Heat 112 Magic 110 ot

6 Thoughts

1) Does anyone want to spend New Year's Eve playing basketball in Orlando?  Blecchhhh!  This game had positives, and it had negatives.  It also featured the two worst back-to-back referee calls of the season (from Miami's perspective).  In the end, a road win is a road win - all you can do is grind it out and move on.  One of the biggest plays of this game was when Mike Miller stole Hedo Turkoglu's dribble: white on white crime, now that's the way to ring in the new year!  Let it fly! 

2) Positives: KJ James had 36 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists.  Dwyane Wade had 21 points and sealed the game with a huge steal.  Chris Bosh had 22 points, including a couple of huge buckets down the stretch.  Walter Ray Allen bounced back from a few rough shooting nights to score 17 on 6-9 from the floor (3-4 triples).  Negatives: KJ spent much of the fourth quarter and overtime being guarded by Josh McRoberts, and seemed at times to willfully not try to take him to the rim off the dribble.  Dwyane was 3-10 from the foul line.  Bosh managed only 4 rebounds in 38 minutes, and Orlando's center, Nikola Vucevic, grabbed 29.  That's not a typo, by the way: 29.  In fairness to Chris, the ball really didn't bounce his way a couple of times, so it probably should have been a lot closer, like 26 to 7.  Haaa!  And Walter Ray got layed out by a fairly cheap Hedo Turkoglu screen late, when Turkoglu turned his shoulder through Ray's chin.  We'll see how many games Turk gets suspended for - oh, that's right, you're allowed to take shots at the Heat, and they can't retaliate!

3) With this game tied and under 10 seconds to go in regulation, and the Heat not in the penalty, KJ measured up McBob, finally decided to take him to the rim, got below the elbow with one dribble, McBob tried to wrap him up, KJ played through it, leaned back and barely missed a banker as lead ref Scott Foster called a foul with about three and a half seconds to go.  Yes, two shots for KJ!  Except Foster came running out from the baseline pointing at the floor, indicating it was not a shooting foul.  It wasn't even one of those plays from 30 feet away when the offensive player sees a foul coming and launches a shot he wouldn't otherwise shoot as he takes the hit; this was KJ in the launching zone, shooting a shot he shoots all the time.  I'm not positive McBob was actually trying to give a foul on the floor - he was too close to the basket for that, I think he was just beat and tried to wrap up.  It was an unthinkably bad call by Scott Foster - he's been in this league a long time, you have to take a little more pride in your job than that, that's a shooting foul every time, all night, day in and day out in this league.  And there's two other refs on the floor - obviously they knew it should have been a shooting foul.  Neither one could let him know that?  They have to hang him out to dry like that, let him miss a call that bad, and not help him?  Seems cruel.  Also, one game ago we talked about how replay is used for some things, and not for other things.  If McBob had stripped the ball, and the refs were unsure whom the ball went off of out of bounds, that's reviewable.  But whether or not a team gets two free throws to probably decide the game - that's not reviewable?  On what planet does that make any sense whatsoever?  Oh, right - David Stern's planet!  "No, we don't want to review a play like that, that's too important.  We only like to review the unimportant plays."  Soooo sad he's retiring.  Whatever.  So the Heat have 3.5 seconds left, they inbound the ball to Bosh at the top of the key, he okey dokes a guy by him, goes right, and shoots a little 12 foot banker which he makes all the time, Hedo Turkoglu reaches out and pushes his elbow, the shot goes 6 feet wide, off the corner of the backboard (not from the baseline - from a 45 degree angle!), and no one calls a foul.  Really?  You think, literally, one of the best 5 midrange shooters in basketball missed a 12 footer by 6 feet?  Oh, and here's the funny part: that's not reviewable either!  Haaaa!  Cuz that makes sense!  Nice job, David Stern, this league is really, really going to miss your visionary leadership!  Jesus, are some of the rules in this league (and the refs) ridiculously bad...Then we removed the NBA's 17 foot pole from our rears and won the game.  The end! 

4) Actual conversation with 10 year old O.Minutos this morning, moments after he woke up:

 

O: "I had a nightmare last night."

 

Dos: "What happened?"

 

O: "Kevin Garnett wanted to fine me a million dollars, but I didn't have that much money."

 

Dos: "Why was he fining you?"

 

O: "He wanted me to root for the Celtics, but I didn't want to."

 

Dos: "How do you feel now?"

 

O: "I'm okay. It was scary."

 

Mon dieu, Kevin Garnett has discovered a way to infiltrate children's dreams! This is the same way Freddie Kruger started! Happy New Year, kids, sleep tight, AND PRAY KEVIN GARNETT DOESN'T FIND YOU WHILE YOU SLEEP!!!

 

5) If you're like me, it been decades since you went out on New Year's Eve.  The only choice I have to make is which New Year's Eve show to watch.  Who are you gonna "go rockin'" with, Ryan Seacrest or Carson Daly?  Which entertainment titan are you going to watch?  Tough, tough choice.  By the way, those are two different people, right?

 

6) One of the questions we got a few times, in different forms, in this blog a couple of months ago was essentially: "why didn't you try to reverse jinx the presidential election one way or the other? It seems like this would have been something that you could have controlled."  To all those who asked it, that's a great question, that probably is something I could have done. On the other hand, any person who had even a modicum of understanding of how polls work, and a vague notion of the concept of probability, or at a minimum had a subscription to the New York Times and can read (so that Nate Silver could explain polls and probability to you), knew that this election was over almost before it started. No drama on election day this time (or last time). You would have had to been living in a parallel universe where things like "numbers" and "logic" didn't exist to think my boy Rommey had a chance. What? Oh yeah, Rom-ney. Man, how quickly we forget losers! Anyways, I was thinking about this recently when I started hearing about the fiscal cliff. Finally, a good idea from both Democrats and Republicans! I can't say I've followed the story that closely, but from what I gather, it has something to do with dropping all our accumulated debt over a "fiscal cliff" - once we do that, it should be pretty smooth sailing from here on out for the old U.S. of A. Seems like it will benefit the middle class and the upper class, not too sure about the lower class, no one seems to care too much about them anyways. This is basically the same approach I used in college, by the way, and look at me now - I'm doing great! So, I feel lik-- hold up, hold up, wait, what?...Say what?...Ohhhhh my gosh, this fiscal cliff doesn't seem too great, not at all! I guess I should have read those Slate articles more closely. Same as it ever was, boys!

----

We play Dallas in Miami on Wednesday.  That Dallas ship be sinking - uh-oh, Mark Cuban, I feel terrible for you!  If need me before Wednesday, I'll be rockin' with Carson Seacrest...I mean, Ryan Daly...Listen, don't worry about it, just know that I'll be rockin'.  Happy New Year, nerds!

-----

 

Bucks 104 Heat 85

6 Thoughts

1) One team played hard for four quarters; one team played hard for about four minutes.  Life in the NBA - it's not good, but it is what it is, no reason to spend too much time on it.  Let's go!

2) Miami came out and got roasted from the jump in every way you can get roasted, but mostly in the way that occurs when you bring the ball up the court, look out to the wing, then slowly toss the ball out there while an opponent steps in front of it, dribbles it down the court super-fast, and dunks it!  Seven - 7 - quick turnovers early in the first quarter for Miami, and they put themselves in a huge hole in the first half.  They had one sustained run in the third quarter where they came all the way back and let by 7, but even that was frenetic - they could never get the pace down to a manageable level for the second night of a back-to-back against the very quick Bucks backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Montae Ellis.  The Heat won the third quarter 27-13, but ran out of gas and lost the fourth quarter 35-14!  Dunk fest for the Bucks!  They aren't bad, actually, 16-12 on the season.  I imagine they don't play this hard every night, but they aren't bad...

3) Is it just me, or does KJ James seem like he's had it a little with the refs over the past couple of weeks?  It is undeniable that he gets fewer calls than any player in the league - he's so big and so strong and so gifted, that the hits he takes usually don't knock him off balance.  And refs constantly - constantly - expect him to play through contact plays on which other players would shoot free throws every time.  I think one of the main reasons he's so liked around the league by opposing players is that he doesn't complain about this, he doesn't retaliate, he doesn't hold grudges - he just continues to play.  It's a solid Ohio work ethic!  But he looks a little frustrated lately - tonight, in a super frenetic game, he attacked a lot, took a lot of hits at the rim, and shot only 5 free throws.  Terrell Harris played 3 minutes of garbage time and shot 4.  Brandon Jennings shot 7, and he doesn't attack the rim much at all, those are mostly touch fouls on the perimeter (more on him in #5).  Several times tonight, and over the last couple weeks, KJ takes a hit at the rim, either finishes or doesn't, and runs back up the court looking at the refs with a half-aggravated, half-sad look on  his face, like a, "come on, I'm just a dude in this league, too" face.  Tonight, on one possession immediately after KJ took a body check at the rim with no call, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute caught a ball at the rim, and layed it in while getting lightly touched on the arm by Chris Bosh, and referee Bill Kennedy called a foul on Bosh from 40 feet away.  KJ grabbed his head with his hands and stalked off to midcourt by himself - so frustrating for him.  Bascially, to get a foul called, he would have had to get tripped and tackled 35 feet from the hoop by Mbah a Moute out in the open court where all three refs could see it.  This happened by the way, and they did call a foul - cue the confetti!  I mean, it's "white peoples'" problems, obviously: he's the MVP, the reigning champ, and the best player in the league by a fairly significant margin, but he's still a young dude who probably wants to get treated like everyone else, at least some of the time.  Poor KJ - I really do feel bad for him sometimes.  By the way, he was pretty bad tonight: had 26, with 6 rebounds and 7 assists, but he had 6 turnovers, and he didn't get too engaged defensively.  Tied Kevin McHale with 28 straight games to start the season with 20+ points.  That's the second most ever.  George Gervin has the most, I think it's in the 40s - 48, maybe?   You're on a computer or smart phone right now - look it up!

