6 Thoughts
1) I mean, that's pretty much how this series is going to go: two extremely tough defensive teams are going to battle for every inch of space on the defensive end, and then, offensively, Miami is hoping the superior athletic playmaking of Dwyane Wade and KJ James is enough to overcome the superior ball movement and shooting of Boston. Tonight was the blueprint for how Miami can win games in this series, even without Chris Bosh, who outplayed Boston's best player, Kevin Garnett, in last year's series. Winning the first game of a series at home against a team which had to travel isn't a huge accomplishment, and neither team played particularly well, but we'll take it. Have to be up for the fight against this Celtics team - it promises to be a long series...Let's go!
2) Again, this is how well KJ James is playing in the playoffs: he had 32 points on 13-22 shooting, a game-high 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, helped hold Paul Pierce to a 5-18 shooting night, and guarded Rajon Rondo during a key stretch of the game. And you would say, "yeah, he was pretty good, not great, not 'A' KJ, but a solid 'B.'" That's freaking crazy. Dwyane Wade also showed up big in the second half after a quiet first two quarters, and finished with 22 points on 8-13 with 7 assists. He ran the offense in the fourth quarter. Early on, he pushed the lead to 15 with a sweet driving mid-air-change-to-the-left-hand layup, then a high screen-and-roll left-handed bullet pass off the dribble to a diving Joel Anthony for a dunk. After Boston clawed back into contact under 5 minutes to go, he made another driving layup, then blocked a Rajon Rondo drive - from on the ball - then found a cutting KJ James for a foul to push the lead back to 16. Ballgame. Superstar games from KJ and Dwyane.
3) On the one hand, you would like to see the role players shoot it a little better: Miami created a lot of wide open jumpshots, mostly because Boston has trouble containing KJ and Dwyane off the bounce individually, but are extremely conscious about helping in the lane. Guys were open all night, KJ and Dwyane found them, but the triples didn't go in. Battier (2-9) and Chalmers (0-6) were the primary offenders on a night the Heat made only 5-25 threes. But the role players did contribute in other ways: Battier scrapped his way to 10 rebounds, and 10 points, and Chalmers had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and only 1 turnover (an alleyoop to KJ off the bottom of the backboard). Mike Mil-lar scored 8 early points, and Joel Anthony had 6 rebounds and 2 blocks in 20 minutes. Miami won the rebounding battle 48-33, and blocked 11 shots to Boston's 1. As always, Miami just needs their role players to do something; KJ and Dwyane can do everything - if the role players do something to help, on good nights, those guys can fill in what's missing.
4) Play of the game: Late in the third quarter, with Miami starting to inch away from Boston, Paul Pierce got trapped up at the top of the key in a double team by Shane Battier and Joel Anthony, two long-armed and feisty defenders. Trying to extricate himself from the pressure, and already having picked up his dribble, Pierce reverse-pivoted back out towards halfcourt. When Battier and Joel went with him, and he still wasn't clear to pass, Pierce simply switched pivot feet and pivoted backwards again - at one point it seemed the refs were just going to let him reverse-pivot all the way 65 down the court out of bounds. Meanwhile, Battier and Joel stuck to him, and Pierce, tired of illegally retreating, tried to step up through the double, at which point Battier stuck his hand out and dislodged the ball, then beat Pierce to the floor to get to it first. With Pierce looming over him, and Battier facing back towards his own defensive basket on his knees, patiently waiting for KJ or Dwyane to come get the ball, Mario Chalmers suddenly burst upcourt and as he passed Battier, Shane hit him with a little lookaway backhanded shovel pass, which Chalmers took in stride, and flewww...okay, bolted...okay, ran kind of fast; okay, went at Mario Chalmers' speed to the other end, which in this case was enough, and dropped the ball in the hoop for a 12 point lead. Role players making plays.
5) This may not come as a surprise to anyone who has watched an NBA game involving the Celtics over the past 4 or 5 years, but they are a bit of a cantankerous bunch. They like to elbow you in the back, their bread-and-butter offensive play is the illegal screen, and they complain endlessly to officials. Here, in this blog, we like to call it "Doucheball," although we can't take credit for the term - some dude on twitter invented it when Jermaine O'Neal (of all people) took an unbelievably cheap body check on KJ James during a game last year during a Heat victory: "Celtics have reverted to their patented 'doucheball' style of play," the kid wrote. It's not a pejorative term- it is meant to be descriptive only. I have the utmost respect for how the Celtics compete on the basketball floor. Let tonight's record reflect that the Celtics accumulated 2 technical fouls for arguing (Ray Allen and Doc Rivers), 1 for repeatedly slapping the ball away from the Heat on made Celtics' baskets so that the Heat couldn't speed up the pace of the game (most frequent offender: Kevin Garnett), and 1 when Rajon Rondo, after another made Boston basket, tried to "accidentally" bump Shane Battier back over the photographers seated on the floor behind the basket, and the referee happened to be standing right there watching him. Oops. After the game, Doc Rivers, who literally complains to the refs every trip up and down the court (let's be honest, he's a nice dude at heart - it's Garnett's influence), called it the worst, most undeserved technical foul he has ever received, which was ironic because the technical seemed like a cumulative "will you just shut the hell up for one trip" technical from the ref, yet here he was after the game, still complaining about it. That being said, compared to the Pacers, who were intentionally going up high on KJ and Dwyane every chance they could, the Celtics kept their physical play within the general spirit of basketball, although after the game, Rajon Rondo, said that in the rest of the series, KJ and Dwyane "need to hit the deck." Uh-oh...
6) Here's another depressing thing about getting older: like, when you are a kid, and they remake, say, Superman - we in the business like to call that a 'reboot' these days - to you, the kid, there is an "old, musty" Superman, then they make the new one, then we're all good, right? We have the definitive Superman, we don't need any more Superman movies, ever. But, then the longer you live, they keep 're-booting' the series, and you're like, "wait, what - we already have the definitive one of those, why are we making another one." But the instant you say that - the instant you even think it - you know who that makes you? Your dad! Yikes. Tonight I saw the preview for the new Spiderman movie - there's no Tobey Maguire! And M.Minutos and I are looking at each other and we are both like, "where's Tobey Maguire" (not that either of us has seen any Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies - but it's the principle of the matter)? Then we realize that the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies probably started during, like, the Gulf War - our kids, our 8 and 10 year old, they don't even know who this "young whippersnapper" Tobey Maguire is!!! Oh my heavens, so terrible getting old - for us, and Tobey Maguire!...In a related story, for the next Batman re-boot? How about Ellen Degeneres as Batman? She held a secret about her identity (kind of) for a long time; she's lithe; she's incredibly charismatic; she likes to wear black (it's slimming); and she probably hates crime. For her Robin: Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad; and for Alfred the Butler, Tim Allen. The end.
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Well, winning the first game is better than losing the first game, but everyone will feel a whole lot better if we can get Game Two Wednesday. You have to figure this is a fair fight, and is ultimately a 6 or 7 game series one way or another - Miami beat Boston in 5 last year, but Bosh played, and Rondo was dinged up. This year, the injuries favor Boston. If you need me before then, I'll be continuing my preparations for M.Minutos big day: Friday is her 40th birthday! And by "continuing my preparations," I mean, of course, "worrying about Game 2 of the Heat-Celtics series." Hope everyone had a Happy Memorial Day!
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