6 Thoughts
1) Puh - Lay - Offs! Miami clinches a playoff spot tonight after winning only 15 games last year. It's not that uncommon to win 15 or fewer games in a season, then make the playoffs the next season- the 1968-9 San Diego Rockets also did it.
2) It wasn't easy. Miami came out flat in Charlotte against a frisky Bobcat team which has played well (27-23) after a dreadful start to the season. Got down 24-8 early, before the bench came in and starting grinding, especially Beasley and Daequan Cook. The Beas Markie did a little of everything, 6 quick points, a couple of steals, a block, and some general stick-to-it-tive-ness. Cook had 5 points and 5 boards in the second quarter. Down 45-42 with 20 seconds to go in the half, Charlotte with ball and running the clock down for the last shot, Wade stole the ball with 6 seconds left, took a quick check of the clock, and steamed upcourt with a gaggle of Bobcats giving chase. Just as he got to the lane to take on the entire Charlotte team by himself, he suddenly stopped and pitched the ball back out to a trailing, wide open Emcee Chalmers, who caught the ball in stride, stopped, and nestled a three pointer in the net as the halftime buzzer sounded. Tie game, and the Heat bounced to the locker room feeling good...
3) Bizarre series of minutes early in the 4th quarter kicked off when Udonis Haslem went up to block a shot and whacked his hand on the backboard, splitting his thumb open. I hate it when I do that. Went to the locker room to be attended to. Beasley came in for him, and two possessions later turned his ankle slightly, and he limped off to the locker room. A minute after that, with those two guys still back there, Jermaine O'Neal, incredibly, rolled his ankle, and joined the other two in the locker room. That's just under 21 feet and 34 million dollars worth of forwards back there at once. Beasley came back first and played down the stretch, making, possibly, the two biggest plays of the game. One, a baseline jumper off a Wade drive and kick with a minute and a half to go put the Heat up 3. On the ensuing possession, after a Bobcat offensive rebound, he got caught on a defensive switch guarding ultra-quick Bobcat rookie point guard DJ Augustine, who lined Beas up, rocked him, and then tried to blow by him to the rim. Beas moved the feet just enough to slide with him and tip Augustine's scoop shot away and off the backboard, and Jermaino, also back in, corralled the loose ball. Ballgame - playoffs! A certain mutant sect of Heat fans think Beasley is somehow being stifled by Eric Spoelstra and deserves to play down the stretch of every game, regardless of his general readiness. They're about to get their wish because Udonis took several stitches to the thumb and looks to be out a week or more. Beas looked good tonight - 14 points on 7-9 shooting in 27 minutes. Let's see him get after it.
4) Significant rotation change in the second half. Jamario Moon, who has been invisible in recent games (0 points, 0 rebounds in 7 first half minutes tonight) was benched to start the second half. Enter proverbial thorn-in-Dos-Minutos'-side James Jones at small forward...Aaaannnnddd...he was terrible! That's a surprise. One, his Bobcat small forward counterpart, Gerald Wallace, spent the third quarter catching the ball and making a beeline for the basket like Bristol Palin's baby-daddy Levi Johnston made a beeline for the door the moment Obama won Pennsylvania at approximately 8:00:01 pm on election night. Gone! Like the wind! Godspeed Gerald Wallace and Levi Johnston! Wallace finished with 21 points on 8-12 shooting, Johnston with his sanity and a life. Two, not only is Jones not knocking down enough open shots - his supposed primary skill - he is sometimes passing up open rhythm shots that others are working to get him, dribbling or passing into worse situations. That mucks up an offense. Three...there is no three. We mostly just wanted to shoehorn the Levi Johnston thing in there - that kid is a pisser!
5)Daequan Cook was huge in victory, as he often was before the All-Star break. 16 points on 4-5 threes and 7 rebounds in 34 minutes. He is also Miami's toughest and most consistent wing defender. And versatile - he is quick enough to guard point guards, and strong enough to end Gerald Wallace's free runs to the hoop. If there is anything curious that Coach Spo has done this season, it is reduce DCook's minutes over the last month, in a desperate attempt to get either James Jones or the now-thankfully-injured Luther Head going. On the other hand, you never know what is going on in practices, etc - maybe DCook had to earn his way back on to the court and wasn't showing enough. Whatever, he has been back and playing well over the past week.
6) Lost didn't Tivo this week for whatever reason, so I had to watch it a night later on ABC.com. Spent some time on the Sawyer Nickname Generator and came up with the following list of nicknames. Or, rather, Sawyer came up with them:
M. Minutos - "Sunshine"
Dwyane Wade - "Madame Butterfly"
The Plumber - "Grimace"
Eric Reid (the announcer) - "Moonbeam"
Eric Reid (the-reader-of-Dos-husband) - "Snuffy"
The Captain - "Chicken Little"
Thor - "Tattoo"
Levi Johnston - "Tracker"
Mike Crapo - "The Crap Master" (from the Dos Minutos Nickname Generator)
It is amazing how even with such limited information - basically you input a person's general height, skin tone, and personality type - Sawyer was able to nail it so frequently. M.Minutos is like a ray of sunshine, DWade does fly with beauty and grace, Thor loves tattoos, especially the real gully jailhouse ink kind, etc. One further note- when you enter the person's personality type, you have to pick from a list that includes like smart, or thoughtful, or slow, etc - there's like 6 choices. For Levi Johnston I went with "impulsive," because, you know...ahhh, you know.
