1) Okay, okay, okay, All-Star break is over, time for the stretch run, get your mind right, more importantly, keep your mind right. After tonight's blowout win on the road against Philadelphia, Miami is 27-27, bunched right in a group for the last couple of Eastern Conference playoff spots, and finally has the schedule turning somewhat in its favor. After a brutal stretch of road work, 15 of Miami's last 28 are at home. Okay, okay, okay, we are re-set for the stretch, let's do it...
2) The Sixers started the game by throwing the ball on the blocks to The Cadaver Formally Known as Elton Brand three straight times, against semi-engaged defender Mike Beasley, and watched Beasley block two Brand turnarounds and cause a turnover on the third possession. Beasley later had a near steal; corralled two defensive rebounds, only to immediately lose them; and flipped in a bizarre right-handed 9 foot runner in transition. Somehow, suddenly, Mike had become the epicenter of defensive resistance for the Heat - didn't see that coming. Back in the day, Brand against Beasley would have been a total mismatch in the Sixers favor. At this juncture of their careers, that's flipped the other way. Brand exhibited all the explosion off the floor of an English muffin, while Mike was doin' it all. Having said that, Mike has also been at the epicenter of numerous trade rumours this week as Miami reportedly tries to pry Phoenix All-Star Amare Stoudamire away from the Suns. Mike is my boy - just check the pictures on the home page of this blog - but if I can get Amare Stoudamire for him, I'll drive his stash out to Phoenix. Not sure how much will actually make it there, though...
3) Dwyane Wade, of course, was the MVP of the All-Star Game over the weekend in Dallas, much to the delight of Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban, who helped Cowboy owner Jerry Jones host the weekend in Cowboys Stadium. Wade had 28 points and 11 assists in the game - only two other players have ever gone over 25 and 10 in the All-Stars: Oscar Robertson, and Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas? Okay, maybe there are better lists to be on...I'm just saying...Wade had an easy night, took the 4th quarter off with Miami up 30, and cruised in with a relaxed 24, 6, and 6.
4) Sandwiched around the All-Star break, this was Miami's third straight win, getting them back to .500 after things were looking very, very bleak. For those who like to kill Coach Spo when things are going poorly, give him some credit now - he's made two definitive changes which have worked well in these last three games. One, he is now playing Jermaine O'Neal at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters when Wade is on the bench, allowing Jermaino to be the focal point of the offense in Wade's absence, rather than Mike Beasley. 20 points on 10-15 for Jermaino, who clearly had his mind right, although he seemed grouchy at times - a lot of chirping at the Sixer bench after baskets. With Wade resting, Miami's second unit - featuring Jermaino - pushed a 2 point lead out to 13 by the time Wade got back. Two, the Heat is mixing their defense a little more, showing more zone, showing a little more full court pressure - especially with the second unit, when it is particularly effective against lesser offensive players. Good strategic adjustments by Spo.
5) The game was a blowout, so we are leaving it one spot early. Just keep your mind right, got another game tomorrow in New Jersey, and the Nets will be feeling good after a surprising win in Charlotte this evening. So...went to Animal Kingdom this past weekend - that's in Disney World for you non-Florida readers. Met up with our favorite Dos Minutos reader, Dirk - also, not just a reader, but a dear, dear friend. A fun weekend was had by all, except for five year old P.Minutos who, unfortunately, has a father to whom it never occurred during the 45 minutes he waited in line to ride a Yeti-themed roller coaster - the wait punctuated the entire time by the distant screams from terrified riders on the mountain - that it might be a little intense for a five year old. Man, when that little cart came to a stop at an 80 degree pitch in front of a giant, roaring animatronic Yeti, only to suddenly back up at 110 miles an hour in the pitch dark, bobbing and weaving the whole way, that was not an experience that P.Minutos enjoyed. When we came out of the dark momentarily and I saw his little face wide-eyed in absolute terror, just before we were plunged back into darkness, I could only think one thing: "Oops." On the second thought - Get your mind right, P.Minutos, it's only animatronics, high speeds, and darkness!
6) Okay, so, we have a lot of readers here now - well, by "a lot," I mean more than when we started, but less than a million - and almost all them think we are wrong about everything. We love Coach Spo; many, many readers hate Coach Spo. We love Mike Beasley; many, many readers hate Mike Beasley, but ironically, many, many other readers hate us, because we don't love Mike Beasley enough. Okay. We had one reader assert for like twenty straight games that Dwyane Wade stinks, and another reader claim we should trade Wade and build the team around Mike Beasley. Also, almost no reader liked any of the Rejected Blog Topics, or at least had suggestions on how to improve them - except for the website that tells you what clothes to wear to a concert, which everybody loved, and which wasn't even a Dos idea - it was Dos' favorite reader Thor. Having said all that, there is one thing no one ever questions - with good reason - and that is our command of What White People Do. No one, and I mean no one, has demonstrated as comprehensive and nuanced an understanding of What White People Do than we have here at Dos Minutos. And, what, you may ask, do white people do? I thought I told you that before: they rise to the top, suffer a crippling set-back (crippling only in their own minds - I mean they are successful white guys, how bad could it be), and go into a period in which they "search for themselves." And how do they search for themselves? They grow Troubled White Guy Beards!
Notable examples -
Luke Perry, post-90210 (aka, post-career):
Ben Affleck, post-J.Lo, and suffering through a period as Leading-Hollywood-Liberal-Du-Jour during the second Bush Reich:
And, of course, the most poignant example of all, Ryan Gosling, in the greatest movie ever made, if you take out the parts with the old people, The Notebook, in which he stars as a poor townie who falls in love with Rachel McAdams, only to have her go away to get engaged to a rich guy, sending the dreamy Gosling into a dashingly bearded tail-spin. And, listen, if I get one more email telling me "it's just a movie," I am going to come to your house and smack you in the mouth. It's not just a movie, not to me...
So, clearly, we all should have been on the lookout, we all should have seen this coming...but we didn't. When I say "get your mind right, keep your mind right," this is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about:
Damn you, Jay Leno!
See you tomorrow night in New Jersey...
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