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Chalmers and Cook Light it Up
Well, the marquee read Wade vs. Lebron James; it was a birthday game for James but the fire for the candles was supposed to be supplied by the two superstars. Lebron dropped 38 on the Heat and Wade did finish with a double double getting 21 points to go with his 12 assists.
But it was Mario Chalmers and Daequan Cook that stole the show.
For Chalmers it was 21 points and 8 assists and 3 steals – coming on 6/7 from three point range. And you can’t talk about dialing it up from outside without talking about Daequan Cook, who is quietly becoming one of the NBA’s best three point shooters. Cook shot 5/7 from three point range, scoring 17 points off the bench for Miami.
11/14 from three point range between these two young guards for the Heat was the difference in this game, as the Heat looked to even things up in the home and home series with the Cavs, who were sporting the 2nd best record in the NBA.
For the Heat, they will close the books on the 2008 portion of the season by getting their 17th win, improving by 2 wins already their total from last season.
Wade v. James: Part II
So the Cavs got the better of the Heat the last time they squared off, securing a 93-86 win Sunday night over the much-improved Heat. Even though the Cavs won the game, the story was really how the Heat sputtered in the 4th quarter allowing the Cavs to erase the deficit to win the game in the 4th quarter.
The Heat entered the 4th quarter up 67-56, but gave up 35 points in the final quarter while only scoring 19 themselves.
As for the final portion of the home and home series, the Heat will look to even the score in what shapes up to be an intense showdown not just between good friends and gold medal Olympians, but also between two good young teams.
“It’s kind of like a semi-playoff,” James said. “(You see) the things that they did well, the things that you need to improve on for the next game or make adjustments, if there are any. We have got an idea of who they are, who played well the night before and what kind of rhythm their guys will be in.”
See if the Heat make adjustments tonight: join us and talk about the game.
Heat Get Past Warriors
The Heat are now officially recognized as an improved team. How much remains to be seen. With their 96-88 win over the visiting Golden State Warriors, the Heat grabbed their 15th win of the season – in only 27 games.
Last season, it took 55 more games to do just that.
For the Heat, there is no looking back – only forward. Shawn Marion had 16 rebounds while Udonis Haslem put in more offense with 16 points. But as Dwyane Wade goes, so goes the Heat – and Wade was terrific tonight scoring 32 points on 13-25 shooting and missing a triple double by a slight margin with 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Daequan Cook continues to show offensive improvement with his deft shooting off the bench going 5-7 from three points.
On the Warriors side, it helped the Heat that they were without Jamal Crawford, who normally kills the Heat (27.9 PPG in his last 9 games against Miami), who had a strained left groin.
They jumped out to a 32-21 lead on the Heat, being lead by Kelenna Azubuike and CJ Watson. The Heat regrouped, on some key shots from Cook, and then took the game under their control. The Heat would jump out to a 67-56 lead, capitalizing on poor shooting from the Warriors, but the Warriors would keep it close.
Heat Defense Stifles Lakers
We learn more about this team the more we see them. As one of the youngest teams in the NBA, you don’t expect consistency in any facet of the game, but tonight’s performance is the kind of surprise you relish.
The Heat held the high scoring Lakers to 87 points in front of the home crowd to break their 3 game skid. Dwyane Wade lead the show with 35 points, outlasting Kobe Bryant who chipped in 28 for his Lakers. But it wasn’t the offense that highlighted this game – and that is to be expected of a game in which the final score was in the 80’s.
It was the Heat’s defense. They held the Lakers to only 87 points despite last year’s western conference champs shooting .473% from the field. The Heat had 6 blocked shots (2 from Joel Anthony and Dwyane Wade a piece) and 11 steals (3 from Anthony and Wade a piece). The Heat also forced 21 turnovers on a sure-handed Laker team – but those are just the stats. The Heat did a great job boxing out a taller Laker front court and cramming their space on the offensive end, creating havoc in the lanes.
Andrew Bynum was ineffective – he finished with 4 points and 6 rebounds in 27 minutes – along with 4 fouls. He is probably the best illustration for what went wrong for the Lakers, but also what went right defensively for Miami.
If this young team is going to climb the tall hill into the playoffs, we know this much: they will need Dwyane Wade healthy and playing at a high level, and they will need to be more consistent on the defensive side of the ball. And for the Heat, that means getting into the lanes and creating havoc; getting up the court and pushing the ball in transition. Tonight, the Heat showed they have the will to fight and that they are ready to take another step forward.
Kobe Vs. Wade
Tonight’s matchup is being billed as a marquee, superstar matchup by ESPN. In part to get you to watch, but in part also because both players are their team’s most important pieces.
Arguably, both are MVP candidates as well.
Right now, Dwayne Wade is the league leading scorer at 28.0 PPG to go along with 5.1 RBs and 7.2 ASTs. He is bent on proving his elite status among the game’s guards and is living up to his charge right now improving the Heat’s record from last year’s miserable 15 win season.
Then there is Kobe Bryant, whose Lakers are 21-3 and looking to get back to the Finals. The Heat are far from that sort of an expectation, but the template for these two teams may seem very similar. The Heat feature a small, perimeter-oriented team which the Lakers were in the recent past until they landed Pau Gasol last season. Both teams will live and die with their dynamic shooting guards who can score in bunches and lead the team in critical moments.
In fact, Wade acknowledged it was his workouts with Bryant that helped him immensely this summer and it has long been known that Wade wanted to work with Bryant on getting better defensively. It seems Wade has made that jump, snowballing his momentum coming out of the summer with the Olympic team.
Yet, here both players are on a Friday night regular season matchup in Miami. The Heat are coming off a three game losing streak, which has seen Wade struggle with his shot, while the Lakers are winning and on a roll as Kobe just scored 28 points to help guide his team to their 21st victory on the season.
Gone are the days when this was a matchup about Shaq. Still lingering, however, is the question about which one of Shaq’s running mates would you rather have: Kobe Bryant, who is now the NBA veteran who lead his team to the Finals, or Dwyane Wade, coming off a nightmare season only to show that he is an elite guard and playing as the best player in the league these days.
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