6 Thoughts
1) The Heat break a three game losing streak with a tenuous win at home over New Orleans without their best player, point guard Chris Paul. If you want to make the playoffs, you can't lose home games to middling teams playing without their best player. Miami blew two double digit halftime leads, got down by 4 late, and clawed back to win. Now 8-5 - it wasn't pretty, but it's in the bank.
2) Former New York Knick coach, and current ABC announcer, Jeff Van Gundy like to say the NBA is a "make or miss" league. In the last minute of the game, Udonis Haslem made an open 12 foot baseline jumper - his signature shot - to tie the game at 100. Hornets rookie Marcus Thornton made just 1-2 free throws to give the Hornets a 1 point lead. Udonis then made a double clutch, leaning, legs-splayed, elbow jumper - off the glass - to put the Heat up one with 20 seconds to go. After a timeout, the Hornets cleared out the top and let their best player, power forward David West, go one-on-one with Jermaine O'Neal. West pulled up from 18, pump faked Jermaino part of the way by, leaned out to elude JO's effort to recover, and fired a miss off the rim - ball game. Make or miss league.
3) Speaking of the aforementioned Thornton, a rookie from LSU, he took the "I Hate What They Did To Me" performance - the phenomenon in which a player whom a team traded comes back and haunts his former team for the rest of his career - to a whole new level. Named, of course, after former Heat power forward Kurt Thomas, whom Miami traded after a promising rookie season for Jamal Mashburn. Thomas say out nearly two full years with a broken foot after the trade, only to emerge in the late 90s as a primary nemesis on the arch rival Knicks, announcing his arrival to town for one game by proclaiming "I hate what they did to me." Thomas is still playing, by the way, at the approximate age of 50 - one can only imagine it is to get one more shot in at the Heat some way, some how. In any case, Thornton was drafted by the Heat in the second round this past summer, specifically for New Orleans, who coveted him, and immediately swapped two future second round picks for him. He spent approximately seventy seconds in the Heat organization. And yet, here he was tonight, apparently hating what we did to him, scoring 24 points on 5-7 threes. Imagine what he would have done if they hadn't traded him until the next day.
4) Mario Chalmers strung together his second excellent game in a row after scoring a career high 30 Friday. Tonight it was 12 points on 5-8 shooting, with 9 assists against just 1 turnover. More importantly, he aggressively sought out plays, driving in the paint looking to finish or dish - it was no accident that Haslem's game winning jumpers both came off passes from Emcee after penetration. The Heat organization spent all summer defending Chalmers, and their decision not to pursue a veteran point guard to supplant him - before this weekend, that decision looked questionable at best. These last two games, Chalmers finally started to look like he may yet justify their confidence in him. He is quick, he is a good ballhandler, a good shooter, and a fairly solid decision maker. They need him - desperately - to make plays off the dribble, if only to give Dwyane Wade an occasional rest. Keep it going, Mario.
5) Chris Paul, sidelined by a sprained ankle, was resplendent in a houndstooth sport coat over a crisp white dress shirt on the Hornet bench. Look endorsed by Dos and O.Minutos, panned by M.Minutos, who is disinclined to like anything Paul does because she considers him "snerdy" - a specific combination of snide and nerdy (black guys only). Also warrants mentioning he once, with extreme petulance, punched an opponent in the breadbasket in college - during a game, on purpose. One of the highlights of that, or any other, college basketball season...
6) Okay, so someone wrote in to ask me: "what do you think about Oprah leaving her show?" What? Oprah still has a show? I must be missing, like, the last 22 seasons on DVD...
