6 Thoughts
1) Good evening. And, to our foreign readers, "g'day, mates!" Last night we had a little problem with the officiating in Charlotte, but tonight Miami shot 35 free throws to the Clippers 13 - heck, Dwyane Wade shot 17 all by himself. The Heat won easily, clinging to a playoff spot at 33-32. Now that's how we like to get down!
2) Now, sixty games into the season, Coach Eric Spoelstra has decided to remove backups Daequan Cook and Joel Anthony from the rotation, and replace them with James Jones and The Big Cat, Jamal Magloire. As play-by-player Eric Reid loves to point out, those two - at least tonight - displayed their "staying-readiness." Jones, fresh off of cooking chicken and shrimp burritos for a halftime segment last week, dropped 3 triples in 16 minutes, and Cat had 6 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in only 18 minutes. It was his best game of the year - he was a presence inside, throwing his elbows around with abandon. Subsequently made an appearance in the Sunsport Lounge with Jax, where it sounded like he was advocating intentional decapitation for anyone that ventures near him while is claiming rebounds - you don't need to tell that to Mario Chalmers who was nearly killed by Cat on a second quarter attempt to track down a loose shot. I don't know if Miami is going to make the playoffs, but I know if we keep playing Cat Magloire down the stretch, someone is going to get hurt, and it probably isn't Cat Magloire...
3) I can't be positive, but it looked like, for three and a half quarters, Clipper point guard and "leader" Baron Davis was willfully trying not to shoot the ball. Davis is an incredibly talented combination of quickness, strength, and ballhandling ability, and while he is not a consistent shooter, he is usually a volume shooter. Tonight, he mostly bounced the ball aimlessly around on the perimeter, and only a flurry of late shots after the game was decided brought his total of attempts to 11 - and only 1 free throw. He was held out of the starting lineup in the previous night's ball game for missing shoot-around earlier in the day. Maybe this was his retaliation, or maybe he is just getting old and can't bring it back-to-back anymore. It has been a curious career for Baron, marked with considerable inconsistency - this was just one more odd stop along the road...
4) Clipper coach Mike Dunleavy resigned his coaching duties recently to concentrate solely on his other job within the organization, being the General Manager. Guess he should have held on to the coaching gig, because yesterday he got fired as G.M. Whoops! Whatever - it is the worst franchise in sports over the last three decades - is there even another candidate? Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino talked about the transition that interim coach Kim Hughes has had to make since moving up from his assistant role to replace Dunleavy. "It's a lot different," Tony told Eric, "as a head coach, you have a lot more doodies." Wait - what? Oh, oh - duties...By the way, I'm not positive, but isn't "Kim" a girl's name?
5) Great idea from M.Minutos tonight: she has requested an "all Quentin Richardson" blog one game. The Pres dropped two more triples tonight - still workin' - and he is more popular nowhere in the land than in Casa Minutos. So, I think that's coming. Just be aware.
6) "Hey, Ben - Roethlisberger - it's me, Tiger...Yeah, what the hell is with all the freaky crap? Can't you keep it in your pants?"
-----
Friday night: huge, huge game against the Chicago Bulls - and, by the way, I don't want to get anyone all excited, but it will the 100th straight Heat game I will have watched in its entirety. I mean, if I live that long. See you then - maybe...
-----
