6 Thoughts
1) Jeremy Lin's first game against the Miami Heat, first time rolling with the big boys, playoff atmosphere, bodies flying everywhere, national game on TNT (which gave him more air-time than any player in any game, in any sport, anywhere, ever)...annnnd, he was absolutely terrible! Kind of a letdown, all things considered. Only 8 points on 1 for double-chopsticks from the field, 3 assists, and 8 turnovers. Got picked clean by Mario Chalmers in the first quarter for a breakaway dunk (Emcee Chalmers can dunk!), and got picked clean by Norris Cole for a breakaway dunk in the second quarter (after which Norris slipped off the rim, falling nine feet on to his hip - ouch!). He also made a bizarre bush league play at the end of the game: KJ James grabbed a rebound with 5 seconds to go, with the Heat up 14, and stood there under the basket with the ball to let the clock run out. Lin suddenly stripped the ball from KJ, and tried to lay it in the basket, although he dorked the layup. That may fly in Asian American basketball culture, but not in the NBA - c'mon, kid! All in all, he'll have better nights, and I like him...TNT was truly out of control with it, though: several times they missed plays on the court while showing viewers shots of Jeremy Lin sitting on the bench. AND BY THE WAY, HE WAS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ALL-TIME GREAT POINT GUARD MIKE BIBBY! LIN WAS 1-11, and HIS BACKUP, THE ROTUND BARON DAVIS, WAS 0-7! HEY, NEW YORK KNICKS, HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PLAYING THE BEST POINT GUARD ON YOUR ROSTER: MIKE BIBBY?
2) Sometimes you play well, and everything flows, and sometimes you win just by playing hard. Tonight was the latter for Miami. They won this game with defense. KJ James was everywhere on the defensive end: he had 8 defensive boards (9 overall), 5 steals, and 2 blocks. He (along with Shane Battier) harassed Knick forward Carmelo Anthony into a 7-20 shooting night. He showed on screens, and recovered to the paint; he closed out on shooters from side-to-side. He, more than anyone, made it difficult for the Knicks to run their offense fluidly: just the threat of him shooting the passing lane made the Knicks hesitant with their passing - they shot only 39% from the floor, and committed 19 turnovers.
3) Also fabulous defensively: Joel "Butter" Anthony. If KJ James was the player most responsible for the overall struggle of the Knick offense, Joel was most directly responsible for Jeremy Lin's struggle. The Knicks ran high pick and roll after high pick and roll, and Joel put on a clinic defending it: kept showing hard, slowing or stopping Lin, then recovered back into the lane to stop any action at the rim. It really is the one NBA-level skill he has, and he is very good at it (and it is a valuable commodity). His 5 blocks tonight were a bonus, and he triggered the biggest sequence of the game: with 3 minutes to go in the third quarter, he slid over on a Lin drive and blocked his floater, caught it out of midair (!), and threw an outlet pass for a transition Shane Battier triple to push the lead to 13, then when the Knicks pushed the ball back hard after the make, slid back to the exact same spot on the court and drew a charge on Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks never threatened after that: ballgame. Warden.
4) As for offense, Dwyane missed a bunch of early layups, ending his first half dominance, although he did put Miami ahead for good with a third quarter spurt. We should mention: the Knicks played very hard, and well, defensively - Miami scored a lot of points in transition. If the Knicks defend like this every game, they are going to be good. Dwyane finished with 22, but only 10-22 from the floor. KJ had 20, on 7-16, and Battier made 2 big triples. But, down the stretch, it was Chris Bosh who carried the offensive load, nailing jumper after jumper, and mixing in one drive-okey-doke-and-finish on Tyson Chandler. Which brings up a painful memory. There are many, many things that Chris Bosh does not do well on a basketball court. They are all infuriating, and we won't list them again here. But one thing he does exceptionally well is shoot elbow jumpers. Knicks center Tyson Chandler is, to his credit, a one-man illegal defense. He is never, ever going to stray out of the painted area on defense for more than a moment at a time. Last year, while playing on Dallas in the Finals, he singlehandedly jammed up dozens of late game Miami possessions by standing in the lane to deter Wade and KJ drives. That is smart and great basketball, I am not criticizing him at all - he could play for me any day. But, I still believe that if instead of Dwyane and KJ trying to beat that type of defense by driving into it, or shooting over the top, they simply put Chandler in pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll (since he is always guarding Bosh at the end of games), let him jam down into the paint to stop the drive, and flip the ball back to Chris at the elbow and let him shoot the 18 footer, they win that series, easy. They lost three games in which they had comfortable leads coming down the stretch because they couldn't generate good shots, and no NBA ref is going to call illegal defense in the last five minutes of any game, let alone a playoff game, no matter how blatant it is (and they shouldn't - you have to figure out how to beat it). But Bosh is always going to make at least 4 or 5 out of 10 of those jumpers. That would have been more than enough in the end of those games - why make it more difficult than it needs to be? Tonight, they pitched it to him when Chandler planted himself in the lane - 25 for Chris on 11-17, and Miami held its lead easily the entire fourth quarter. I feel vindicated; yet, somehow, still very bitter!
5) Time for the all-star break! We're more than halfway done with the 66 game schedule, and Miami is 27-7 (and 15-2 at home). That's pretty good. Let's give some all-star break grades. Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem and me: A+. It's my blog, the three of us are always getting A pluses. KJ James: A. He's been absolutely fantastic, the best player in the league. Everyone else: A-, except for Chris Bosh, who gets a C-, but only because he played well tonight; otherwise he was getting a D. The end.
6) "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam > Jeremy Lin > every other Jeremy on earth > Jeremy Piven.
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What a great first half! Everyone is worried about other stuff besides us, for once, and our games are really so much fun to watch, absolute dunk-fests. The players seem like they are having so much fun, and that rubs off on the fans. Won't matter if they don't get it done in the playoffs, but for now, it's terrific: thank you, boys! Can't wait for this break, no blog for a whole week, I think we are back next Thursday, and I don't even know who we play! Or care! If you need me before then, I will be absolutely not be watching basketball - and loving it! See you in a week!
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