Last night's Utah-Miami game was one for The Ages. You just can't say enough about Millsap's huge 46-point game, capped by three desperation three-pointers in the last minute. (And Deron Williams had one, too!) But this game was a masterpiece, with more story-lines than an entire season of Timberwolves basketball. (Sorry, Minnesota. Your team is boring.)
- Watch this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0eTiC-jjnU. Unbelievably, it was Dwyane Wade's third-best dunk of the night, with the other two coming much later in the game. The other two also made NBATV's highlight clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZWqhCFGVA) of the game. For the first one, late in the fourth quarter, Wade retreated to the corner and waited patiently. When Ronnie Price turned to watch the ball, Wade cleverly tiptoed around him, cut to the hoop, and LeBron made a nice pass to find him open for a huge dunk. Then in overtime, Wade gashed through the middle of the lane and soared in for a supernatural, video-game-like jam. Wade didn't deserve to lose after such a heroic effort, but he did miss a clutch free throw at the end of regulation.
- Check out the two clips above -- a tale of two halves. With the big Heat lead, some Miami fans evidently thought it was safe to sneak out early and check out South Beach. They missed an epic finish.
- Millsap deserves every bit of praise that he gets for this game. He was a phenomenal force. But on the final play of the game, the Jazz received Lady Luck's most sincere blessings. If the last-second C.J. Miles heave is more accurate, it hits the top of the rim and time runs out before Millsap can get his putback. Rebounding balls that hit the underside of the rim is a crapshoot under the best of circumstances, and here the Jazz were fortunate that it fell right in their laps before time ran out.
- The Jazz were down by 22 points with seconds remaining in the first half. Not only did they came back, but they did so quickly -- they were back in the lead halfway through the 4th quarter. When the Heat needed a final push through the 4th quarter, LeBron slid into the point guard position and Carlos Arroyo was out. The crunch time lineup for the heat was LeBron, Wade, Haslem, Bosh, and James Jones. LeBron did a nice job passing the ball, with 14 assists, but he looked lost without the ball in his hands. He also shot 5-18.
- The three losses for the Heat this season came against the Celtics, the Hornets, and the Jazz -- good teams with elite point guards Rondo, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams.
- Al Jefferson was buried in this game. Kyrylo Fesenko got all the key minutes for the Jazz at the center position, except for the last Jazz possession in OT. Fesenko moved his feet on defense, played physically, used his fouls, and showed a nice touch near the basket. On that last Jazz possession, in a tie game, Fesenko was taken out for a better offensive player and a better FT shooter. But even then, Sloan went to Francisco Elson instead of Jefferson. If you want to know why Jefferson rode the pine, check out Wade's first dunk above and look off-the-ball at Jefferson. That's not the way to gain Jerry's favor. Jefferson also shot 1-7 on FG for the game. If Al can't get minutes now, how is he going to get playing time when Okur is back? To Jefferson's credit, he was on the bench cheering mightily for his teammates during their comeback.
- Speaking of Fesenko, when the Jazz were desperately trading three-pointers for free throws, why were the Heat covering Fesenko (and everyone else in two-point range) like legitimate threats to score. The Jazz were down by 8 points with 30 seconds remaining and had to shoot three-pointers. Look how open Millsap is.
(And shoot they did. They scored 14 points in 28 seconds, with 11 of those on Millsap's three three-pointers and the final putback.) - LeBron collected his first offensive rebound of the season in the third quarter. Congratulations, I knew you could do it, Bron-Bron.
No comments:
Post a Comment