4) Play of the game: during the third quarter run, Mario "Emcee" Chalmers came steaming down the middle of the court in transition, which is pretty much how every Miami Heat play-of-the-game starts.  He had Dwyane Wade on his right, and KJ on his left.  He threw a reasonably solid, especially for him, bounce pass to Dwyane, who looked like he had a lane to finish at the rim.  But instead, Dwyane decided to try to flip it back up over his shoulder across the lane to the trailing KJ.  Unfortunately, Bucks 7 footer Epke Udoh was standing there, and the pass hit him in the arm, and kind of popped up into the air...right into KJ's flight path, and he caught the deflection while flying in midair and banked it off the glass and into the hoop in one motion!  By the way, no foul call!  Of course not!

5) Why replay often stinks, reason #2000: Chalmers and Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings were irritating each other all night.  In the third quarter, Jennings shot a corner three that missed, and Chalmers caught him on the arm with the closeout.  It didn't cause the shot to miss, but sometimes that play gets called a foul anyways.  It wasn't in this case, and running back up the court, Jennings, frustrated at the lack of a call, suddenly veered into Chalmers' path and gave him a cheap-shot shoulder.  Not a hard one, but a cheap shot nonetheless (Chalmers didn't have the ball, they were just running up the court).  A ref saw it and called a foul on Jennings - probably should have been a flagrant foul.  I think the flagrant rule is "unnecessary contact," and ramming someone intentionally with a shoulder off the ball probably qualifies.  In any case, Chalmers came back at him, and at least the ref didn't t him up, just called the foul on Jennings.  However, a few minutes later, with the rout on in the fourth quarter, Jennings stole a pass on the Heat's end, went flying up court with Chalmers in, sort of, hot pursuit, and suddenly did the exact same thing - veered into Chalmers with a hard shoulder (this time Jennings had the ball).  Chalmers, surprised and aggravated to get another shoulder in the midriff area, kind of grabbed at Jennings as he went flying away from him, and tried to headlock him, but mostly missed, and went staggering away from Jennings.  Then the two of them started to come back at each other again for round two of the "lamest potential fight that never happened" ever.  Initially I thought they were going to eject Jennings, but somehow the closest ref, I think it was Bill Kennedy again actually, called a flagrant one foul on Chalmers.  Okay, fine - I can see how if you were a ref, on a bang-bang play like that, you might see the play from an angle from which you couldn't see that Jennings veered into Chalmers again.  That is actually possible, I'll give the dude that.  Also, Chalmers did try to grab at his head, so if you thought he initiated the contact, and those two guys had already been into it, you might want to control the situation by calling a flagrant.  I understand that.  But since flagrant fouls all seem to get reviewed (not sure if it is a rule that they have to, or can choose to - but they review every one), when these three guys reviewed it, what are they going to do then?  Obviously, when you see the replay you are going to see that the initial foul was on Jennings, not Chalmers, but by rule that's not reversible.  Only the Chalmers flagrant/not flagrant can be reviewed - even if you contend that Chalmers' play was "flagrant," technically it couldn't have been a flagrant foul because the foul was actually on Jennings.  Chalmers' foul, by rule, was a technical foul, because flagrant fouls can't occur in dead ball situations.  In any case, since they couldn't change the foul to Jennings, the refs just left the call the way it was, which was fine with everybody but Coach Spo, who spent thirty aggravated seconds demonstrating to Kennedy how Jennings had jumped into Chalmers.  Spo is a stickler for correctness like that!  Kennedy probably agreed after seeing the replay, but couldn't do anything about it.  And, I mean, anyways, why start worrying about whether calls are correct or not now?  Not to mention that all this took 5 minutes at the end of a game that was already over - excellent use of everyones' time.  Not a fan of replay - if the guys could look at a play and call it correctly, why do they need replay?  And even if they could, on a play like tonight, it creates more problems than it solves, since they can't even correct the call.  It's never gonna happen, but I wish they would just dump it...

6)  Well, this is the time of year when I like to look back at my resolutions from the previous December, and see how I did, see if I accomplished any of my goals. As catalogued by The Captain (who else would you have keep track of your resolutions?), I only set two priorities this year: one, to play more golf. Two, to try to fly back to my hometown, Hartford, Connecticut, to get a free piece of pie at a venerable old clothing store on Trumbull Street named Stackpole's. I was there over the summer on like a Tuesday morning (my dad was picking up a pair of trousers he had altered) and an attractive young woman working there asked me if I wanted to come back on Thursday because one of their clients owns a pie shop, and she drops off a bunch of pies every Thursday morning and they put them out for the customers. After leaving the store, I spent the next 4 hours breaking down every syllable of the conversation to try to figure out whether she was flirting with me because she thought I was cute, or she was only being nice because I might potentially purchase a stylish three-season suit. I may be old, tired, and balder than KJ James, but I still have a certain élan, a certain rakish charm. I asked my dad what he thought: "I don't know." Okayyy. Anyways, let's see how I did on my goals. I played golf twice this year: one time I went by myself and hit balls at the driving range near my house; and one time I brought O. and P. Minutos, and almost had a nervous breakdown because 8 year old P.Minutos was such a terrible putter when we were on the practice putting green. So I'm going to say I accomplished that goal, that was a total success, I'm proud of myself, that was more golf than I played in 2011! On the other hand, I did not go back to Hartford to that clothing store on a Thursday to talk to that girl and help myself to free treats, but I am still going to say that I accomplished this goal, and am considering this resolution a success, if only because my self-esteem is already too low due to concluding that the girl probably was only talking to me because I was a customer. Got to keep myself feeling good about myself!   
-----
Next game is Monday on New Year's Eve in Orlando.  What a lovely city!  It's an early start, a 5 pm game - not even David Stern hates the Heat enough to make them spend New Year's Eve in Orlando.  They'll be back to Miami in plenty of time to meet me at the Delano to see Santigold!  By the way, is Dwight Howard still on Orlando, or did he finally go somewhere else yet?  Not too sure, I guess we'll see Monday.  If you need me before then, I'll be baking a rhubarb pie for New Year's Eve - rhubarb is sooo "the" pie!  Get those resolutions ready, see you Monday!
-----

Pistons 109 Heat 99

6 Thoughts

1) Over the course of 82 games in an NBA season, sometimes you are going to catch a player's hot night.  Tonight in Detroit, Miami caught four Pistons' hot nights - William Bynum, Austin Daye, Charlie Villanueva, and Andre Drummond all came off the bench smoking hot, and combined for 64 points on 26-38 shooting, including 9-11 triples!  Goodness, Detroit is burning!  I didn't get to start watching this game until well after 11 pm, and that's what I get - 4 scrubs shooting the Heat to a loss.  All I want to do right now is sleep: I hated this game, I hate this blog, and right now, I hate you.  Let's go!

2) Let's just reset things quickly so we know where we stand, so that we know what we are playing for, before the emails start rolling in that we can't defend triples anymore, that we should fire Spo, and that Dwyane Wade is finished.  First of all, it's almost inconceivable that Miami won't get one of the top two seeds in the East - the only team that seems remotely talented enough to contest the top seed is New York, and they lost tonight in Sacramento, so Miami still has a two loss lead on them.  Can the Knicks hang with Miami in a 7 game playoff series this spring?  Probably not.  Maybe Chicago, if they get Derrick Rose back at top strength, could play with them, but that seems unlikely to happen.  Boston looms as an irritant, but nothing more.  And, I mean, Miami would beat any of these teams without home court advantage (which won't be necessary - they'll finish ahead of them).  No one else in the East has a talented enough roster to worry Miami.  In addition, they just proved over the last 10 games, when they haven't allowed anyone to crack 100 points, and against OKC on Christmas, that when things need to get cranked up, their top gear is still a tad quicker than anyone else's.  Barring some kind of serious injury, Miami is going to be in the Finals, and get their shot against OKC, or the Clippers, or whomever.  So, if you are like, 'well, what are they playing for over these last 50 plus regular season games - it sounds like nothing," you would be exactly right: nothing!  Enjoy!

3) I actually thought Miami was okay tonight.  They didn't have Dwyane Wade (more on that in #5), and they played their 'regular season' style, which basically means they are going to try to out shoot the other team, and they just caught a crazy run from the Pistons, and especially backup point guard Will Bynum.  Bynum made 10-16 for 25 points, and he was making long jump shots, after 20 seconds of dribbling, with a guy in his chest.  At some point could they have doubled him to get the ball out of his hands?  I mean, I guess they could have, but, again, it's Will Bynum.  I think the percentages favor you just expecting him to miss at some point.  Tip your cap to him. 

4) Miami's shooters weren't as good: Chalmers, Miller, Allen, and Battier were only 6-23 on triples. Bynum's night was an aberration; Miami's off-shooting night was an aberration. Oh well.  Miami did get a great night from KJ James: 35 on 15-22 (2-4 triples - do you realize he's over 43% on threes?), with 6 boards, 5 assists, 6 steals.  And Bosh was pretty good, 28 on 11-17.  Overall, Miami was 50% from the floor, that's good enough to win most nights.  But Detroit was at 58%, and a lot of them tough, tough shots - that's crazy.

