6 Thoughts
1) Whoooaaaaa, Memphis. Exactly what time did you say you got in from South Beach last night? Miami beat down a more-than-competent Memphis team in a rare Saturday afternoon game. Saturday afternoon game - means I'm writing this blog sober for the first time in about three weeks. Almost, anyways. Let's Get It and Go Get It, or something!
2) Super-efficient performance against a still-drunk Memphis squad. Wade: 28 points on 15 shots; LeBron: 27 points on 16 shots, and again, about 60 percent less dribbling than usual; the polite Maitre d', Chris Bosh, with 18 on 11 shots. Most efficient of all: Mike Bibby, with 17 points on 5 shots. Bibs is a master of the "opportunity three," an offensive "strategy" whereby he plants himself somewhere beyond the three point arc, eschews all movement whatsoever, and waits to see if the ball will find him on rotations. If it does - opportunity three: he was 5-5 for today. If it doesn't, he trots back to the other end of the court, plants himself defensively on the perimeter, and waits for an "opportunity steal..."
3) Best play of the game: in the first quarter, when Memphis guard Tony Allen ran out ahead of the pack in transition, but got run down by Dwyane Wade who blocked his shot. Mike Conley, trailing the play, grabbed the rebound, and had his follow blocked by a sprinting LeBron James. Allen hustled back to that loose ball, elevated at the rim, only to have his shot repelled with force by Wade, who leaped back in from the baseline. Five blocks in the game for Wade, who also finished with 5 rebounds, 9 assists, and 3 steals. DWade was doin' it all...Second best play of the game: midway through the third quarter, with the game already well out of hand, Marc Gasol (back-to-back Gasols!) found himself lying on his own defensive three point line with the ball in his hands. Towering over him, Screen du Jour, Erick Dampier, who reached down to tie him up, only to have Gasol start repeatedly swinging the ball rapidly back and forth, like a four year old trying to keep the blue crayon away from the annoying kid from down the street who is trying to "borrow" it, while Dampier flailed at him. Suddenly, inexplicably, from his knees, Gasol blindly hurled the ball 65 feet down the court in the general direction of the basket, right to, I believe, Mario Chalmers, who pushed it back up the court for an easy Heat basket, due in no small part to the fact that Memphis' center was still lying in the same spot on the defensive three point line. Don't see that every day. Then again, not every team's center is a large, grumpy, bearded man from Spain...
4) In the first half, Memphis forward Darrell Arthur was guarding LeBron James in space on the right wing when LeBron faked a shot, elevating Arthur. LeBron took a small step into him, took the bump as Arthur landed, and launched a fling to basket, earning two free throws. The classic "okey doke." There are two possible reactions to the okey doke for the defensive player. The first is "The Denial," in which you run over to the ref claiming that you went straight up in the air, and the shooter jumped into you and created the contact on his own. Also known as the "Brandon Roy," especially in the Pacific Northwest region of this great land of ours. The second reaction is "The Respect" - this is the route Arthur wisely chose. You just nod your head, maybe crisply punch a fist into an open palm, and walk to your spot on the lane to wait for the free throws. Hey, it's no big deal - you got okey doked. It happens to the best of us. Show the proper respect.
5) Update on Udonis Haslem from Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino today. Udonis, who has missed the last 50 plus games with a foot injury, is now doing light shooting, some defensive shuffling, and is running on eighty percent of his body weight - "He is probably doing that in a pool," guessed Tony. Yes, either that, or on the moon.
6) New game: Do We Have the Nuts? When you are driving, when it is time to pull out into traffic, or back out of your parking spot, instead of looking, you just go to your kids, "Do we have the nuts," and if they say, "No," then you wait, but if they say, "Yes, we have the nuts," you just go blindly, relying on them to be right. Brings the excitement back into driving, and teaches the kids there are consequences to actions...
Next game is Monday vs San Antonio who beat us by about 100 in Texas a couple of weeks ago. I may miss that game - I've missed only one all year, but even that miss means I can't surpass last year's record of 86 out of 87 (including playoffs). I may have a guest writer, or you may get a break and not have to read this stupid blog on Tuesday. Not sure yet. Time to go drink some Lynchburg Lemonades - Hey, we still have a lot whiskey left, and we're branching out! The drink definitely sounds vaguely racist, but if we don't drink it for that reason, aren't we letting the racists win? Again? See you soon!
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