6 Thoughts
1) Five game winning streak is over. It had to end sometime. Miami is now 29-28, in a bunch at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoffs standings. 25 games to go, but the schedule now turns. After a brutal January and February on the road, Miami plays 15 out of its last 25 at home. If they miss the playoffs, it won't be the schedule makers' fault.
2) There is really no such thing as a good loss in the NBA - there are too many games, and there are only wins and losses. Having said that, playing for the second straight night without Dwyane Wade, the Heat stuck around all night long on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, against a very good team. When Udonis Haslem tip-slammed a Daequan Cook miss with 6:30 to go in the fourth quarter, Miami led by a point. Couldn't make enough shots down the stretch, but the effort was admirable - it would have been an easy game to let go big-time, and just head for home.
3) Michael Beasley could not have come out more aggressive or confident looking. Strong drives with both hands, and excellent passes to cutters for easy hoops. He looked like he was finding his swag, and taking on the challenge of the being the leading man with Wade out. 9 points and 5 assists early for Supercool. Absolutely disappeared in the second half, as he has done too many times this season. Got tentative with the ball, scored only 3 points, and didn't have another assist. Still too many one-half games from Mike.
4) TNT commentator Charles Barkley, earlier in the season, compared the Heat's supporting cast to "a bunch of Titos," a slight referring to Michael Jackson's oft-cracked on older brother. That was months ago. Guess who took offense? I mean, major, major offense - Heat color commentator Tony Fiorentino. Finally let it all out tonight when his partner Eric Reid referenced the comment: "You know, Eric,, Charles Barkley is a wonderful entertainer, but I don't know anyone who would take his comments about basketball seriously." Sounded mad - I think it was the first time I have ever heard Tony mad. I didn't even know the gregarious Fiorentino was capable of anger. "Whoa," said Eric, "strong comment." Yes - I think we were all stunned. Show'em what it is, Tony, show'em what it is!
5) I've now watched 91 straight games. I am the Cal Ripken Jr. of Heat blogs, only without the blatant steroid use.
6) Okay, it is, literally, 1:30 am because I had to go to a monster truck rally in Dolphin Stadium tonight before coming home to watch the game. Not feeling funny at all, even though there is probably little funnier than a monster truck rally, all things considered. Just some random thoughts on it - please don't expect them to be funny:
-It is actually, like, a competition, or two competitions. First there is a race, then a free-style competition, where they do jumps and get judged. The judges appeared to be three random people sitting in the crowd. I questioned their credentials to be monster truck free style judges to my neighbor's father-in-law, but he just looked at me like I was insane. To their credit, I thought the right truck won, even though they have this one truck, Gravedigger, which appears to be the overwhelming fan favorite, go last. I thought it was going to be like a Globetrotters thing, and Gravedigger would win no matter what, but he lost by a point.
-The drivers do quick little interviews with the PA announcer after each run and they all seemed like incredibly nice and gracious guys, and appreciative of the fans. Besides one guy from Detroit, I think every other driver was from a Southern town that I had never even heard of. And I live in the South, at least kind of.
-In the freestyle section, at least three guys crashed their trucks on purpose, including Gravedigger. It seems to be the highlight of the show. Like, fans get on their feet and scream and cheer when the guy augurs his 10,000 pound truck into the ground on purpose. I'm not saying they should be alarmed - clearly the crashes were planned - it just paled in comparison to some of the actual super-cool driving the guys did. We had great seats upfront, and it was kind of impressive how the drivers muscled these beasts around. I can't believe I just wrote that.
-I am not sure why O. and P.Minutos love monster trucks - they spend approximately twelve to sixty hours a week playing monster trucks outside in the neighborhood, but I am blaming the neighbor's kid B.D. Although, to be fair, I once owned a Jeep Comanche, so it is not as if the Minutos family doesn't have a long legacy of truck love.
-Highlight: when El Toro Loco crashed and broke off the two giant horns - maybe 7 feet long and bright yellow - that adorned the top of its cab, and then the driver got out, took one of the horns, climbed into the stands, and gave it to a kid wearing an El Toro Loco hat. "That's going to look great in the family room," I told my neighbor's father-in-law.
-Lowlight: probably at the beginning when the PA announcer - PA announcer is the wrong word, he is a guy that works for the tour, and he hosts the entire evening from a little platform in one corner of the stadium - when he was introducing the evening to kick things off, and he gave a long speech about how America is the home of the free and land of the brave, and nobody can stop us, and they were playing, I believe, that Lee Greenwood song I Love America, or whatever, in the background. It wasn't actually a lowlight, because it was super-funny; only a lowlight in the sense that 90% of the crowd didn't realize it was funny. "This is exactly why the terrorists hate us," my neighbor's father-in-law and I agreed.
Light week coming up: games Tuesday and Saturday...
-----
