6 Thoughts
1) Tough night defensively - just couldn't get stops. When they got them, couldn't get the rebound. Didn't create the havoc they did the night before, Gerald Wallace and Okafor were able to get their feet in the paint and score. That was the ballgame.
2) Mike Beasley showed the whole offensive arsenal - 25 points. Not a lot of 19 year olds can score 25 points in an NBA game. Shot the ball well from distance, and was able to create shots off the dribble. However...
3) ...Dwyane Wade needs to figure out how to help Beasley. They are the two best offensive players, and they need to learn to play off of each other. But Wade doesn't seem attuned to feeding Beasley the ball in spots where he can do damage. Beasley had 20 after 3 quarters, but they were not able to get him quality looks in the 4th quarter.
4) Furthermore, for a rookie averaging 17 points a game in his first three games, Mike Beasley doesn't seem to be having much fun. Not much smiling, not a lot of enthusiasm. Spends a considerable amount of time trudging his feet around in seeming exhaustion. Perhaps he is concentrating and/or tired. The whole team seems a little joyless, frankly. The only guys who smile at all are Shawn Marion and Emcee Chalmers.
5) Got outrebounded 41-27.
6) It is odd that Michael Jordan has let himself get so chunky. Spent the night sitting next to Sean May and it felt like a competitive eating contest could break out at any moment. I have always imagined that Jordan would be fairly vain - maybe that's my mistake - but at this point I guess he figures, "I'm Michael Jordan, what the hell is the difference? And, I'm still not as fat as Joe Dumars." Joe Dumars clearly has not received the memo about the possible link between midriff fat and heart trouble. Or, he received it, but that week he was too busy drafting Darko Milicic to read it.
