6 Thoughts
1) Ahhh, life on the NBA road - brutal! You have to be tough, tough, tough to get enough stops on the road to win, and Miami wasn't up to it tonight - Toronto shot 57% from the floor, and outrebounded Miami by 11. That was the ballgame right there. People who think NBA players don't play hard - damn, is that misguided. So, so hard to get stops on the road...Damaging loss - Miami slips behind Toronto into 6th place in the East...Special kudos to the whole city of Toronto, by the way: don't remember hearing Biggie's "Juicy" during an NBA game before. Love. It.
2) By the way, it is especially difficult to get stops on the road when the other team has a 7'0" long-armed Italian with a feathery touch and a series of crafty moves in the mid-post, and they keep tossing him the ball, and he turns around with it, surveys the court for about 7 seconds, then just raises the ball above his head, goes up on his tippy-toes, and strokes in a jumper, while Heat defenders waive their hands at him in vain. Damn you, Andreas Bargiani! He had 27 tonight, on 13-19. Could. Not. Be. Stopped. Did. Not. Touch. The. Net. Imp. Press. Ive.
3) Dwyane Wade is back into Ridiculous Dwyane Wade mode: 35 points and 10 assists tonight with approximately 3-5 Raptors guarding him at all times. Embarrassed by giving the game against Cleveland away on Monday, he killed himself trying to get the win - never came out in the second half, which was essential with Mike Beasley's injury - we'll get to that in a second. He's at 32 a game on 58% shooting over the last 4, with over 8 assists a game. That's absurd - 58%, and he's 6'4" at best. Someone please help Dwyane Wade...
4) His uncomfortable sidekick Mike Beasley got injured tonight. Like you, I felt like Mike Beasley was indestructible - or, at least, impervious to injury since he doesn't run fast enough or jump high enough to sustain any kind of significant damage on a basketball play. However, midway through the first quarter, on a rare set back-door alley-oop play for Beas, even slower-footed and more land-locked Raptor small forward Hedo Turkoglu stumbled into Supercool's back, crashing him to the floor, sort of. Again, neither was too high, or moving too fast, so "crash" is a relative term. Hyperextended knee - Mike tried to come back in the second quarter, but looked a little sore, and took the rest of the night off. Watching the Heat without Mike makes it easier to understand Mike's skills and value to the team. One gets the sense that the second unit might never score a basket without him on the court - it justifies Coach Spo's need to play him those minutes, even if it means sometimes sacrificing his minutes at the very end in favor of Udonis...In any case, let's hope Mike is a fast healer. He only missed one game last year, when he had flu-like symptoms, which he attributed to a lot of time spent with his dog, who may or may not have also had flu-like symptoms...
5) Speaking of Hedo Turkoglu - ugghh. 1-5 for 6 points and 4 rebounds in 31 minutes. Shooting a miserable 40% from the floor so far this year in his new home, and he's on the wrong side of 30. Luckily, Toronto only owes him forty million more over the next four years after this one. Oh my goodness. If they lose Bosh this offseason because they don't have the cap room to get him more help, and they are stuck with Hedo, that's probably not going to be a real good feeling.
6) People who know me know that, against all odds, flying in the face of all conventional logic, I love Tim Tebow! Sounds like he is supporting "my" side in the "parking in Amerika" issue.
"I know some people won't agree with it," said Tebow of the 30-second ad at a press conference in Mobile, Ala., on Sunday, in preparation for next weekend's Senior Bowl. "But I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe. I've always been very convicted because that's the reason I'm here, because my mom was a very courageous woman."
Love that story - almost parable-esque. The Man tried to make his mom park somewhere, and she wasn't having it. I can respect that. He is talking about parking, right?
Okay, back Friday night with a game in Detroit, followed by a game Saturday in Milwaukee - yes, it is the "Crappy Cities in Amerika Weekend Tour!" and I hear they are especially lovely at this time of year. Kind of need to get those two. See you then...
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