6 Thoughts
1) "Guys, we're up nineteen at half, LeBron James has dominated play without even making shots, we're at home, and we're looking good. Very good. I don't see any possible way we can lose this game, unless Jazz power forward Paul Millsap, who has 2 career three pointers, suddenly drops 3 trips in a row in the last minute of regulation, sandwiched around a Deron Williams triple, Dwyane Wade and Carlos Arroyo miss several free throws in the waning moments, Millsap then follow-tips an airball at the buzzer to send it to overtime, then Andrei Kirilenko weather-balloons two threes in, and then on the crucial exchange of the game Dwyane Wade goes middle, gets bodychecked off a shot by Ronnie Price to no call, and Utah goes down to the other end and gets a highly questionable foul call against that same Dwyane Wade - who just didn't get an obvious call - with .4 secs left, make 2 free throws - including 1 they tried to miss on purpose - and win the game. I think we got'em. I mean, there's no way we're losing this game! Ready...Let's go!"
2) "Oh-no."
3) I've seen a lot of guys play a lot of games...but nothing like this...Paul Millsap - forget the 3 triples in the final minute of play, more than doubling his career output to this point. No - don't even forget them. The last one was backing up, from 26 feet, with Udonis Haslem hanging all over him. I mean, he made everything, all night long, finished with 46 points on 19-28!!! Holy Boozer!!! I have to say, as much as I hate losing, I kind of enjoyed Paul Millsap tonight.
4) It's a bad loss, no doubt. Over the course of 82 games, you are going to lose some bad ones. Fine. But down the stretch and in overtime, where was LeBron James? He was tremendous in the first half, probing the defense and creating wide open shots for others. Even though his own looks weren't falling, he ended the first half with 6 points, 7 assists, and 6 boards, not to mention playing tremendous defense. Finished with his first Heat triple double (20, 14 assists, 11 boards) - but he was a ghost down the stretch. They essentially went Dwayne iso, or Dwyane screen-and-roll late, partially because James didn't aggressively attack the middle. Dwyane was pretty brilliant, as usual - finished with 39. But James has to figure out something - something - to do at the end of a close game. Grab a rebound? Cut to the rim? Get a stop? Anything? I forgot he was out there, frankly...Should I stop writing my opinions? They're my opinions...
5) Election update: I don't know who won because I didn't watch the postgame show - had to go feed the baby - but tonight's poll question was which new teammates were going to have the biggest impact on their team this year (non-Heat division). Choices? Boozer and Korver in Chicago? No - too underathletic. Stoudamire and Felton in New York? No - too `B list.' Blake and Barnes in Los Angeles? No - too `C list.' The O'Neal Brothers - Shaq and Jermaino - in Boston? Of course!!! But I didn't text in my vote, you know why? Because that shit is rigged - still haven't received an explanation as to why my 88 votes for Jermaino in last week's poll weren't counted. You think I'm joking - I'm not. By the way, is Jermaino going to be in every poll this year? I mean, I'm not complaining - just checking.
6) Movie Review - "White Nights": Admittedly this review is somewhat belated since the movie came out sometime in the 1980s [editor’s note – 1985]. Also, full disclosure – I have not seen this movie. I did, however, recently watch Lionel Richie’s video for the song “Say You, Say Me,” which is the theme song for the movie – really, it’s more of a film – and the video is almost exclusively clips from the film, and you can pretty much piece together everything from that. So you have Mikhail Bayishnikov starring as a Russian ballet dancer who wants to emigrate to America, probably, and the KGB doesn’t want him to – remember, it’s 1985, during the Cold War, when Russians were still cool. And then Gregory Hines is the retired black dancer who lives in a dingy apartment in New York City , and he doesn’t dance anymore for some reason, either he blew a big audition, or his fiancé died in a dancing accident, or something like that. And Lionel Richie is in there somewhere as well, wearing a suede Members Only jacket. The Wikipedia page also says Helen Mirren is in it, though I didn't notice her in the video. You know why? 'Cuz I only notice hot girls. So Baryshnikov hides out in Hines’ apartment, and he tries to convince Hines to come back to dancing, which Hines is totally reluctant to do, but Baryshnikov is slowly winning him over through persistence. But you know the KGB are eventually going to find him, which they do, and then they kick the crap out of the both of them, because they are nancy-boy dancers who don’t know anything about fighting. But then right when they are going to take Baryshnikov away, back to Russia, probably putting him a gulag, Hines is like, “Wait, okay, I’ll do it – I’ll dance,” and he and Baryshnikov perform a wondrous dance that convinces the KGB to let Baryshnikov go. A couple of things: first, Mikhail Baryshnikov in this movie looks exactly Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, sans the bad ink and wacky-colored hair (“Look – my hair’s red – I’m a punk!”). Second, say what you want to about Baryshnikov’s elegant brilliance, but I saw Gregory Hines on Broadway in 1992 starring in Jelly’s Last Jam, and believe me, dance-wise, he is holding back in the film so he doesn’t make Baryshnikov look bad. Baryshnikov may – may – be better at ballet than Hines, but there is no way he can hang with Hines in whatever it is you call the kind of dancing that Hines does. I call it "hot-footing!" Not sure that’s the technical term, though. Anyways, obviously, I give this movie 10 out of 10. Men in tights!!!
Back for Thursday night at home against Boston. I'd say it's a big game - already lost to them once, just took a bad beat at home...Let's GO!
-----
