6 Thoughts
1) Well...where's all the Mike Beasley supporters now? Where they at? Pipe up, pipe up, make yourself heard. Tough to hear you over the bus that just ran over him, backed up, and ran over him again - I think that might have been your bandwagon's bus, by the way. A game Miami really, really needed, at home, against a team they are battling for a playoff spot, without Dwyane Wade again. I'm not saying the Heat should have won without Dwyane - but at least it would have been nice if Mike showed up. 10 points on 5-14 for Mike in 31 mostly invisible minutes. If Dwyane Wade leaves this offseason, don't underestimate this brutal stretch from Beasley with Wade out as a potential factor - pick it up, Mike, you don't want to be the franchise killer...
2) "Okay, Rafer, bring it up the left side, swing it to Daequan, then look for a dump down to J.O. J.O., if they double hard, spit it quick; if they don't, try to get middle. Then reverse the ball quickly, and somebody please pass it to Mike so he can toss up a half-hearted, flat-footed wing jump shot, watch it rattle off the rim, then shuffle back down court while Luc Mbah a Moute beats him to the rim, catches a pass in stride, and flushes it with authority. One, two, three - break!"
3) Miami has now fallen out of playoff position. They are currently ninth, and fading fast. Realistically, they are right around where they were expected to be, a game under .500. But, Milwaukee (winners of 6 straight), Chicago, and Toronto have all played very well after slow starts. Charlotte, in a virtual deadlock with Miami, started slow, revved up, and have now come back to earth. It looks like 42 wins (out of 82) is necessary to get in to the playoffs. Miami is 29-30, with an almost certain loss in Orlando tomorrow night, with or without Wade. If DW doesn't get back soon, it could look grim - quick, fast, in a hurry!
4) Even the normally unflappable Tony Fiorentino let the poor performance get to him. Began the second half by grousing to Eric Reid that the Miami Herald had not listed Sunday night's game in Orlando as being on Sunsports, but "contrary to what you might read, Eric, it is. How hard is it to put that in the newspaper?" Grump-pee! It is the angriest I have heard Tony since...well, I guess last week, when he took offense to Charles Barkley calling Wade's supporting cast "a bunch of Tito Jacksons." The NBA can be a long, long season, and when things are going badly, it can be frustrating, even for the announcers...
5) On a happier note: it was Kids Day at the Heat's house, and several youngsters participated in the broadcast. The young kid from Belle Glade who interviewed President Obama - and Udonis Haslem - last year was on hand to interview Dwyane Wade and asked him if he could borrow the keys to his proverbial "house." "Nah," said Dwyane, "we ain't that close." The halftime participants on a special edition of "Hot Seconds with Jax" were Jax's kids, Justin and Jordan. They ended up in a tie when Justin, or was it Jordan, - the older one - could only name three songs off Mike Jackson's "Thriller" instead of the necessary four. "P.Y.T.," kid - totally underrated! O.Minutos was impressed with the pair, and P.Minutos instantly demanded that his daddy change jobs to go work for the Heat. I pointed out that it would require a lot of travel and time away from home on my part - I think they took that as an additional selling point. Best of all: the Heat starters were introduced in the pre-game graphics with photos of them as children. Either Rafer Alston's picture was from an older age than the rest of the guys; or, he had a moustache when he was eight.
6) Look, I know a lot of people want to hear about my trip to see the Dalai Lama, but what can I say: he is a chill dude, Phil and I had a great time, and I saw a 42 year old man in a Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt try to make a citizens arrest on another dude for throwing his cigarette butt on the ground before the show in front of the arena. In terms of what he played, he opened with his Cat Stevens "Moonshadow/Peace Train" medley, cranked it up with his blistering version of Seger's "Feel Like a Number," and brought the house down with a racous, guitar-heavy cover of "Sussudio." He's been playing the same show without change essentially since 1959, but somehow it still works. Read more at jamiereviewsthedalailama.com. What I really want to talk about is bobsledding. I just watched the Americans win a bobsledding gold medal for the first time in 62 years. The driver of the car - and by the way, I didn't even realize bobsledding had a driver, I thought you just sat there and slid down the ice - was a guy named Steven Holcomb, who was a fascinating fellow. First of all, he almost had to quit the sport a year ago because he had a degenerative eye condition and could no longer see the track - by the way, he didn't stop driving bobsleds as his vision worsened, according to NBC. One day he showed up and told the coach, "hey, coach, I have to stop driving the bobsled because I can't see the track anymore." That had to make the other guys who had been riding those last few months in his sled feel secure! Then he had a surgical procedure not yet approved in America, and suddenly he could see again - which he said hurt his driving because he could see where he was going too well. Okay, great. Best of all, he is a 'husky' kind of fellow - I wouldn't say he was in great shape - and bobsledding suits are really, really tight. I mean, really tight. I don't know where he was planning to put that gold medal for the ride back to the Olympic Village, but I don't think there was any room left in his pockets. Goodness gracious! Let's back the camera up a little bit, NBC, I feel just like I did the night I saw Janet Jackson's boob at the Superbowl, except the exact opposite...I have to be honest with you, I'm still a little shaken up. I'm going to take a shower...
See you tomorrow night in Orlando.
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