6 Thoughts
1) First of all, I just watched the Heat score 76 points in a playoff game. Second of all, I was out in the Florida sunshine from 7:30 am - at P. and O.Minutos soccer games - until 6:30 pm, on a boat in the intercoastal and Peanut Island. Thirdly of all, I had several beers, and about 2 quarts of rum punch, along with three turkey sandwiches, and some fried chicken. I'm toast. Let's do this how we do this anyways...
2) I don't know who I hate more: Mike Beasley or ageless NBA ref Dick Bavetta. Okay, that's a total lie - it's Dick Bavetta, by a mile!!! I absolutely hate the NBA playoffs - I love making the playoffs, but I hate playing the playoffs. It's too intense for me, I can't take it. At least tonight, when M.Minutos and I saw Bavetta step on to the court, it removed all suspense from the game - we knew we would lose. It is waayyyy too hard for any road team to win a playoff game that Bavetta refs - he loves the happy roar of the home crowd waayyyyy too much. He's ninety - so arguably the happy roar of the home crowd is all he can hear. I am not even complaining - the Heat have won plenty of playoff games in Miami that Bavetta has reffed. But you're not beating Boston in Boston with Bavetta refereeing - everyone knows that. Boston shot 28 free throws, Miami shot 13 - that was pretty much the difference in the game. I'm pretty sure Baby Davis (7 free throws) didn't get fouled more in the game than Dwyane Wade (6 free throws), but as I said, I had several gallons of rum punch, and I am suffering from low-grade heat stroke, so who knows? It is worth mentioning that Dick Bavetta is so old and incompetent that you wouldn't even hire him to be a crossing guard in your neighborhood. You'd be like, No, no, he's way too old - he can't handle a crowd of second graders safely. Somehow, though, the NBA can't find anyone younger and more competent, though they claim they try year-after-year. M.Minutos wondered during the game if I could ever envision a time when Dick Bavetta is not referring NBA games. I can; unfortunately it is long, long after we are all dead...
3) Rarely has Udonis Haslem been madder than tonight. With the Heat on a Bavetta-assisted second half meltdown, and Udonis having a tough night overall, midway through the fourth quarter he had had enough of Celtic irritant Kevin Garnett. I have no problem with Garnett - he is a professional irritant, he pokes, he talks, he elbows, he agitates. It's what he does. He used to be a great player, but age and injuries have caught up to him. But he can still defend and irritate. Udonis got increasingly frustrated with Garnett poking him, and several times physically shoved Garnett away from him. So, late in the fourth quarter, when Kevin Garnett and The Pres, Quentin Richardson (excellent tonight by the way with 15 on 3-6 triples), went nose-to-nose, it was Udonis who came flying in and escalated the situation by getting in Garnett's face. The resulting mini-skirmish resulted in Garnett being ejected, and Udonis furiously trying to break free of the many arms holding him back to get at Garnett again. It would be nice to think that UD was trying to protect his teammate Q, but he wasn't - he was trying to kill Garnett for his own satisfaction! And, by the way, he would kill him.
4) Look, I always, always defend Coach Spo. His roster is smallish and under-athletic. For the Heat to win 47 games is a tribute to his ability to get them organized, with their minds right. But if he thinks it is appropriate to play Mike Beasley 32 minutes in a playoff game, he should be fired. I don't care who was in foul trouble. I can't even imagine what Spo has been watching the past two months. If you feel like you can't start UD because it would break up the rythym, fine, start Mike, but yack him quick - you can't leave him out there for extended stretches like he did tonight. He was absolutely brutal offensively - brutal. He shot 3-8 for 6 points and had five - five - turnovers. The first four were plays where he dribbled in to traffic, jumped, and attempted to throw the ball back out to the perimeter, which he did, only to a Celtic instead of a Heat player, leading to Celtic fastbreaks the other way. The fifth was a play where he was dribbling and just fell down backwards, stumbling 6 steps for a travel. He was the worst player on the court - although, to be fair, I thought he tried hard to contest plays at the rim defensively, with some success, although to be double-fair, he also got back-doored for dunks at least three times. I don't want Spo coaching if he is going to play this kid. Everyone else is trying to win - why should they have to suffer?
5) The biggest problem for the Heat in this series - I mean besides Dick Bavetta in Boston - is Boston's size and strength upfront. Kendrick Perkins is big and physical; Kevin Garnett is long and nasty; Baby Davis is a wide-load; Rasheed Wallace is long, albeit half-interested. Miami's quartet upfront of Jermaine O'Neal (back after an extended vacation tonight - very rusty, 3-14), Udonis, Beasley, and Joel Anthony, is small physically, and only Joel Anthony is athletic. Though the rebounding was about even tonight, the Celtics got to the rim far more than Miami. That is going to be a huge factor over the next week and a half. I don't know how Miami combats that - play better perimeter defense, if they can, I guess. By the way, because of this factor, I picked the Celtics in 7 before the game; I still think that's the most likely result. But Miami could also easily lose in 5.
6) Like over a month so far and absolutely no one has died from the new health care bill, not even an elderly poor white trash tea bagger. Oh - I mean no one if you don't count Mike Beasley...
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Back Tuesday night for Game Two from Boston. Let's hope for Joey Crawford for Game Two - unlike Bavetta, he's a good ref on the road, because he hates people and helps the road team just to piss off the fans in the stands. Oh, and challenges players to fights. Classy guy - quite a crew the NBA has! All part of the drama and pageantry! By the way, please, please watch "Treme" on HBO. If you don't watch cool shows, they won't make them.
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