|
Was it just coincidence the Heat win while I was away on a Catholic retreat with 10 other men from the church I attend this weekend?
Winning for the first time since Dec. 22, the Heat snapped its 15-game losing streak Saturday when Dwyane Wade finally ran into an opponent he single-handedly could bring down.
With Wade scoring 35 points, including the final nine of an 11-0 third-quarter streak that helped rally his team from what had been an 11-point deficit, the Heat withstood the Indiana Pacers 98-96 at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“Hopefully,” Wade said, “we can get going and we can forget all about that has happened.”
There certainly is plenty to forget, including Saturday’s final harrowing minutes, after the Heat nearly blew all of the 94-85 lead it took when Wade converted a 3-pointer with 4:34 to play.
But it took Wade knocking away a Troy Murphy inbounds pass with seconds remaining for the Heat to survive.
“It really felt like we won the championship,” said forward Dorell Wright, who tossed the ball high in the air at the final buzzer.
God works in mysterious ways.
In my youth football and baseball days, I played on more than one pitiful team. When we did win for a change, you’d think we won the league championship. I know what Dorell Wright is saying. At the same time, the unfortunate losers namely the Pacers, feel the ignominy of being the team that ends the streak. Indiana will get over it, but how many more games will it be before the Heat win again?
Miami needs to re-build, and its going to take some time. Shaq is all but done, Wade is brilliant but brittle. There isn’t much in the way of positives for the Heat. I’m sticking to my 2008 prediction, Pat Riley won’t be back as coach for the 2008-09 season. If he doesn’t quit sometime during this season first.
First time I ever recall the finale of a sports event having to be re-done since than the famous Pine tar game. From AP-
ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat must replay the final 51.9 seconds of their game last month because the NBA said the official scorer ruled incorrectly that Shaquille O’Neal fouled out. This will be the first time since 1982 the league has sent teams back on the court for a replay.
The Hawks won 117-111 at home in overtime Dec. 19. The NBA said Friday the replay will be held before the teams’ next scheduled game — March 8 in Atlanta. Play will start from the time after O’Neal’s disputed sixth foul.
The Hawks also were fined $50,000, with commissioner David Stern ruling the team was “grossly negligent” in failing to address the mistake.
The protest is the first granted by the NBA since December 1982, when then-NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien upheld a request for a replay by the San Antonio Spurs after their 137-132 double-overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers the previous month.
The Spurs and Lakers finished the game in April 1983, with San Antonio winning 117-114.
The Hawks were leading 112-111 in overtime when O’Neal was called for a foul. The scoring table personnel, who are provided by the home team, ruled it was the Miami center’s sixth foul, when actually it was only his fifth.
According to the league, the mistake stemmed from a foul with 3:24 remaining in the fourth quarter that was called on Udonis Haslem but was mistakenly credited to O’Neal at the scoring table.
*****
Al Horford hit two free throws after O’Neal’s foul to give the Hawks a 114-111 lead. Anthony Johnson added a running jumper with 14 seconds left to put the game away.
I think the NBA made the right call. O’Neill’s removal from the game certainly could have changed the outcome. Considering how poor the Heat have played this year, I wouldn’t place any bets on their winning the do-over.
Note- I do see where the article says a NBA game in 1982 had to be replayed. Till tonight I hadn’t heard of that happening.
The Miami Heat Center was injured in a game last night against the Atlanta Hawks.
After tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee during Miami’s game in Atlanta last night, the 37-year-old Heat center was placed on the stretcher, but he refused the ride.
*****
Mourning already has said there is “zero chance” of playing another season.
*****
Mourning is in his 15th year in the NBA, including 11 with Miami.
Mourning was hurt when attempting to defend the basket on a layup by Atlanta’s Mario West. Replays showed Mourning’s knee buckling without contact from West as Mourning was about to jump.
Mourning is a seven-time all-star and two-time defensive player of the year.
His 15 years in the league do not include a full year he missed because of kidney problems that led to him getting a transplant in 2003.
Many professional athletes say they are going to retire, then change their minds. Should I remind everyone of Junior Seau? His former team the San Diego Chargers has him hold a press conference to announce his retirement, only to have Seau four days later sign a contract to play for the New England Patriots.
In Mourning’s case, I believe it when he says his career will end this year. Alonzo has always been a class act. I hope he gets a chance to play again before year’s end, but if he doesn’t, I wish Alonzo a happy retirement.
From the Miami Herald-
Upset with his parking service, Heat guard Henry ”Smush” Parker pushed the valet podium and later tussled with a female attendant for his keys, Miami police said Wednesday.
About 9:50 a.m. Tuesday, Parker asked for his car keys at a condo building at 355 Biscayne Blvd. The attendant got the keys and asked for $12.
Parker insisted he had paid the night before.
The attendant said there was no record of a payment. An assistant manager agreed. With no cash on hand, Parker asked for the nearest bank — but not before knocking down the valet podium, according to a police report.
