The Heat fought hard last night and snapped their five-game losing streak with a playoff caliber win over the Lakers. LeBron got his teammates involved early and threw some great passes; Bosh had an outstanding first half; Wade finished strong; and both Mikes contributed off the bench.
Do you think NBA fans made too much out of Miami’s recent skid?
The Los Angeles Lakers, 46-19, come to south Florida tonight riding an eight-game winning streak. The Miami Heat, 43-21, are on a season-worst five-game losing skid. Arguably, both squads lead their respective conferences in number of bright lights and legions of ‘opinionaires’ that follow them closely no matter where and when they play across the NBA league-scape. And tonight when they tip-off at the American Airlines Arena, the sum of these attention-circuses will be even greater than the parts themselves.
40-year-old Miami third-year head coach Erik Spoelstra took his Heat team into SoCal on Christmas Day and bested the Lakers at Staples 96-80. The Heat were led by two-time reigning league MVP LeBron James’ 27 points and 10 dimes. Eighth-year 6’11” PF Chris Bosh pulled down 13 boards in that holiday victory in front of Tinsel Town’s glitterati. Miami outscored LA in every quarter in that first of two meetings this 2010-2011 season.
These two combatants are eerily similar statistically at this point. Both sit in the 3-spot in their NBA conferences. The Lakers average 101.8 ppg and the Heat put up 101.5 ppg. LA has limited opponents to 95.2 ppg, while Miami has held their foes to 95.0 ppg. And both teams lead their divisions, going 9-3 against their Southeast and 
Pacific rivals respectively. Los Angeles also has its own ‘Big 3’ in Bryant-Gasol-Odom, whom coach Phil Jackson relies on for the crucial statistics of points, rebounds and assists only slightly less than Spoelstra depends on the production of the James-Wade-Bosh triumvirate.
However, the macro-view of this matchup reveals some major differences – most noticeably the Title differential. Future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant has five Championship rings, while LeBron James, in his eighth season, has no rings and only one Finals appearance in 2007, when his Cleveland Cavaliers were swept 4-love by San Antonio. The Lakers have been the last team standing in 16 NBA campaigns – the Miami Heat only once, in 2006. Phil Jackson has 13 Championship rings (2 as a player and a record-11 as a coach) and won his very first title as a player on the 1970 New York Knicks, six months before Erik Spoelstra was born.
Heat team President Pat Riley, a seven-time NBA Champ (1 as a player and 6 as a coach) and fellow 1967 NBA Draft class alum along with University of North Dakota’s Jackson, will surely be watching intently from his perch in the Triple-A tonight. Many paid and amateur observers of Dr. Naismith’s game have been speculating on the Heat’s recent tumble and whether the ‘bench-dynamic’ in Miami needs tweaking. No doubt LA will go after Miami like a lion pursuing a wounded prey. The big question is how will the Heat respond? The stage is set for a riveting drama to unfold live on TNT when the Miami Heat host the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at 7:00 PM ET.
The Miami Heat, current co-owners of the top spot in the Eastern Conference at 42-15, come to the City of Big Shoulders to battle first-year head man Tom Thibodeau’s 38-17 Bulls and their do-everything floor-leader, All-Star starting PG Derrick Rose. On Tuesday Chicago traded forward James Johnson to Toronto for a 2011 first-round draft pick. But neither of tonight’s contestants got swept up in the dizzying whirlwind of deadline day trades, so their already-good-enough-to contend rosters remain in tact.
Reigning two-time NBA MVP LeBron James and the Heatles are 9-1 over their last 10 contests, including the destruction of the Sacramento Kings 117-97 on Tuesday night in South Florida when they showed no fatigue, mental or physical, after the Riley triumvirate’s trip to LA’s eventful All-Star weekend.
Chicago currently ranks third in David Stern’s league in points allowed at 92.9. With the return of 6’11” C Joakim Noah last night in Toronto, after a 30-game absence due to surgery for ligament damage in his right thumb, expect the Bulls defense to get even stingier. With their fourth-year, 21st century Big, the tentacle-y and rangy Noah, prowling the paint and extending into the wings and passing lanes again, the Bulls are gearing up for the last third of this 2010-11 NBA season and an anticipated powerful, memorable playoff run come the end of April.
