Early Thoughts About The Heat

I was in the 7th grade when I went over to a friends house to play some Nintendo and hang out with his older brother who was back on leave from his first year in the military.  We went out to the local playground (Keeywadin) to play some basketball and I remember going up for a rebound and accidentally catching the older brother in the neck with a flying elbow.  He sternly looked at me and calmly said "Don't do that again."  

Being the little idiot that I was, I went up for the next rebound with my chicken wings high up in the air and I caught him across the left ear.  Before I knew it, I was on my back with a forearm across my chest and a hand pushing my right cheek into the ground.  

"I told you not to do that again." 

It was one of those rare moments in life where I felt completely physically powerless.   Even if I wanted to, I couldn't fight back.  I could have given it my very best and I still would have got my ass kicked.  I probably could have had a blunt object or some sort of shiv and I still would have got my entire world handed to me.  I was giving up too many pounds, too much size, too much quickness, and just about everything else to even be a factor in that "fight".  

And so went the Wolves against the Miami Heat.  

There is no good way to break down what happened in Miami other than to say that the Heat are simply grown ass men compared to the Wolves' tweeners.  Before Michael Beasley went down on a nasty fall in the lane, the Wolves were giving the Heat everything they had and it still was good for only a 6 point deficit after the first quarter.  

The Wolves didn't play half bad tonight.  As I write this, they have the FT/FG and OReb% edge in the 4th quarter.  They haven't turned the ball over a ton. The problem is that the Heat are getting whatever they want from the floor.  They currently have a 65.8% eFG with a 14% TOrate.  

Most impressively (for the Heat), they are a fearsome defensive team.  This game had a tremendous pace and they held the Wolves to an OE under 100.  Everywhere a Wolves player turned, there were 2, 3, sometimes 4 big athletic guys in white jerseys standing in their way.  

Let me go out on a limb to make an early prediction that barring injury nobody will beat this team in a 7 game series.  It simply isn't possible.  Their role players rebound, hustle on defense, and most of them can shoot the three.  When Dwane Wade and LeBron were crashing towards the rim, guys like James Jones and Mario Chalmers were able to camp out beyond the arc and bomb away.  Imagine how this dynamic will play out with Mike Miller out there....or next year with another MLE player and a 1st round draft pick.  Oh yeah, they still have Chris Bosh. 

This is a scary, scary team.  I give them another month to figure things out and then it's all over.  This game was over at the 1/2.  Wade played less than 25 minutes. Bosh played just over 26.  I cannot say enough good things about this squad.  Forget what happened off the court over the summer.  There is a very good chance we are witnessing a team that will compete for GOAT.  

Well folks, that about does it.  I'm checking out to watch election results and to watch a Tivo'd Sons of Anarchy with Mrs-n-Pop.  

What say you about the tilt? 

PS: On a quick side note, were these two teams to get in a bar brawl, Nikola Pekovic himself would carry the day.  Pek put a BRUTAL pick on Mario Chalmers in the 2nd quarter and his skeleton tattoo scared several small children in the first few rows of the stadium.