6 Thoughts
1) An easy win to end the road trip, this game was never in much doubt in the second half - a late Utah run made the final score closer than the game itself. Utah is struggling with injuries right now: Boozer out, Kirilenko out, Harpring out, and Deron Williams still clearly very seriously hampered by his ankle injury. With all the injuries, it was the first game of the year where the Heat actually had a physical advantage inside and they outrebounded Utah 45-38. A very successful Pacific coast road trip for the young group, going 3-2. Didn't necessarily play the better teams out west, but for a team with so many inexperienced rotation guys, any road win is a good road win. Although, to be honest, Dwyane Wade won the games. The kids helped, certainly are improving - but Dwyane Wade won the games. Tonight had 4 steals and 2 blocks (to go with an efficient 23 points), and they all seemed to lead to layups on the other end. He is 11th in the league in blocks right now. He is maybe 6'4" - that's ridiculous. He physically dominates games with his athleticism.
2) It was a night where Joel Anthony starred. That is probably the first time that sentence has ever been written. Blocked 4 shots in the first three minutes of the second half as the Heat blew open a close game with an initial 17-2 burst to start the half, which essentially decided the game. Still has the worst hands I have ever seen: early in the first quarter he secured a rebound and waited for everyone to clear. After they did, and Chalmers started walking over to get it, without any discernible motion at all the ball suddenly dislodged from Joel's grasp, upwards, where he struggled with it for a long moment before re-securing it and shoveling it over to a concerned Chalmers. "It's like he has natural butterfingers," observed Mami.
3) Good to see that Memo Okur has lost 15 pounds and grown a pointy goatee. Now looks approximately like a Dutch gingerbread house maker.
4) Utah - we all agree, a completely annoying place to play. They are physical, refs fear for their lives because, well, they are in Utah, and Jerry Sloan and the entire Church of the LDS are screaming at them, and it is usually just an all-around bad experience. Still, perhaps the most annoying thing is the new bell that they sound after every basket. It is a shrill, old-timey bell, like the bell that goes off when you get the duck to the top of the watergun race at the county fair. Every basket. One more reason to hate Utah.
5) A slowed Deron Williams tried to get to the basket late in the game and drew a charge, plowing over the perfectly positioned Udonis Haslem. "It's like he has radar to know where that charge line is, Eric," crowed color commentator extraordinaire Tony Fiorentino. "Yes, radar - or he just looks down," opined Mami. On a related note - it seems so easy to take a charge. See the guy coming, stand out in front of the line, let the guy run in to you. Udonis, the best charge taker on the Heat, draws 50 or so a year, and is always amongst the league leaders. Mike Beasley hasn't drawn one this year, and not for a lack of trying. He has tried maybe 12 times in their 19 games and every time the foul, rightfully, has gone against him. Usually the problem is that he doesn't above the line, but sometimes he is sliding, sometimes he turns and doesn't quite take it square. It just goes to show that it is a skill and, perhaps, not as easy as it appears - let's hope it is a learnable skill, for Mike Beasley's sake.
6) Good to see the Senator, Michael Doleac, at the game. He has a championship ring from the '06 squad, and is one of the most likable guys ever to lace them up for the Heat. Said he has changed his mind about going to medical school and now is going to get his master's degree and do some coaching. Said he is enjoying life away from the game, spending more time with his family, and that he keeps in close - almost constant - contact with his good, good friend Antoine Walker...