5) Well, no Dwyane Wade tonight, suspended for one game for giving Ramon Sessions a swift kick in the nuts a couple of nights ago.  I guess we have to address this - everyone seems to want to make this an issue on both sides.  People who hate the Heat - which is most of America (haters gon' hate) - have spent the past couple of days calling Dwyane Wade a dirty player, citing the time he threw Rondo on the ground and injured him, the time he bodyslammed into Kevin Garnett, and the time he threw Mike Bibby's shoe into the crowd.  Really?  In 10 seasons, that's what you've got on him?  That's dirty?  By the way, he's never, ever been suspended in 10 years before tonight, not even once...I mean, in the first two incidents he was doing America a favor (and the Rondo incident was instigated by Rondo); and when he threw Mike Bibby's shoe into the crowd, if you don't see the humor in that, I don't know what to tell you.  And by the way, Mike Bibby with one shoe, and one sock, is still better than two-thirds of the point guards in this league right now.  And on this Sessions incident, Miami was frustrated with how chippy Charlotte got with them - the Gerald Henderson cheap shot on a KJ dunk attempt was far worse than the Wade kick on Sessions, for example.  And even the Sessions play was bizarre - he essentially bum rushed Wade at midcourt and wrapped him up for no reason.  I honestly think he shocked Dwyane.  That being said, any Heat fan who claims that Dwyane wasn't trying to kick Sessions is insane - he clearly tried to kick him.  And Dwyane is mean - he doesn't like to be f'd with, as we've pointed out many times.  It's part of what makes him a great player - at 6'3", he intimidates with his physicality.  Dwyane was startled, and he just wanted Sessions off him, and he reacted badly.  I don't think he tried to kick him in the nuts, just kicked him in general - he actually didn't kick him in the nuts, he shinned him in the nuts, which would be an odd choice, if intentional.  Had he dropped the ball and shoved Sessions to the ground, I doubt he would have been suspended.  As it was, the refs at the game didn't see anything wrong with it - Sessions got the foul on the play, and Dwyane didn't even get a technical - in the context of the game, it sort of made sense, Sessions was asking for it (and got it!)...Final ruling, on those calling Dwyane dirty: who cares?  You think anyone gives a crud what anyone else says about Dwyane Wade?  He's won two titles, he's got a legitimate shot at a third, he's probably still the second best player in the Eastern Conference, and a top ten player overall.  Say whatever you want, nerds.  On those saying Dwyane's kick was unintentional, that he was losing his balance: okay, you've won me over.  It was unintentional!  Free Dwyane Wade!

6) This game was in Motown - how about some soul music? Get it, Rick Blastley! This is smooth and creamy - I'm never gonna give you up! Let my love adorn you!

-----
Next game is tomorrow in Milwaukee - what a fun road trip, Detroit followed by Milwaukee!  We are going to review last year's New Year's resolutions in #6 tomorrow, see how I did this past year.  If you need me before then, I'll be buying an athletic supporter - pimping ain't easy.  See you tomorrow night!
-----

Heat 105 Bobcats 92

6 Thoughts

1) That's 20 up and 6 down.  We'll take it...Let's go.

2) This Bobcat team has lost 16 in a row, and besides their lightning-quick point guard from the University of Connecticut, Kemba Walker, they probably don't have another starter-level NBA player on their roster.  Still, after a quick start in which KJ James (27, 12, 8, 4 steals, 2 blocks) stole the ball and dunked it about 4 times in 90 seconds to begin the game, Miami was draag-inggg after their hard fought win over the presumptive 2013 champion OKC Thunder yesterday.  The Bobcats scrapped and scrapped and had it down to 2 with about 5 minutes to go, whereupon KJ dribbled for 22 seconds on a possession, stepped back and hit a three from the left wing; then Wade dropped two long jumpers in a row: then KJ got middle, elevated, and threw a sick lookaway pass to Shane Battioke for a triple from the right corner; then KJ banged in another triple from the top.  Ballgame.  Too much scoring.  And they weren't even really trying that hard, just seeking out good jump shot opportunities and ripping them.

3) I don't know how many times we have to say it here, we keep saying it over and over, but some guys seem like they gotta learn the hard way.  There's plenty of guys on the Heat you can f- with.  You can f- with Mike Miller - he's just going to laugh it off.  Same with Battier.  Chris Bosh won't care at all if you f- with him, he'll look right past you and go about his business, and Emcee Chalmers won't even notice you are f-ing with them, he'd assume you were talking to someone else ("who, me?").  You can even f- with KJ James.  You know what he usually does when people f- with him?  Demands the ball out on the wing, glares at the guy, holds it for 14 seconds, then shoots a fadeaway.  Sometimes it goes in; sometimes it doesn't.  But the one guy never to f- with on the Heat is Dwyane Wade.  He's from the pro-jects in Chicago, he's a little nasty to begin with, and he's the rare player who seems to elevate his level of play when he gets mad.  The Bobcats were a little chippy tonight - we all get it, they've lost a ton of games in a row, a lot of the guys are fighting for their NBA lives, and they are kind of trying to prove their manhood against the champs.  Gerald Henderson, in particular, was irritating the Miami players.  He was grabbing a lot, he was bumping a lot, he gave an (uncalled, of course) flagrant foul on a KJ James dunk, and the whole while he was chirping.  Finally, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Dwyane had had enough, and he started a drive from about 25 feet out, Henderson slid over in front of the restricted area to draw a charge, Dwyane saw him, took another power dribble, and launched himself forward and trucked Henderson, laying him out flat!  As the whistle blew and the refs called an offensive foul on Wade, he stood up over Henderson and smirked down at him with a satisfied look on his face.  A couple of trips later, as Wade came over halfcourt with the ball, inexplicably Bobcat guard Ramon Sessions rushed at Wade 40 feet from the hoop and roughly started to wrap him up, like he was taking a foul at the end of an NBA Finals game down a point with 4 seconds to go, whereupon Dwyane, after his initial shock at being grabbed, kneed Sessions in the, ummm,  well, I guess you'd say "the nuts."  Ouch!  Both Henderson and Sessions are going to be sore tomorrow - that's learning the hard way!  Wade also scored 13 fourth quarter points (after dropping 11 in 4th against OKC on Xmas), and finished with 29 on 10-19, with 9 boards and 5 dimes.  Gerald Henderson and Ramon Sessions, if you didn't know, now you know: don't f- with Dwyane Wade.

4) Out: Walter Ray Allen (cheap shot, #KendrickPerkins #doucheball).  In: all the other shooters, including the reclaimed-from-mothballs James Johnson (as Ray likes to call him).  James Jones saw his first meaningful action in weeks and knocked down 2 long jumpers.  Battier made 3 out of 5 triples, Chalmers made 4 out of 6 (8-14 the last two days for 37 points!), Wade made one, Bosh made one, KJ made 2-4.  Overall, 12-23 from distance.  That's how you survive on the second night of a Christmas back-to-back, when the energy is low, and it's the other team's biggest game of the season.  Load up on shooters, find them, and let them do what they do.

5) Would you say that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is the best-dressed coach in the NBA?  Tonight he had a very sharp small-checked blue shirt, with a solid blue tie, and a properly tailored suit.  Looked good.  I predicted that at some point this year he is going to go super-low with that messy bush of hair he has, and will rival Mario "Emcee" Chalmers, People Magazine's reigning Sexiest Man in Alaska, looks-wise.  They will be competing for the same alluring women when they go out clubbing together on the road.  Question, though: who do you think picks out and buys Spo's clothes?  He doesn't seem like he would have much interest in shopping, he seems like he spends all his time breaking down game film, calling Dr. Jack Ramsay for advice on how to defend the side pick-and-roll, or drinking iced coffee.  I think he probably has a local personal shopper come to the office and show him a bunch of stuff, and Spo picks what he likes (with advice from the shopper) - by the way, would you call such a person a "stylist?"  I say no, that person is a "personal shopper;" M.Minutos says it is a "stylist."  It's not a stylist, a stylist would also arrange a haircut for Spo, and he clearly hasn't had a professional haircut in years...M.Minutos said she thinks Spo and Assistant Coach Loc (David Fizdale) go shopping together in the offseason.  Whatever - the important thing to note is that Spo is a very well-dressed and, dare I say, handsome young man!   

6) Did you see who was in the news again recently? It's our favorite United States congressperson, Senator Mike Crapo from Idaho! And he's in a bit of trouble - got arrested for a DUI. Oh, no. Look, I don't like the giant mess that Crapo has made here - frankly, it stinks - but if he's willing to admit to his foul ways, I'm more than happy to wipe the record clean and give him a fresh start, even if the stain from this incident lasts a while. I mean, it’s the holiday season, a time for sharing Yule logs and Christmas loaves with your family and friends, not for acting stinky over an accident or two. In fact, I'd argue that one great thing all of us could do this week is to slip into a neighbors' house when they are out and leave them an unexpected pile of presents - drop it somewhere where they are sure to see it, like the front foyer, or the kitchen. It's the kind of random explosion of kindness that could make someone tear up, and really fertilize a new sense of community in our neighborhoods. That's right, people: I smell a change coming in America, and it's led by Senator Mike Crapo!  
----
Off tomorrow night, then another back-to-backer starting in Detroit. If you need me before then, I'll be buying a personal breathalyzer for my car.  Bottoms up!
-----

Heat 103 Thunder 97

6 Thoughts

1) Hey, America, guess what the Miami Heat got you for Christmas?  A stocking full of  KJ James!!!  And as a bonus, we did your post-holiday cleanup for you, we left the incredibly Grinch-like Russell Westbrook on the side of the road like a used-up, dying Christmas tree!!!  You're welcome!!!  Oh, one more thing: WE'RE STILL THE CHAMPS!!!  Santa, we're gonna need that sled, we're gonna need it tonight to: LET IT FLY!!!

