6 Thoughts
1) Solid home win for Miami over the Lakers - pushed out by 15 at halftime, and the Lakers never made a run. It says something - good for Miami, I think - that it seemed like a big-game litmus test for the Lakers, and just another game for Miami. LeBron had the flu and looked a little tired, but filled up the boxscore: 31 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. He went to the mid-post often, created good looks for himself and others, and Miami won easily. By the way, appropriate for LeBron to have a big game during the Heat's first "Back in Black" night of the season, with fresh, new alternate black home unis, and a different player intro video - LeBron is pretty black. No white players allowed for Miami in this game. Except for Mike Mil-lar. Oh, and Battier. Wait, what?...
2) The game was never really close, so the most interesting thing that happened was the first official Eddy Curry sighting for Miami. For those who don't know, Curry was the top pick in the draft by Chicago a decade or so ago, a huge manchild with quick feet and a soft touch. He never had much of an appetite for defense and rebounding, although he did have an appetite for everything else and especially, he claims, Now and Laters, which caused him to balloon up to 400 pounds. That's a lot of Now and Laters. How much does a Now and Later weigh, like 1/100th of an ounce? Anyways, he pretty much ate his way out of basketball - languished on the Knicks bench for the last several seasons before being waived last year. Miami flirted with him down the stretch last season, but never signed him. However, they gave him a make-good contract coming into camp this year, pretended he got injured on the first day of training camp, and then have spent the last month pounding him into better shape, without putting him on the active roster. He is still a big boy, but honestly, doesn't even look like the same person - he's lost somewhere between 70 and 100 pounds. To me, it still seemed bizarre: even in his best seasons, he never really defended or rebounded, and so to me, it seemed like the height of arrogance by my dad, Pat Riley, to take the position that not only was it possible get Curry into basketball shape, but that it was also conceivable to teach him how to play hard, and play proper defense. I have estimated all season long that the odds of Eddy Curry ever contributing anything meaningful to this team were remote. Also, The Captain has been worried for weeks that Curry would land on Mike Mil-lar and break him. Yet, here Curry was, checking into the game in the second quarter, and instantly running a dive to the rim, catching a pass from LeBron, neatly sidestepping a defender in rhythm, and laying the ball in the hoop. There he was grabbing a rebound or two in traffic,and he looked smooth on a pair of free throws. It wasn't all great - he threw an outlet pass away, got caught off-balance on another drive, and didn't make one proper rotation on defense - but in two short bursts contributed 6 points and 3 boards in 6 minutes, contributing in a small way to a win over a pretty good team. He's already exceeded every expectation I had for him! He looked giddy on the bench after his second stint - it can't be easy to lose 100 pounds, and to start back up from the bottom. He should be proud of himself. Also, gives the home crowd something else to do: predictably got the "Ed-dy" chant going two or three times in the six minutes. At some point, we are going to have to have a chant-off between that one, and the "M-V-P" chants for Butter.
3) Best plays of the night: in the third quarter, Laker forward and self-proclaimed tough guy Matt Barnes (a Dos favorite) got out in space, went to the rim, and got his layup slapped out of the air from behind by LeBron. Moments later, Barnes got out again in transition, tried to take it around Joel Anthony, took a quick look back to see if LeBron was charging again, and instead got his shit slapped out of the air by Joel! Butter! M-V-P!!!
4) "Shoot, Kobe, shoot!": Laker guard Kobe Bryant claims to be nursing a sore wrist. I think we all know he's making it up and milking it for everything it's worth ("Kobe is so courageous!"), but let's humor him and go along with his charade for a moment. In a solemn pre-game interview, he told TNT that the sore wrist limits him, and that it is a situation where you "have to figure out what you can and can't do." Can do: Shoot more. And smirk. Can't do: pass to teammates...Kobe had a tough, tough night - he made three straight shots in garbage time to get to 8-21 for 24 points, but he spent most of the game at the elbow, stagnating the Laker offense by forcing bad jumpers over a draped-all-over-him-because-I-have-nothing-better-to-do-and-by-the-way-I-live-for-this Shane Battier. Battier also uncharacteristically quick on the trigger with the threes tonight, fired up seven, six in a short span in the first half (made 3). All the contested missed elbow jumpers by Kobe got him tooooo hype!
5) Speaking of toooo hype, Miami is now 1-0 at home this season when Luda sits directly behind Erik Spoelstra.
6) Quick update on the Republican nomination, Dos-style: My favorite candidate is the handsome young Lake Worth po-lice who doesn’t care where you park your car. He’s not currently campaigning, that I’m aware of, but I’m hoping there is still time. My second preference is Milt Romney, because he was the governor of Massachusetts , and I went to school in Boston , and he seems to have fairly progressive ideas regarding health care and abortion, even though now he says he doesn’t. Not too sure where he stands on parking. The Captain favors Newt Gingrich because he thinks he is the smartest guy running, and has written a lot of books, and has a jaunty, sweeping salt-and-pepper hairdo that The Captain admires (in fairness, he admits that Milt Romney also has great hair). Rick Perry (also, a very nice head of hair, if a little bit of an outdated hairstyle) dropped out today. He probably didn’t have much of a chance to win. He did seem kind of nice, but also, honestly, like a bit of a dope. In the general election, since I’m anti-Al Qaeda, and Obama killed Bin Laden, I’m going Obama. Also, since Obama has been elected, my tires have never been more properly inflated. But you shouldn’t vote for him just because I am going to - hey, if you’re pro-Al Qaeda, absolutely, you have to go Romney – he’s also a good choice, I’m not going to criticize it. …
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Okay, moving on, next game is Saturday against the superhot Sixers. I'll be out of town in Gainesville for the weekend, so Snets will be back to take you through that game. From what I've heard, he plans to discuss how LeBron James reminds him of Bob Petit, and detail some of my illicit drug use through the years. I should be back for a game against the Bucks Sunday night. If you need me before then, I'll be doing the Gator Chomp! Roll Tide (or something)!
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