We're pretty sure the loss had less to do with divine providence and more to do with a shitty first quarter by the Heat. Miami fell behind by 21 points to the Clippers in the first half. And while they fought back to bring the deficit to within three in the second half, L.A. kept pulling away. Bad defense, and even worse shot selection. There's your karma.
The Clippers' Blake Griffin earned the 30th double-double of his young career with 24 points and 14 rebounds. Dwyane Wade led all scorers with 31, while Chris Bosh dropped in 26 and LeBron James scored 27.
The rest of the Heat? Refried ass.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Carlos Arroyo, Joel Anthony, and James Jones all chipped in a combined 9 points. Mario Chalmers was the only other Heat player to score double digits with 12.
The previous two games, the Heat had to come from behind to force overtime against Milwaukee and Portland. Last night, the Clippers jumped to an 18-point lead in the first quarter, and it wasn't until late in the second that Miami decided that they were supposed to put the ball in the basket too, and cut the lead down to 10. But it was too little, too late. And so what we have here is a dreaded "trend."
"We have to do a better job of imposing our will," Bosh told the press afterward.
Yes that, or maybe not spot your opponent 21 fucking points in the first half.
With 7:00 left to play, Wade drained a three to bring Miami to within five. LeBron then attacked the basket and stepped on Baron Davis, rolling his ankle and stumbling out of bounds. The ball somehow made its way back to James, who dropped a three of his own, bad ankle and all, to cut the deficit down to two.
But the Clippers responded with a pair of shots from Eric Gordon and Griffin, as L.A. pulled away and took the win.
As for James' ankle, the team says he's day-to-day. It's not known if he'll be able to suit up tonight in Denver (Karma?).
At 30-10, Miami still holds a 4-game lead over the Orlando Magic in the Southeast division and are tied for first in the conference with Boston. As for the road wins, this was the first road loss by the Heat since Thanksgiving.
So, all is well.
We could sure as shit use Mike Miller right about now, though. What the hell is taking him so long to get his rhythm? Shouldn't take four months to heal from a thumb injury. It's like he has the Benjamin Button disease.
(KARMA!)
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