2) One is the best player on Earth, the reigning regular-season and Finals MVP, was the best player on the Olympic gold medal winning basketball team, and has a hairline that is receding back faster than Nike can manufacture wider headbands to cover his forehead.  The other is the second best player on Earth, lost in the Finals when he got (slightly) outplayed by the first gentleman, was the second best player on the Olympic team that won the gold, and his hair is thinning out all over - it's not receding from the front to the back, it's patchy all over the top.  KJ James meet KD Durant (and Hubie was doing the game on ABC)!  Oh yeah, one more thing: somehow Durant is the presumptive MVP this season, despite the fact that KJ is just a little bit better.  Their teams have similar records (Heat 19-6; Thunder 21-6), their numbers are equally outrageous (KJ gets more assists, KD scores a touch more - both are incredibly efficient), and they both have very good supporting casts, which is why they met in the Finals last year.  If you need to decide who the better player is, who the actual most valuable basketball player in the NBA is, let's just call all that stuff a wash - and then understand that KJ is the best wing defender in the league, and Durant is, actually, a very decent defender...but not in KJ's league.  Today went the way of a lot of their matchups.  Both had terrific games.  KJ scored 29 points on 12-20 from the floor, with 9 assists, 8 rebounds, a steal, and a block.  Durant (with KJ guarding him much of the time), scored 33 points on 11-21, with 7 rebounds, and 3 assists (no steals or blocks).  But, the two biggest possessions of the game illustrated the primary difference between the two.  With 44 seconds to go, and the Heat holding a one point lead with the ball, KJ and Wade ran a little handoff on the left wing, and Durant and Westbrook switched men - Westbrook took KJ, and Durant took Wade.  With the shot clock starting to run down, and KJ iso'd against Westbrook, OKC sent Kendrick Perkins off of Bosh, across the lane, to try to prevent James from driving on Westbrook (who despite all his athleticism, is not a great on the ball defender).  Wade jogged a slow cut down the opposite lane, as Durant sort of faded away with him.  First of all, Durant doesn't have to take that switch - neither KJ nor Wade is going to rise up and fire a jumper off the initial action (and if they did, that's great for OKC), Durant has plenty of time to reposition himself on James.  Secondly, as Durant wandered down through the lane, and Perkins left Bosh, Bosh stepped right to the front of the rim.  Technically, it probably wasn't Durant's responsibility to help on that play, but he was the Thunderbolt in the best position to bust up Bosh's cut.  But he didn't, he didn't seem to sense it coming, and he kind of screened his own teammate, Kevin Martin, and as KJ threw a bullet to Bosh neither Durant nor Martin reacted, and Bosh dunked for a three point lead.  On OKC's last possession down three, Durant caught the ball high and started to drive, but KJ walled him off - there was enough time for OKC to try to get a two and foul.  After KJ stopped that action, KD stepped back behind the three point line, tried to lift KJ with a fake, couldn't, then leaned back for a triple with KJ chest-to-chest with him, thisclose.  It was fantastic defense by KJ - he didn't let Durant get to the rim and made the three as difficult as humanly possible against such a freaky-good scorer.  The shot was well off, and we'll cover what happened next, to all decent human beings' delight, down in #5.  Listen, the reality is that Kevin Durant is probably going to win the MVP this season.  People get tired of voting for the best player.  Fine, we all get it.  But just know that on the biggest possessions of the biggest games, Miami can put its defensive fate in KJ's hands, and know that they can't do any better than that.  It's not always going to work, but it's going to work better than anything else anyone else has.  OKC doesn't have the same luxury - Durant's not in KJ's class in that regard.  That's no knock on KD - people always want to take stuff like that as criticism - being not quite as good as one of the best players in the history of basketball isn't exactly an insult...

3) All Almario Vernard Chalmers do is make big shots and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder.  I mean, that's really all he do.  There's plenty he don't do, but what he do do is what he do, and that's make bombs and beat OKC: 20 for Emcee on 8-11 (4-8 triples), including 5 quick points halfway through the fourth quarter to give Miami a 7 point lead, the last three when Walter Ray Allen got caught up in the air around the free throw line, flipped the ball to an empty space out towards the right wing, everyone assumed it was going out of bounds, Emcee (slowly) tracked it down and then decided, "well, I'm out here with the ball, everyone else stopped, and all I do is make triples to beat the OKC Thunder, so I might as well rip this baby through the net," which he did...Do you see what I am saying yet?  That is what he do!  Oh - and he also threw one insane fourth quarter alley-oop pass to Wade in early halfcourt offense for a big bucket, but that was mostly because Russell Westbrook was unconscious!  Who couldn't have done that!!!


4) You know how when a lot of calls are going against you, and the coach (in this case Spo) is like, "don't let it get to you, it will even out," but it doesn't feel like it is evening out, and you are at home, and you have two of the most aggressive rim-attackers in basketball in Wade and James, and you are the defending champs, and then it's halftime and the other team has shot 19 free throws, and you've shot 2?  You know that feeling?  And you are sure it will even out in the second half, and you keep grinding, and staying in the game, but calls still seem not to be evening out and it gets to the point where you go to the basket and feel like you get body checked every time, but there's no call (welcome to KJ James' life), then there is a brush foul called on the ensuing possession on your end, and you're already in the penalty so it's two free throws for the other team, which is like only the best free throw shooting team in the history of NBA or something, and every time this happens everyone on your team can't not let it get to them, and everyone goes ballistic on every whistle, and even your coach is now going mental?  And you look up with 3 minutes to go, and the free throws are 36-14 against you, even though one of the referees, John Goble, was Udonis Haslem's high school teammate?  Do you know that feeling?  How does that feel?  Pretty terrible, right?  Except, you know what?  You know why you hang in there?  Because with just over two minutes to go, and the Heat leading by 4, the intensely unlikable Russell Westbrook might come flying down the court in transition, with only little, old Ray Allen back to guard the rim, and Ray is giving ground, hoping he doesn't get killed, and when he can back up no further he comes to a polite stop just above the no-charge area, and then, anticipating contact, kind of turns sideways and leans out just as Westbrook is bulleting past him for a layup, and there is a huge collision, and it is the easiest blocking call in the history of the NBA, and Westbrook will make two free throws to cut the lead in half...except somehow the referee calls it a charge, and Miami keeps it four point lead, and gets the ball?  You know what I say to that?  Nobody likes Russell Westbrook, not even referees!!!  Also, I say: how do you like it, OKC?  Doesn't feel good, does it?  No, it does not.  Idea: in the future, if you're a ref, just call the game kind of even the whole night, that way you won't have to try to even it up with a brutal call or two down the stretch.  Just an idea.

5) Ahhh. we're feeling giddy, let's just keep picking on Russell Westbrook.  He did score 21 points, but it took him an inefficient 19 shots to do (5-19).  He helped out on the boards with 11 - he rebounds like Dwyane Wade used to! - but he didn't exactly excel at making plays for others, even though Christmas is supposed to be all about giving, only 3 assists, and 5 costly turnovers.  He also took what I would term a "medium-hard" foul from Shane Battier, and freaked out, trying to start a fight by rushing back at Battier, who laughed it off ("I didn't take offense at him taking offense," Battier chuckled after the game).  Finally, on the last play of the game, after Durant missed the triple with KJ James thisclose to him, OKC got the rebound out to Westbrook, who had a clean look at a three, and instead of simply trying to make it, as he elevated he karate-kicked a closing-out Dwyane Wade in the stomach, sending Wade to the floor in pain, causing the shot to be way off, and resulting in Westbrook falling over, since it is hard to shoot a three and karate kick a dude and keep your balance at the same time (side note: two of the biggest plays of last year's Finals were late-game Dwyane Wade blocks of OKC three pointers - think maybe Westbrook had that tucked away somewhere in his mind?  That's a trick question, the answer is no, he's not capable of that advanced a form of cognitive reasoning).  It should have been an offensive foul on Westbrook but, of course, on par with the entire night, it wasn't called.  Bosh rebounded the ball and was fouled, and for some reason Westbrook got up off the floor, screamed in the referee's face, and then slammed his fist into the scorer's table in a tantrum not unlike the ones undoubtedly thrown all over the world this evening by six year olds suffering from post-Christmas Day letdown.  Bizarre play, bizarre reaction, bizarre kid.  Westbrook got t'd up, Miami made all three free throws, and the Heat saved Christmas!  And to all a good night!