A week ago exactly, MVP-candidate Rose had a magnificent game, scoring a career-high 42 points as Chicago beat the NBA-best San Antonio Spurs at The United Center in a marquee Inter-conference matchup. The Bulls are 25-4 at home so far this season and haven’t lost in front of the ‘Paris on the Prarie’ crowd since January 18th.
In fact, three days before that last home L, host Chicago beat the Heat 99-96 in the only game these two Eastern Conference heavyweights have played this season so far. However, King James was out for that rumble and former two-time NCAA Champ Florida Gator and French National Teamer Noah was in street clothes as well.
The Bulls lost last night to the Raptors on the road 118-113 in what Coach Tibs called a “defensive disaster.” Noah played and was a bit rusty, but still managed to grab 16 boards (9 of them offensive) in 24 minutes of burn.
Back on protected black and red ground this evening, Chicago’s now healthy big 3 of Rose, Boozer and Noah will attempt to take another meaningful step forward in the direction of the league’s elite by stopping Miami’s intensely-globally-analyzed big 3 of James, Bosh and the South Side’s hometown hero D-Wade.
The lights will certainly be bright tonight on Chicago’s Madison Street as the two top candidates for league MVP lead their teams into a hoopla of hardwood hand-to-hand. The Bulls and the Heat are set to square off at 8:00 PM ET on TNT.
The Miami Heat come to the Amway Center tonight to face off against their Sunshine State and Southeast Division rivals, the Orlando Magic. The Heat have been in the NBA one season longer than the Magic and have one Finals appearance and one title. Their central Florida brethren have made two trips to the Finals, once in 1995 and again in 2009, but walked away runners-up each time. As it stands now, both squads are looking up to last year’s Eastern Conference Champs, the Boston Celtics, in the standings.
Miami possesses a 34-14 record, which is tied with the Chicago Bulls for third best in the league – 3 games behind the C’s in the East. One-time Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy’s Magic sit 3.5 games behind the Heat at 31-18.
This will be the third of four games matching these two title contenders this season. Each team held court at home in the first two meetings, with Miami blowing out Orlando on October 29th 96-70 in the new Big 3’s third regular season game playing together. Then, on the day before Thanksgiving, the Magic topped Erik Spoelstra’s guys 104-95, behind all-everything big man Dwight Howard’s 18 boards and seventh-year PG Jameer Nelson’s career-high 14 dimes.
The Heat beat LeBron’s former team, the spiraling Cleveland Cavaliers, on Monday in the 305 by 27 points, with another former Cav, Miami’s 7’-3”, thirteenth-year center Zydrunas Ilgauskas grabbing a season-high with 14 total boards including 9 on the offensive end.
Orlando played last on Monday as well, but were on the road in Tennessee where they lost by 3 points to the recently re-charged Memphis Grizzlies. The Magic have been hovering around .500 on the road at 13-12, however in the NBA’s newest, and in commissioner David Stern’s opinion the best, building in basketball, the shiny Amway Center, they’ve compiled a rugged 18-6 mark.
Both sides tonight rank near the top of the league in team rebounding as well as points allowed per game. The Heat are sixth in rebounding and fifth in points allowed in the NBA, while the Magic, led by Howard’s 13.6 rpg and 2.2 blocks per game, are fifth in glass-work and seventh in points allowed.
As if this game needed any more fuel to stoke the competitive fires, Orlando Magic President, former NBA player and native Floridian Otis Smith’s July comments questioning King James’ competitive spirit in reference to his move from his home-state Cavaliers to the recently created and widely dissected super-Triumvirate in Miami are still in the front of the Heat’s collective mind. The fuel in the Miami motivation tank for tonight’s game appears to be on ‘F’. Marv Albert, Steve Kerr and I will be on deck for TNT’s coverage of the Miami Heat at Orlando Magic tonight at 8:00 PM ET.
Last night my longtime friend Michael Gualario paid a visit to the Pepsi Center to watch Carmelo and the Nuggets dominate the LeBron-less Heat. Michael grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey but now he lives in the Boulder, Colorado area so we get together whenever I’m out that way.
Michael was my roommate, fraternity brother and football teammate at Montclair State University. We’ve always called him GiGi, and I used to go by Fooch while our friend Tommy Goodie was nicknamed Gooch. Not sure why Fooch didn’t stick, but it’s probably for the best.
