6 Thoughts
1) For three quarters the Lakers played hard, moved the ball, and made a bunch of shots, but in the fourth quarter Miami got up into their perimeter players, turned them over, ran out, and KJ James dunked the ball on Steve Nash's head. Repeatedly. When that didn't work, Dwyane Wade ripped vintage 20 foot jumpers, 2006-style. Too big, too strong, too fast, too athletic. Weekend sweep of the Los Angeles teams! I love L.A! Leggo!
2) KJ James is so zen right now. So, so zen. Addressing his incredibly hot current run after Friday night's blowout of the Clippers, he shrugged and told Heat sideline reporter Jason Jackson, "when the defense backs off, I shoot the jumper; when they come out, I drive; if I see an open teammate, I pass the ball to him." Oh! It sounds so simple! Sunday's game was a rare game when KJ was in foul trouble - he had to come out with his third foul with 3 minutes to go before halftime, and so he only played 36 minutes, a low number for him in a high profile matchup. But he continued his staggering efficiency: 32 points on 12-18, 7 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. With the Heat struggling a bit late in the third quarter, mostly due to Dwight Howard sitting down in the paint defensively - the referees simply refused to call a defensive three seconds on him - twice in a row Ron Artest got up too close to KJ, and KJ blew by him. The first time, Artest horse-collared him from behind - anyone else in the league falls backwards and Artest gets a flagrant - but KJ powered through him to the rim and finished for a three point play. The second time he got fouled at the basket, earning two free throws. He made the first, and missed the second, but Shane Battier slapped the rebound back out to him (after Joel Anthony tackled Artest in the scrum), and KJ calmly drained a triple. Two trips down the court, 7 points: a layup, two free throws, and a triple. It's just like that right now. It's just like that.
3) As good as KJ was in this game, Dwyane Wade was just as good, and he took over the game late. He had a massive third quarter dunk on Dwight Howard, and then, with the Lakers hanging around, and KJ on the bench to rest early in the fourth quarter, Wade stroked three consecutive 20 footers to extend Miami's lead, then put the game away late with a drive-and-finish-while-getting-smashed-in-the-face-by-Dwight-Howard, and a 20-foot-okey-doke-and-the-foul jumper on Earl Clark. Wade scored 15 in the fourth quarter and finished with 30, also going 12-18, with 5 assists and 3 steals...What helped Wade get off late? With Miami playing conventional for most of the first three quarters (2 bigs on the court), Dwight Howard was allowed to stand in the paint and jam the rim. No, it's not legal, but I mean, if the refs are going to let you do it, why move? But in the fourth quarter, Coach Spo took the extra big off the court, and put Battier on the floor at the power forward spot. That forced Howard to play Bosh in space - the biggest play of the game demonstrated the value of that. With the Heat up 7 with 3 minutes to go, and Wade smoking hot, he dribbled the ball up top, and KJ came off a screen at the left elbow. Wade hit him with a pass, and Dwight Howard, anchored down in the lane took a step towards KJ, who zipped a pass to Bosh spacing the floor at the right elbow. That's a money shot for Miami, Bosh drains that in his sleep, but on this occasion, because Howard had sunk so deep in the paint, he had no chance to get back out to contest Bosh, so Earl Clark sprinted in from the right corner to try to help, whereupon Bosh zipped the ball right past him to Shane Battier, standing all alone in the corner: triple, ballgame. Miami, one, can space the floor: so many shooters. Two, both Dwyane and KJ are both so good at attacking the rim AND finding open teammates. Fourth quarter was a text book example of that.
4) Most exciting play of the game: midway through the fourth quarter, for some reason Coach Spo left Ray Allen guarding Kobe Bryant for about a three minute stretch, even though Dwyane and KJ were on the floor. Ray hates Kobe, he's hated him his whole career. He hates him with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, he's always pointed that out. If Kobe's life depended on Ray making a three, Ray would instead throw a no-look alley-oop pass to a cutting Joel Anthony (by the way, Mario Chalmers has tried this). I mean, it's possible that Ray might hate Kobe Bryant more than any human being alive. I mean, it would be possible, if Rajon Rondo had never been born! In any case, Kobe bizarrely missed a fallaway and turned the ball over twice in a row against Ray. The second turnover, Kobe went baseline, Ray cut him off, Bosh came over to help, then Kobe tried to throw a fastball under the hoop to a completely indifferent Dwight Howard. Instead, Wade cut in front of the pass, caught the ball, and as he was falling out of bounds, zipped a behind the back pass to Bosh, who quickly hit it ahead to Norris Cole. Cole had Steve Nash on his hip, but he also had KJ trailing the play, and as he got to the lane, Norris suddenly hooked the ball back up over his shoulder into the air, where a freight-training KJ met it in mid-air and absolutely smashed it through the rim as Nash scurried for cover. Best part of the whole play: Dwight Howard never moved! He didn't move when Kobe tried to throw him the ball, he didn't move when Dwyane Wade caught it and threw it to Bosh, and he certainly didn't move when Cole lofted the ball skyward to James. "Listen, this has been happening to us all year, I knew what was going to happen. There was no need to move."
5) Also in the fourth quarter, Kobe Bryant was bleeding from his hand. They stopped the game and brought him over to the sidelines, where he tried to stop the flow of blood by sucking on it fiercely with his mouth. This totally reminded me of the original Twilight movie, when Edward has to suck the venom out of Bella's body to prevent her from becoming a vampire. Or, it would have reminded me of that if I had been at home last night on a Saturday and watched it for the first time ever, which obviously I did not, since I am a grown man. (#TeamPattinson - shhhh)
6) I'm watching the Grammys. No one else wants to say it, so I will: Johnny Depp is a putz...Also this: hey, Mumford & Sons - we have electric guitars now...The end
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Only two games this week: Tuesday against Portland, then Thursday at OKC! If you need me before Tuesday, I definitely won't be on Netflix downloading the rest of the Twilight movies. I mean, who cares, I'm not interested at all to see how the Cullens resolve their centuries-old dispute with the Quileute tribe, with adorable Kristen Stewart as the pawn at the center of their animosity. I mean, I barely even paid attention to the movie, even when the former husband of 90210 star Jennie Garth, Peter Facinelli, was giving a nuanced performance as Dr. Carlise Cullen, the leader of a pack of vampires gone vegetarian (by the way, Facinelli was never better than when he starred with Bill Bellamy in the early-2000s cop show "Two Turds"). So I certainly won't be watching the Twilight movies New Moon, Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn any time soon. Why would I? See you Tuesday!
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