6 Thoughts
1) This game was extremely similar to the first matchup months ago in Houston. The Rockets turn the game in to a break-neck track meet, firing threes at the earliest opportunity, and making no effort whatsoever to defend their own rim. Miami plays along for the first three quarters, before buckling down late to get a couple of defensive stops, and win the game comfortably. It makes for an entertaining, if somewhat predictable, night, although I was distracted for a good twenty minutes in the first half because I thought the diet root beer I was drinking had somehow turned bad. It hadn't - it turned out it was actually just a diet coke, but I hadn't noticed the can...Let's go!
2) Wade (30, 11 rebs), LeBron (33, 10 rebs), and Bosh (31, 12 rebs) combined for 94 points and 33 rebounds. Can a team get to the Finals when three guys score virtually all the points, and get virtually all the rebounds, and have to make virtually all the defensive plays? I don't even remember a team trying. The one thing that is clear is that the three of them have improved the way they play together, especially in late game situations. The biggest change? On those late offensive possessions, Dwyane generally has the ball, and LeBron either screens for him and posts Dwyane's guy at the left elbow, or on a night like tonight where there would be no advantage in making Houston switch defenders (because they all stink), he just posts his own guy at the left elbow. His presence fifteen feet from the basket is exponentially more threatening to a defense than when he spaces the floor from twenty-five feet. Bosh plays on the right block, Bibby is up top, and a shooter (James Jones or the badly fading Mike Miller) plays in the far right corner. Often Dwyane fakes going over the screen, and suddenly rockets baseline by his defender. LeBron's guy is too busy guarding LeBron to be able to help in time, and if Bosh's guy can get there - and only a really quick defender can - Bosh is suddenly free at the rim for a dump off. But tonight Wade varied the play by actually going over the screen several times, once for a twisting layup, and once drawing Bibby's man to help, getting Bibby an open three that he drained. It is so much more fluid than the early season late game offense of LeBron trying to go off the dribble - and the adjustment says a lot about LeBron's ability to accept change and give up the ball to a more effective late game decision maker for the good of the team. We'll see if it lasts once the playoffs start - these next nine games are meaningless, and all about rehearsing these situations and making them as tight as possible once the post-season starts.
3) I don't think we have covered this before. Early in each game on Sunsports there is an ad in which a player pops up in the bottom of the screen above a Sunsports logo and explains to you that the game you are watching looks so good because "you are watching it in high def on Sunsports." Wade sells it like he sells everything: with a smile, even in his eyes, like a really good employee doing his job. LeBron is slightly stiffer, but he has done enough ads to know that he should give a little dramatic pause before the punch line - he's competent. Chalmers tries to be cute with it - he gives you a little sassy head nod after his initial "Now doesn't this picture look nice?" It is laughably silly - I guess the girls at Liv in Miami Beach like that. But the best - by far - is Chris Bosh. First of all, he's the only one who gives off the impression that he actually knows what the ad is for - the others could be reading copy for a car dealership, a charitable function, or a baby seal-clubbing event. Chris sounds like not only does he know that the ad is for the high def on Sunsports, but that he has gone home before shooting the ad, done research about high definition television, talked to some experts about it, maybe watched a game or two on side-by-side tv sets, one with high def and one with no high def, and concluded that, yes, this is absolutely the best option for the Sunsport viewer. He's honest, and he's earnest..He's the Maitre d'!!! By the way, that's 7 double-doubles in the last 8 games for Chris - ever since he called himself out a couple of weeks ago, and demanded more paint touches, he's been really, really good. He isn't exactly vintage Kenyon Martin on a wild rampage leaving bodies in his wake, but he's no longer Lisa Leslie, either. He's doing some things - let's hope that lasts in to the playoffs, too...
4) In today's Sun Sentinel, in a Q & A with Heat sideline reporter Jason Jackson, readers learned that Jax loves everything about Jamie Foxx's latest album, except for the giant stain left on one song by Drake, whom Jax dislikes with the intensity of a thousand suns. Readers of this blog, of course, already knew that. What neither readership knew about - before today - was Jax's passionate love for Harry Connick Jr! Right on! He's pretty white, he's dreamy, and he loves to sing an old-timey song - just like me!!! Still, I might have kept that one low. Very looowwwww. On the other hand, we all have music that we like that other people might think is odd, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Like, for instance, if one of someone's favorite albums was "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael," and especially the heart-achingly beautiful break-up song "Waiting for the Day," that would be cool, right, that wouldn't mean you are, like, a loser or anything, right? I mean, I don't know anyone who likes that particular album and song, I'm just saying if they did, that would be totally awesome that they felt the freedom to totally eschew what other people think is cool, and just go with what really feels good to them, right? Right?
5) Continuing on our Jax-related theme: Oh, no, Jax - now you've done it...During the pre-game game show "Hot Seconds with Jax," one of the questions attributed the invention of the fist-bump to former Sixers player, and now fringe NBA commentator, Fred "Mad Dog" Carter, in the 1970s. We've covered this in the blog before, but this is an absolute outrage. My friend and college roommate Plumber absolutely swears that he invented the fist-bump in the late 80s and early 90s, while playing intramural basketball at Boston College. Do I remember Plumber fist-bumping me during games? Not exactly, no, but in fairness, I was usually either drunk, or trying to guess how many hours late my girlfriend would be for whatever we were planning to do so that I could try to be even later, just to piss her off...Admittedly Plumber can be a little stubborn from time-to-time, even when the evidence in a case is against him, and, of course, in the 70s he was just a young boy, and NBA games were not as plentiful on tv as they are now. So is it possible that Plumber only thinks he invented the fist-bump, maybe even wasn't aware that it was already invented, essentially re-inventing it (which is just as good)? I've asked him this exact question many times. His answer: "No." There you have it: Plumber invented the fist bump...
6) Some day aren't we going to look back and be like, "Jesus - The Situation was the gayest dude ever. That's cool, it's fine - but how did we not realize it at the time?" Think about it: he always talks about hooking up with girls, but never does; he plucks his eyebrows down way too far; he's, like, 40, but still wears tight Ed Hardy t-shirts (reminds me: where the hell is Jon Plus Eight lately?); the slightly effete voice; the questionable hairdos - I have, like, 12 gay dudes in my gym who are exactly like this! I mean, we've made this mistake before, right? George Michael, Freddie Mercury, Tom Cruise, etc...Wait- what? Tom Cruise is still straight? Oh, okay - not Tom Cruise: he's still straight.
This week is a doozy, a lot of games, although not exactly the toughest teams. First up: Cleveland (The Return, pt II), on Tuesday. Until then, if you need me, I'll be listening to my iPod, but definitely not to George Michael's "Waiting for the Day..."
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