1) What a donnybrook! What a humdinger! What a hullabaloo! I mean that really escalated quickly!...Miami totally controlled the run of play from start to finish, and seemingly won the game like three separate times, only to have OKC keep clawing back in it. The game had a rollercoaster-y rise-fall-and-rise by KJ James, two impossibly huge calls (one went each way), and another lights-out shooting night from Shane Battier. Okay, we all expect that from Battier, that's no surprise at all...In the end, Miami slipped out of there with a win, and the series is on! We on fiyah, we up in here! Let's go!
2) For three quarters, KJ James played about as good a game as he can play. It was different than the huge scoring games against Indiana and Boston in the playoffs, when everything he threw up went in. After a Game 1 where Miami lived, and ultimately died, by the jump shot, KJ James did what everybody has been screaming for him to do for, ohhh, about 8 seasons: go down in the post and dominate. Early on, he took Kevin Durant to the block and abused him. Jump hook for a score. Jump stop, pump fake, and finish. Spin baseline, reverse layup. Even when OKC stopped him by bringing a second defender, it still worked for Miami: Ibaka blocked a KJ post-up, but his man, Udonis Haslem, grabbed the rebound and finished. Kevin Durant spent the entire night in foul trouble trying to deal with KJ in the lane. It also freed up Battier: three quick triples again, and Miami led by double-digits all first half. What was most impressive was that KJ stayed at it - I know he doesn't like getting his shot blocked, and not only did he have a couple of layups deflected away, but Ibaka even blocked his dunk attempt near the end of the half. Still, in the third quarter he was back at it, with he and Dwyane both making OKC defend multiple actions each possession, leading to open opportunities in the paint...Buttt, in the fourth quarter, after Durant picked up his fifth foul with over 10 minutes to go, OKC left him in, and switched James Harden onto KJ. Harden is 6'4", 6'5", KJ probably outweighs him by 40 pounds. But. KJ. Would. Not. Go. To. The. Basket. He stood out on the perimeter, bounced the ball, then threw it to a covered Battier or Almario Vernard Chalmers with the shot clock running out. He melted away possession after possession with mind-bogglingly passive effort. He was in his weird, lonely space again, just like against Dallas last year. I mean, he was great against Boston in big moments, last year and this year, and great against Indiana, and great against Chicago. Why is it only in the Finals that he retreats to this bizarre little island? But then, after Miami (read: KJ), had given back almost their entire hard-won lead, KJ made a series of plays in the closing moments. With 90 seconds to go, after another bad possession was evaporating, he took the ball left to 14 feet, rose up over Thabo Sefalosha, OKC's best defender, and made an incredibly difficult bank shot to restore the lead 5 and momentarily stem OKC's onslaught. He missed a triple from the top plus 2 with 15 seconds to go - didn't have a problem with the shot, it was a good look and it ends the game if it goes in. Then on the ensuing defensive possession, got just enough of a contest on Kevin Durant's drive (foul? more on that in # 3) to force a miss, then (foul?) pulled Russell Westbrook off the ball and collected the rebound. Look, call a foul if you want, ref - I'm erring on the side of getting the ball in the rebounding scrum somehow, and see what the ref wants to do with it. Then, walked to the other end and dropped two free throws dead-bottom to seal the game. I don't know what to tell you: 32 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, put KD in foul trouble, got the biggest stop and rebound of the night; and, almost lost the game with a bizarre 8 minute stretch. Was it good? I don't know, dude - you call it.
3) Huge, huge calls. HUGE calls! ENORMOUS CONSEQUENCES!! Kevin Durant's second, third, fourth, and fifth fouls all came "ahead of clock" - they put him in foul trouble, he got those fouls earlier than you would want if you're OKC. He "only" played 39 minutes - that's probably 5 or 6 less than he goes without the fouls. To his huge credit, after each call, he didn't protest - none of them were questionable, and he didn't complain. A lot of guys will waive their arms, protest - they aren't even disputing the calls, really, they're just showing out for the fans, like, "hey, don't blame me, it's on the ref." Durant doesn't do that - such a nice kid. OKC left him in after he got his fifth with over 10 minutes to go - they were still down double-digits, so it seemed the correct play. With 3:20 to go, and Miami leading by 6, Durant drove and elevated to shoot a floater. Shane Battier slid over in place, maybe a little late, maybe leaning in a little bit, and Durant missed the floater and hammered Battier to the floor. No call, Miami secured the rebound. Except, here came a ref running in late, after the shot missed, to call a foul. If you think that was a block on Battier, okay, I can live with that. Why wait until the ball didn't go in to call it? It wasn't a block before it missed? Durant made one free throw to cut the lead to 5. It easily - easily - could have been called a charge on Durant, and he would have been out of the game. This seemed especially relevant a few moments later when, after Miami had seemingly sewn up the game, Dwyane Wade committed a horrifyingly-dreadful turnover, and Durant banged a transition triple to cut the lead to 2 with under a minute to play. Tough call that went against Miami...On the last play of the game, with about 12 seconds to go and Miami leading by 2, OKC direct-lined the inbound pass to Durant at the short, left wing. KJ was guarding him, and kind of got taken by surprise - think he was probably expecting a screen, not the ball to be directly inbounded to Durant. Durant quickly went baseline, and KJ responded by getting his arm up in him to try to slow him down - it worked, and KJ leveraged himself back in front a little bit, and as Durant tried to elevate for a short 6 foot floater, KJ resisted with a forearm to the hip area. KD: meet KJ!. Durant got a clean look up top and missed. Foul? I think if you show that play to both teams before the game, tell them that on the last possession of the game, down two, one of you is going to get that look, with that contact, and have to try to play through it - but you don't know which team is going to be offense and which is going to be defense: decide now, you want that called a foul? I think both teams say no, let that play out (by the way, also think the same is true on the Battier- KD play: think both teams would say "call that a block")...As for the ensuing rebound, in which KJ appeared to dislodge the ball from Westbrook by smacking his arm, then grabbing the ball himself, I say: nobody likes Westbrook, who cares? I'm sure even his own teammates hate him...
