6 Thoughts
1) Miami semi-pummeled Dallas all night, had them on the verge of blowouts two different times, and generally controlled the game from start to finish. And yet, somehow, incredibly, improbably, gakked up a 15 point lead with 6 minutes to go and lost this game. Had Miami won, I think we all agreed that the series was probably pretty much over. Instead, it looks like a long, hard fight. If Miami doesn't win this title, we'll look back on this six minute stretch in agony. We don't want to go, but I guess we have to!
2) Down the stretch, Miami resorted to the late game offense they used for the first four months of the season: LeBron stands 30 feet from the basket, dribbles the ball down to about 8 seconds on the shot clock, tentatively advances to the three point line, then either jams it late to someone in a bad spot, or retreats two dribbles, then gathers himself for a contested, twisting fallaway jumper. Guess what? They didn't go in. Dwyane Wade rarely touched the ball down the stretch even though he scored 36 on only 20 shots - his one shot late was a contested three after a LeBron dribble-fest. Honestly, I don't even mind the threes from LeBron - but you're bigger and more athletic than anyone guarding you. Step up, give one move, and rise and shoot. The diddling around to settle for an off-balance fade is a killer. He's played a ton of good games in a row, and made huge shots. Tonight wasn't great - need a little better decision-making from him.
3) Three huge errors on the last defensive possession when Nowtizki made a driving layup to win the game, two by Coach Spo. One, Udonis Haslem was late coming to help. You have to make sure you get there in time to help the primary defender. That's a Heat strength - UD didn't get there. We praise him enough in this blog - he has to take one criticism. Two, there's no way Chris Bosh can be checking Nowitzki on that last play. Chris had a pitiful night - it was one of his totally ineffectual performances. Even when Miami was killing Dallas, he was horrendous - shot 4-16, and got stripped of the ball maybe 100 times, including one key possession with a minute to go when LeBron put him in a difficult position. You know Nowitzki is going to aggressively hunt a shot in that spot. While Chris is an excellent position defender on pick-and-rolls, he's not a great on the ball guy, it wasn't his night in general, and he got beat pretty bad on the play. Three, Joel Anthony has to be in the game in that spot. You can take either Bosh or UD out, I don't care which, but Joel is the best on the ball defender of Nowitzki, and he's the best help defender at the rim. Neither Bosh nor UD did their jobs in that spot - and Joel is better at both of those jobs. Not sure what we're saving him for - maybe Game 3.
4) I'm not saying I enjoyed the game, or felt good for Dallas, or anything like that - I didn't. All I am saying is, in 2006, they had Miami about as close as you can get to being out of the series, let them slip away, and then Miami came back and won the championship. Tonight, Miami had Dallas very close to being just about out of the series, let them slip away, and...we'll see. Fair play to Dallas tonight. Man, I don't know how players do it - I could never come back and play Sunday night. I'd be devastated. The last time this franchise took a loss like this was Game 7 of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit, the Dwyane Wade-injured ribs game. It took me about eight weeks to bounce back from that disappointment. I have absolutely no heart!
5) We'd be much remiss if we didn't mention that besides Dwyane Wade, Miami's hero of the night, at least for 42 minutes, was Mike Bibby! Not only did he make 4-7 triples and score 14 points, he also had 4 steals - 3 of them right in a row - to key a third quarter run that put Miami up double digits. He was utilizing his patented "I'll stand patiently over here out of harm's way while there is a scrum on the floor for a loose ball, then it will squirt right to me, and I will casually pass it ahead to Dwyane or LeBron for a dunk" defense. Worked like a charm. Like it always does. Maybe Bibbs should have checked Nowitzki on that last possession!
6) Music Review: new Wombats album. It's awesome, just download it. Here's one of the cool songs - I swear I planned to post a song in which the chorus is "Let me be your anti-depressant" before Miami blew this lead!
Game 3 is Sunday night in Dallas. Now Miami has to win one out there to get the series back to South Beach. It can be done, no doubt - just have to get back to the grind. If you need me before Sunday, I'll be sleeping. School is over for the Minutos boys! No more driving them to school! No more hustling to get them to bed early! Let's get some sleep! See you Sunday!
-----
