Look, there are very few rules here at Dos Minutos, but one of them is: Any time the Heat win a game on the road on a last second goaltending dunk by the highly polarizing Michael Beasley against a team that was in the Finals last year, and the game is televised live in Scotland - we go eight thoughts instead of the traditional six! International style! You feel me? Let's go!
8 Thoughts
1) Jason Williams, the starting point guard on the Heat's '06 Championship team, took last year off, and returned this season as Orlando's backup. Forced in to a starting role with Jameer Nelson injured, Williams blistered the Heat all night long: 25 points, 4-6 threes. Stepped to the line up 1 with 9 seconds to go, missed a pair. Miami called timeout, struggled to get the ball inbounds at halfcourt, then got it to DWade on the move. Wade got to the foul line, pulled up for a floater that looked to be drifting slightly wide left...and out of nowhere, Supercool Mike Beasley went up over the cylinder, grabbed the ball, and dunked it through the hoop with a second to go. Ballgame. Orlando protested the blatantly illegal basket vociferously - even Jermaine O'Neal, running downcourt to celebrate, kept looking back nervously over his shoulder for the basket to be waived off. Get on the bus, get out of town...Not sweating the call: President Quentin Richardson, out again with the tweaked back and resplendent in velvet, and again the first one to Dwyane Wade to celebrate the win. Somehow President Q always finds Wade before anyone else - after viewing tonight's rousing finish, M.Minutos has suggested a "President Cam" for a dedicated look at just how many bodies Q has to throw out of the way to get to Wade first...
2) But we digress. Best win of the year for Miami, which found itself down 11 on the road to the deepest roster in basketball with 8 minutes to go and Wade floundering with only 8 points. Coach Spo went Defcon 1: he moved Wade to point guard, inserting James Jones and Cook as shooters, with Jermaino and Haslem up front. Wade is, easily, the best point guard in basketball - only Chris Paul is remotely in the discussion. He is an outstanding ballhandler and has flawless court vision. Playing the point also allows him to survey the defense from the top to get his own offense. On this night? 16-0 run in three minutes, part of a 16 point individual fourth quarter from Wade. Time and again he does things not to be believed. He can't play point guard full time because he'd be out of gas by Christmas - but when times are tight, it is generally Miami's best lineup...Good move tonight by Spo.
3) Just thought we should mention here that James Jones fouled out with 9 seconds to play, precipitating the two aforementioned missed Jason Williams free throws. When Mike Beasley checked back into the game to replace Jones, with the Heat needing a bucket to win, someone at Casa Dos might have said, "this kid will never f-ing make a shot in a spot like this." I could be wrong, but it sounded a lot like someone might have said that. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't Scotland's Faither, who has been pleading with Coach Spo to play Beas at the end of games for over a year now. Hey, if he had known it was going to be this easy, he probably would have played him. Yet another example of why I love Scotland...
4) Jermaine O'Neal. I'm not going to say he outplayed Magic superstar Dwight Howard; but he played much harder than Magic superstar Dwight Howard, and produced 13 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks against Howard, who had 12, 16, and zero. A second quarter skirmish between the two, triggered by a Howard forearm shiver to Jermaino's chest, led to several minutes of "Tilt Jermaino," an alternate personality who voraciously pursues rebounds out of his area, and tries to drive the ball through Dwight Howard's considerable chest everytime he touches it. Surprisingly effective. As he stomped off the court with a minute to go in the half, "Tilt Jermaino" had a wild eyed smirk, bordering on psychotic. "That's a quiet look of contentment on Jermaine's face," opined Heat play-by-player Eric Reid, always one to take a "glass half-full" approach.
5) Okay, so we all remember last holiday season when former Heat forward Shawn "Bad Santa" Marion snapped at a girl to open the Christmas present he brought to her house as part of the Heat's community outreach program. Tonight's halftime featured a look at the Heat's annual Thanksgiving feast in Overtown, a poor section of Miami, always a highlight of any Heat fan's holiday season. Midway through the feast, Jermaino, engaged in a hotly contested game of Connect Four with a six year old girl, finally made his row, thrust his fists in the air and crowed, "I told you I am the champ at this!" Hey, these economically challenged six year old girls are never going to get anywhere if you coddle them. Later in the segment, Jermaino explained his perspective on the event, "anytime you can come out here and conversate with these people a little bit, that's a great thing." Just what I was thinking.
6) Same piece: not to get too wishy-washy, but Udonis Haslem demonstrated again why he is my favorite person who has ever played for the Heat. You could see him smiling, and taking the time to look each person who approached him right in the eye. He grew up in tough neighborhoods in Miami, and no player has ever been happier to win a title for his hometown than Udonis was is 2006...And he has been an absolute model citizen. Not only has Udonis never been in trouble, never complained about his role on the team, never caused any distraction of any kind - he's never even not played hard. Love UD.
7) Orlando came as close as you can get to a "whitewash" without getting it in the second quarter: four white guys (Redick, Gortat, Ryan Anderson, JWill), and one French black guy (Pietrus). A French black guy? Does that even really count as being black? It does? Mon Dieu - so close!
8) Okay, so The Captain and I are at Hooters last weekend watching Jimmy Johnson wrap up his fourth straight Nascar point championship, or whatever it is called - you know, car racing, the regular cars, not the little low ones with only one seat and your head out. So The Captain has a few too many cold ones and he is starting to get a little boorish - he hates Johnson, he likes Carl Edwards because he drinks milk and does a backflip off his car when he wins a race ("nothing wrong with a little flair," says The Cap). So this big redneck guy is like, Carl Edwards can't hold Johnson's jockstrap, but he is getting all technical, like, Don't you understand that Edwards can't drive with restrictor plates, and The Captain is like, Freak you. So eventually the redneck is like, Come say that to my face, so The Captain goes over to him, says, "Look, man, the fact that your mom and dad happened to conceive your pasty white ass on the hunk of soil known as the United States of America doesn't make you Luke Skywalker," grabs the guy's basket of wings, dumps it in his lap, turns on his heel, and leaves. My hero!
