6 Thoughts
1) Anytime you are out rebounded 55-28, you probably aren't going to do real well. A distinct lack of energy as the Blazers put on a dunk fest. Led to Marcus Banks, Mark Blount, and Shaun Livingston sightings. Marcus Banks, probably, has deserved more of an opportunity. Started the season as the backup point guard and played well. Strained a hamstring and Chris Quinn performed admirably in his absence. When Banks got healthy, Quinn kept the job. Banks is a random offensive player, but a talented one who can create his own shot, and is quick and strong defensively. Perhaps he warrants some minutes in smaller lineups instead of Daequan Cook, who is struggling tremendously with his shooting right now. Towards the end of the game, eternally optimistic play-by-play announcer Eric Reid said that even in a blowout you have to look for something positive and tonight the silver lining was that Jamal Magloire is ever closer to coming back and providing the Heat some help inside. Oh, I'm sorry - I thought you said something positive. My bad.
2) Eric Reid also revealed that on the way in to the building he mistook Blazer big man Channing Frye for different Blazer big man LaMarcus Aldridge from Texas, and asked him if he had watched the University of Texas game on tv the night before. "No, why would I?" asked Frye, who attended Arizona. In Eric defense, both guys are black.
3) Nice segment on Miami Senior High School teammates Udonis Haslem and Steve Blake. They won a state championship together. Udonis said that Blake is the smartest player he has ever played with at any level. Nice sentiment, but Udonis must be forgetting the 82 cerebral games he enjoyed last year with one Mr. Ricky Davis.
4) Heat color commentator Tony Fiorentino was "shocked" that former Blazer center Kevin Duckworth died earlier this year at age 44. Really, is shocked the right word? A guy who weighed upwards of 370 pounds and suffered with depression problems while he was playing? You're shocked that he passed away early? Disappointed, sure, upset, definitely, but shocked, no. Tony also revealed that he did a lot of Christmas shopping today at the Nike outlet store in Beaverton, Oregon. This is a departure for Tony, who most years claims that he does all his Christmas shopping at the Heat team store in Bayside. There is a gaggle of young Fiorentino nephews somewhere rocking an entire closet full of sweatpants and wrist bands. Finally, with 6 seconds to go in the third quarter, down 25, Yakouhba Diawara gave a foul on a dribbler 30 feet from the basket. "Great foul - the Heat had one to give," crowed Tony, whose entire coaching philosophy seems to be predicted on committing three fouls or fewer in the first 10 minutes of a quarter just to make sure that you have one to give in the final two minutes. When is a good time to use it? As soon as possible under two minutes according to Tony, who, when a team does have one to give inside dos minutos, points this out every possession until they use it, or the quarter ends. Never once have I hear him make the connection that at a certain point, giving a foul hurts you - for instance, under 20 seconds or so to go in a quarter with a low shot clock, when giving a foul allows the other team to get a new shot clock, allowing them, and not you, the last shot in the quarter.
5) Oden had 10 and 10. He is already a very good defensive presence. Long arms, good timing, plays hard. The Blazers are a legitimate team. No one mentions them as a contender in the West, but I would not be shocked if they emerged as the Lakers' main challenger. Incredible depth, size, good athleticism - really, really a lot of good ballplayers. And, as much as I dislike him personally, a definitive go-to crunch time guy in Brandon Roy. I think this is a team that could be in the Western Conference Finals. I think I considered them like a 45 win team coming in to the season, but I think their ceiling is higher now.
6) Finally, a tip of the cap to Dos Minutos loyalist Plumber. Caught a bit of the Maui final between Carolina and Notre Dame in the Lahaina Civic Center, aka, "The House That Plumber Built." Fittingly, Irish guard Kyle McAlarney poured in 39 in a tribute to the Plumber that included the second longest jump shot as part of a normal offensive set that I have ever seen when he caught a swing pass up top from about 33 feet and drilled it. Only Rutgers guard Quincy Douby's epic heave from about 38 feet three years ago against UConn, where he sighted an entire defense set down in the lane against him, figured "why bother," picked up his dribble and let fly from closer to halfcourt than the three point line, was longer. Douby's didn't go in, by the way, but it was an impressive show of moxie nonetheless. Only the Plumber has lit that building on fire in the way that McAlarney did tonight, although I am quite sure that McAlarney has never had to leave a game early to drive his annoying girlfriend to the airport because she invited herself out to visit him and his best friend in Hawaii, and never left until, in a fit of pique because the boys were enjoying their youth, she demanded that he drive her to the airport right then so that she could catch the next flight back to the main land. Of course, it probably has happened several times to Harangody, because that's how the big fella rolls..
