6 Thoughts
1) Mike Beasley. That's how we do. THAT'S HOW WE DO!!! It wasn't just 27 and 8. It was a scoring clinic. Cutting to open spaces in and around the lane, receiving balls, making short jumpers over the big guy help. Clearing out sides against slower defenders, waiting for room, driving, drawing fouls. Accepting double teams when they couldn't guard him with one guy, throwing ambidextrous passes over the defense to weak side shooters. Driving at Greg Oden, taking the bump, flipping the ball in with his right hand. I'm not saying he has it figured out - but his last five games he's at 18 and 9 in 34 minutes a night. Decision making. The best player on the floor tonight, on the West Coast, against a deep, good team. Decision making.
2) Hey, Portland star Brandon Roy, you sneering, sanctimonious, underathletic, overdribbling, pseudo-superstar? How'd it feel to have your crap handed to you by The President? P.Q., back in the lineup tonight with the back feeling better, harassed Roy into a 9-25 shooting night. Q with 20 of his own, on 4 triples, and three "big kid style, stop me if you can" postup hoops.
3) Big win. Start of a brutal 4 game West Coast trip. Back-to-backer Thursday and Friday against Denver and L.A. 10-7 on the year - not coming home under .500.
4) Looming Sunday - the annual trip to Sacramento. There is one thing that Heat announcers Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino hate: road trips to Sacramento. Last season, Reid openly wished for a plane crash on the trip to that game. Didn't mention it by name tonight, but spent approximately 14 minutes extolling the virtues of Portland: "A jewel of the Northwest. Plenty to do - and a great place to do it in!" I wish someone would trade Brandon Roy to Sacramento.
5) Juwan Howard sighting. JUWAN HOWARD SIGHTING! Still in the NBA! Still alive! Unstoppable with 12 first half points, when forced into action by foul trouble. Less good in the second half when Mike Beasley lit him up like a Moorish Menorah. Good to see him, though.
6) Album review: XX by The XX. Sounds like: if your kid brother and sister, who are teenagers, love The Cure and Elliot Smith, and are virgins, learned how to play a bass guitar, kind of, and use a drum machine, sort of, and then made an album. Delicious. On a scale of 1 to 10: 10.
Next game: Thursday in Denver. Late again. Don't look now, but the Dos streak is at 17 games. Last year: career high 79 of 82 games - God bless Tivo. West Coast trips are tough - let's see how we do.
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