6 Thoughts
1) Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, when I was a handsome young virile man, ummm, sitting in my apartment watching basketball games with my girlfriend (the future M.Minutos, unfortunately for her), the Heat lost in the playoffs to the Knicks in 14 straight seasons, each series loss in exponentially more excruciating fashion than the previous one. Back then, I never imagined we'd play the Knicks in a playoff series and it would be like this: easy. Each of the 4 games the Heat won in the series was a blowout (the Knicks rarely were within single digits after the first quarter tonight). Even the one game Miami lost, a game in which they played absolutely atrociously, on the road in New York, was still there for the taking. This series was so easy, it was tough to even build genuine animosity towards the Knicks (even taking my near absolute belief in the essential goodness of Mike Bibby - a solid 10 and 6 tonight - out of the equation). Except for Tyson Chandler: everybody hates that dude. Still, even though I didn't hate the Knicks in this series, the reality of the situation is this: you are going to have to suck it, Knicks. YEAHHHHHH, KNICKS, BALLGAME, SERIES OVER, YOU CAN ALL GO HOME NOW, EXCEPT FOR MIKE BIBBY, WHO CAN STAY IN MY GUEST BEDROOM! (special note to Tyson Chandler: your "friends," the Dallas Mavericks, for whom you won a title last year before they kicked you to the curb? They have plennnttttyyyy of free time to hang out with you now and watch the rest of the playoffs on tv!) Round Two starts Sunday: LETTTSSSSSS GOOOOOOOOO!!!!
2) KJ James dominated this game, and he dominated this series. Tonight with the Knicks loading up their defense against him whenever possible, he still managed to pound the lane for 15 free throws, and had 7 assists. He also spent considerable time on Carmelo Anthony, as always, and made things difficult on him, as always, although Carmelo (heroically) spent much of the night making just enough difficult jumpers to keep the Knicks from getting blown out of the building. Their final stat lines tell the difference between the two players, ultimately. KJ: 29 points on only 16 shots, 7 assists. Melo: 35 points on 31 shots, 1 assist. Melo's big-time, but if you want to know why KJ's just a bit better? That's 'bout what you need to know.
3) Oh! Look who is back: the shooters! After spending a couple of games icyyy cold in NYC, the trio of Mario "Emcee" Chalmers, Mike Mil-lar, and Shane Battioke combined to shoot 9-20 from the floor, including 7-13 on triples, and scored 28 points. Even on a night when neither KJ nor Dwyane Wade (a spotty 7-19 for 19 points) ever exploded offensively, Miami won easily due to these three dudes making shots. Any night these three score 28 points, Miami's probably winning. On the downside, each time Mike Mil-lar came out of the game, he had to go down past the end of the bench and lie down on the floor to ease the pressure on his back. Uh-oh, here we go...
4) Chris Bosh was pretty terrible. I know we say this often, but his 19 and 7 was one of the worst and softest 19 and 7s of all-time. He started each half with a wide open airball - the second was from a distance of 6 feet. He failed to finish several plays around the basket. He let up innumerable layups around the rim with unbelievably statue-like, even for him, "contests." Most incredibly of all, he made KJ James mad. KJ James never, ever gets mad at a player on the court - I mean, unless you count Chalmers, which I don't, because KJ's constant yelling at him is the same thing every Heat fan does at his television screen. It's a big part of Chalmers' role on this team - he absorbs the abuse so other guys don't have to - some guys have that personality where they don't even hear it, and he's one of them. KJ - this is a guy who continues to patiently pass the ball to Joel Anthony over and over, no matter how many times he drops it, and when asked about it calmly reasons, "If I don't pass it to him, he won't ever get better at catching it, and he's my teammate, so I trust him to catch the passes." You know who doesn't trust Joel to catch the passes? Everybody else on Earth. KJ doesn't get mad at players on other teams, even with all the cheap shots and hard fouls he takes going to the rim. He doesn't even get mad at referees - when he argues, he's almost always right, and he's a pretty polite arguer. Tonight, ref (and Miami native - UD's high school teammate!) John Gobel, had an atrocious game. He gave an early technical foul to Landry Fields from 30 feet away, on a half-hearted protest he easily could have ignored. With 6 minutes to go, he clearly changed an offensive foul he was going to call on Amare Stoudamire to a defensive foul on Dwyane Wade when he realized it would have been Amare's sixth. A couple of minutes later, with Dwyane Wade trying to post up under the basket, Carmelo Anthony put two arms around Wade and tackled him out of the lane from about 2 feet in front of Gobel. KJ couldn't enter the ball to Wade, the Heat got a bad shot, and on the ensuing dead ball, KJ politely went to Gobel and made a "wrapping up" motion with his arms - like, "Hey, did you not think that was a foul," which Gobel bizarrely responded to by giving KJ a technical. But even that didn't make KJ mad, he just shrugged it off. However, in the opening 5 minutes of the second half, on about 5 of 6 possessions, with the Knicks begging to be blown out, Chris Bosh absolutely failed to contest defensive rebounds in any fashion whatsoever, and the Knicks scrapped out several buckets to somewhat hang in the game. The final one, right in front of the Heat bench, saw the Knicks get three offensive rebounds in succession: miss-rebound-miss-rebound-miss-score, all while Bosh watched from politely under the basket. As Coach Spo charged on to the court calling timeout, KJ ripped his mouthpiece out of his mouth, turned around at Bosh and screammmmmed at him! Then, stormed to the bench (fast even for KJ). Never really seen him quite that mad on the court before - now he knows how every Heat fan feels watching every Heat game Chris Bosh plays in. Strangely satisfying that KJ lost it for this reason! Last year most people thought that Bosh's weak play would be Miami's downfall in the playoffs. Surprisingly, in the end, it wasn't - it was a couple of bad fourth quarters from KJ which cost Miami the title. Bosh - for the most part - played well in the post-season. But, honestly, he's not off to a good start here. Indiana, Miami's second round opponent, plays big. C'mon, Chris Bosh - we're going to need a little something...
5) Last game of the year for the Sunsports crew. Felt good to close out the Knicks with them - and I'm not just saying that because they repped the blog on tv this year. They were with us during all the brutal losses back in the day. Well, Tony Fiorentino wasn't - he was an assistant coach on those teams: "Jamal, if you are able to dribble into the lane for an open look on this last play, don't rule out suddenly jamming the ball into Clarence's stomach when he isn't remotely expecting it, okay?" And Jax wasn't there, either, honestly - he was working at ESPN at the time, I believe. And Johanna Gomez wasn't there - she was probably in junior high school ("was probably crazy cute even then" -M.Minutos). I mean, Dr. Jack was there, but he's gone now. Wait - so it was just Eric Reid? Yes - it was just Eric Reid. Ahhh, you know what? You may say he is predictable - I prefer to call him reliable. Gang, you have to love Eric Reid. He's been through it with us, every time. That's our dude. Thank you, Sunsports crew, each and every one of you - even the dude who likes to jump-switch to the terrible low-crotch-cam for transition dunks - for another great season, but this year, a special thanks to Eric Reid for always being there for us. This series win was for you, fella. See you next year, boys (and JoGo)!
6) So proud of our country today. Don't look now, but next thing you know American citizens might actually be allowed to park wherever they deem appropriate, as long as you aren't obstructing anyone else's ability to enjoy his own parking situation. Freedom.
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Round Two starts Sunday - Mother's Day - against the Indiana Pacers and their lying coach Frank Vogel. Should be a great series! If you need me before then, I'll reminding my dad, Pat Riley, that Mike Bibby is a free agent next year! See you on Sunday!
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