1) About five minutes in to this game, with emotions running high and defenses making it difficult to score, I turned to M.Minutos and said, "With emotions running high and defenses making it difficult to score (that's how I talk - we have a very formal household), someone, sooner or later, is going to lose his temper." A few minutes later, Celtic guard Delonte West, pulling up with the ball over half-court to call a timeout, bumped Mario Chalmers to the floor, and then dropped the ball on him, earning a technical foul in the process. And we are off!!! Round Two is here, the matchup errrrryone wanted, Heat and Celtics, let's go, and let's get it the hell on! Miami jumped out big early in game one, survived a couple of mid-level Celtic charges, and won handily, with frustrations - mostly on the Celtics' side - bubbling over all day. Winning a game one of a playoff series on your home floor isn't really accomplishing much - it's about the minimum you need to do to be in a series - but it's better than losing. Heat hit first - Let's Go!!!
2) Dwyane Wade struggled all season against Boston, averaging only 12.8 points in four games against them...but not to-dayyy! Dee Dub was incredibly aggressive early, scoring 23 in the first half on 9-11 shooting, and finished with 38, on only 21 shots. He scored on drives, he scored on pullups, he made 2 triples, he had 5 assists, including one probe-right-then-suddenly-flip-it-to-an-opposite-baseline-cutting-LeBron-James-so-he-can-elevate-and-nearly-rip-the-rim-down coming down the stretch in the fourth quarter. With three minutes to go, when LeBron picked Rajon Rondo's pocket from behind, and hit Dwyane in stride with a 65 foot chest pass for an uncontested layup to push the lead back to 12, the game was over. On a night where LeBron was mediocre, and Chris Bosh was, well, more on him in # 4, it was mostly Dwyane who won this game...
3) ...and by "Dwyane," I mean, of course, "Dwyane...and PLAYOFF JAMES JONES!!!" PJJ killing it all day long: 25 points on 5-7 triples and 10 free throws. I will tell you now: any game from this point forward in the playoffs in which Playoff James Jones scores 25 points, Miami will win. PJJ also initiated the most controversial moments of the game. Midway through the fourth quarter, with Miami in fairly solid control of the game, he got okey doked in the air by the master of the O.D., Paul Pierce. Rather than let Pierce elevate and shoot and get a foul shot, James made the correct basketball play by landing and wrapping up Pierce with both arms. Was it rough? Maybe, a tiny bit, but certainly not overly so. But Pierce took exception to it, and walked into PJJ's face, leaning with his head, so that he gave Jones the lightest possible headbutt. The two exchanged words, and received double technical fouls. Less than a minute later, Dwyane Wade, doing his best to blanket Ray Allen, who still somehow wriggled free for 25 points by making 9 of 13 difficult shots, took a hard pick from Paul Pierce while trailing Allen to the baseline. When Allen reversed direction and headed back towards another Pierce screen, Wade saw it coming and instead of trying to get over it, decided he was going through Pierce. Pierce saw him coming, they both threw shoulders, and the two of them squared off. Wade got a technical for drilling Pierce, Pierce got a technical for trying to get into another Heat player's face, less than a minute after just having done so, and he was ejected. Celtic coach Doc Rivers spent most of his post-game press conference bemoaning the lack of a flagrant foul on either Jones or Wade. Neither one was a flagrant, and Doc Rivers knows that - but this is playoff time, and that's what you do: lose a game, then complain about the refereeing, hoping to get a little consideration for the next night. For sure, Coach Spo will be doing the same thing the first time Miami loses in this series.
4) Studio Gansta Off! Everyone clear the court: it's a Studio Gansta Off!!! Chris Bosh vs. Kevin Garnett!!! First one to roar to the crowd after a meaningless dunk with no one around him, or to shove someone in the back when they aren't looking, then retreat behind the rest of his team, wins!!! That's 7 points on an atrocious 3-10 shooting day for Chris, who did manage 12 rebounds. 6 points on an equally lousy 3-9 for Garnett, with 8 rebounds. I wouldn't say either guy was, you know, good. Nor particularly tough. That's why they are studio gangsters, and not...
5) ...semi-real gangsters, like Delonte West. When he committed his aforementioned mentioned technical foul by dropping the ball on Emcee Chalmers' chest (and, by the way: How dare you?), M.Minutos theorized that the notoriously unstable West might be racing. Later in the game, one of my friends texted me that his son had just observed that West "looks like an elf." Yes, exactly! An extremely tough elf! From the Elf Projects - the E.J.'s!!!
"Hey, girl - how about a little bit of elfin love?"
6) Right now, it's Sunday evening, and I would really like to be at the movie theater, watching the Fast and Furious 5 movie. Instead, what I'm doing is reading a bedtime story to the boys (albeit in a semi-racist Asian accent, which is fun - hey, the character was a Chinese grandmother), folding clothes, and roasting skinless chicken breasts so I can have healthy food to eat all week, since my metabolism now operates with the approximate urgency of Jermaine O'Neal. We all outlive our coolness. Kids - live it up while you can...
Game Two of the series is Tuesday night. If you need me before then, I'll be ironing our tablecloths, scrubbing the toilets, and dreaming of Paul Walker. But definitely not in that order. Lat-errrrrr!!!
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