6 Thoughts
1) Ninety seconds. That's all it took: ninety seconds. A long, odd day and game which featured Chris Bosh flying from New York to Miami and back in 24 hours to see the birth of his child; the Knicks intentionally slowing the game to a complete crawl; Dwyane Wade and KJ James in absolute sleepwalk-trances in the first half; 7 turnovers for KJ and his fourth foul with seven and a half minutes to go in the third quarter forcing him to sit out that long stretch before the 4th quarter; and combined 1-11 shooting from Mike Mil-lar and Shane Battier in the game - all that, and ninety seconds was all it took to turn it completely around. After Miami scrapped its way to a 2 point lead after three quarters, KJ re-entered and on the first 3 possessions of the fourth quarter - all of ninety seconds - went triple over the top; drive-and-miss-rebound-miss-rebound-score; triple over the top. Eight points in ninety seconds to push the lead to 10 - ballgame. Seventeen fourth quarter points for KJ, 32 in all. Heat lead the series 3-0, with a chance to close it out in New York on Sunday. Ninety seconds. Let's go.
2) Man, I love Carmelo Anthony - he is one of my favorite players, and he is the perfect guy to have on the Knicks. He has New York swagger, New York bravado, and a physical mid-range, "New York-y" game. Even though he has only been on the Knicks for a little more than one season, it's hard to remember that he was ever anywhere else. But, man, are the Heat making it tough on him with their defense. He starts each game with the best defensive wing in basketball, KJ James, up in his shirt, making even receiving short passes to the wing difficult. Then as Miami's substitutions start, James switches elsewhere, and Shane Battier takes Melo, and continues to wrestle him for every inch of space on the court. And, really, he is the only offense the Knicks have at this point - if he doesn't a create a shot for himself, or someone else, the Knicks don't get a shot. They really don't have anyone on the team that can consistently turn the corner and make a good play off the dribble. Tonight, the Heat added an extra element, playing Joel Anthony down the stretch, who is long and quick enough to get partway across the lane to help on Melo postups, without fully committing and leaving open people elsewhere. Not only that, but down at the other end, he often has to guard KJ James. By the fourth quarter of each game in this series, Melo has looked exhausted, and his overall numbers reflect the grind: 3-15 in Game 1; 12-26 in Game 2; 7-23 tonight. For the Knicks, 32% overall from the floor tonight. The Heat are beating them up defensively, and that is what is winning this series right now.
3) Sometimes it's just good to be talented. With Miami down 4 at half (and lucky to be that close), and KJ James in foul trouble early in the third quarter, Dwyane Wade, fairly atrocious to that point, took over, including drilling back-to-back three pointers to take the Heat from a point down to 5 up with 4 minutes to go. He scored 12 points in the quarter, setting the stage for KJ's burst. Of all the things you worry about as a Knick player, coach, or fan, Dwyane Wade making back-to-back homeruns against you in a crucial moment is way, wayyy down the list. But you know what? That's why he's Dwyane Wade.
4) Sometimes it's just good to have this blog sing your praises as the most reliable big moment three point shooter on the team after the previous game, and then come out the next game and back it up. After KJ had pushed the lead out to double digits, and with the Knicks desperately clawing to stay in the game, it was Mario "Emcee" Chalmers' back-to-back triples of his own with six minutes to go, both in transition (first off a pass from Wade, second off a pass from James) which stretched the lead to 15, sending the Madison Square Garden crowd streaming to the exits. Emcee: 19 points on 5-8 triples tonight, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals...Awwww-ful-lyyy quiet in that Garden down the stretch, by the way. It would have been a perfect time to give the Garden crowd the cupped-hand-to-ear-Hulk-Hogan-I-can't hear-you pose down the stretch - to really do it properly you have to get up off your chair and into a solid crouch. I mean, if you were going to do it, which M.Minutos and I obviously wouldn't, since it's totally juvenile. I'm just saying that's how you would do it, if you were going to do it, which we were not. As far as you know.
5) Play of the Game: there were several candidates. First, right after the game (still counts), when new father Chris Bosh (Chris Bosh has testosterone?) snuck up behind Dwyane Wade during his postgame interview with the irrepressible Jax, and the Madison Square Garden security guard looked unsure of Bosh's intentions and came within moments of tackling him to the ground. Second, at the end of the third quarter with the Knicks feeling it slip away, when Mike Bibby scored 5 points in two possessions when Norris Cole cracked him on top of the head while Bibby shot a three, and then got caught on a screen as Bibby made a three. Love you, Mike Bibby - why is he not starting, by the way? But the obvious, runaway winner was late in the fourth quarter, with the game decided, and the Knicks offense in full-on Chernobyl-esque meltdown, when sharpshooter Steve Novak caught the ball deep in the corner in front of the Heat bench late in the shot clock, his former college teammate Dwyane Wade closed into his chest, and Mike Miller stood up on the bench directly behind Novak and started screaming in his ear, whereupon the shot clock expired, and Novak heaved the ball skyward for no apparent reason, and then fell into the Heat bench, regained his balance, staggered back onto the floor, then turned around to the Heat bench to say something, and Mike Miller, still standing there, laughed and waived a towel in Novak's face like a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in the 70s waiving those stupid yellow "terrible towels." Okay, maybe it wasn't a shining example of sportsmanship on Mike Miller's part, I'll grant you that. But guess what? Towel gamesmanship is always good! They didn't show him on the tv, but somewhere in that building, at that exact moment, Mike Bibby was smiling...
6) Hey, fellas, I've got two words for you: night shaving. That's right, night shaving: shaving at night. You take a shower before you go to bed, get out, and then give yourself a close shave, and then go to sleep. In the morning, you don't need to shave when you get up, unless you are a very virile and swarthy man, like Jeremy Piven or Colin Farrell. This is especially useful when your 9 year old son has just been selected for the safety patrol at his school, and needs to be there a half hour earlier than usual. Not even sure what safety patrol is - we didn't have that in my school growing up. We didn't have three things in my little town: safety patrol, McDonald's, and black people. Now I have two of the three in my own family - sweet! But I digress. The point is, you should shave at night. Not only is it quicker in the morning, but sleeping feels better freshly-shaven. When I lay my head down at night now, my cheek is smooooth and cooollll on that pillow, boy. I feel like I'm 19 again, chilled out in bed and dreaming sweet thoughts of Lisa Namp- wait, did I say 19? I meant 14, and dreaming of Alyssa Temple, of course! When I was 19, obviously, by then I could grow a very rugged face full of sexy stubble - I was absolutely not a smooth-cheeked nerd in college, I was a dark and mysterious masculine predator. Ha, what a faux pas on my part, can't believe I made that error! Night shaving, gang: give it a try!
---
Game 4 is Sunday - time to try to close it out quick. Nothing on earth worse than a Sunday afternoon game, though. Again - places where there is absolutely nothing to do like Dallas and Memphis should have the Sunday afternoon games. Miami should have Monday evening games, only. If you need me before then, I'll be lathering up, chickenheads!
-----