When he came back, Parker was told he would have to pay for the damaged podium.
No charges are being pressed. I guess Murphy owes the parking service a great deal more now than the disputed $12.
Hat tip- Alex at SOTP
Being a masochist seems to be essential at present if you’re a South Florida sports fan. From the Miami Herald-
For 43 minutes, Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Williams, Udonis Haslem and Ricky Davis pushed the NBA’s worst offense into high gear to stay with the Suns. Then Steve Nash hit his stride.
Nash scored 11 of his team’s final 13 points and rallied the Suns from a five-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to beat the Heat 106-101 on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
For a while the Heat, which came in averaging a league-worst 82.9 points per game, beat the Suns at their preferred up-tempo pace and led 86-81 with less than 10 minutes left.
But Nash took over with his deep shooting and produced a flawless finish. He scored 14 of his game-high 30 in the fourth, and made all five of his field-goal attempts, including four three-pointers.
That performance overshadowed the most productive effort of the season for the Heat (0-5), which continues to struggle as it waits for leading scorer Dwyane Wade to return from May knee and shoulder surgeries.
I’ll be the first to admit, I hardly follow basketball. My father(who youth coached Notre Dame and New York Knick basketball player Toby Knight) had a saying about this sport. “If you don’t watch a game till the last five minutes, you’re not missing much.” That can be said about the whole Heat season so far. As Matt Watson via Rick at SOTP points out, the Heat are 0-18. Five regular season games this year, all seven exhibition games prior to the season, a first round playoff sweep by the Chicago Bulls last spring, and the last two games from the 06-07 season. If you thought the Dolphins are bad enough, now South Floridians have the Heat too. Not to mention the underperforming Florida Panthers. Maybe I should switch allegiance back to the team of my youth. Oops, the New York Jets are 1-7. What’s a man to do?
 |
| Monday, June 25, 2007 |
Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant could be on the same team if talks currently underway bear fruit. Mike Bresnahan reports:
The owners of the Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves have begun talks for a trade that would involve sending Kevin Garnett to the Lakers, league sources said today. A multi-team trade discussion is underway involving the Lakers, Indiana, Minnesota and possibly a fourth team, with the Lakers getting Garnett and the Pacers getting Lamar Odom and teenage center Andrew Bynum from the Lakers. Another minor player will probably be added to make the deal work financially.
[...]
Garnett can opt out of his contract after next season. He wants an extension, which Buss reportedly told Taylor he was willing to offer. Garnett is due to earn $22 million next season and $23 million in 2008-09, the last year of his contract.
Garnett, a 10-time All-Star, averaged 22.4 points, 12.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.7 blocked shots last season while showing few signs of slowing down, other than spending the last five games of the season in Los Angeles — he has a home in Malibu — to rest a sore right quadriceps.
Bynum, 19, started his second NBA season with a flurry, including a memorable game against Minnesota in November in which he had 20 points,14 rebounds and three blocked shots. But Bynum struggled during the second half of the season and finished with averages of 7.8 points and 5.9 rebounds a game. The Lakers have been criticized by Bryant for not trading Bynum at the February trade deadline to get Jason Kidd from New Jersey.
Odom, 27, was acquired three years ago as part of the trade that sent Shaquille O’Neal to Miami. Odom averaged 15.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists last season and missed 26 games because of knee and shoulder injuries. He had a torn labrum in his left shoulder repaired last month and is expected to return in time for training camp in October.
While Bynum has tremendous upside at his age and Odom is a solid player, this would be a windfall for the Lakers. Maybe this time Kobe will appreciate that having a second superstar player on his team is a good thing.
In an interview being conducted right now on ESPN Radio show of Stephen A. Smith, Kobe has said he wants to be traded and no longer wants to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
He also went on to say that Jerry Buss mastermined the Shaq trade, management refused to deal for Carlos Boozer, Jason Kidd, and Ron Artest, told two different plans for the team to Phil Jackson and himself. Kobe has also stated he bit the bullet on speaking out to support the franchise, but the current interview blitz was prompted by a “Lakers Insider” reporting to the Los Angeles Times that Kobe was the reason the Lakers dealt Shaq.
More here.
The story lines that have engulfed the Los Angeles Lakers in the last week hit a crescendo Wednesday when Kobe Bryant said he would welcome a trade.
“I would like to be traded, yeah,” Bryant said on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. “Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there’s no other alternative, you know?”
Bryant, interviewed by Stephen A. Smith, was asked if there was anything the Lakers could do to change his mind?
“No,” Bryan said. “I just want them to do the right thing.”
Earlier in the day, Bryant said team owner Jerry Buss masterminded the trade of Shaquille O’Neal — and Shaq later confirming Kobe’s account.
…
But Bryant was left “beyond furious” by a report in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times that read, “as a Lakers insider notes, it was Bryant’s insistence on getting away from Shaquille O’Neal that got them in this mess.”
O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2003-04 season, and the long-held belief has been that the deteriorating relationship between O’Neal and Bryant was a factor in O’Neal’s departure.
