6 Thoughts
1) A bad loss (three quarters of minimal defensive effort), then a good comeback win (Beasley and Magloire - ! - ignite a surge), then a heartbreaking trip to overtime (a turnaround three by you-have-to-be-kidding-me-Spencer-Hawes), followed by a dominant stretch (Wade sucks it up, gets to rim), another bizarre Kings comeback fueled by a couple of odd calls (a breakaway foul where a guy didn't have the ball; a flagrant foul on a cleanly blocked shot), and then, finally, a gut-check win on the road (Wade gets to the rim one final time). The Heat look exhausted right now but with a blowout loss to Denver behind them and a Sunday night date with the Lakers in front of them, it was important to win this game. Now 19-16. If they stay above .500, they are in playoffs. They probably can't lose enough games to get in to the bottom 10 and that is the only way they keep their own draft pick - otherwise it goes to Minnesota as part of the Antoine Walker dump. So creeping up on the halfway point, might as well try to make the playoffs - even the experience of getting hammered by a Cleveland or a Boston would be good for the kids. It didn't seem possible when they were winning 15 games all of last year that things could look so relatively rosy so quickly. But here we are. And the team is entertaining. Good times.
2) The main kid in charge tonight: the birthday boy, Mr. Michael Beasley. Now 20 years immature. Down 10 to start the 4th quarter, lethargic as a team, Dwyane Wade on the bench, on four straight trips The Beas went elbow jumper, three, put-back of his own driving miss, drive and drop to Magloire for a dunk. With three straight stops on the other end, suddenly it was a one point game, all nine points generated by Beas. 23 points, 10 rebounds, and one spirited two step to "I Will Survive" during a timeout, which disgusted Kings center Brad Miller. To all girls in nightclubs in the Sacramento area tonight: yes, he really does play for the Heat, but no, he is lying, he wasn't the #1 pick in the draft - he was only #2...
3) Ahhh, Sacramento. Generally, Heat announcers Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino are two of the nicest, most decent men on the planet. They have an absolute passions for Pat Riley-style defensive intensity, crisp offensive execution, the brilliance of Dwyane Wade...and hating Sacramento. Nothing - nothing - gets them more noticeably grumpy than the annual trip to Sacramento. For years they have bemoaned the annual matchup - this it year it started two weeks ago where Eric noted that, fortuitously, last night's NCAA championship football game would be "on a night when we will be stuck in Sacramento with nothing else to do." However, a gleeful Eric reported early tonight that the Heat's plane experienced computer troubles in the Denver airport after Wednesday's game, forcing them to deplane and stay in Denver an extra night before trudging to Sac-town. When it is a tough call between spending one night a year in Sacramento, or potentially careening to your death into a Denver mountainside, that really says something. I've never been there. Where is it? Somewhere in California? Right?
4) Jamal Magloire. He swallows a lot of abuse from this blog...along with a lot of pizzas. RIP John Candy - we miss you Big Man. Here's one more shot at the Heat's comedic widebody: he missed 4 shots from inside of one inch tonight. That said, let's give the man his due - he rebounded the heck out of the ball tonight, grabbing 9 in 15 minutes. He also made one one-incher, and three out of four free throws. He was on the court during Beasley's pivotal 4th quarter run, and was a +15 for the night (points the Heat scored vs. gave up when he was on the court). Laid the wood defensively. He, honestly, has been approximately 40% less terrible than I expected him to be. He is only thing on the team resembling an NBA-sized big man. Is he good? No. Did he help win the game tonight? Yes.
5) Wade had 41 - his fifth 40 point game of the season, a career-high. Made a step back three to tie the game with less a minute to go in overtime. How he has this group 19-16 - that's incredible. I mean, he is on a team that was playing Jamal Magloire crunch time minutes tonight. In the NBA. And they won.
6) Grouper - "I'd Rather Be Sleeping." If you can download songs with any degree of ease, please get this one. You don't need the whole album, just this song. I don't know about itunes, but it is on http://www.gomusic.ru/ which is what you should be using anyways. On first listen you will doubt me - you'll say it's slight, too vague. But you will back for more. Much more.
