Miami led by 14 with 5:33 left before the half but Cleve closed and overtook us (!) with :19.2 left, before the Composer hit a three at the end to take the lead into the lockers. Lost your concentration there, “Heaters”! This is the Association!
I was looking for an explanation yesterday of the "Suns" pummeling of Miami on the boards and checked out Ethan Skolnick's like 29' video on the game. Skolnick is a knowledgeable local basketball media guy. He didn't provide one but did muse, by way of explanation for the beatdown, that Miami does not have a top-ten player in the NBA. Off the top of his head he ran off six names. Jimmy, if he didn't miss so many games, would be on the edge, Bam "when he wants to be" (which I didn't understand) is t.t., Kyle used to be, but isn't with us. And he said that when you go down the list of NBA champions you will almost always find a truly elite couple of players on that team; almost always. He mentioned Detroit with the two Wallaces early in the century and San Antone in 2014. He said Tim Duncan was on the decided down side of his career that year and was no longer t.t. and that "that was before Kawhi," before Kawhi Leonard became a truly elite player. It was interesting to hear his musing. The adage in the NBA has been for as long as I've been following it that you need three Hall of Famers to win a title. This "Heat" team certainly doesn't have that. And I remembered watching highlights of Pat Riley's "Knicks" against the "Pacers" and being struck that besides Patrick Ewing that was a very pedestrian squad. I mean, John Starks, Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley. If they hadn't had Patrick and Pat they would have been a fucking lottery team. Skolnick didn't say this but I have written it a few times, this "Heat" just does not seem to me to have the elite talent to win an NBA title. You can call me a liar and point to the 2019/20 Finals team--"Are we not better today?!--and we are, but we lost. We lost and Riley's "Knicks" teams lost and there have been two teams this millennium that have won titles with less than three elite players. Talent is part of the reason, no?
