Last night, the Miami Heat lost 108-102 to the Orlando Magic in overtime, inspiring the following ten observations about the state of our b-ball team.
1. Outside of Michael Beasley (on the nights Erik Spoelstra actually lets the kid play), Dwyane Wade is all alone.
2. The Magic out-rebounded Miami 14-6 and had two players hit the 20-point mark for the game. Beyond Wade's 36, the closest thing to 20 points came from Jermaine O'Neal's 14. The summer of 2010 cannot come fast enough.
3. Miami battled back from a 12-point deficit with five minutes to play. Joel Anthony's flush late in the fourth quarter sparked a 12-0 run. And while that's a good thing, it's not so good when you're counting on Joel Friggin' Anthony to bail you out late in a game.
4. Carlos Aroyo had a five-for-six night and scored 11 points, while his backup, Mario Chalmers, went three-for-eight with eight points. Guess which player was in the game during the entirety of overtime?
5. The American Airlines Arena scoreboard was all screwy last night, showing different scores at different parts of the arena. Even the AAA scoreboard can't believe how bad the Heat suck.
6. Jermaine O'Neal went four-for-13 on the night. No doubt ten of
those 13 shot attempts were fade-aways. Why a 6-11, 225-pound center
loves to shoot so many damn fade-aways (especially when the game is on
the line) is one of the greatest mysteries in the universe.
7. If I could punch one Heat player in the crotch (and then run away very fast), it would be Jermaine O'Neal.
8.
Eric Spoelstra is frequently asked why a key (read: good) player like
Beasley or Arroyo isn't in the game at crunch time. He always says
the same thing: defensive matchups. This makes no sense, because when
a team is down, they need more offense than they do defense. (Keep in
mind that Spoelstra was once the video boy for Pat Riley. Now he's
running shit.)
9. Wade played in his 442nd game last night.
He's now tied for the franchise record. But in my heart, he'll always
be number one.
10. The Heat is screwed in the first round of
the playoffs (that is, if the team even makes it in). Miami is
teetering between the seventh and eight seed in the East after last
two straight home losses. Either way, that pretty much means a
first-round date with Cleveland or Orlando. Weeeeeee!
