6 Thoughts
1) Ohhhhhh - that's how it's supposed to look! Miami got a big-time performance from Chris Bosh, huge plays on both ends of the court down the stretch from Dwyane Wade, and LeBron made savvy, facilitating plays to help those guys out. They won a close game, at home, against the hottest team in the league, utilizing their skill sets appropriately - that's the best part. We "Let's Go Getted It!" against a team looking for revenge for a Christmas Day beat down in LA...Oh yeah- and suck it, Kobe!
2) Chris Bosh spent the past two days since the Portland loss complaining that he needed more opportunities closer to the basket. Seemed like an odd complaint since he hadn't ventured below the free throw line on offense since before Hanukkah. Don't know when that is, most of you, do you? December...So what did he do? HE BACKED IT THE FUCK UP! He screened for dribblers and rolled down the lane! He flashed to open areas on the block! He upfaked guys, and dribbled by! He posted up Odom, and made a turnaround over him! He received passes from LeBron and finished at the rim with purpose! THIS WAS THE GUY WE THOUGHT WE WERE SIGNING! I HAVE NOW JINXED HIM FOR THREE WEEKS! IN CAPITALS!!!
3) Like the old days: Dwyane won the game down the stretch. Biggest play of the game: tied with a couple of minutes to go, covering Kobe Bryant in space, poked the ball free, retrieved it with the help of a Mike Bibby chop block on Pau Gasol, and fed a steaming LeBron James for a dunk to give Miami a lead they would never relinquish. Also: blocked a Kobe turnaround jumper, and finished two spectacular drives to the rim, all in the last five minutes. Warrants mentioning that someone in Casa Dos might - might - have suggested that Spo put LeBron on Kobe for the stretch run. And by "might have suggested," I mean that I - I mean, that person - screamed, several times, "Spo, get Dwyane the freak off of him, and put LeBron on him!!!" And guess what? That person was wrong!
4) I don't know if someone told him, I don't know if he decided on his own, I don't know if it was just freaky luck, but instead of running what is commonly referred to as the "LeBron screen-and-back-it-up-to-halfcourt offense," LeBron James moved the ball sharply and crisply, with many of his 9 assists leading to easy Chris Bosh baskets. Also had 8 rebounds, 19 points, and played aggressive defense. Before the game, in response to Chris Bosh's public call for the ball, LeBron said, "All he has to do is ask for it." Tonight, for the first time in a while, LeBron helped Chris, because Chris put himself in position to be helped.
5) Funniest moment of the game: when, on a inopportune defensive rotation, somehow defensively-challenged Miami point guard Mike Bibby ended up in space against Kobe Bryant, who received a pass and look Bibby right in the eye. At the same moment, both M.Minutos and I said, "oh, no" before, inexplicably, Kobe decided the better of it, and passed the ball back up to the top of the key. Yeah, Mike Bibby - he didn't want any of that! Put him on lock, kid!
6) Trip to Puerto Rico, Part One: Someone wrote in to ask me if I am going to write about my recent trip to Puerto Rico. Yes, I am. Right now. Here we go: M.Minutos and I went to Puerto Rico to try to take this blog even more worldwide – we’re already huge in parts of Europe, and now trying to expand to whatever-part-of-the-world-it-is that Puerto Rico is exactly located. Not too sure, geography isn’t a strength of mine. The Caribbean?..One night in Old San Juan, I went out to dinner with M.Minutos. About two large glasses of Saki Sangria into the night at a hipster Asian fusion place (because I’m a baller), we found ourselves sitting next to a table of five earnest youngsters from a merchant marine academy (“the” Merchant Marine Academy? – I talked to them for an hour, and I still have no idea who the merchant marines are – something to do with the water, right?). So there were two dudes: a very solid-ish and affable strapping white fellow who seemed like he could have been from Ohio, and a sardonic little Asian-ish dude, who very clearly was on the short end of the 5:1 men to women ratio on their merchant marine ship. Also, three young white women, all 19 or 20 years old. So they strike up a conversation with us because, you know, I’m cool, and girls love a dude who looks like the Gay Transporter, who is wearing a checkered button down shirt from the Gap and is an integral part of an interracial marriage. M.Minutos was trying to rattle my game – in fairness, she is my wife – and was all, like, “You girls do realize that he is old enough to be your father, right, and has two little boys at home,” but it didn’t even stop the girls, they were all, like, “oh, you must be the ‘cool dad!’” Yes. Yes, I am – nice to meet you, ladies! Then one of the girls was like, “Do you like Vampire Weekend,” and I’m like, “No – I fucking hate them. I’d like to take one of their fucking little acoustic guitars and smash it over their fucking heads!” Then I had those girls, you know why? ‘Cuz girls like dudes who are edgy! But one of the girls was, like, “Oh, that’s too bad, because you look like you would hang out with them a lot.” Damn these well-fitted, flat-front khakis! Anyways, then they are like, “well, who are your favorite bands,” and I’m like, “Well, when I was coming up in the day, my favorites were Jane’s Addiction and Smashing Pumpkins,” and one of the girls gets all excited and goes, “Oh, I love Jane’s,” then thinks, and says, “I’ve never listened to Smashing Pumpkins, but my mom loves them…” Oh, no. That’s brutal. Only one thing to do in a situation like that: text Thor back in the States to tell him about it, which I spent the rest of the night doing. Also – went to the beach a lot. Also – saw a lot of cool old colonial forts and buildings. Also, drank of a lot of Medalla Light, which is Puerto Rican for "ice water..."
Part two of the trip to Puerto Rico coming Saturday, when we may or may not revert to our losing ways against a sneaky-good Memphis team. Adios!!!
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