Prologue: I don't want to toot my own horn, but I just put the Miami Heat in the Finals with the most ridiculous reverse-jinx of all-time. I'll leave what I wrote below, but so you know, I started writing this post with Miami down double-digits with about 8 minutes to go. With about three minutes left, and Miami dead in the water still down 12, LeBron and Wade went on a ridiculous binge of threes and long jumpers to put Miami over the top, helped along by league MVP Derrick Rose (an insanely bad 9-29 from the floor) absolutely crumbling in the biggest moments of the game - he fouled Wade twice in the waning moments, including on a made triple, had 2 huge turnovers, including one with 40 seconds to go when LeBron stole a pass right out of his hands, missed a free throw with 20 seconds to go, and had his last-gasp jumper blocked by - guess who - LeBron. Meanwhile, LeBron made a step back twenty footer to put Miami up a deuce with 30 seconds to go, and Chris Bosh made two free throws with 15 seconds left to win it. Listen, I don't know what else I can do - no one has ever been more directly responsible for a team winning an elimination game and getting to the championship round than I was tonight. START THE BUS, GAS UP THE PLANE, GET OUT OF TOWN -- WE ARE IN THE MUTHAFUCKIN' FINALS!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Original post below:
6 Thoughts (with post-game epilogues!)
1) I'm not even going to lie - I'm starting this blog halfway through the fourth quarter because Miami is going to lose, and I don't want to be up half the night for the third night in 5 or 6 days. I don't think I've started a post before a game was over since two seasons ago...For a game in which one team could get to the Finals, and one team could be eliminated, these two teams have played an atrocious game. Chicago, with its season on the line, has been fairly terrible; but Miami has been even worse. Don't know what the final score is going to be, but it's teetering on the verge of a blowout right now, as it has been most of the night. Let us go!
Post-comeback epilogue for # 1: This was probably the second most ridiculous comeback in Heat history, after Game 3 of the Finals against Dallas in 2006. LeBron and Wade went ham (one of LeBron's favorite words), and Bosh was terrific all night long with 20 points and 10 boards. Combined, the three of them scored Miami's last 33 points. Bosh was fantastic in this series, averaged 23 and 8 on 60% shooting (!) against arguably the best defensive frontline in basketball. It says something about how he has played in the playoffs that I had no doubt he would knock down both free throws with 15 seconds left up 1 - in fact, I was actually hoping he would be the one to get fouled, and LeBron felt the same way: made sure to get him the ball, so Chicago would have to foul him...
2) Here's the good news: Miami is coming home for Game 6 on Saturday. Here's the bad news: something is clearly wrong with Dwyane Wade. The Heat and Wade aren't saying anything: they claim he's fine. But he is clearly hurt in some way, or is having the migraine problems again. Tonight, the TNT announcers are claiming they think it is his shoulder, since he keeps having it worked on while sitting on the bench. That may be. But it looks more like his knees to me - he clearly has no elevation, and he is running his cuts very slowly. He's had a little tendinitis before in his knees, and it can last for a week or two. He has murdered Miami tonight - he had 9 turnovers through 3 quarters. It's one of the worst games I can ever remember anyone playing; anyone else playing this bad would be taken out of the game. It is all on the line for Miami on Saturday - one home game with a chance to get to the Finals. The thought of losing and going back to Chicago for a seventh game is daunting. Let's hope Dwyane feels better, because we have 65 points with 3 minutes left in the game tonight - and he's been the main problem...
Epilogue for # 2: After one of the worst games of his career, Wade scored 8 points in the last 3 minutes to finish with 21, including the four point play with two minutes to go to cut the lead to 3. The Finals don't start until Tuesday - let's hope the extra time off helps Dwyane get healthier.
3) By the end of every game, I've forgotten that Mike Bibby is still on our team. And he's a starter!
Epilogue for # 3: With Derrick Rose on the line with 15 seconds to go, down 2, he made the first free throw to cut the lead to 1. After he missed the second free throw, and Miami grabbed the rebound and called timeout, M.Minutos demanded the dvr be rewound: "I'm pretty sure someone on the Heat bench threw a towel while he was releasing the free throw." Not "someone," it turns out - Mike Bibby! He hadn't been in the game for about 90 minutes, again I had forgotten he was on our team, and he took a towel and hurled it diagonally from his spot on the bench across the corner of the court to the baseline as Rose shot the ball in an attempt to distract him. And it worked! Look, when you're 0-4 in 16 minutes, and die hard fans are forgetting you are on the team by the start of the fourth quarter every game, you have to find other ways to contribute!
4) Much of this game has been a complaint-fest between Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose. Dwyane doesn't get a call and argues. Then Rose doesn't get a call and he argues. Then Wade goes over to the refs during a timeout to have a discussion with them, then Rose goes over and does the same thing. It is kind of weird that, nationally, these two guys are beloved; yet, LeBron, who rarely argues even though he gets fouled more often, and harder, than those two guys put together, is the one who kind of gets the "bad guy" rap. Weird. People would have a better idea of what goes on if they watched the games...