6) Just because, from this month's GQ magazine:

 
Why am I constantly not surprised that this kid can not dress?  Trying sooo hard to be Dwyane Wade, but this is: not.  quite.  it...Enjoy the long Christmas flight home to Texas, or wherever Oklahoma City is!  See you in the Finals!!!
-----
Next game is tomorrow, ugh, in Charlotte.  If anything, that game should be even more exciting than this one, and by "even more exciting," I mean, "it is potentially the most boring night in all of our lives - even going clubbing in downtown Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook would be more fun."  If you need me before then, I'll be shopping for powder-blue leisure suits.  Happy Christmas to everyone except Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose!
-----

Heat 105 Jazz 89

6 Thoughts

1) That's four comfortable wins in a row, and six out of the last seven.  Utah's not real good, but they are big upfront, the type of team Miami is supposed to have trouble with according to the so-called "experts."  Whatever.  The Heat aren't exactly in playoff mode, but they've juggled the rotation a little, picked up the defensive intensity a touch, and things are running a tad smoother.  Say what you want about championship hangover, but 18-6 is 18-6.  We'll take it...and we will let it fly!  Let's go! (KJ!)

2) KJ James: not fouling; yet, getting fouled like crazy...Let's talk about this.  KJ James hasn't committed a foul in six straight games.  That's weird.  He's the best wing defender in basketball.  Maybe other guys for shorter bursts go out there and get into a guy's shirt more than KJ, but night after night, possession after possession, no one is more rock solid than KJ.  He's too big, too strong, and too athletic - most nights his cover just gives it up.  It's only the Melo Anthonys (Hubie-ism) and Kevin Durants who even try to go at him.  He also is good at stepping into passing lanes, he's the best defensive rebounding small forward in the league, and in the fourth quarter of a close, important game, he takes the other team's best perimeter player, regardless of position, and makes life miserable for that dude.  He's pretty much always in the right spot, so that limits his fouls to begin with, and guys are scared to go at him, so that limits them even more.  But at some point, some how, you think he'd commit a foul over the course of six games, even if it was offensive - he does get his share of charges.  Bizarre.  Steve Nash went a streak of 11 games last year without a foul, but he's a much softer defender than KJ - he's below average, mostly just politely stays out of the way.  Before Nash's streak, you have to go back 15 years to find a streak as long as KJ's.  By the end of the game, I was just rooting for him to stay out of everyone's way: "Don't give weakside help, KJ!"  The closest he came to fouling was one play under the rim when he stripped Derrick Favors on a layup try, and an offensive rebound on which he might have nudged someone out of the way.  Conversely, we say this every year, but this dude gets as few calls when people foul him than anyone in the league.  GFOB Dirk used to say this all the time when KJ was on Dirk's beloved Cavs - wow, that seems like 100 years ago! - but he couldn't have been more right.  KJ won't flop and he's stronger than everyone else, so refs generally just expect him to play through whatever contact he absorbs.  He shot 10 free throws tonight, but it easily should have been 18 or 20.  In the second quarter, he got raked on a layup so hard by Mo Williams that Williams injured his thumb on the play, immediately came out of the game, and could not return - no call.  KJ lost it, he went HAM (on Twitter, KJ loves to point out when people go HAM!) on the refs and got a technical foul (does not break the streak!), which he almost never does, but it didn't change anything.  It never does.  In one third quarter stretch he got banged on two or three drives in a row without getting a call, then in transition Al Jefferson grabbed him around the waist a step before takeoff and whirled him all the way around in a circle without a flagrant being called because KJ is so freakishly strong that he didn't fall.  Moments later, Almario Vernard Chalmers started a drive, got a slight nudge, twitched his body a bit and the refs instantly called a foul.  You could see the look on KJ's face, like, "Goodness - what do I have to do?..."  After the restart of play, KJ got a lane to rim, scored, and took a shot - no foul again!  Ha!  After another possession on which Jazz (Jazz?  Jazzer?) Marvin Williams put his arm all the way around his waist and dragged him out of the midpost, and several more uncalled bumps, KJ made a triple from the corner, glared down the nearest ref, and went over and sat on the bench.  Another blowout win for Miami, 30, 9 and 7 for KJ.  Call what you want, don't call what you want - KJ rolls on.

3) Dwyane Wade's looking a little livelier.  A lot of people buried him earlier this season.  Not me, I would never scream at the television for him to stop driving into traffic and throwing the ball at the rim on the dead run, or to stop shooting bad fallaways off of one leg.  Okay, I mean I would do it, but only to motivate him.  And guess what?  It worked!  21, 7, and 7 tonight for Wade on 8-14.  He definitely - definitely - suffers in one way from playing with KJ: KJ is so good, and so efficient, and so consistent, that it makes Dwyane seem worse.  Realistically, on most teams, he'd unquestionably be the best player.  Who else is better than him in the Eastern Conference?  Carmelo Anthony?  Maybe.  No one on Boston.  No one on Philadelphia.  No one on Chicago - I mean, maybe Derrick Rose if he were playing.  No one on Indiana.  No one on the Nets.  No one on Milwaukee.  I think those are all the other Eastern playoff teams.  He's shooting a career-high 51% from the floor, he's scoring a hair under 20 a game - and he's at 55% and 18 ppg in the last 5, and only once has he had to play 30 minutes (tonight - 34).  That kid's alright, he may have a future in this league...

4) One thing no one ever really points out about Shane Battier: he always shoots open shots.  He does all the "unselfish" things: he defends hard every possession (tonight he often was tremendously undersized against Al Jefferson or Derrick Favors, but he got the better of both); he blocks out on rebounds; he gets on the floor for loose balls - you know, all the things that guys who can't shoot do.  But Battioke can shoot, and it is also unselfish of him that he shoots every open shot he gets.  KJ James and Dwyane Wade work hard for him to get those open looks, and if a wing doesn't shoot the shots those two create, it throws off the timing of the offense, and also allows the defense to load the paint up against James and Wade drives.  Sometimes Chalmers or Miller will pass up open looks, and that frustrates KJ, Dwyane, and Coach Spo (Mil-lar has gotten better about this).  Those guys are in there to shoot it.  Battier understands this, and he always shoots it.  Maybe sometimes he doesn't catch it quite right, or the ball's not exactly in the shooting pocket, or he's missed a few in a row and he's just not feeling it.  Doesn't matter - he's got to shoot it, and he knows it.  He takes responsibility for this - that's a professional, selfless approach.  It helps when he knocks them down - 4-8 tonight, and his back-to-back triples early in the third quarter pushed the lead out to 12 and put the Jazz in big trouble that they never recovered from.  He's at 44% for the season, and leads the team in makes.  After the game he told Jax that he can do other things, too ("it's not like I'm JoJo Sausagehead," he said), but he's not asked to.  His job is to spot up and shoot: "I play with the best players in the world - no one really guards me."

5) Chris Bosh missed the game with a cold.  Or did he miss the game because he was cold?  Not clear.  Wouldn't blame him if the latter was true, it was in the 50s today, holy crow!  I almost froze my tushy off getting my cappuccino, and open-faced smoked salmon and chopped egg sandwich on Estonian brown bread this morning!  Harrowing!

6) If I could have one wish for Christmas this year, it would be that the impossibly arrogant and sullen Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook not ruin anyone's Christmas (for once), that he just minds his own business, stays in his room, and watches Jet Li movies, like he does every other day of his life.  Joy to the world!
-----
We have a game on Christmas Day against - wait, what?  The Oklahoma City Thunder and Russell Westbrook?  You have to be kidding me!  How can that be possible, I just made my Christmas wish that he not ruin anyone's Christmas!  Now we have to spend two hours playing against the NBA's biggest poop in the punch bowl?  I knew Santa didn't exist, dammit, I knew he wasn't real - my mom lied to me!  If you need me before then, and I seem grouchy, just know it's because I hate Russell Westbrook, and not because I am extremely angsty over how entitled I imagine my kids feel on Christmas.  How do I know they feel entitled on Christmas?  Because that's how I felt when I was a kid!  See you Tuesday, elves, have a  Happy Xmas!
----- 

Heat 110 Mavs 95

6 Thoughts

1) Wow, Mark Cuban, you've really done something with this franchise, you've really turned it around...from a perennial contender into a joke!  Broke up the squad two summers ago, planned to sign Dwight Howard and Deron Williams as free agents...oops!!!  Also, I think Dirk Nowitzki has quit - didn't see him on the court at all tonight.  I assume he got sick of Cuban and retired, not too sure what happened there.  When Shane Battier made a triple late in the third quarter, Miami led by 36.  In Dallas.  On national tv.  Ugh.  Oh, oh, oh - it's not that bad in Dallas, I forgot, they were missing two starters tonight: Elton Brand and Derek Fisher - HAAAAAAAA!!!  Let it fly!!!

2) I mean, this game was a joke.  Miami didn't even play hard, and still destroyed the Mavs.  Not much to talk about.  KJ James extended his 20+ scoring streak with 24 points (9-13), Wade had 19 and only had to play 26 minutes, and Bosh had 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.  I'm pretty sure they could have beaten this Mavs team without all three of them.  Let's move on, it's late...

3) Play of the Game: with 3 minutes remaining in the first half, Dwyane Wade grabbed an easy, uncontested rebound,  looked upcourt, saw KJ way down there with a couple of Mavs, kind of shrugged, and heaved up the highest outlet pass of all-time.  It was an absolute 80 foot moonball, or as I like to call it, a "highball."  KJ waited for it - it was right to him - jumped up in between the two Mavs, easily caught it, and dropped it in the basket.  Two points.  Too tall, too athletic, too coordinated.  Sometimes it's that simple.

