Dwyane Wade's magic goggles seemed to run out of awesome juice in the fourth quarter of Thursday night's 93-88 loss to the New York Knicks.
Because after Wade started the game hitting pretty much every shot he threw up (except his free throws... hit those goddamn free throws, D-Wade!!), he missed all seven of his shots in the fourth quarter. Add another game played without Chris Bosh and his crappy ankle, and LeBron James shitting himself blind with a 7-for-24 shooting performance, and you've got your first loss to the Knicks since October of 2008.
Thanks to his reoccurring migraines, Wade was forced to wear goggles that look a lot like Eagle Eye sunglasses (the only sunglasses to ever receive the lifetime space technology seal!). And apparently, they worked wonders. At least for three quarters.
Wade scored 34 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and at one point hit 13 shots in a row. But the combination of a struggling LeBron James, no Bosh, and having what amounts to a giant bag of asses in teammates had the Heat fizzling out down the stretch, allowing the Knicks to overtake them.
Mike Miller finished with zero points. As did Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Carlos Arroyo, Eddie House, Juwan Howard, and Eric Dampier. Mario Chalmers somehow managed 7 points on the night. It was also Chalmers who took the final shot for the Heat to try and force overtime. The Heat are now 3-8 in games decided by five points or fewer. Perhaps letting guys like Chalmers take the last shot is not such a hot idea. That Erik Spoelstra. He's a crafty one!
The Heat only managed to score 15 points in the fourth, resulting in their fifth loss in the last last six games. Amare Stoudemire scored 24 for New York, and Danilo Gallinari finished with 20 as the Knicks ended their seven-game losing streak to the Heat that dates back to October 29, 2008. That's one win over the Heat in the last seven tries in the last two years for New York, predictably sending their fans in a frenzy not unlike the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey when they see that giant Clark bar at the beginning of the movie.
In the end, the Knicks made their shots while the Heat did not. And James playing like he had other shit to do didn't help matters. The bottom line is somebody outside the Big Three needs to start stepping up if Miami is going to make any kind of dent in the playoffs.
It would also help immensely if Spoelstra would stop drawing up the last shot to go to Mario Chalmers or Eddie House. Next time Spolestra does that, Bob McAdoo should throw a clipboard at him during the timeout, shout "The fuck is wrong witchu?!" and then draw up a play where LeBron ally-oops the inbound pass to Wade from center court.
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
