At 9:15 last night, when Miami was down 14 points from a 7-0 Charlotte run to open the 4th quarter and I was sure that the game was a loss I wrote, "The “Heat” have hit a wall. It happens, happens all the time to every team."

It was true. It happened to Charlotte in the 4th Q. And in OT. And in double OT. And it happened to the Buzz two nights before in Minnesota.

I was keeping one eye on that game because I don't respect the Charlotte organization as I watched the "Heat's" 2Q collapse and ultimately loss to Dallas. Charlotte blew a 13-point 4Q lead against the "Timberwolves."

Maybe the All-Star break has teams with one foot out the door rather than both on the floor. How else to explain Beans in Philly and Beans in Boston against the putrid "Pistons"? When I was a working man and the Christmas break beckoned, judges were reluctant to hold jury trials the week before we closed. The reasons were sort of logical: jurors would be distracted, and pissed that they were on jury duty when they still had Christmas shopping to do. Attorneys with families would often schedule vacations over the holiday to take advantage of the double-dip--annual leave plus holiday freebees. But even those who remained were not at the top of their games. They had one foot out the door and half their minds elsewhere.

Players in the Association may have another psychological dampener: telescopic vision. I never wrote a truer thing than in that same post last night, "The NBA season is eighty-two sprints inside a marathon." The All-Star break is the time when players look ahead, not to the break, but to the end of the season. To some it must seem like seeing light at the end of a tunnel only to realize that it's an oncoming train. Miami has twenty-four sprints left, Charlotte twenty-three. Those are the most intense of the whole season. Unless you get to the playoffs of course, then they're comparative walks in the park. It's daunting to look through the Association's telescope. 

Or it could be that Charlotte is just a shit organization and their players and coaches dogs. Miami, with less to play for, played heroically last night, reaching deep down into their well of character and will and resolve to pull a win out of the asshole of defeat. Charlotte doesn't have far to reach, their wells are shallow.