4) Which brings us to the MVP "debate," which is already starting to ramp up.  Let's all understand right now that KJ James has no chance to win the MVP award this season, despite the fact he's easily the best player in the league.  He's won three out of the last four, the one time he didn't win was an absolute joke (Derrick Rose, whom KJ then single-handedly eviscerated in the playoffs), and everyone is tired of voting for him.  That's what happens, that's just how we do it.  Shaq only won 1 MVP award - Steve Nash, who was never remotely the best player in the league, won 2!  A lot of voters have Carmelo Anthony as MVP right now.  You know what?  I'll give you that - it's a great story, the Knicks have been tremendous, he's been electric, and voters are usually blinded by narrative, which is how a Nash or a Rose wins.  But today, ESPN's Israel Gutierrez, who is from the MIA and should know better, wrote that he had Kevin Durant just slightly ahead of KJ on his ballot so far this year!  That.  Is.  Retarded.  I mean, these two guys played in the Finals like 5 months ago.  By the way, that's not five months' worth of games, that's five months including the offseason - they've only each played about 25 games since that series ended.  They locked up head-to-head in those Finals...at least they did until OKC had to take Durant off KJ because KJ was killing him, and getting KD into foul trouble.  Mon Dieu!  KJ's team lost one close game, then won four straight to win the title.  They start this season, and KJ has been better than ever, he's gone for 20 or more every single night, and he's shooting 54% from the floor, and 44% from the three point line.  I mean, if there's one thing Durant does better than James, it's shoot the ball, right?  Cuz KJ is a better rebounder, passer, and he's the best wing defender in the league, whereas Durant is, you know, "pretty good" defensively, at best.  When he struggled on defense in the Finals, OKC put him on Mario Chalmers - seemed to hold his own against Emcee, for the most part, so that's something right there.  So, I mean, Durant must be a lot better shooter for Israel Gutierrez to have him ahead of KJ on his ballot, right?  Ummm, not exactly: Durant's 52% from the floor, and also 44% on triples.  KJ is having a better season shooting the ball than Durant (so far).  Well, I mean team success has a lot to do with it, Miami hasn't really played hard or well yet, while OKC burns it out every night - they must have a lot better record, that matters for the MVP vote, right?  OKC has 5 losses; Miami has 6 - with a bunch of injuries.  So despite the fact that KJ just thoroughly outplayed KD head-to-head for the highest of stakes; despite the fact that KJ leads Durant in virtually every statistical category, including Durant's only perceived advantage; despite the fact the two teams have virtually the same record; and despite the fact that since KJ last won the MVP, and the Finals MVP - voters could have voted for Durant for either of those awards, by the way, he was in the Finals, too - in the twenty-five games so far this season, Israel Gutierrez (not to only pick on him - tons of dudes are writing it) thinks Kevin Durant has somehow surpassed James as a player?  Or, that he has demonstrated some magical "valuable-ness" which has really not translated into any OKC advantage, record-wise (despite the fact Miami has played with minimal effort all year)?  Yeah - that's brilliant.  What sense does that make?  There's not a human being alive who would take Kevin Durant over KJ James for the balance of this season - you would have to be a dunce to do that, not even Russell Westbrook would be that dopey.  If Carmelo wins the MVP, all right, at least you are subscribing to some fairy tale-esque bedtime story.  But to vote for Kevin Durant?  You would have to be brain-dead to vote that way (even though he is a great, great player, and I love him).  BRAIN DEAD, I TELL YOU!!!

5) It's been in the national media the last couple of days, like it's a new thing, but everyone down here has known for a while that KJ James often rides his bike from LeMansion to The Trip for games.  That's one of the benefits of playing in Miami - December bike rides!  Bet you Anderson Varejo hasn't even seen a bike the last four months...But here's something none of us knew - look who's riding with him: Jax!  Heat television host extraordinaire Jason Jackson...AND HE'S AHEAD, HE'S BEATING KJ!!! Go Jax go!!!

6) Well, we were sitting around Dos Minutos International HQ's today and The Captain, out of the blue, tells me that I should look into running for the vacant city commissioner's seat in Boynton Beach, Florida, the town where I live.  I'm not gonna lie - I don't really know what that position entails, but I think he's right, I'd be excellent at it.  As long-time readers of this blog may remember, I served as the linchpin of county commissioner Shelly Vana's successful efforts to straighten out an extremely serious parking problem at West Boynton Park a few years ago.  And by "served as the linchpin," I mean, "I kept writing and calling her office about my argument with a city of Boynton po-liceman who gave me a ticket until she had to pretend to care."  Anyways, I am strongly considering accepting his offer to run, and I already have a centerpiece issue to run on: bike sharing.  Look, everyone isn't KJ James or Heat television host extraordinaire Jason Jackson, we can't all be buying fancy bicycles left and right, riding it around to and fro, leaving it behind because we got too drunk at South Street in the Design District, and then just buying another expensive one whenever we want to go for another ride.  No - most of us live in the real world, with real problems.  A bike sharing program, where you can pay an annual membership fee and pick up bikes at numerous convenient locations around town and then drop them off when you get to your destination, would help everyone in the city save on gas prices, foster a greater sense of community, and significantly reduce Boynton Beach's dependence on foreign oil.  Every major city has one - New York, Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco..."Yeah, that's the only thing separating Boynton Beach from the big boys," noticed The Captain, and he's right.  I get a hold of some power in this city, boy, I put in my bike program, divert our excess saved capital to building up our military, and then we invade Delray Beach.  I got big ideas, boy, big ideas.  Let's just hope the world doesn't end tomorrow...
----
That's a wrap from Dallas' arena, or as I like to call it, since we won a title there, and have beaten the Mavs by like a combined 90 points the last two games in their building, The Trip-West.  Next game is Saturday, I believe against Utah.  Uh-oh, another big team that rebounds!  If you need me before then, I'll be shopping for a new bike, but at Target, you know, for a crappy, cheap one, not the fancy racing-type that KJ and Jax can afford.  See you Saturday, Mayans!
-----
-----

Heat 103 TWolves 92

6 Thoughts

1) Whiteout...WHIIIIITTTEEEEOUUUUTTTTTT!!!  The Timberwolves came to town rocking an all-white starting lineup: Luke Ridnour, Kevin Love, Andrei Kirilenko, Alexey Shved, and Nikola Pekovic!  And they came off the bench with J.J. Juan Barea (Hube-ism), and Louis Amundson.  Also, Derrick Williams, the rare black dude from Arizona!  AND RICKY RUBIO IS HURT!!! (more on that in #4)  Holy whiteness - this is definitely Mitt Romney's favorite team!  This game was close for 3 quarters, then early in the fourth Miami pushed out a little, then went Battier triple-Walter Ray Allen triple-Battier triple for a 19 point lead with 7 minutes to go: ballgame.  Let's go, let's white this place out, let's fly that white flag high and proud!  Tally ho!!!

2) What an interesting game (even besides the whiteness) - one of the most entertaining of the year.  Minnesota turned the area in front of their offensive basket into a 1990 Pearl Jam mosh pit - Love, Pekovic, and Kirilenko threw bodies all over the place and dominated the three foot radius around the rim.  How bad was it?  On one possession, Kevin Love, who is either "crafty and physical" or "over the line and dirty" depending on which team you root for (and whether or not you are white!), locked Shane Battier's elbow under his armpit, stuck his foot out, and pulled Battier over it to the ground!  Twice!  Somehow: no foul!  Rare to see Battioke mad, but he was fuming.  Minnesota killed Miami on the glass: 53 rebounds to 24!  Holy blizzard of white power, that was like the Third Reich up in The Trip.  With 5 minutes to go in the third quarter, Miami only had 11 rebounds for the game, Minnesota had 33 - but the Heat led by 8!  At the end of three quarters, Love had 14 rebounds and the Heat had 14 rebounds!  At one point Love was getting so many rebounds, on his own defensive end he just tipped a rebound right back into the Heat's basket - two points for Miami!  Hey, whatever it take for him to pad those numbers!  Need I continue?  How did the Heat win?  By dominating every other area of the floor!  Down on the Heat's offensive end, Minnesota made the curious decision to put 170 pound beanpole rookie Shved on Wade, didn't give him any help, and Wade tore him apart down on the block.  Posted him up over and over for buckets and fouls.  Wade scored 24 in only 27 minutes - didn't have to play the fourth after Miami blew Minnesota out.  KJ James was everywhere: 22 points (on 8-18, +50% streak is over at 10), 11 assists, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, a steal, and no turnovers.  Though Miami got hammered on the boards, they outshot the Wolves on triples (13-25 to 4-17); outblocked them 14 to 1 (Wade blocked a Love dunk and a Pekovic jump hook); and out-stole them 12-5 (it would be totally racist to point out the white guys stunk at stealing stuff).  They out-assisted Minnesota 25-17, and turned it over only 8 times (Minnesota 19).  Size matters, but sometimes how you shake it is everything...

