6 Thoughts
1) For the second time this year, brutally beat down by Denver. Miami came out for the opening tip with the intensity level dialed up to approximately zero, got down 16, and stayed there for most of the game. Wade brought them back early in the third and back-to-back threes by Chalmers cut the lead to 5 midway through the quarter, but they could never get over the hump. Chalmers was schooled most of the night by Chauncey Billups, who had 23 points, 5 assists, and completely controlled the flow of the game on both ends of the floor. He dominated the game.
2) Miami absolutely got killed inside where Nene, Carmelo Anthony, and, especially, Kenyon Martin, threw their weight around on both ends of the court. Forty-two minutes of center play between Joel Anthony and Jamal Magloire produced a grand total of zero points on one shot - that's hard to believe. Factor in a non-productive 33 minutes from Udonis Haslem (6 points, 4 boards), and it made for a miserable night. It was a night where a lack of size and athleticism upfront was too much to overcome.
3) 27-24 with one game left before the all-star break, Thursday in Chicago, against a Bulls team trying to climb back in to the playoff picture (4.5 games behind Miami, but 1 game out of the eighth and final playoff spot). Big game.
4) We neglected to mention in our most recent blogs that Dos reader, and non-ballplayer, Thor made a visit to Dos Hacienda over the weekend. Promptly missed his first dozen or so shots at the new backboard and was in the midst of having his jump shot compared unfavorably to 6 year old O. Minutos when he suddenly flashed in to the lane, received a pass going directly away from the basket, and flung a 11 foot swish blindly back in over his head. He has, upon reflection, modestly dubbed it "the shot of the century." Also took the time to complain that the shot was not mentioned in this very blog - we have rectified that tonight.
5) Also displeased with some of the going-ons lately, The Captain, who complained about us missing Sunday night's Bobcat victory due to a Tivo malfunction:
Dear Dos,
I am proposing that we take up a collection around the Dos Minutos office so that you can pay your satellite TV bill. I hate seeing that Deluxe NBA package going to waste. I don't have time to watch all of the Miami Heat games, what with working the door at the Booby Trap during the week and as a valet parking attendant at Rachel's on the weekends so that I can afford to make 3 alimony payments monthly and still have some cake left to chase tail on South Beach, so I really depend on your spot-on analyses following the games.
Maybe if you would stop spending all of your money on Swedish massages and Turkish baths and Vietnamese manicures and Cuban cigars and Mexican agave, you wouldn't have these "tivo incidents."
Dos answers: "I don't have the NBA package this year. Not enough time to stay up to all hours of the night watching west coast games. No comment on all other charges."
6) After the recent A-Roid revelations, if there is still anyone who believes that the second greatest power hitting shortstop of all-time, Mr. Cal Ripken, didn't also use steroids despite posting heretofore unprecedented power numbers for his position, exhibiting early male pattern baldness, never missing a game for approximately twenty straight seasons, and playing with several other known steroid users, I have some additional expenditures on the economic stimulus package that I would like you to sign off on. Over time, I promise, they will more than pay for themselves...
Programming note: we should have post-game thoughts Thursday, as per normal, then plan to celebrate All-Star weekend with a long-awaited second list of "Ideas That Never, For One Reason Or Another, Made It In To The Blog."
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