1) Too good. Let it fly.
2) Here's what was going against the Heat today: a 1pm Sunday road game; early foul trouble; Melo taking advantage of early foul trouble to get off for 24 first half points, and shoot more free throws in the half than the entire Heat team; Jason Kidd, who shot 16% on triples in February, making 4 straight threes in the second quarter; Mario Chalmers passing the ball like he was riding on a Tilt-a-Whirl; Chris Bosh teetering somewhere in the grey area between "dead" and "just barely having a pulse;" and KJ James struggling with his shooting early, taking repeated hits at the rim with no calls, and then getting his left knee folded up under him while getting hit on an alley-oop attempt; giving up 37 points in the second quarter and falling behind by 17. Ugly. It would have been an easy one to let go, considering they had won 13 in a row. You can't win every game...
3) ...Except they didn't let it go, they decided to fight for their winning streak, which is now at a franchise high-tying 14 straight. And by "they decided to fight," I mean, mostly, "KJ James is way too good for anyone on the Knicks to handle." KJ took Melo defensively in the second half, and Melo instantly got locked down: 3-11 for 8 points in the second half. That reverberated throughout the entire Knicks team - their offense starts with Melo scoring in big volumes - when KJ got up into him, New York, who scored 37 in the second quarter, scored only 34 in the whole second half. KJ made back-to-back triples late in the third quarter to cut the Knicks lead to 4 after three, then made the play of the game with 4 minutes remaining: blocked a Tyson Chandler dunk, sprinted out in transition, and tipped in a Heat miss on the other end for a 4 point lead. With 20 seconds to go, and the Heat still up 4, he intercepted a JR Smith crosscourt pass on a dead sprint, hurtled down court alone, flew through the air, and crushed a full-on, one-handed tomahawk dunk through the rim. Ballgame. Too good.
4) Also, Dwyane Wade was good all night - he's the perfect sidekick right now, he just does what he does, night after night: 20, 8, 8 for Dwyane. But Shane Battier was unbelievable. He made all four of his shots, all triples, for 12 points, spent a lot of time in the second half hassling Junior Smith into a 5-18 shooting "performance," blocked a key Jason Kidd runner late, and saved a possession for Miami right at the end by diving full-out on a loose ball and scooping it up justbefore it went out of bounds. Battier's the perfect role player for KJ and Dwyane. He has a limited arsenal because he can't run, or jump, or dribble. But he can defend any position 2-4, he can make threes from the corner and above the break (underrated skill to make threes from above the break - not everyone can), and he gets on the floor for loose balls. Anything he can't do, KJ and Dwyane can handle that stuff, because they can do everything. They put him in the position to do the things that he can do.
5) Why Chris Bosh is both infuriating and comforting at the same time, example #2,216: he was terrible in this game. He had 1 rebound in 37 minutes, and probably let Tyson Chandler bat 6 offensive rebounds back out to the perimeter from the second position - the Heat holding the Knicks to 34 second half points is even more impressive considering Chris gave them several extra possessions. In the first five minutes, he stuffed his own layup into the underside of the rim and missed 2 six footers, and then several more bunnies throughout the game, which sent him to that tentative spot that he sometimes gets to when he dribbles off of open shots into bad, contested shots. He kept dropping entry passes to him in the lane, and twice in the final minutes he let the 5'9", rotund Knick point guard Raymond Felton lay the ball in over him for buckets, then meekly fouled him on a third try. Brutal. But there he was, with a minute to go, and Miami up four, setting a screen for Dwyane Wade, then spacing out to the top of the key as Dwyane probed left. Bosh's man, Tyson Chandler, took a definitive step down into the lane to protect against a Wade drive, and before the pass back to Bosh even left Wade's hand, I was screaming, "Stick it!" I'll take that shot in crunch time all day, no matter how bad he's been in the rest of the game. It's one of the most money plays in the NBA - Bosh spacing the floor late for a 20 footer, Wade or James making the defense sink, and Bosh getting the ball on time, and in rhythm. No defense can defend that - it's almost a guaranteed open look, and it still hurts me that Miami didn't run that over and over down the stretch in every game against Dallas in 2011 when the Mavs were packing the paint against KJ and Dwyane. For the first 47 minutes, often, you wish Chris Bosh would have a pulse; but in the last minute, when some guys tend to get over-geeked, his coma-like trance serves him well. Today, like almost always: swish. Start the bus. I hate New York.
6) Okay, do you want to just sit at home doing nothing, or do you want to go to a cool place? Cool place? Good. Due South Brewery! It's in Boynton Beach, which is my town - it's like the industrial part of the town, but my town is like a wimpy beach town, our industrial section isn't exactly hardcore. Due South is in a big warehouse on High Ridge Road, you drive around back past the marble rock warehouse, and then there's a little sign hanging next to the door - you'd never know the illest bar of all-time is back in there. Go inside and you're in the chillest place ev-errrr! It's a giant warehouse bay, and the brewing set up is in plain view, off to one side in a roped-off section. One side of the bay is the bar - it's a cozy little bar with all the homemade brews written on a chalkboard, and there is even a little extra room in back with a drop ceiling that gives a speakeasy-ish feeling. There are also a ton of casual tables and chairs out in the warehouse - you can spread out and relax. They don't have food, but sometimes food trucks will park outside (cheese fries!), or you are welcome to bring food with you. Last weekend I went by myself on Sunday afternoon, brought a book ("The Plague" by Camus), got a beer (Caramel Cream Ale), and chilled so hard for an hour (it's 4 minutes from my house, easy to drop by). Everyone who works there is superfriendly, and knowledge about the beers, which are tremendous. I'm not always a huge beer guy, exactly, but when you are sitting in a locally-owned brewery, vibing so hard, the beer tastes so, soo good when it hits your lips! I'm thinking about bringing a cot and moving in. If you live anywhere nearby in Palm Beach County, this is a place totally worth checking out. If we don't support cool places like this, we won't have them to support. Here's a link to their website, and a few pictures from last Sunday: http://www.duesouthbrewing.com/.
-----
We are going for a franchise-record 15th straight win tomorrow in Minnesota. They feature Jesus lookalike Alexey Shevd, so you know it isn't going to be easy:
If you need me before then, obviously, you know where I will be: the Due South. Ummm, duhhh?
-----
