6 Thoughts
1) 1!
2) The Heat's win wrapped up the #1 seed in the East playoffs. They have a 2 loss lead on the Spurs for the #1 seed overall, which I don't think they care about pursuing. If you are tough enough to get to the NBA Finals, you're tough enough to go dig out a game or two on the road. There were only 11 games left heading into tonight, and this could be the last time this regular season that we see all of the three All-Stars playing in a game together. Preventative maintenance, you know. But even on a night that should have totally meaningless and uneventful, something amazing and exciting happened, as it almost always seems to with this team, especially this season. Mario "Emcee" Chalmers sat out with a sore ankle, so KJ James started at the point. In the first 2 minutes of the game, he had two horrific turnovers - plays where he simply threw passes right to New Orleans. Then, late in the first quarter, he made a triple. Then another. Then another. Then was teeing up another to end the quarter, but Ryan Anderson fouled him - 2 free throws. Then the second quarter started and he made another, then a two in transition with his right foot barely on the three point line. Then another triple. Then a pullup jumper in transition, then started down the court in transition again, everyone knew he was going to pull up for a three - I said to M.Minutos "this is going up" - and he did, and it went in. Eight straight jumpers, six of them threes, 28 points with 8 minutes to go in the second quarter, 20 point lead: ballgame. Goodness. The New Orleans crowd was giving him the "we're not worthy" bow. They were - we are all - witnesses...He came back in and never forced anything the rest of the night, just put it in cruise control and finished with 36 points on 20 shots, 7-10 triples, in only 3 quarters of work. Miami shot 60% from the floor for the game, and made 14-27 threes. Even their "boring" games are exciting. Best. Season. Ever.
3) Play of the game, runner-up: in the second quarter, with the game already well out of hand, Hornets rookie Darius Miller had the ball isolated against Mike Miller, who started in place of Emcee Chalmers. Darius Miller put the ball on the floor, and spun hard right, and when Mike Miller leaned in that direction to politely feign resistance, Darius Miller doubled-reverse-corkscrew-spun back to the left past Mike Miller, gyroscoped towards the rim, and shot an uncontested two foot runner eight feet over the basket. That's one stop for Mike Miller! Congratulations, Spin Cycle, you just faked out Mike Miller, kind of. Newsflash: if the Heat assign Mike Miller to guard you, they aren't too worried about you scoring.
4) Play of the game, winner: a minute later, on the other end of the court, Mike Miller set up shop on the high right wing, above the three point line, where he likes to catch and fire threes. All of a sudden, like he was shot out of a cannon...okay, like he was shot out of a low-caliber air rifle...okay, like he just ran as fast as he could, which isn't that fast, he took off towards the basket, Bosh back-screened Brian Roberts, Dwyane Wade lofted the ball 25 feet in the air, and Miller rose, caught it, and flushed it! SEND IT IN, MICHAEL MIL-LAR!!! DOING IT ON BOTH ENDS!!! LIVE BY THE MIKE MILLER...LIVE BY THE MIKE MILLER!!!
5) There are only two sources of news in the NBA that people are interested in right now: one, what the Miami Heat are doing; and two, what the other 29 teams are doing. And, honestly, 90% of what the other teams are doing is Lakers news, and people are already pretty tired of that. Every single thing Miami does, no matter how small or insignificant, becomes newsworthy to everyone else around the league. For instance, after Wednesday's loss to the Bulls, KJ James politely told reporters that he was a little frustrated with the number of hits he takes in games, especially above the shoulders, and feels that sometimes they cross the line, and are no longer basketball plays. That's not debatable, it's factual. Anyone can watch a sampling of Heat games and see that is true. GFOB Plumber, a huge Nets fan, pointed out that if the Hinrich and Gibson fouls from that night had been committed on Michael Jordan back in the day, play would have been stopped, and the Bulls would have been awarded a forfeit victory in that game, and the next two on their schedule. ESPN.com spent the better part of the last two days debating whether something needs to be done to curb the number of hard blows delivered in the NBA, specifically to James...The Heat do something, say something, say anything: it's instant news...annnnd then today, Boston Celtic GM Danny Ainge, primarily known in his playing days as a good shooter, and a dirty player who once bit Tree Rollins on the bottom of a pileup during a game, felt he had to comment during a radio interview in Boston (why not - everyone else had commented on it). He said KJ should have been embarrassed for whining about calls, which is ironic, because last year after a Heat playoff win over Boston, Danny Ainge went to the media and very publicly whined about calls! Haaa! Before tonight's game, my dad, Pat Riley, issued a statement advising Danny Ainge to "shut the f*ck up and manage his own team." KJ loved it; everyone on the team loved it. It's such a different atmosphere in Miami from the divisive dark cloud that has settled over the Celtic franchise. Look at how happy Ray Allen is now compared to how miserable he was in Boston...The point is, everything the Heat do is news. The Miami players were laughing in the locker room before this game, pointing out to the Heat beat writers that the Celtics seemed weirdly obsessed with them (Miami has sent them home from the playoffs two years in a row). It can be annoying at times, but on the whole it is great: people only care because you are winning, and are supercool. Conversely, no one ever thinks about the Celtics. I mean, for instance, I never mention them in this blog whatsoever...What? Okay, maybe once in a while I might - might - comment on something that they do, but only when it is immediately relevant to the Heat. But I mean this hardly ever happens....Or, I mean, okay, every so often the Celtics do something that doesn't necessarily concern the Heat, but it is so important to the NBA that it needs to be mentioned...Okay, okay, annnnd, now and then, there's just a brief mention of the Celtics in Dos Minutos even if they haven't done anything at all, just if they pop into my mind, but even then, it's only because they are so infuriating, they tend to make me a little crazy - but I'm not at all obsessive about them, I can stop talking about them at any time......except that social deviant Rajon Rondo, and his sidekick, the poke-and-run specialist Kevin Garnett, I have to talk about them, I have to use them in the blog sometimes as an example of what not to do on a basketball court, and in life!!! Don't you understand??? If we don't recognize evil, how can we ever hope to defeat it?!!!
6) Everyone is iconic to somebody.
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Next game is Sunday in San Antonio. They have the second best record in the league, although I think most people tend to believe that OKC will beat them in the Western Conference Finals (they did last season). If Miami had gone in there carrying its streak, it would be mayhem. As it is, it's just two teams playing out the string - it would be surprising to see both teams' stars all play (or at least play heavy minutes). If you need me before then, I definitely won't be thinking about the Celtics, and certainly not about how much I hate Rajon Rondo and his long, talon-like fingernails, and Paul Pierce's dopey squint, and Kevin Garnett's idiotic quest to never let a ball go through the basket after the whistle, and...what? I said I won't be thinking about those things...See you Sunday!
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