1) Best win of the season for Miami, breaking a 3 game losing streak to deal the Lakers just their fourth loss (21-4) and holding them to their lowest point total of the season. Wade had a dynamic 35 and made a couple plays more down the stretch than Kobe, whose 12 foot fallaway over Marion rimmed out as time expired. Sideline reporter Nancy Lieberman noted that Miami was 12-12 entering the game, and last year did not win their 12th game until March: "Maybe the difference is a healthy Dwyane Wade," she theorized. Good point - maybe.
2) The game was won with defensive energy. Miami forced 21 turnovers, and worked hard to scramble the game, often picking up fullcourt to disrupt the Laker offense. Joel Anthony was especially stellar defensively, with 3 steals and 2 blocks to go with his 8 rebounds, and Miami made Kobe work hard for his 28. Even when the Lakers handled the pressure, they often ended up with shots from lesser scorers in less-than-ideal areas of the court. It will be interesting to see if they can sustain this level of effectiveness against New Jersey tomorrow night, who possess a far superior and more aggressive point guard in Devin Harris. I will have to go back and check, but it seems to me that Miami has beaten teams with poorer point guard play, and had trouble against better point guards, because they rely so heavily on forcing turnovers and keeping the ball out of the paint - far more so than other teams.
3) The other hero of the game was Daequan Cook - he made 4-6 three pointers, and shot the ball especially well in the third quarter when Miami pushed out to a 12 point lead. When Daequan takes good shots, they go in. He needs to be relaxed and let the shots come to him - when he chases them aggressively he is far less successful. Each time he seems in danger of falling out of the rotation, he seems to flash his potential and earn himself a stay.
4) While the Lakers, obviously, have been great this year, when you watch them they are a tiny bit under athletic. They have a very long frontline, and excellent depth, but maybe lack explosive athletes a little bit. They don't start anyone with "plus" quickness at his position - and only Ariza, off the bench, strikes me as a superior athlete. Against Miami, one of the quicker teams in the league, this was magnified. Miami was a little quicker off the floor, a little quicker to loose balls. For the Lakers to beat Miami, they need to get the ball to the paint to Bynum, Odom, and Gasol and use their size. On this night, Miami's ability to pressure the entry passes, and help on the weak side, gave them them a chance against a more talented team.
5) Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire . Outstanding movie by Danny Boyle, who also made Trainspotting and Twentyeight Days Later. He makes good movies - this one is a coming of age story about poor kids in India. You should see this in a movie theater on the big screen because both the look and sound of the film are vivid, and are enhanced by immersing yourself in the darkness of the theater with the squalid sprawl of Mumbai on top of you. We don't want to give anything away, just try to see it - if you don't support good movies, eventually every movie will star Will Smith, not just 2/3 of them. I suspect this is the best movie playing in theaters right now: Dos gives it a "Jason Kidd." Tough, scrappy, admirable attention to detail - maybe not the most talented, maybe not quite championship level, but certainly creative, outstanding, and entertaining in every respect. Also noted - a long trailer of The Wrestler before the movie. I mean, Mickey Rourke couldn't be more disturbing at this point, which is what I suppose will make that movie good. Hard to imagine a whole hour and a half of that, though - even the four minute trailer was tough to watch.
6) Reaction to the last post of Mash It Upped leftover blog ideas was strong. Let us clear up some misconceptions right now:
- Dos Minutos does not advocate any kind of totalitarian dictatorship in America, unless perhaps, it is run by University of Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun. However, the Dos staff will be amongst the first in line to watch Steven Soderburgh's four and a half hour epic entitled Che. Not the split half and half version, either - we are going for the full-on one-time sitting. Benicio Del Toro, right on.
- Nor do we actually advocate punching anyone - especially women - in the face.
- To the person who suggested that it is only transplanted New Yorkers who are actually rude, that is factually incorrect. They may, however, seem more rude outside of New York because they are out of context and amongst less rude people.
- To the person who suggested that we are gay because of our fixation with Paul Rudd, we suggest that you youtube the "you know how I know you're gay" scene with he and Seth Rogen, and dare you not to fall in love with him.
- To spunky new reader Giselle, who offered a virtual point-by-point response to our blog post, we would like to offer her a permanent staff position. Anything you want, as long or short as you want - we know your boss at work won't mind if you take a couple of hours to craft something, and then email it to us for posting. Contact us for our submission guidelines - we look forward to being in business with what we consider your rising "Giselle" brand.
- In response to our item on "what black people do," Giselle offered that her black husband sits in the garage, gets high, and listens to Billy Joel albums. She also professed to identify with Dos' editor, who is in an interracial marriage, because she is in an interracial marriage, if you consider a black-hispanic union as interracial, which Dos Minutos does not. Close call, but we have to draw the line somewhere.
- To the person who was offended that we linked Antoine Walker to socialism - that was hard to believe. We don't think you are serious - clearly Antoine Walker is a socialist.
- No - The Captain and I don't watch porn together. Very funny, though, sir.
Next game - Saturday night vs. Plumber's Nets.
