WAAAAAAAAAAAADE!
By Coup
Despite blowing yet another double-digit lead the Miami Heat actually found a way to win a game for once. How did they do this? There were many reasons (get to them later) but the main reason was that man to my right. The man who captivated the entire basketball world in the 2005 playoffs and has since been shoo-shooed to the back. Since returning from injury he’s finally started to show flashes of the old Flash culminating in tonight’s effort. It wasn’t near his best performance but it was on par for what he does.
Wade dropped 13 of his 20 points in the 4th quarter. Say what you will about the man (and there is plenty to be said he’s leading the league in turnovers for pete’s sake) but the one thing he has proven to be is clutch. When the 4th quarter comes around D-Wade will find a way to win a game. Just like he did tonight, including hitting a buzzer-beater to give the Heat a nice win over a tough Western Conference foe in Utah. However the Heat are still 8-19 and there is no telling which team will show up. Time will tell on Christmas Day when two teams who have fallen from grace (Miami and Cleveland) match up in a game that both teams need. It also pits some guy named LeBron against some guy now Dwyane. But I disgress.
Another reason why the Heat won? Well despite the fact that Carlos Boozer got locked up (4/16 shooting, 10 pts, 10 boards)…other guys stepped up. Earl Barron (WHO?) had 13 points in Zo’s absence, Dorrell Wright dropped 12 and Shaq had 17 and 10 which sadly is a great game for him in 2007. The key was the 15 points from Daequan Cook, 7 of those which came in the final period. Biggest shot of his career was his three pointer with 28 seconds left to take the Heat from down 1 to up 2. That’s a diamond in the rough for Miami and luckily Pat Riley has had to play him so he might actually grow as a player.
The bandwagon Blazer fans are almost ruining this streak for me. Almost. These are the same people who did cartwheels when Oden arrived, proclaiming to anyone who would listen we were going to the Finals. And then when he got hurt immediately backflipped their way off of the bandwagon and called the Blazers idiots for not drafting Durant. And now that they are winning and its the cool thing to do have been talking about ‘I love the Blazers’ and ‘Yay for 10!’. You know at least one of these people….I know 192.
Elsewhere in the league tonight…
- A couple West Coast teams beat up on East Coast teams. Phoenix blowing out Toronto and Houston blowing out Chicago. A depleted Houston team is that much better than Chicago? Wow.
- San Antonio got Parker back but saw Ginobli leave early with a sprained left index finger. Also Al Thornton had the best game of his career (25 pts, 6 rebs) but got a front-row seat to the dominance that is Duncan (34 pts, 18 rebs). Yeah….he’s still the best player on the planet people.
- How do you score 130 points one night and then score 76 the next night? I’m asking you Minnesota. I’m not sure what was the bigger sign of the apocalypse the Blazers streak, Hannah Montana on MNF or Sebastian Telfair and Antoine Walker leading a team to score 130 points. Apparently it was the latter. Walker tonight: 6 pts, 1/9 shooting. Telfair? 9 pts, 4/14, 3 assists, 6 turnovers. To put that in perspective Gerald freakin Green had 4 assists for Minnesota. And Chris Paul had 15 assists and 5 steals. He’s pretty damn good.
- New Jersey won a home game!