6 Thoughts
1) The Spurs cruised into town with a league best 54-12 record, with one of the 54 wins being an absolute dismantling of Miami 10 days ago in San Antonio. Los Spurs (it was Noche Latino Night again in the NBA) have been the best team in the league from day one this season, so it was reasonable to assume it could be a tough night for the Heat. Reasonable, that is, if you didn't respect the two basketball-juju forces working against them. First, the "It's not always who you play, but when you play, that matters" juju. Ten days ago, the Spurs caught Miami on the second night of a back-to-back, with Miami touching down in Texas at 5am the day of the game - tonight, Miami was at home with the Spurs having a free night in South Beach on Sunday. And they only see South Beach one time a year - advantage Miami. Second, the little known adage that, "Teams that like to administer a merciless 30 point beatdown at home when the other team just isn't feeling it, hate to have teams at home beat them down mercilessly when they aren't feeling it...." Or something like that. Either way, Miami blew San Antonio out - way out - was never much of a game after the first quarter. Good performance by the Heat, and, okay, okay: we might as well go...
2) The offense is sooooo much more fluid now. More fluid? Fluider? Not so sure which is right...Anyways, the reason why is: pick and rolls. Ahhhh - seems so simple. But it is that simple, for the moment. Now, instead of Wade and LeBron starting up top with five defenders staring at them, preparing for their drives, they are running pick and rolls with one of them handling, and Bosh setting the screen at the elbow. Not only has Miami not run that enough this year, but they are sprinkling in new wrinkles as well. One, instead of setting the screen and spotting up for an 18 footer, Bosh is now rolling down the lane, and receiving passes - especially from LeBron - on the move. That's 30 points on only 16 shots for the Maitre d' tonight, with 10 free throws, against a defense that is extremely paint-conscious. Also, when Bosh doesn't receive the ball, if the dribbler does not immediately attack, the opposite wing runs a diagonal cut through the lane, looking to receive a pass. Not just a diagonal cut - a hard diagonal cut. Wade and LeBron found each other for easy hoops tonight - they combined for 50. They even mix in an occasional high screen for Dwyane from LeBron - although usually Dwyane sharply crosses over away from that screen and attacks the rim because the defenders tend to try to shade it early. This all started when Bosh called for the ball before the Laker game - we're three nights in, we're 3-0, Bosh is playing great, and nobody is crying...
3) After we lose to Oklahoma City on Wednesday because Mario Chalmers is absolutely terrible, you can blame me, but he is in the midst of his best stretch of NBA basketball right now - he actually started this during the losing streak last week. He was 4-4 with 2 triples, 5 assists, and 3 steals in 30, mostly efficient, minutes tonight. More importantly, he was reasonably effective defensively against Spurs point guard, the insatiable Tony Parker, keeping him from getting free paint runs to score, and find others. When Parker went under a first quarter screen, and Mario stepped back and hit the triple, it was almost as if Miami had a real NBA point guard! It also caused Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to instantly call a timeout in disbelief! Walking back to the bench for the timeout (miles behind LeBron James, by the way), Chalmers assumed a look that approximated, "You'd better guard me," which may be a career first for Emcee. Still, when a 'Meet the Heat' promotion in the third quarter started with Eric Reid reading copy asking, "Do you want to meet Mario Chalmers," someone in Casa Minutos may - may - have said, "Not if I have to leave my couch..."
4) Look - I love Sunshine, or Sunsports, or whatever the Heat's station is called now. When people are like, "Oh, Eric and Tony are homers," I'm like, "Yeah, but they're our homers." When people are like, "Jax wears ascots," I'm always like, "No, Jax is fly, come on - and why are you so worried about what other dudes are wearing?" But honestly, Sunsports director-people: I haven't seen a free throw or a dunk go in the basket during a Heat broadcast since the 90s. Why do I have to watch free throws from a camera angle that is under the rim, or over the rim, or through referee Joey Crawford's legs, or from Mike Miller's eyeball, or whatever? Jesus - I really just want to watch the free throw - why can't I watch it from the normal angle? Similarly, most times when there is a Heat run out, as the ball gets to the paint, there is an instant jump cut to a camera under the basket, so that our main perspective of the finish is of the dunker's crotch. Believe me, I love man-crotch as much as any white kid, but it is incredibly annoying. If that angle is so good, why don't we see the whole game from crotch level? I don't think it is just me - I know M.Minutos hates it, too - but I haven't done any extensive research on it, or anything. Maybe I should. I don't know what the logic is - would the game be too exciting if we could actually see the dunks? I'm totally open to the possibility that I am wrong, but in that case, I need what I am missing explained to me.
5) Noche Latino: DeJuan Blair! Also: Jorge Hill!
6) I really got nothing for you here tonight. I didn't think I was going to see this game, I thought I would be in South Beach, or Disney World, until six year old P.Minutos got strep throat and ruined our plans. I had a "talk" with him, and let's just say that I don't think he will make this mistake a second time. Instead, O.Minutos and I went out and ate frozen yogurt at GoYo this evening. I enjoyed it until the po-lice pulled up right in front of us, parked at the curb, and spent fifteen minutes in Five Guys hamburger shop next door acquiring a sackful of burgers and fries. Nearest available parking spot eschewed by him to instead park on the curb? About 8 feet. Number of cars that needlessly got (slightly) jammed up trying to go around him since that parking lot is too tight to park on the curb because then people can't get by easily? Maybe about 12 cars. People aren't allowed to park on the curb of the parking lot of the public town soccer field, like four thousand yards away from the fields and any traffic flow, but it was totally essential for this guy to put it on the curb at Five Guys...That's a good start to the night for that po-lice: if you figure there were an average of two people in each car, he had annoyed two dozen people before he even started his shift by stuffing two super-greasy (though admittedly delicious) cheeseburgers into his mug. Efficient! That's doing what the po-lice in this town do: make peoples' lives more difficult! It was a good reminder - I almost thought I was living in America there for a second...
Next game: Wednesday vs. Kevin Durant and the OKC...not sure what they are? Thunder? Until then, stay away from Five Guys on Congress and Old Boynton in the Deuce B unless you happen to be an exceptional driver able to negotiate tight spaces with ease...
-----