4) Dwyane Wade: rim attacks, multiple pick-and-rolls on the same possession, hustled back on defense, worked hard to keep guys in front of him. It didn't always work: had a brutal stretch early in the fourth where he took an early pullup, missed, and then suffered a Russell Westbrook blow-by layup without ever even budging from his defensive stance. He also had the horrific turnover with a minute to go that kept OKC in the game: I mean, you're a professional basketball player, with under a minute to go, up five dribbling down the court, you think you might anticipate a guy coming up from behind you to try to steal the ball. But he also made two of the biggest plays of the game: an off-balance fallaway in the lane late in the shot clock after KJ had dribbled away another possession, and a vintage weave down the lane to draw defenders and find Bosh (16 and 15, and 2 timely blocks in the 4th quarter) for a dunk to go up 7 with 53 seconds to go (which should have ended it, but for his ensuing turnover). It wasn't always pretty, but it was 24 points, 6 assists, 5 boards, and an NBA Finals road win. Someone had to help KJ - tonight Dwyane did...
5) Okay, Playoff James Jones surfaced briefly tonight: played 6 minutes which culminated in him passing up 2 triples on the same possession, only to take three dribbles (a season high) and bang a 15 footer with the shot clock winding down. That's what PJJ is all about: doing things he never does in the regular season. We've resisted it, but M.Minutos made the call tonight. New character: Playoff Shane Battier. PSB, as we now must call him, made 5 more triples tonight (out of 7), and scored 17 points for the second consecutive game: 34 points is about a month's worth for him, usually. Made another running hook shot. Also made 4 triples in each of the previous two games - Holy Moly, PSB! Annnddd, nowwww, the inevitable ice cold Game 3 in 3,2,1...
6) Well, Miami might have climbed into this series tonight, but even if they hadn't, I would still be okay. You know why? Cuz Mike Mil-lar is in the oil business, boys! Man, I watched the two hour premier of the new Dallas last night – I didn’t really watch it back the first time it was on, although somehow I seemed to know everything about it. I’ve been seeing the ads for the premier during the playoffs, and when I randomly turned on the tv last night, it was on that station, and it was right at the part where Mil-lar hits a gusher and smirks and announces it: "We're in the oil business, boys!" Yes, we are!!! So great! I got sucked right in and watched the whole two hours – M.Minutos joined me about 20 minutes in. Usually she will roll her eyes if I’m watching a dumb show when she comes in the room - in fairness, most of the time I’m sitting there watching the dumb show on purpose, just waiting for her to come in say, “What are you watching?” so that I can go, “What do you mean? I’ve always loved ‘South Beach Tow!’” But she didn’t say a word last night, just sat down and got right into it. She was a little giddy, frankly; if I didn’t know her so well, I might suspect she has a crush on Mike Mil-lar. Good-looking lad. See if you can tell which one is a smirky, rich kid prospecting for oil, and which one is an oft-injured sharp-shooter for the Miami Heat:
Anyways, the show is tremendous. Mil-lar plays the old J.R.’s son, who is played by the corpse of Larry Hagman, and throughout the two hours, they pull not a single, not a double, not a triple, not a quadruple, but I think a quintuple-cross-switcheroo on each other. Every time you think Mil-lar is over on Hagman, out of the blue Hagman knows what is happening, and counteracts it, and you’re like, “oh, now he’s over on Mil-lar,” but somehow Mil-lar anticipates that, and gets back over on Hagman! Also, at one point, Mil-lar is like, “when I was a kid, the Ewings were riding high, but we fell off – I’ve spent my whole life trying to restore the Ewing name…” Particularly lean: the late 80s and early 90s, when the family was led by Pat Ewing, of the New York Knicks, always coming up short to Mike Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs. That was a bad stretch for the Ewing family right there…Finally, it had a classic “I waited for you for 8 hours at the train station and you never showed up, so my heart was broken and I left” – “what? I didn’t show because of your email!” – “what email?” – “the email you sent me breaking up with me” – “I never sent you an email, I didn’t even own a computer” type of scene between Christopher (Bobby Ewing’s son) and Jordana Brewster, Paul Walker’s ex-girlfriend. That kind of scene is in every great movie, right? Like Ryan Gosling and The Notebook, dude – her parents never gave her all the letters he wrote! Mon Dieu!!! Even better, Christopher and Jordana Brewster realize that Mil-lar must have sent the email to make them break up, and she confronts him, and he’s like, “No, I didn’t send the email,” and she’s like, “Yes, you did, look it’s from jrewing@yahoo.com,” and he’s like, “no, that proves it can’t be me, I use earthlink.net!” It’s the best show ever! Win or lose this basketball series, I feel like my summer is going to be a success!
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We're off until Sunday night, when the series returns to Miami. If you need me before then, like specifically Sunday afternoon, I'll be taking O.Minutos and 4 of his friends to Boomer's (a giant arcade, go-cart, laser-tag place) for his 10th birthday. F*ck me. Yeah, I said it - F*ck me! You think that sounds like fun? See you Sunday!
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