11/29/10: Heat Beat A Glorified D-League Team.

The Miami Heat got a break in the schedule and were able to pick up a much-needed victory over the Washington Dakota Wizards.  I haven’t been one of the many to overreact when it comes to the Heat, but if they had lost to a team that started Alonzo Gee and Hilton Armstrong I probably would’ve declared them finished.  Miami was given a great opportunity to release some of their frustrations as the game got rather chippy.  Various players’ tempers flared over the course of the night…  even senior citizen Juwan Howard got brolic with Hilton Armstrong after he decked Joel Anthony.  Damn, I’m not sure I could describe a play involving three scrubbier names than that one if I tried.

Random Observations:

  • Highlight Recap: LeBron drives like frieght train and throws it down hardRussell Westbrook lobs to James HardenRussell Westbrook lobs to Kevin Durant.  See the top 10 for the rest…  there’s some decent stuff in there today. 
  • The Heat got 76 of their 105 points from the big three… hold up, you know what? I’m tired of calling every group of three good players “the big three”.  It’s like half the damn teams in the league have their own “big three”.  I’ve got to come up with something else to call these guys.  Until I come up with something more creative, LeBron/Wade/Bosh will be known as the “looks great on paper (L.G.O.P.) crew”.  Alright, so where was I…  oh yeah, Miami got 76 of their 105 points from the L.G.O.P. Crew and defeated the Wizards 11.  The game wasn’t as close at the final score makes it seem, it was a blowout.  Dwyane Wade started out cold, but ended up with 26 points after dropping 15 in the third quarter.  LeBron James had 30, and Chris Bosh had 20.  Andray Blatche had a season-high 26 for the Wiz.  I’ll now say what I say every time the Heat win a game: ok, so they got a win… but now can they beat a team that doesn’t suck?  They’ll have to beat a couple more sucky teams before they get a chance, as their next two games are against Detroit and Cleveland.
  • The Hornets dropped their fourth of the last five, losing to Oklahoma City by six.  Kevin Durant had 26/11, and Russell Westbrook continued to be a beast with his 25/5/11 (he did have eight turnovers).  Chris Paul had a pretty nice game himself with 17 points, 14 assists, and five steals.  The Thunder shot poorly, but they abused the Bumblebees on the glass.  OKC out-boarded NO by 20 (11 on the offensive glass), and also helped themselves out by connecting on 26 of their 29 attempts from the stripe.  Westbrook scored 12 of OKC’s 25 fourth quarter points.  Durant only scored seven.  Said Durant: “This is the new Russell. He’s just taking over games and controlling the games. That’s what we need for us to win.”  Looks like the closer role has become a shared thing down in Oklahoma.  Russell is really stepping his game up, and it’s nice to see Durant recognize it and be so willing to share the spotlight. 
  • Dirk Nowitzki had 20/10 and my guy DeShawn Stevenson pitched in with 10 as the Mavs beat the Rockets by 10.  Houston simply didn’t make shots in this one… they went 29 of 81, about 36%.  Caron Butler scored 11 straight points in the third quarter to put the Mavs up 18.  Dirk completely overreacted afterwards and called Butler “one of the best mid-range jump shooters in the league”.  Settle down, Diggler.  The Mavs inprove to 10-2 with DeShawn Stevenson in the starting lineup, and 10-0 when he plays 10 minutes or more.  I think I just set a world record for amount of times typing the number 10 in one bullet.
  • Deron Williams and Al Jefferson had 22/10 and 22/11 respectively as the Jazz picked up their sixth consecutive W.  Utah made 20 more shots than Milwaukee, out-rebounded them by 22, and won by 21.  Brandon Jennings had his third game in a row with 25 points or more. 

Quote of the Day: Wizards’ play-by-play guy Steve Buckhantz makes a funny regarding LeBron’s December 2nd return to Cleveland…

“They’re going to have to deliver him in a Brinks truck”

There will be extra security on hand, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if some drunken idiot tries to do something stupid.  As for the people who are crazy enough to go in there wearing Miami gear (I’m sure someone will), they’re probably not leaving unharmed.  I wore a LeBron jersey to a playoff game in Boston last year and barely escaped unscathed… I imagine this will be 500 times worse than that.

Photo of the Day:

No, he didn’t dunk it.  Yes, I was very disappointed.  Cool photo though.

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