6 Thoughts
1) Is there such a thing as a pitiful win? Because that was pitiful. Miami squeaked by a 17 win Warrior team missing three starters, and barely escaped when Anthony Morrow's wide open look at a 3, down 2, inside of a minute to go, missed. Eric Reid, Tony Fiorentino, DWade, and Carlos Arroyo all made excuses about how it is dangerous to play against a team missing players and out of the playoff race because they are loose. You know what else is dangerous? Coming out with the defensive intensity of a milk carton. Goodness gracious, that was a brutal win.
2) It was mostly Dwyane Wade who won the game, without a great deal of help. Dwyane had 35 points on a ridiculous 15-23, with 12 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals. Golden State didn't have anyone who could match up with him, and even if they did, it is even money Coach Don Nelson, who is the King of the Mail It In, and an absolute abomination to the sport of basketball, wouldn't play him. Over the last several years you couldn't possibly make less of an effort to win basketball games than Don Nelson has - he's a joke. Also worth mentioning, wore a dark burgundy t-shirt, fitting snugly over the giant man boobs, with a light gray suit jacket over it. It is a tossup as to what is worse, his coaching effort or his fashion "sense."
3) Change at the point guard spot: Rafer Alston started as usual, and played awfully again, especially on the offensive end. After 7 minutes he was gone - no return for Skip, and Carlos Arroyo started the second half. Carlos had 14, 5 and 5. Emcee Chalmers backed him up in the second half - Emcee was vaguely average. Carlos is the most efficient offensive point guard; Rafer is the best defender; Chalmers is second at both. None of them are starting NBA point guards - that's the problem. The Heat want Chalmers to blossom as a true NBA player, but his second year has been a step back. Odds are, Arroyo starts Tuesday with Emcee backing him up; but the move probably should be Arroyo as the starter, with Skip playing the backup minutes to give a defensive on-the-ball presence.
4) Beasley was okay - 15 points on only 6-14. Still looked indecisive and flat-footed. Wonder if the knee that he hyperextended a couple weeks back is still bothering him. He played only 21 minutes tonight - he is going to have to show more energy to push those minutes back up.
5) Okay, we got a good look at Warriors rookie Stephen Curry tonight. His dad, Dell, played in the NBA for a long time and was the best shooter that I have ever seen. If his jumper came out of his hand any softer, it would have been going backwards. His son Stephen is a little smaller and slighter than Dell was, but is also an incredible shooter, with a quick release, a deceptive handle, and a mature sense of how to run an offense from the point guard position. He had 18 points and 8 assists tonight on 7-17, after a slow start. Would easily be the best Heat point guard right now. Having seen all the NBA rookies multiple times, I don't think it is even close - I'd take Curry in a heartbeat. Tyreke Evans on Sacramento is going to win Rookie of the Year - he is a physical rock who bulls his way to rim at every opportunity, but I haven't seen him pass the ball yet. Not a guy you would want to play with. Brandon Jennings is a quicker point guard than Curry, but not in the same class as a shooter or scorer. Curry is the guy, for sure. Mature.
6) Several readers wrote in to ask if I watched the Gold Medal hockey game in the Olympics. Thanks for asking. Yes, yes I did - at least from the second period on. Not a hockey fan but loved the game, although in fairness, I did fall asleep with three minutes to go, the U.S. down one, and missed their pulled goalie miracle goal with 25 seconds left to force overtime. C'est la vie - at least I wasn't watching ice dancing. Woke up just as the puck was being dropped for overtime, so I saw the U.S. lose - never saw a team quite so excited over winning a hockey game. Guys, you know it's just hockey, right? My favorite U.S. player was Rick Nash, who was a big, physical, long-armed player with good puck skills, who seemed to control play every time he was on the ice. The Captain later pointed out that Nash was actually on Canada. Whatever - I still loved him. Cap and I spent much of the next day lamenting the good old days when the main U.S. rival in the Olympics - and in life - was the as-yet unbroken Soviet Union, when they wore the sweet red CCCP jerseys. It was a simpler time back then - we may have hated the USSR, and they hated us, but there existed the mutual understanding that always exists between white people. They are Slavic, I think - that is pretty much white, isn't it? We may have hated them, but we knew where they were coming from - from whiteness - and we assumed that they wouldn't do anything too crazy because of it, and vice versa. Now the world is far more confusing - we don't know what the hell these Chinese are going to do, let alone the Koreans, or radical, racial Islamic terrorists. That's why we are so jittery as a country these days - when you can't even trust your enemies, then what?
Thursday against the Lakers!
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