6 Thoughts
1) You lose a 24 point lead at home to your instate rival in the most embarrassing manner possible. You shower, leave the locker room, and get on a plane for an 'x' hour flight to San Antonio - I've never been there, I don't know how long the flight is. I think it's in Texas somewhere. You get in at 5 in the morning. You get some sleep - Ilgauskas probably keeps your whole floor up with some kind of deviated septum problem - wake, eat, get to the arena for your game against the San Antonio Spurs, who have the best record in basketball by seven games, and haven't lost at home since November. Ten minutes into the first quarter, Wade and LeBron each have two fouls - all on the offensive end of the court! - and the Spurs have made 8 - eight! - threes, and you're down 24. The game is over, the short road trip is over, the media and fans are going to get on your case some more, and you've soiled Ascot Friday. I'm glad I'm at home - all I have to do is finish up this stupid blog, and I can hit the sheets. I've got a nice little Friday night planned, I'm going to have another drink, maybe a little booty-booty - not too sure yet, not sure I'm going to have time...Let's Go!
2) The game was boring - essentially Miami looked exhausted and the Spurs made a ridiculous 17-28 threes. Let's cover a couple of bigger picture items. Here at 2, LeBron's foul issue. In 3, we'll cover the general discontent swirling around the team, and its future prospects. In 4, we'll make a Chris Bosh joke, and in 5 we'll cover some divisiveness in the locker room. Down at number 6, reader mail. Got it?...Okay, for the seven years previous to this one, Dos reader Dirk, a Cavaliers fan, used to incessantly complain that if LeBron got the same favorable treatment from the referees that Dwyane Wade consistently received, he'd shoot 35 free throws a game. I laughed then; but no one is laughing now. Dirk was right. LeBron is refereed differently than any other wing in the league. On his trips to the rim, he is expected to constantly play through blows that would instantly be called fouls if they occurred against less physical players. In tonight's latest example, in the second quarter LeBron had a clean run out with only the Spurs Matt Bonner (a dorky 6'10" white guy) back in transition. As LeBron got beneath the free throw line, he swerved around the (mostly) motionless Bonner, who responded by reaching out and lassoing LeBron up high with both arms from behind, spinning him all the way around - while he was on the dead run - resulting in LeBron just flinging the ball up over his head in frustration...and it went in! Still - it was borderline ejectable, certainly a flagrant 1, at a minimum. Flagrant fouls are for unnecessary contact - there is never really a reason to grab a guy in full flight from behind and spin him around. It is dangerous, it's cheap, and it's dumb - and none of this is a knock on Matt Bonner. He didn't do it on purpose, the play just happened too quickly for him. Incredibly - or not so incredibly if you watch LeBron play every night - no flagrant was called...A quarter later, little French and adulterous Spurs point guard Tony Parker drove the lane against Miami, elevated for a layup, and got half-heartedly shoved in the back by Heat center Screen du Jour, aka Erick Dampier, who had clearly had enough of the night. Parker, who weighs less than 200 pounds, went flying, and before he hit the ground, Dampier had been ejected. His play wasn't any more egregious than Bonner's - you could certainly argue it was less so - Parker saw the hit coming, unlike LeBron who simply got whiplashed from his blindside. LeBron himself went right over to the refereeing crew after Dampier's ejection and, correctly, made that point to them himself. Whatever - it didn't affect the outcome of the game, and Miami has Wade, who does get as many calls as any wing in the league. But to the degree I can feel badly for a 260 pound freakish athlete with a severe lack of self-awareness, I feel bad for LeBron when plays like that happen. He's like Shaq in his prime - referees treat him differently than they treat everyone else, and I am sure it is frustrating for him.
3) So, of course, the Heat blew a 24 point lead to Orlando last night, and everyone blew a gasket. Has Miami played as well as people expected this season? No. But to keep things in their proper perspective, they are still tied with Chicago for the second best record in the East, three games behind Boston, and they have played 3 more road games than Chicago, and 5
more than Boston. It is frustrating because they have lost three tough games to the Celtics, and two tough games to Chicago - yes, you want to win those games. No, they do not match up particularly well against those teams. Yes, they do seem to have a habit of playing hard to start games, building a lead, then relaxing and letting the other team back in it. It is all true. Do I think they would beat the Celtics in a series if the playoffs started today? No, I do not - and I don't think they will beat them in May, either, if they get through Chicago or Orlando. But either way, that's what they have to be judged on. Either they are going to play consistently harder, and a little more efficiently, and have a chance to win those series; or, they are not, and they are going to lose. As aggravating as the Orlando loss was - and it was aggravating to me, and the eight hundred people who emailed me, too - it ultimately doesn't mean anything (although, as my therapist says, it is okay to have feelings!). Let's wait until April and May, and let it all play out...
4) ...and then we can complain, because we all already know how it is going to end, don't we? On the next to last possession of the season, Boston is going to have the ball, Miami is going to need a stop, and Paul Pierce is going to miss a contested step back jumper over LeBron. Bosh is going to grab the rebound...only to have Baby Davis rip it out of his hands and lay it back up and in. Out of timeouts, Miami is going to rush the other way, needing a three, with LeBron pushing it up, and he's going to get a moving screen up top from Mike Miller that sends Pierce flopping to the floor giving LeBron a brief window for an open look at it, but he will hesitate ever so slightly, allowing Kevin Garnett to get in his airspace, causing LeBron to come up slightly short, and wide to the left. Ballgame over, season over. I don't know if it is going to be game 6, or game 7, or whatever, or in Boston or Miami - all I know is Baby Davis is going to rip the ball out of Bosh's hands and lay it back in. How do I know that? Charlie Sheen closed his eyes and made it so...
5) Okay, now to the important stuff. As we all know, as we have talked about all season, of all the things that LeBron James loves in life, the three things he loves best are: one, getting to the bench first to sit down for timeouts; two, dribbling the basketball while everybody watches him; three, telling people on twitter to "Let's Go!" Right now, it is the last of those three items which is the potential problem. It has recently come to the attention of Dos Minutos that Dwyane Wade's longtime girlfriend, actress Gabrielle Union, has, on her new twitter account, been exhorting people to "Let's Get It!" Look, this is fucking bananas - we have enough quote-unquote phantom "alpha dog" issues between LeBron and Dwyane already. People spend 3,000 word columns worrying about, "Is it LeBron's team - orrrrrr, is it Dwyane's team, blah de blah, blah, blah" already - we can't also have LeBron telling his people to "Let's Go," and Gabrielle and Dwyane telling people to "Let's Get It." It's not going to fly. We have to decide on one of the two, or maybe just combine them in to a "Let's Go Get It" type of situation...
6) Reader mail! Dos reader Darren emails in to ask: "How is The Captain's `troubled white man' beard doing? Is he still growing it? Also, did you see that your super-Christian man-crush Tim Tebow is growing a beard? What do you think he is troubled about?" ... First of all, Darren, thanks for reading and inquiring about The Captain's beard. Yes, he is still growing it, and it looks terrific. Second of all, how dare you: Tim Tebow would never have troubles of any type! He's freakin' Tim Tebow! What the hell is wrong with you - what are you, some kind of clown? Never write to us again...
We are back on Sunday, with another 'showdown' game against the Bulls...and the schedule doesn't get any easier after that - following games are Portland, then Lakers, then Memphis, then Spurs again!...this is a tough-ass stretch...Let's Try To Go And Let's Get It (or something)! And Don't Do No Drugs!!!
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