In response to the Times’ story, Bryant, who was interviewed by Stephen A. Smith for a Philadelphia Inquirer, said Buss “called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq’s future in the middle of the 2004 season.
“He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here [in Los Angeles] across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel,” Bryant told Smith. “I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: ‘Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he’s getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don’t want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait.
“This is my decision. It’s independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn’t matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.’ ”
“Dr. Buss said that,” Bryant told Smith. “And I haven’t said anything for years because I’ve always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves.”
Reached afterward, O’Neal told Smith that be believed his former teammate beyond reproach.
“I believe Kobe 100 percent,” O’Neal said when reached in Los Angeles. “Absolutely. There’s no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent.
“I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn’t [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me.”
…
And now Bryant, who reportedly has made it clear to the Lakers that he may see fit to terminate his contract in two years, told Smith he wouldn’t continue to wait for Buss to build the roster around him.
“Promises made to make this team better have not been kept,” Bryant told Smith. “So where does that leave me?”
Bad news for the Lakers, the inpet management has driven the franchise into a disaster area.
I can’t say I don’t blame Kobe, the team around him stinks. The only a handful of players actually work hard, fewer can stay healthy and many more of them are just bums. He’s carried the team for 3 years and my guess is he is just burned out doing it and staying slient and supporting the franchise. Nice work by the Buss family there.
OTB
Shaq passed Reggie Miller to be #12 on the all-time scoring list, but its not so much that which makes it great to be Shaq. No, its shooting 60% from the free throw line and getting this headline:
O’Neal shines from free-throw line (12-of-20) in milestone game
I don’t think shines should be attached to a 60% success rate, unles of course Its your batting average.
As for Robert Horry, Yahoo Sports list his reason for not playing as “Old Age”.
For Shaq’s 35th Birthday ESPN saw fit to rank the top 10 centers of all time and I can’t disagree with #1 at all.
As for his achievements: 1967-68 USBWA College Player of the Year; 1969 Naismith Award; Six-time NBA MVP; Six-time NBA Champion; Two-time Finals MVP; NBA Rookie of the Year (1970); and NBA Hall of Fame (1995).
Like no other player, Abdul-Jabbar embodied the maestro team brilliance of Bill Russell and the individual excellence of Wilt Chamberlain. His NBA cup runneth over: six championships, a record six MVPs and a Finals MVP award … at 38 years old!
Possessed the single most unstoppable shot in NBA history — the sky hook — but more than that, he was clutch, consistent and underrated in the toughness department.
He was the starting center on six championship teams and had the presence of mind to cohabitate with stars like Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and James Worthy.
He’s the all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points; was named to the All-NBA Defensive team 11 times; and is the only modern era player to lead the league at least once in scoring, rebounding, blocked shots, minutes played, field-goal percentage and PER.
However, in their explanation of choosing Kareem as #1 I believe they left out on of the most amazing things about Kareem’s career. His expected arrival in the college ranks led to directly to a preemptive rule change by NCAA when they banned the dunk after the 1967 season and reinstated it shortly after his departure from UCLA. No other player that I can think of recieved the same treatment. While the rule was made mostly to limit his size advantage, it didn’t slow Kareem down as UCLA went 88-2 while he was a player.
The other thing to ponder about this list would is where Bill Walton would be if he hadn’t the chronic injury problems.
As for the complete list:
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Bill Russell
4. Shaquille O’Neal
5. Hakeem Olajuwon
6. Moses Malone
7. Bill Walton
8. David Robinson
9. George Mikan
10. Patrick Ewing
The Miami Heat star guard hopes to be back in time for the playoffs.
MIAMI — Heat guard Dwyane Wade announced Monday he’s opting for rehabilitation over surgery to treat his dislocated left shoulder and hopes to return for the playoffs.
“My decision for the next two to three weeks is to rehab with the possibility of coming back, but with no guarantees,” said Wade, who expects to eventually have surgery. “I’ll find out after therapy and rehab how my body responds to things.”
The three-time All-Star was injured Feb. 21 while reaching out to defend Houston forward Shane Battier. Wade had tears in his eyes on the bench because of the pain and left the court in a wheelchair. He spent the night in a Houston area hospital and returned home to South Florida the next day, missing the Heat’s 112-100 loss at Dallas.
*****
Miami is 4-8 without Wade this season, including a 3-2 record since the shoulder injury. Wade is averaging 28.8 points and 7.9 assists per game. In his three-plus seasons in Miami, the Heat is 19-26 without him.
*****
Miami (29-29) hosts Atlanta tonight in the second game of a six-game homestand. The Heat enters the game tied for the sixth playoff seed with Indiana (29-29) in the Eastern Conference, although Miami would be the seventh seed because the Pacers have the tie-breaker advantage by virtue of its 96-94 victory on Jan. 24. The teams play again March 23.
Maybe my New Year’s prediction of the Heat missing the playoffs will be wrong. Can’t win them all as they say.
|
|
