6 Thoughts
1) Chances are, sooner or later, the Nets are going to move to Brooklyn, get a rabid fan base that isn't primarily decked out in Dwyane Wade and LeBron James jerseys, stop cheering early Heat runouts, and present a really tough challenge for visiting teams......but not to-dayyyy. Heat spurted early, put it in cruise control, and despite a bevy of missed layups and free throws, otherwise played fairly crisply and efficiently. 3-1 dentist office road trip, a division title, and a half step towards home court advantage in the second round against Boston. I'm a little under the weather - yes, Connecticut defeated Calipari and Kentucky last night, but you don't mess with the devil and emerge unscathed - I'm suffering the effects of that today, but it was worth it...Pull that headband back down on your head some, LeBron, and let's go!
2) For one of the first times all year, I felt proud of LeBron. With Dwyane Wade nursing a bruised thigh suffered in the first half, and Chris Bosh not getting as many touches as you'd like to see (more on that in #3), LeBron did what we always want him to do, but often doesn't: he took smaller, less athletic defenders and punished them - he dominated the game thoroughly from start to finish, and never let the outcome seem in doubt. In space against overmatched Net defenders Travis Outlaw and Sasha Vujacic, LeBron, instead of settling for orchestrating the offense from the perimeter, took the ball to the rim, finished plays, and found open teammates when the defense collapsed. He had 31 points (on 13-18!), 11 rebounds, and 7 assists - quite possibly could have had a dozen assists if either Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Chris Bosh had caught his passes or finished uncontested layups after catching them. It was efficient, it was smart, it was powerful - it was really, really good. Quietly, one of his better games of the year.
3) Soft Off! Chris Bosh against Brook Lopez! Soft Off! Let's go to the tale of the tape: Chris was guarded most of the night by a guy 4 inches shorter than him, but mostly wandered around the elbow area, setting half-hearted screens that LeBron didn't need. Dropped a couple of easy passes inside when he wasn't ready. Did make six of nine shots for 16 points, but missed 3 annoying free throws down the stretch (it wasn't just him missing ft's, in fairness). Had 7 rebounds, including one where he jumped (for the second straight game), and blocked a shot. Best play was early when he tried to post Outlaw, got fronted, sealed him high, Ilguaskas popped to the free throw line, received a pass from Emcee Chalmers, and dropped it down to the emptied baseline for a layup...Brook Lopez: spent most of the night with Erick Dampier leaning on him, made only 5-13 shots, and I think 3 of the makes were within the first three minutes. Shot the ball approximately every time he touched it, which was with increasing infrequency as the game went on, since he had trouble sealing Damp and Ilgauskas. "Corralled" 3 rebounds in 41 minutes, and didn't block a shot, mostly because he spent most of his defensive possessions idly wandering towards the ball while leaving the rim unprotected...The winner: Chris Bosh in a unanimous decision. Why no knockout? Dude, it's a Soft Off - there are no knockouts!
4) This is why former Dallas and current Net coach Avery Johnson is despised, at least in my house: the game was, for all intents and purposes, over halfway through the first quarter. But with the Nets down 12, with 3 and a half minutes left to play out, he decided to go to the Hack-a-Screen du Jour strategy, intentionally fouling Erick Dampier repeatedly in hopes he would miss. Screen backspun in 4-6 - when that strategy didn't work, Johnson started calling timeouts. As a result, the last 3 minutes of a meaningless game, which had been decided for two hours, took approximately a day and a half to finish. Thanks, Avery, thanks a lot. And I'm sure there's nothing your players love more than you making them spend an extra 20 minutes out on the court at the tail end of a 23-53 season...
5) Play of the game: With less than a minute to go and the Heat up double digits, when Net rookie guard Ben Uzoh steamed downcourt, cut to the left wing, seized up LeBron James, and found LeBron standing motionless, adjusting his headband. Uzoh gave him a jab step, which LeBron responded to by not moving a muscle except to further adjust his headband, whereupon Uzoh crisply stepped back and dropped the triple! That must have impressed Coach Avery - anything to prolong the game even a little, instead of just dribbling the clock out...
6) Spent an awesome evening yesterday with O and P Minutos at The Heritage Festival in North Palm Beach. Not sure whose heritage, exactly, we were celebrating - rich white dudes who live on the many deep water canals in North Palm Beach? In any case, it was a super cool little festival in a sweet park on the water, and the boys and I ate funnel cakes (or, where I'm from "fried dough"), cotton candy, and best of all, played football in the grass under a perfect South Florida sunset while longtime Dos reader Snets, and his band Sierra, rocked the house. Do you think that it gets any better than playing football with your boys - especially when the younger one thinks one play is two hand touch, and the older one thinks it is tackle and throws the younger one into the ice cream stand? - while a bunch of cool dudes play "American Girl," and I get a shout out from the stage? It does not. Here are the boys at work. Don't know why Snets is hiding behind his keyboard the whole time, but at the 2:00 minute mark, there's a sweet shot of the back of his head...Thanks for inviting us!
We're off until Wednesday against Milwaukee. Until then, I'll be sitting on my couch, reading a book, in case Ben Uzoh wants to go at me off the dribble!
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