I could not be more surprised. That was an excruciating loss last night. They go right from that, fly to NYC, lose an hour, get a few hours sleep and then go out and beat a Brooklyn team that didn't play last night and has Kevin Fucking Durant back his first game. No man, nah-ah. JEsus Christ.
Okay, let's look at the details. The "Heat" were leg weary in the 1st, that much we could have predicted. Brooklyn led by 12 after one. "Heat" won every other goddamned quarter: the 2nd by 7, the 3rd by 11, and the 4th by 2. Brooklyn got it to 2 early in the 4th, Miami then pushed it up to 10 with 4:52 left. And then...another 4th quarter collapse? Close. Brooklyn got it down to 2 again at 2:23 and we were quaking. Bruce Brown blocked Gabe Vincent's three attempt...Perfect setup, right? You can hear the crowd. Brown gets the rebound and aheads to Seth Curry, "Three!" the crowd shouts, standing. Miss. "Ah." 1:43. Bam got the rebbe, Vincent missed a two, "Heat" team rebound but then at 1:18 a shot clock violation (Gabe must have drawn air). KD for the lead at :57.9. "THREE!" "ah." It's still a two-point game. Luckily Tyler snagged the rebound, feeds Bam at :35.5 and Bam makes it. Four points never felt so big. "Nets" call a full T.O. to set up the last couple possessions. It goes to Kevin (who else? Mr. Fucking Big Game Dagger in my heart.) but he misses a six-footer. Jeez. Caleb grabs the rebound, the "Heat" play hot potato for 6.5 seconds trying to avoid getting fouled, finally get it to Tyler, who now they have to foul, they don't want to but have to at :23.5. thwick. thwick. Six point lead. "Nets" are all but done. Bam steals from Goran at :15.6 and the "Nets" don't even bother fouling. DONE.
Bam was a beast. 30 and 11. Tyler was at his Carlos Tevez best, 27 on 8/19 (1/5), 10/10 f.t.'s (toldja they didn't want to foul him), 4 rebbes, 8 assists, only 1 turnover, and 1 steal. Tyler is so fucking fast and quick and can do so much he induces panic, like Carlos did. The Composer was The Assassin: 21 points on 6/12 (6/12) (every shot from the field a three), 5 rebounds. C-Mart was his Mr. Goodwrench self, 22 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, a block and only 1 turnover. No PJ. This was a game that had PJ Tucker written all over it but he's not on the roster, must not have made the trip. So no PJ, no Kyle, no Jimmy, Duncan was a complete fucking Donut, 0 points on 0/3 (03), noo problem. Amazing win by Miami.
This is a bad loss by the "Nets" under all the circumstances. Kevin had 31 but only 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and three turnovers. The fouls dramatically evened out. Miami finished with 28 attempts, BKLYN with 22. Can't blame this one on the zebras, "Nets" fans! This was tailor-made for a "Nets" win. They're now 32-32, in 8th place, 3 full games behind Toronto. They didn't have Bed Bugs of course and Kyrie is so fucking good. At some point I assume NYC will lift its vax mandate but the season's running out on them. There are only 18 games left and they're firmly in the play-in group, not the playoffs. Baby Ben is not going to help this team, I'm tellin' ya. Whenever that fucking snowflake poof comes back he will shrink to baby size again. The "Nets" are in trouble after this one.
