. On the other hand, it was the call that made the greatest amount of peoples' lives worse at that given moment. Also, the least competent. So I guess we should have expected it.
6) A sobering moment: RIP for Ken Ober, host of MTV’s classic cult 80s game show Remote Control, and a native of West Hartford, Connecticut, my hometown. Also had a starring role on the short-lived television series version of the movie Parenthood. Ken died far too young this week, at the age of 52, of unknown causes. I arrived in my office to a deluge of emails – okay, one, from my brother – informing me of his death. Ken spent more time behind the camera than in front of it as his career progressed, notably on fellow Remote Control alumnus Colin Quinn’s show Tough Crowd on Comedy Central. Most recently, Ken had been a writer and producer on Carlos Mencia’s show The Mind of Mencia, so suicide can’t be ruled out...
Next game: 2morrow, on the road in the Atl, against the hottest team in basketball, and last year's playoff opponent, the Atlanta Hawks. Trouble brewing...
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Heat 81 Nets 80
6 Thoughts
1) Well, that was bizarre...Miami came out against a horrendous 0-9 Nets team at home, dialed up the intensity to approximately zero, got one basket from Dwyane Wade in the entire second half...and won. Now 7-2, albeit against a soft schedule, with a lot of home games in there...It's tough times for these Nets, who were bad last year, traded their best player, Vince Carter, in the offseason, and are now playing with half their roster injured. Even I felt bad for them tonight, because they played hard, and should have won. Okay, I didn't feel bad. But they should have won.
2) Dwyane Wade's one second half basket? A game-winning three off an inbounds pass, down 2, with 4 seconds to go when the play began. Wade received the ball, took a step back, making it obvious he was going to try to line up a three to win instead of driving for a tie, bobbled the ball, picked it up off the floor, and drilled it with Net defender Trenton Hassell up in his airspace. .1 seconds left on the clock - ballgame. DWade was passive most of the second half as the Nets trapped him at every opportunity, and he was a willing passer, but mostly took the night off. If you can't take a night off against the Nets, when are you going to get any rest? Filled the stat line with 8 rebounds, 6 steals, 6 assists, and 2 blocks to go with his 22 points.
3) DWade's shot never would have been possible without an even more unlikely three pointer a couple of possessions earlier, a pivot-and-fake-three-times-without-moving-the-defender-oops-the-shot-clock-is-running-down-so-I-had-better-heave-it-up-there...and bank it in off the glass to tie the game by...who else - The President, Quentin Richardson. Q made 3-4 triples for 13 points, quite an explosion considering he hadn't scored a basket in two games. Also made the decisive inbounds pass to Wade - showing Coach Spo's confidence in his decision making - and looked like the happiest person in the building when Wade's three ended the game. He was the first person downcourt to leap-bump Wade - he is always the first person to Wade to congratulate him on anything. Hey, they are long-time friends, but Q's no dope - keep the superstar happy. Also, good moment in the post-game interview with Q when he referred to Nets second year player Chris Douglas-Roberts as "Douglas Robertson." Twice.
4) Okay, so our man Plumber - the biggest Nets fan we know...okay, the only Nets fan we know...okay, the only Nets fan - hates Nets coach Lawrence Frank with the intensity of a thousand suns. He has an absolute passion for breaking down every Frank move like a Christian fundamentalist taking apart the Qu-ran. Our take on L.Frank - at least on this night: mixed. Defensively, the Nets were great, they junked up their defenses by mixing zone with man-to-man, and containment presses to milk the Heat's shot clock on almost every possession. When you are undermanned like the Nets, you want as few possessions as possible in the game. They crowded Wade, and made him give the ball up. They are tough to play against because no other team in the league plays as much zone. While it isn't a recipe for long-term success, it does give them a chance to win. Offensively, not so great. Brooks Lopez, the tall, tall second year Nets center, looked great on postups all night long. Jermaine O'Neal missed the game with a bruised hip, so Lopez was guarded most of the night by Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony - neither is more than 6'8", and Lopez was very successful inside against them. But he posted up so infrequently - he spent the majority of his night on the perimeter 20 feet from the basket. He is a nice shooter - but he's 7'2". Get him down in the post, make Miami double team him, let him kick out to shooters - let him make the other players on his team better. He ended up 8-18 from the floor, and I would guess he has 4 or 5 baskets right around the rim, which means he was like 3-13 from everywhere else. It didn't look like a well thought out offense. And they only scored 80 with Jermaino - Miami's best defender - out, so you know...
5) Udonis Haslem, out of his mind again. 28 points, 12 rebounds. 28 points tied a career high, set against...well, the New Jersey Nets. Miami native UD also pointed out after the game that although the Triple A arena is Dwyane's house, "it's my town." Love that UD.
