6 Thoughts
1) Pedestrian win against the worst team in the league. Led by 15 through 3 quarters before a 20-5 Oklahoma run tied it with six minutes to go. The Spo was steadfast in not re-inserting Wade during the run. Wade plays roughly the same 36 minutes every night at the same time, sitting out the first 6 of the second and fourth quarters. In the 4th quarter the second unit was hampered by Beasley's absence after nearly having his eye poked out of his skull on a second quarter layup. Wade's reinsertion was enough for the Heat to ease by with a run-of-the-mill NBA home win. Finish the first twenty games of the season at 11-9. Along with Plumber's Nets, they have been the two nice surprises in the East so far this season.
2) Worth mentioning that the backcourt of Wade and Emcee Chalmers lead the league in most backcourt assists, and steals. There is certainly not a more active defensive pairing than these two. Chalmers continues to improve his shooting: 3-6 on threes tonight nudging his season three point percentage up to a respectable 36.5%.
3) As good as Chalmers has been defensively - certainly light years ahead of most rookies - he had trouble tonight with Thunder rookie Russell Westbrook, who went in, around, and over the Heat defense for a career high 30. An electric athlete. Still learning how to play the game - the box score shows him with two assists - I don't remember him passing the ball even one time all night. But definitely a keeper as figures out how to play basketball and pairs it with his elite physical abilities.
4) Kevin Durant struggled with Shawn Marion pestering him in to a 6-17 night - and two of the six came in the 4th quarter as soon as Marion left the game for a rest. Spent most of the night spotting up on the perimeter watching Westbrook drive. He is so long that he has to figure out a way to create a play here and there in the paint. Tough to do, though, when you are 20, the other team is geared to stop you, and your teammates are weak.
5) Durant got some pre-game advice from Heat play-by-play announcer Eric Reid, who told the audience that he told Durant "to forget about all the losses, and just focus on getting better." What are the odds that Kevin Durant had any idea who the trim, white man with the moustache who was yammering at him before the game as he tried to make his way to the layup line to warm up was? Approximately 0%?
6) Dos Minutos spent an enjoyable afternoon with Dos Minutos reader Riverman Thor -who, we should point out, is a loyal reader despite knowing nothing about basketball. One could make the case that as an Australian he isn't expected to know anything about basketball - but Australia has an electric track record for producing middling big men such as Luc Longley, Andrew Bogut, and former UConn center Justin Brown, so one would hope Australians would latch on to, and support, that kind of success. Worth mentioning - Thor objected this summer to announcers during the Olympics who portayed female Australian swimmers as major stars in Oz, and claiming that swimming was at the forefront of every Australian's mind 24/7 - "it's like the fifth most popular sport, and even then no one cares except for every four years at the Olympics," claimed the Riverman. One thing Thor clearly knows about: urine. At the West Palm Beach Science Museum (Owen and Parker Minutos, and Jr. Riverman Finn were also along, along with non-Minutos readers Eric, Giselle, and Roman), Thor demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge about the components of urine when he easily registered the high score on the videogame, "Urine! The Game." I scored 1,500, Eric 8,500, but Thor went over 11,000 to post the high score of the day. No one in West Palm Beach - and perhaps, the world - knew more about urine on this day than Thor...Quick note: if anyone from the WPB Science Museum reads this blog, they might want to check the minature golf and fossil digging areas for damage. I'm not saying that I know how it got there, I am just saying that it might be worth checking out. Oh, and Giselle stole one of your golf balls - check her purse.