3) Using its power underneath, Minnesota jumped out to an early lead, getting up 9 a couple of different times.  Then you know who changed that flow up?  Norris Cole, by getting into J.J. Juan Barea's shirt, then in his face, then in his head, and staying there.  Barea, who would have tormented the Heat in the 2011 Finals with Dallas, had that series actually ever happened, is a little man with a big ego, and a hot temper.  But he's not as quick as Norris Cole, and he's not as strong as Norris Cole, and Norris made him lose his cool - Spo pretty much spotted Cole minute for minute with Barea, who comes off Minnesota's bench to be their offensive sparkplug.  It wasn't just that Cole made Barea shoot 3-9 from the floor with 3 turnovers (while scoring 8 points himself with 4 dimes, 2 steals and 2 blocks) - he made him lose his composure.  Barea felt challenged, kept breaking the offense to go one-on-one with Norris, but couldn't beat him off the dribble, creating bad possession after bad possession for the T-Wolves offensively.  At one point he got locked up, swung an elbow at Norris, then bitched at a ref, who could only shrug at him.  Later, he got tangled up with Ray Allen, took a cheap shot at Ray, then bitched some more.  Barea makes his living getting into other player's heads - tonight Norris Cole got into his.  It was fitting that in the game's waning moments, Barea drove baseline to try to tack on a garbage bucket, and Cole slapped his shot back into his face, then scored a three point play at the other end when Barea tried to tackle him on a layup, but couldn't stop him!  Too strong, giddyup, Norris, pell mell, all day, all night longgg!  So good!  It was also a good night for Mario Chalmers - he made 4-6 triples - so the Heat's point guards, not always a, ummm, strength, were dynamic.

4) Well, two guys missed the game for the Timberwolves, and they are polar opposites.  Ricky Rubio, the Wolves flashy young point guard, and a super-nice kid, missed the game while recovering from knee surgery that he faked last season so that, this season, when the Wolves came to Florida and played Orlando on Monday night, he would have a plausible excuse to skip the second game of the back-to-back, claiming he was bringing his knee along slowly, when we all know he had Chalmeritis.  Listen, rook -- if you're scared, say you're scared.  You don't have to put your body through the trauma of an unnecessary knee surgery just to avoid Emcee Chalmers dropping four triples on your cabeza - stand up and take it like a man next time, we'll all respect you a little more...Speaking of knees, the incredibly detestable and despicable Brandon Roy also missed the game.  Listen, this ungrateful, nasty human being retired a few season ago because he was playing at the level of a junior high schooler because both his knees are essentially made out of spaghetti.  And by the way, when he was going out there night after night stinking the joint out (but still refusing to pass the ball), no one enjoyed it more than me.  I hate that dude.  So he sits out a couple of years, then gets a serious, serious case of Allan Houston Syndrome.  The former Knicks guard, who is like 50 now, feels like he was forced to retire too early due to bad knees, doesn't play for a while, his knees feel better, then he announces a comeback, practices for 20 minutes, his knees start to kill again, then he re-retires.  This is exactly what Brandon Roy did - except he got a team to guarantee him five million dollars for the season, came back for 5 games, crapped the bed up (5 ppg on 31% shooting - again, I loved this!), his knees hurt, he went to the doctor, the doctor is like "what the hell do you expect, you have the knees of Dick Chaney, and you need to be scoped," he got scoped, called a press conference, and everyone is like "surely he'll retire now," and he announces at the press conference that he feels great and will be back.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  This kid has no sense of pride, or even basic human dignity.  He is stealing money, straight up.  And, no, I don't think I am taking this too far - you do realize he once tried to start a fight with Connecticut's Rudy Gay in 2006, when they were both in college, at an NCAA tournament game in Washington, D.C. that I attended, right?  How could I possibly be taking this too far?

5) It's over, it's soooo over, and we have an upset winner in Hot Seconds with Jax: Jorts!  Josh Harrellson did it, he swept in and stole Walter Ray Allen's title on the last night! Nooooo!  I can't say he didn't earn it - he nailed all 10 points.  He knew Regis was Kelly Ripa's previous co-host, that's a layup.  But he was smart enough to sub his three point question when he didn't know the answer (Kentucky ballplayer also drafted by the Dallas Cowboys: my dad, Pat Riley!), and then knew the replacement question, that Eddie Sutton preceded Rick Pitino as Kentucky coach (current Kentucky coach: Satan), and he nailed 5 out of the 8 years that Kentucky won the national title. That was impressive, I doubt a lot of ex-Kentucky guys could have done that.  Certainly not Antoine Walker.  Rashard Lewis had a shot earlier in the night - much like his defense and rebounding, he didn't give it much of an effort.  Defending champion KJ James had the last shot at it, in the postgame, and pulled out the first two answers: Oxford is not in London (!), and Tim Duncan was the last player before KJ to have a triple double in a Finals closeout game (Jax cheated by telling KJ the year).  But he didn't know the 4 other guys besides himself who averaged a 25-7-7 for a season.  He got himself, Jordan, and Oscar Robertson, but didn't get Havlicek or Bird.  Ahhhh - he was a proud champion, he left it all out there in Jax's living room.  Overall a great season of Hot Seconds, it went right down to the last night, which is all we can ask.  So good, even considering the odd stylistic choice that Jax made to run his audio through some kind of wind tunnel sound effect for the entire season.  It makes the rest of the Heat schedule a little anti-climatic, frankly.  Coming up soon, I would imagine, is the media version of Hot Seconds with Jax.  Heat sideline reporter Johanna Gomez will obviously be a heavy favorite in that competition, she is clearly the smartest member of the Heat media, which is why I am such a big fan.  What?  I mean, yeah, now that you mention it, I guess she is kind of cute, never really thought about it before, mostly just marveled at her superior basketball knowledge and interviewing skills.  Let's go, JoGo!!!    

6) I'm from Connecticut; let's do some living, after we die.
-----
Next game is Thursday in Dallas!  I love Dallas, Mark Cuban is so cool, for an overweight, putzy loudmouth.  If you need me before then, I'll be doing what I do - white-ing it up!  See you Thursday!
-----

Heat 102 Wizards 72

6 Thoughts

1) Ahhh, that's more like it.  When you are the defending champs (#Champs), and you have KJ James and Dwyane Wade, ninety percent of the games you play are amongst the two or three biggest games your opponents will play all season.  You are always getting someone's A+ effort, getting their best shot - Heat opponents have played above their heads all season long.  That's fine, that hardens you a little, but it is tiring - sometimes it is a comfort to have a bad team come to town and play absolutely terrible.  Just before tipoff, M.Minutos begged the three win Wizards to oblige: "you be you."  Annnnd, they did!  Laugher tonight in Miami, this one was over moments into the game.  I put a little vodka into the protein smoothie that I drank while watching the game, and I've never felt more fit, or more drunk.  Staying in shape is fun!  Let it fly!

2) The only drama in this game was whether KJ James would extend his consecutive 20 point game streak.  He had scored 20 or more in 25 straight coming into tonight, but had only 7 at halftime.  With about 8 minutes to go in the quarter, the Heat up by about 100, and KJ still in single digits, anyone could see coming from a mile away that Heat play-by-play man Eric Reid, who loves the numbers, was going to start to get antsy, since it was clear James wasn't going to play the fourth quarter.  Reid once (over) celebrated a Voshon Lenard (I think - maybe Anthony Carter?) triple at the buzzer of a blowout loss years ago because it extended the Heat's NBA record consecutive games streak with a three pointer made to like 10,000 or something (it's since been broken - hard to go a whole game without a triple).  "Tony, we are getting lots of tweets about KJ's 20 point streak, people are demanding that the Heat leave him in until he gets 20 points," worried Eric.  Of course, by "people," he primarily meant a certain twitter account with the handle "@EReidMiamiHeat."  KJ got it to 15 with a couple of minutes to go, then he really went to work.  Longgg fallaway from the right wing with under two to go to get to 17, then an off-the-dribble left elbow jumper at 1:30 to get to 19.  With Heat fans willing him to score - and by "Heat fans," again I mean "@EReidMiamiHeat" - Norris Cole won a jump ball at the Heat's defensive free throw line, Ray Allen grabbed it and in one motion threw a homerun overhand strike to KJ on the dead run for the layup at 1:16 to get to 21 (and a 29 point Heat lead)!  Crisis averted!  Just in case the tally was wrong, KJ banged in another jumper with 10 seconds to go to finish wth 23.  He outscored Washington 16-10 in the third quarter, it's now 26 games with 20 or more, the last 10 at 50% or better from the floor.  He's aigghhttt...By the way, this is the part of the blog where I am obliged to point out that Memphis Grizzlies announcer Pete Pranica isn't into individual achievements at all - he's all about team accomplishments.  Sometimes he won't even call the players by their names, just their uniform numbers, to emphasize the importance of the collective over the individual.  I'm just saying... 

3) Play of the game: Dwyane Wade acquired a loose ball in transition, steamed upcourt alone with Wizard Chris Singleton chasing him.  A step before Dwayne went to elevate, Singleton grabbed him from behind to take a foul, but just before he did, without looking Dwyane slipped the ball behind his back backwards to - uh-ohhhh!!! - a freight-training KJ James, who caught the ball on the run and power-flushed it through the basket while Singleton wrapped up the wrong guy.  Should have been a three point play - just because Dwyane dropped the ball off doesn't mean Singleton's grab wasn't a foul...Whichhhh leads us to our favorite part of the night...

4) ...that this game was referred by Dick Bavetta, whom Eric pointed out recently turned 173!  Wait- what?  Oh, "only" 73.  And he's reffed like 8.000 straight games, he's never missed a day of work.  He didn't see the foul on Singleton, he made bizarre calls that went for and against both teams - sometimes on the same play - and on the aforementioned jump ball leading to KJ's important basket, he didn't appear to know the rules governing jump ball situations.  He made Norris Cole and Jordan Crawford jump it up when he couldn't decide whom a ball went off of out of bounds.  Both teams should have been allowed to select any player they wanted to jump.  I mean, if you were following the actual rules, and all.  The NBA claims that it goes to extremes to employ only the best officials on the planet, but somehow, year after year, they can't find anyone to beat out a 73 year old suffering from skin cancer, who moves with marionette-like fluidity, has a tenuous - at best - understanding of the NBA rulebook, and refers to black players as "colored" (albeit with affection).  Great friend of the blog Plumber, who is a labour lawyer (English spelling), recently pointed out that the NBA might have a high degree of liability if Bavetta suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack on the court (although Plumber also pointed out that the league would love the youtube hits from that game).  I don't know, I have to be honest with you - I don't think being dead would stop Dick Bavetta, I think he'd still ref games.  That dude is dedicated to his craft.  Or something.