6) Faither's not going to like this, but Mike Beasley: 3-17. How many times can one person receive a pass, dribble in to the paint where all the tall guys are, get a little off-balance and out of control, and twist some ridiculous shot with a minimal chance of going in up at the rim? 17 times - that's how many.
Next game: Tuesday against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City, ummm, Thunder? They're relatively new, I'm not too sure...Still shocked there is an NBA team in Oklahoma City, but glad because I am thinking West Palm could be next.
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1) Well, that was bizarre...Miami came out against a horrendous 0-9 Nets team at home, dialed up the intensity to approximately zero, got one basket from Dwyane Wade in the entire second half...and won. Now 7-2, albeit against a soft schedule, with a lot of home games in there...It's tough times for these Nets, who were bad last year, traded their best player, Vince Carter, in the offseason, and are now playing with half their roster injured. Even I felt bad for them tonight, because they played hard, and should have won. Okay, I didn't feel bad. But they should have won.
2) Dwyane Wade's one second half basket? A game-winning three off an inbounds pass, down 2, with 4 seconds to go when the play began. Wade received the ball, took a step back, making it obvious he was going to try to line up a three to win instead of driving for a tie, bobbled the ball, picked it up off the floor, and drilled it with Net defender Trenton Hassell up in his airspace. .1 seconds left on the clock - ballgame. DWade was passive most of the second half as the Nets trapped him at every opportunity, and he was a willing passer, but mostly took the night off. If you can't take a night off against the Nets, when are you going to get any rest? Filled the stat line with 8 rebounds, 6 steals, 6 assists, and 2 blocks to go with his 22 points.
3) DWade's shot never would have been possible without an even more unlikely three pointer a couple of possessions earlier, a pivot-and-fake-three-times-without-moving-the-defender-oops-the-shot-clock-is-running-down-so-I-had-better-heave-it-up-there...and bank it in off the glass to tie the game by...who else - The President, Quentin Richardson. Q made 3-4 triples for 13 points, quite an explosion considering he hadn't scored a basket in two games. Also made the decisive inbounds pass to Wade - showing Coach Spo's confidence in his decision making - and looked like the happiest person in the building when Wade's three ended the game. He was the first person downcourt to leap-bump Wade - he is always the first person to Wade to congratulate him on anything. Hey, they are long-time friends, but Q's no dope - keep the superstar happy. Also, good moment in the post-game interview with Q when he referred to Nets second year player Chris Douglas-Roberts as "Douglas Robertson." Twice.
4) Okay, so our man Plumber - the biggest Nets fan we know...okay, the only Nets fan we know...okay, the only Nets fan - hates Nets coach Lawrence Frank with the intensity of a thousand suns. He has an absolute passion for breaking down every Frank move like a Christian fundamentalist taking apart the Qu-ran. Our take on L.Frank - at least on this night: mixed. Defensively, the Nets were great, they junked up their defenses by mixing zone with man-to-man, and containment presses to milk the Heat's shot clock on almost every possession. When you are undermanned like the Nets, you want as few possessions as possible in the game. They crowded Wade, and made him give the ball up. They are tough to play against because no other team in the league plays as much zone. While it isn't a recipe for long-term success, it does give them a chance to win. Offensively, not so great. Brooks Lopez, the tall, tall second year Nets center, looked great on postups all night long. Jermaine O'Neal missed the game with a bruised hip, so Lopez was guarded most of the night by Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony - neither is more than 6'8", and Lopez was very successful inside against them. But he posted up so infrequently - he spent the majority of his night on the perimeter 20 feet from the basket. He is a nice shooter - but he's 7'2". Get him down in the post, make Miami double team him, let him kick out to shooters - let him make the other players on his team better. He ended up 8-18 from the floor, and I would guess he has 4 or 5 baskets right around the rim, which means he was like 3-13 from everywhere else. It didn't look like a well thought out offense. And they only scored 80 with Jermaino - Miami's best defender - out, so you know...
5) Udonis Haslem, out of his mind again. 28 points, 12 rebounds. 28 points tied a career high, set against...well, the New Jersey Nets. Miami native UD also pointed out after the game that although the Triple A arena is Dwyane's house, "it's my town." Love that UD.
6) Faither's not going to like this, but Mike Beasley: 3-17. How many times can one person receive a pass, dribble in to the paint where all the tall guys are, get a little off-balance and out of control, and twist some ridiculous shot with a minimal chance of going in up at the rim? 17 times - that's how many.
Next game: Tuesday against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City, ummm, Thunder? They're relatively new, I'm not too sure...Still shocked there is an NBA team in Oklahoma City, but glad because I am thinking West Palm could be next.
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