6 Thoughts
1) So much of the NBA is timing. Denver came in to Miami in the middle of a long early season East coast road swing, got in to Miami - and South Beach - the day before the game, and was undefeated on the season at 5-0. Easy for them to take a night off. Which they did. And Miami drilled them - up 12 at halftime, up 26 in the third quarter, easy, easy win. Only a meaningless fourth quarter run by the Denver backups made the score look respectable. The Heat are off to a quick and surprising 5-1 start themselves. Things will always get tougher in the NBA - put the wins in the bank when you can...
2) Denver decided that Dwyane Wade was not going to beat them. They doubled him hard off of every pick-and-roll, and forced him to give the ball up. He had a quiet 22 on 6-17 shooting. But the attention paid to Wade opened up the court for everyone else. Jermaine O'Neal (18 on 8-11), Chalmers (16 on 6-9, 4-5 threes), Quentin Richardson (13), and Haslem (11), all found room and efficiently made open shots.
3) Q Rich again was fabulous. Had 9 more rebounds to go with his 13 points - that's 28 rebounds in the last three games for a guy who is 6'5", and who is defending the opponent's best perimeter scorer every night, regardless of position. Took Carmelo Anthony, the league's most fluid scorer, all night long, and made it more difficult than Melo's 30 on 12-22 would appear. Hounded him all night long - hounded. That Dan-Majerle-I-am-going-to-stand-chest-to-chest-with-you-in-your-airspace-every-time-you-touch-the-ball-all-night kind of defense. Impressive. Nuggets coach George Karl said it best before the game: "It looks like Q has re-dedicated himself to basketball." Nice early story.
4) Mike Beasley was brutal tonight. Exchanged several emails this week with Supercool's biggest European fan, Faither from Scotland, who has the only Scottish Heat blog in captivity. We'll put the link up in a day or two. He acknowledged that while Haslem is playing great (4th double-double of the season tonight - off the bench!), it is arguably more important for the Heat's future that Mike learns to play and finish games. Can't disagree. But Mike played his way off the court tonight - 7 points on 3-8 shooting, and only 3 boards in 31 minutes. Had two horrifically careless turnovers and, midway through a meaningless 4th quarter, let himself get bulldogged and posted under the rim by Nugget scrub Joey Graham, who finished, which enraged Coach Spo, who took an immediate timeout, and glared Beas to a seat on the bench for the rest of the night. Didn't look engaged for the first time all season. Discouraging evening for the man with the red braids.
5) We got a million emails from readers this week, especially some of our favorite readers. Good suggestions for music to listen to and review, ideas for blog features, etc. We are going to get to all of them. I mean, maybe. We will try. But it is great to get the suggestions, always, they always make me smile. We have the coolest readers. Sorry if that was gay. Keep sending the emails.
6) Okay - I have decreed that any night you tattoo an undefeated team that was in a conference finals last year, that's a booty night, so I have to bounce. But quickly, we had this week-long debate at Dos Headquarters on Al Pacino. Finally decided that the most cringe-worthy Pacino "performance" ever was in Sea of Love. He plays a cop with an edgy dark side who barks everything he says just like Al Pacino, and likes to ham it up in front of the camera, while Ellen Barkin plays a woman with a broken nose who is inexplicably so attracted to wrinkly, leather-skinned old guys like Pacino that she has to attack him like a mongoose in heat, much to all viewers' chagrin. Several times, by the way. If you find that movie sexy, boy, I don't what to tell you...Time to go - "M.Minutos, turn the bed down, I'm coming in for a landing like Pacino, hoo-ha!!"