5) Do you know how many times in 2 and 1/4 regular seasons with Miami that either KJ James or Chris Bosh have fouled out of a regular season game?  None.  None times.  KJ fouled out last year in a playoff game against Boston (and I'm not bitter or anything, but both the 5th and 6th foul calls were beyond janky).  KJ has only fouled out 3 times in the regular season in his entire career.  That's over 700 games.  Wow, Dick Bavetta really does work a lot!

6) Favorite holiday movie: uh, duhhh - "Christmas Vacation" wih Chevy Chase.  Least favorite holiday movie: "Jack Reacher," starring Tom Cruise, in theaters December 21st!  Haaaa!  Tom Cruise as a tough guy, military cop, or something!  Haaaa!   The military doesn't have a height requirement?  Haaaa!  This film is a must-see for me, and by "must-see," I mean I'd rather watch an extended-version director's cut remake of "Schindler's List," starring Joe Johnson and Dustin Hoffman, the two most sleep-inducing humans alive.  Although, admit it - this already sounds more interesting than the actual "Schindler's List."  Joe Johnson dribbles a ball endlessly in the parking lot of a concentration camp, ahh, yawnnn, lulling all the, ummm, yawnnn, guards to sleep, and then, yawnnn, Dustin Hof-...zzzzz.....
-----
Next game is Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Always a bad matchup for Miami because Kevin Love tries too hard - it's December, dude, take a chill pill.  Dwyane, KJ, and Bosh won't dial it past 70 on the effort meter until March!  If you need me before then - uh, duhhh - I'll be queuing up for "Reacher."  Join me, won't you?  ... Get those Xmas trees up!
-----

Warriors 97 Heat 95

6 Thoughts

1) This never, ever seemed like a game that Miami was going to lose...right up until they lost it.  They played from slightly behind all night long, but were comfortably in contact, caught the Warriors with a little fourth quarter intensity, and in the last two minutes had four really good offensive possessions: a roll to the rim by Bosh, an open corner triple by Shane Battier, and two wide open threes for Ray Allen.  Total yield from those four possession: 0 points.  Ze-ro!  Or as I like to say, "Live by the Walter Ray Allen, die by the Walter Ray Allen!"  Still, it was a great night for Ray in other ways, which we will cover below...One of those nights, make or miss league, blah, blah, blah!  We didn't even start watching this game until after 10:30, so we are gonna track through this real quick.  Can't let it fly 'cuz we lost, so let's settle for a very polite (and tired), Let's go...

2) Do we really want to talk about the game?  It was a good game, fast-paced and entertaining, the Warriors have a nice young nucleus, especially their backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.  Those guys are both plus-plus shooters, extremely pasty black dudes, and they put their defenders on skates, and keep them on skates.  KJ was good, Bosh was good - Miami got good shots in winning time and simply didn't make them, whereas the Warriors Jarrett Jack, undoubtedly inspired by the chance to dine at South Street, which he has been tweeting about for three weeks, threw in 2 or 3 prayers, and made a great pass to Draymond Green on the game's last possession for the win.  Again - blah, blah, blah.  Let's just highlight the Play of the Game quickly: it had to be in the second quarter when Dwyane Wade was trailing Klay Thompson over a screen, Thompson flailed backwards and caught Dwyane in the face (unintentionally) with an elbow.  Dwyane immediately bent over at the waist and grabbed his face, around the free throw line, when suddenly, Mario "Emcee" Chalmers, moving faster than he ever has heretofore in five seasons, sprinted past Dwyane, somehow didn't see him, and pretty much trucked Dwyane in the noggin.  Simply ran right through his head, Almario's hip catching Dwyane in the ear, which spun Dwyane, and dropped him like a proverbial sack of potatoes.  It was like the montage sequence in "Rocky III" where Mr. T keeps knocking guys on to one knee, and before the referee can step in to stop the fight, T steps up and just hammers the defenseless, kneeling guy to the ground.  Dwyane didn't play the rest of the half - he did come back in the second half, and he was a mixed bag of horrific turnovers and shot selection with some brilliant defensive play mixed in.  His neck's gonna hurt tomorrow.  It was kinda funny, though.

3) I have been called a lot things, but none are more accurate than the "Convenient Jew" label pinned on me by M.Minutos o'er the years.  Yes, my father is Jewish; no, my mother is not.  I'm a mongrel, go ahead, laugh if you want.  But just know that in a crowd of Jewish people, I can absolutely bring it hard enough as a Jew - I can say a few Jewish prayers (though I have no idea what they mean), and I can wax rhapsodic about finding the afikomen at Passover (just try to get me off that topic in a crowd of Jews - you can't, I know my range is limited, I have to stay within myself).  At the same time, in a group of Christians, I know enough about bland foods and reality television to convince them that my Christian half is really my dominant side (even if they will always distrust me a little bit).  But I have never - nev-ver - been more conveniently Jewish than tonight at halftime when Sunsports sideline reporter extraordinaire Johanna Gomez wished all Jewish viewers (and I suppose the random sympathetic Christians) a "Happy Hanukkah!"  I'll gladly accept your good tidings, JoGo, thank you!  And, listen, I'm proud to be a convenient Jew and all, but one night of JoGo, even on television, is better than all eight nights of Hanukkah combined!  Feliz Navidad, JoGo!

4) Okay, so Ray Allen missed a couple of triples which probably would have salted this game away.  I know, I know, that's the first time that's happened this year - we are all shocked, but it happens.  Even people from Connecticut don't win all the time.  Just most of the time.  But in some ways, Ray was tonight's big winner.  His driving second quarter layup sent him past Adrian Dantley into twenty-second place all-time on the NBA's scoring list.  Not bad.  By the way, watching Adrian Dantley's slowww, back-down, mid-range game back in the 80s was like watching a cross between current New Jersey Nets guard Joe Johnson and the six hour dull-fest Holocaust film "Schindler's List" (during which I was so bored and disoriented that I never realized until the end that Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were playing two different characters - I thought it was a guy living a double life).  I mean, he was painful to watch...On the hoop which sent Walter Ray past Dantley, Warriors forward David Lee, who is a gifted offensive player, but one of the least-aware defensive bigs alive - Chris Bosh's patented "statue defense" would be a huge improvement - was standing down in the paint to hedge against drivers and Ray drove right past him, Lee never moved, and Ray flipped the ball in while Lee watched.  Listen, David Lee, if you aren't going to help on a driver, you'd better not help on a driver who didn't just rocket past the incredibly boring Adrian Dantley into twenty-second position on the all-time NBA scoring list! 

5) You'd think that would be enough to make Ray's night a success.  But, no, there was more!  He also fended off challenges from the first two ever "Hot Seconds with Jax" champions, Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller (as well as a non-challenge from Joel Anthony - I love Joel, but you knew he had no shot).  Chalmers is just one of those dudes, man - like, he probably doesn't know the NBA over-and-back rule, but he knows every rule of "Hot Seconds with Jax" (timeouts, question-substitution)  and the day he filmed his segment, he was probably going over Alaska trivia in his head in the locker room when he was supposed to be out on the court shooting free throws.  You have to fear Chalmers in a one-off competition like this.  Unfortunately for Emcee, he didn't know how many field goals he scored in Game 4 of last year's Finals when the irrationally ill-behaved Russell Westbrook couldn't hold him and Chalmers scored 25 to single-handedly win the KJ Cramp Game, and pretty much the championship, for us.  On the one hand, I would have assumed Mario could have listed every basket he has scored in the last five seasons, in order.  On the other hand, he doesn't get to 25 very often, so maybe the volume simply overwhelmed him.  He missed by a lot - guessed 6, but the answer was 9.  Mike Mil-lar won the second ever "Hot Secs' two years ago, but hasn't impressed since - doesn't seem too intense in there, a little too easy-going for my liking.  This isn't some South Dakota pumpkin-growing contest, Mike Mil-lar, this is "Hot Seconds with Jax" - come strong, or get crushed by Walter Ray Allen!  He didn't know how many points he scored in his NBA debut (guessed 11, it was 5).  If you're that far off, if you really don't know, then sub the question - Mario Chalmers would never let this happen!...So at the end of the night, Ray still leads with 9 points.  Defending champion KJ James still yet to go, though!!!

6) Update on Jay Z.  Monday, it turned out that O.Minutos' guitar teacher, an otherwise-normal-seeming white dude in his forties, had never even heard of Jay Z.  It seemed impossible.  Over the last couple of days I've been investigating, trying to see what other kinds of people, what specific subset of Americans, or even non-Americans living in America, don't know who Jay Z is.  And the answer is: no one.  There are no other people who don't know who Jay Z is.  The end.
-----
Next game is Saturday against the Wizards.  Revenge game: they beat us last week!  If you need me before then, I'll be spiking Jarrett Jack's drinks at South Street with rohypnol, although I don't think even that would have stopped him tonight.  See you Saturday!
-----