1) That's 15 in a row - new franchise record, so that's pretty good! Miami played fairly terrible - they couldn't hold on to the ball for whatever reason, and turned it over a staggering 23 times against a defense that could best be described as "confused." When the Heat didn't turn it over, offensive possessions generally ended in a dunk by Dwyane Wade, KJ James, or Bird Anderson; or, with a flagrant foul-ejection of a 5'8" leprechaun. This win was so historic that Coach Spo put Mike Miller in. Yo, man, 15 doesn't happen every season - or any season until now - LET IT FLY!!!
2) One super-odd thing about Minnesota: they don't have a normal-sized two guard on their roster. They have three points guards (Rubio, Ridenour, and JJ Barea), but their only kind-of true two is modern day Jesus look-alike Alexey Shved. But even Shved is like 6'4", 175 pounds. When he has to try to guard Dwyane Wade, he looks like a little kid next to Wade's broad shoulders and rippling musculature (I thought in my head, right, I didn't actually write it, did I?). The first time Miami played Minnesota, Wade took Shved down on the block and pummeled him for 24 points in only 27 minutes. Tonight, the T-Wolves started the even smaller Luke Ridenour on Wade, and after Wade hammered him for a while, brought in Shved, and Wade trucked him to the rim repeatedly. All in all, 15-23 for 32 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds for Dwyane. He could have scored 50, they really didn't have anyone to play him.
3) Play of the game: ummm, probably in the fourth quarter when JJ Barea, who lost his cool after he got punked all over the court by Norris Cole the first time these two teams met (finished 3-9 with 3 turnovers), got frustrated by being punked even worse in this game - he was 1-11 from the floor. Ray Allen had the ball at the top of the key, and Barea came over and took a whack at him, jarring the ball loose - it was probably a foul, and it annoyed Ray, who shoved Barea back, and recovered the ball. Ray then started to drive, and Barea came running back full-speed at him, lowered his shoulder, and hit Ray like a diminutive linebacker. It didn't hurt Ray - Barea must weigh 160 pounds - but it did knock him down and he hopped back up flaming mad. Luckily, Barea vacated the area quickly so that other players, notably Dwyane Wade, could get to Ray to hold him back. The refs went to the video for the easiest review-and-eject in the history of instant replay. When they told Barea he was done, he stood on the bench laughing maniacally - he was in full-tilt mode, he couldn't possibly have thought he was going to be allowed to remain in the game. After some cajoling by officials and teammates, he finally started to leave, but as Ray stood on the foul line to shoot his free throws, Barea turned back and started screaming at Ray, calling him, well, quite frankly, the "p" word. Ray stood there and kind of motioned Barea out to him - there was no one in between them since it was a flagrant foul and the lane was cleared - but Barea opted not to get beat down by a 37 year old normal-sized human, and hightailed it to the locker room. I love guys who talk sooo much on the court, but don't really want to back it up - I mean Ray was standing right there, Lil Man, come out and back it up...After the game, Ray called Barea "bush league," which is a term only someone 37 or older would even consider using, and Dwyane Wade called Barea's behavior stupid, and pointed out that just before the flagrant he had gone to the ref to tell him that Barea had taken a cheap shot at him. Ray buried all 3 free throws to push the lead to 9, and then a minute or two later hit a triple from the corner to effectively end it...I'm pretty sure JJ Barea just moved to the top of M.Minutos "Lil Turd" rankings...
4) I am so sick of watching Norris Cole pound the ball in the halfcourt and take bad jumpers off the dribble. He does exactly one thing well: stays in front of guards off the dribble. But he is one of the worst offensive decision makers I've ever seen - he doesn't find open shooters consistently, and gets himself to too many spots on the court from which he can't finish, which is exacerbated by the fact that he is a poor finisher. He's not really an NBA-level rotation player. He's surviving on the rest of the team's excellence. I've often said that if you do anything well, you can play with Dwyane and KJ, because they do everything well - they'll fill in what you can't do. But because Norris has the ball so much on offense, he can be really damaging in stretches. Oh well, everything can't be perfect. Seems like a nice kid...
5) There have been a lot of criticisms leveled at various members of the Miami Heat over the last couple of years, and especially of one Mr. KJ James. But I'm not sure anything has risen to the level of silliness of people being actively upset that he will not participate in the dunk contest. Over the weekend, former Laker great Magic Johnson offered to pay James one million dollars to enter next year's contest (I assume he would direct it to a charity of KJ's choice). Magic, who seems like an otherwise well-adjusted and fairly reasonable human being, gave two specific reasons why James should do it. One, "it would be great if LeBron would come in and dominate a whole All-Star weekend, like Jordan used to do, not just the game on Sunday - he could also dominate Saturday with the dunk contest." Two, "it would really help his endorsements and sneaker deals." Goodness gracious. First of all, beyond the fact that I don't know what "dominate a whole All-Star weekend" even means, in retrospect, I think we all pretty much agree that Michael Jordan was a tool, and not a very nice person. Beyond winning basketball games, I think avoiding anything else at all he's done in his life would probably leave you on pretty solid ground. Second of all, until last June, all anyone complained about KJ, Magic included, was that he cared more about marketing himself than he did about winning basketball games! Now that he's a champion, he gets the opposite criticism? Now he cares too much about winning basketball games, and not enough about marketing himself? Oh, that totally makes sense. Third: you think KJ could do more endorsements than he does already? Are there any companies left on Earth that he doesn't endorse? Remember when he signed in Miami, and all the "experts" screamed that he killed his "legacy," whatever that means, and that his endorsements would suffer? That was spot on! Why are "experts" so dopey? Fourth, and finally: the dunk contest blows. Even KJ can't save that. Don't dunk, KJ! Don't dunk in the pregames anymore, don't even dunk in the regular games, just lay it in. It's still two points…
6) What? You don't think Dennis Rodman was the best American ambassador to send over to North Korea to try to negotiate a peace agreement with Korean leader Kim Jong Un? Wow. I didn't hear you complaining in the mid-90s during the historic Middle East peace talks between Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Hosni Mubarak...JTT FOREVER!!!
-----
Next game is Wednesday against either Orlando or Philly, and I'm too tired to check which. They both stink. If you need me before then, I'm lowering the rim in my driveway to 8 feet and working on my dunk game - I'm taking Magic up on his offer! See you Wednesday!
-----
