1) They say you have to beat the champs to be the champs. Dallas claims to be the defending champions, though I still have yet to see hard evidence. We beat 'em down, in Dallas - guess we're the champs! This is what the Christmas spirit is all about - humiliating a team on their home court! Who got the juice now, Mavericks? Who got the juice now? Happy LeBronica and Merry Boshmas! And. we. are. off!
2) We've seen this before - team wins a championship, opens at home the next season, raises a banner, and they are not quiiiite ready to play. Miami went through this 2007, getting blown off the court against the Bulls in the season opener after the title. Today, Miami was ready to play; Dallas wasn't. This game was over halfway through the second quarter when Miami's lead ballooned to the high 20s, peaking at 35 in the third quarter. As will be the case all season with such a compressed schedule, this was a matter of when, more than who. Although, Dallas opted not to bring back Tyson Chandler (because the Mavs aren't Fam - "thanks for the title - see you later, Tyson!") so it's not exactly the same team - no resistance in the paint defensively...
3) ...which meant that LeBron and Wade could post up all day and create easy shots. Dallas was ill-prepared and Miami was so juiced, that it was tough to find anything really meaningful in the game, except for signs of a new offense featuring both of those guys in the post area. LeBron showed the same mid-post game he displayed in the pre-season. It's not a classic, "catch it on the block and bump and grind to the rim" post up game. It's a "catch it at 15 feet, turn and face, and go to work" post up game. And you know what? That's enough. It allows LeBron to face the basket, which is how he is more comfortable, and then do the same things he always does - but, now, a 20 foot jumper becomes a 14 footer. His sweet new move where he faces, shows the ball above his head, and then flips the short jumper looks comfortable, repeatable, and fairly unstoppable. He also had a spinning left-handed jump hook 'and-one' that was spectacular. And, to be fair, mixed in a few bad fallaways. He had 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists through three quarters (37 overall)...so that's fairly decent. He also was part of the play of the game. Mario Chalmers snuck up from behind on Dirk Nowitzki on the baseline, picked him clean from behind, and steamed up court with LeBron on the right wing, and Wade on the left. As they approached the basket, Emcee lofted a fairly ill-advised alley-oop to LeBron, who was covered by Shawn Marion, so LeBron elevated over Marion, and tipped the ball back to a flying Wade, who jumped, caught the ball in the air, and FLUSHED!!! A double alley-oop! A dalley-oop! Besides a flurry of first half turnovers, Wade was everywhere - 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. At one point in the third quarter, he and LeBron had 45, and the Mavs 43. In the end, it doesn't really mean anything - only the playoffs will mean anything again this year - but it was super-fun to watch.
4) Shane Battier played 4 first half minutes. He's been out with a strained quad, and since he wasn't necessary, he sat the entire second half. His main contributions: 1) shoved Mavs guard Jason Terry down to the ground on a transition play, allowing rookie Norris Cole (who had his moments) to finish a layup at the rim; 2) was invariably the first Heat player up off on the bench and on to the court to greet the team during every time out - that's nice to see, but at some point this season there is going to be a high-speed collision between he and LeBron, who freight-trains towards his seat on the bench during every break...Joining Battier on the bench was fellow wing Mike Miller, out a couple more weeks with a hernia. Should be back mid-January; that tells me that mid-to-late January should be his next injury. His houndstooth jacket is now the leader in the clubhouse for "Bench Outfit of the Year." Let's see how long that stands up...Battier and Miller are Dwyane and LeBron's backups at the wing. Battier and Miller's backup, James Jones, made three triples in a row during the second quarter run that effectively ended the game. Wings for days. Damn!
5) M.Minutos, back for another season, noticed at the start of the game that it seemed much darker in Dallas' arena than it did in Madison Square Garden for the Knicks-Celtic game which was on just before the Heat game. Either that, or we have darker players. Starting lineup: LeBron and Wade, they are pretty dark; Joel, very dark; Chalmers, lighter, more like a Carmelo Anthony shade; and Bosh somewhere in between - he's about the shade of M.Minutos, actually. On the Knicks, the aforementioned Melo and Chandler, on the lighter side, and Landry Fields, very, very white - he might be whiter than me. This is sample size-y - for instance, we think Wade is darker than Melo, but I propose we need to see them on the court together before judging definitively. It could just be that Dallas owner Mark Cuban is too cheap to pay for better lighting. I mean, he was too cheap to bring back Tyson Chandler...Yes, these are the things we talk about in Casa Minutos during a thirty point blowout. Or, any other game.
6) This was one of the presents I got this morning, a Miami Heat/Dos Minutos notebook, with the following letter:
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Next game is Tuesday, home opener against Boston. Paul Pierce may or may not be available with a sore heel. Kevin Garnett may or may not be available after smacking someone in the neck during the Knick game (then waiting for other people to intervene so he didn't get his butt kicked). If you need me before then, I'll be at the mall exchanging all my Christmas clothing gifts - I'm going all in on houndstooth! Happy Holidays!
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