Epilogue for # 4: Only one guy had a reason to be complaining after the game, since the other guy was busy celebrating in the locker room. And complain he did! Rose: "It was my fault. Turnovers down the stretch; fouls - if you want to call them that..." He's a great player, he'll be back - I expect him to be right back in the conference finals next year, going disbelieving look at the ref for disbelieving look at the ref with Dwyane Wade.
5) When you are on the road, in a elimination game for the home team, you probably aren't going to get many calls. Tonight was fine - Miami lost on their own. In fact, one of the highlights for the Heat, in an otherwise dismal night, was a flurry of late third quarter fouls against Chicago that enraged the Bulls, and put off the blowout for a while. The best foul in the flurry was probably a Carlos Boozer karate chop to the face of LeBron James on a drive, which put LeBron on the floor, and resulted in a flagrant foul for Boozer. "Sometimes the calls just don't go your way," lamented Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau during his between-quarter interview a couple of minutes after the play. True. And you know when they almost never go your way? When you karate chop a guy in the face!
Epilogue for # 5: For the past 7 years, I was conditioned to root against LeBron James. Dude, if Dwyane Wade is your guy, you had to root against LeBron. And I might not see LeBron play for a week, or a month, or six weeks. And, inevitably, during that time, I would be watching Dwyane play every night, and I would start to think, "There is no way LeBron is better than this - no way. Dwyane is the best player in the league." Then Miami would play Cleveland, Dwyane would play great, but LeBron would play just a little bit better, and Cleveland would win. And I'd hate it, I'd hate those moments, because I would be forced to look at M.Minutos and concede: "You know what? LeBron is just a little bit better." This season, watching LeBron game in and game out, at times it would be frustrating because it felt like he only asserted himself in spurts. But, always, he maintained that he knew what he was doing. And you know what? He kind of knew what he was doing. The way he played on both ends of the court in the eastern playoffs was ridiculous. Some nights Dwyane was better; a couple of night Chris Bosh was even better. But almost every single quarter of every single game, LeBron was great. He just took this season's MVP and annihilated him. Shut him down in the fourth quarter of four straight games, scored huge baskets himself, and won four straight games, including two on the road, against the best team in basetball this season. He had 28, 11, and 6 tonight, with 3 steals, and 2 blocks, and won an absolutely unwinnable game down the stretch. Most guys play a little worse in the playoffs due to the increased intensity across the board - Derrick Rose is a prime example. He struggled for three straight rounds when teams game-planned for him. But not LeBron - he's been better in the playoffs, if only because he plays every defensive possession with attention to detail. I remembering telling people before the season that everyone wondering how Dwyane and LeBron would co-exist offensively were forgetting how tough they would be as a group defensively - I know I made the point that, when it matters, LeBron is the best shut-down defender in the league, and he ended this series by blocking the MVP's last-ditch attempt to tie the game...He is the best player in the league - why do I always end up convincing myself otherwise? And you know what? I don't know if we are going to win the title or not, but I am finally starting to kind of feel like he is one of us...One more time, as a tribute to LeBron, but quiet and matter-of-fact this time, as he often comports himself: Let's go.
6) So, today I was explaining one of my rules to someone: You must have a definitive opinion on music, or you are probably too boring to hang out with. You can't be like, "Oh, I like all kinds of music." Lame. And, worse, boring. It doesn't have to be a specific opinion - it just has to be a strong opinion. For instance, The Captain loves jazz. I don't like it, obviously, since it's atrocious. However, The Captain does, and he will defend it vigorously, and I can respect that. Then the person to whom I was explaining that rule then pointed out that it seems like I really have a lot of rules, and that it must be difficult to keep them all straight, but really it's not. There are a lot of rules, true, but they can basically be distilled down into three distinct edicts by which I live:
1) Open air food is terrible. Once food has left the preparation area, it has a very short shelf life amongst the general population before it quickly become inedible. Once someone who is not a member of my immediate family has breathed on it - or even been close enough to it to breathe on it - it's over. I don't eat that.
2) I am never, ever going to tell you my real feelings about anything. I've learned in therapy that it turns out that I do have some vague-ish actual feelings, but I am never going to tell anyone what they are. If I do tell you my feelings about something, you can rest assured that that isn't really how I feel. It isn't so much that I don't want to tell you my real feelings; it's more that, in response, I don't want you to tell me your real feelings. About anything! Goodness gracious, let's just everybody keep their feelings to themselves! It will be a much happier world.
3) If you are not from Connecticut, and most probably from the central to northern portions of Connecticut, no matter who you are, no matter what you say, no matter what you accomplish in life, I am always going to feel like you are a little bit below me, and everyone else who is from where I'm from. That doesn't mean I won't like you, or be friends with you, and I'm not saying it is accurate or fair. I'm just saying that it's always going to be somewhere in the back of my mind.
Finals don't start until Tuesday against Dallas. Enjoy the long weekend everybody. If you need me, I'll be going to some local youth games to argue with refs, to get ready for the Finals! See you then!
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