“I feel like the whole league right now is in a little rut/funk..."-Jimmy Butler.
Not the whole league, not Boston, Milwaukee, or Denver, but certainly the "Heat". Look at this game. An early 16-point Miami lead, a complete erasure of that lead, a 9-point Indiana lead, a complete erasure of that, a 12-point Miami lead in the 4th quarter shrunk to one point four minutes later, a 7-point Miami lead with 4:48 to play shrunk to 3 with 10” left--Each is a mediocre team. Neither is stuck in a rut of mediocrity, that is their natural lane. Each is incapable of holding a lead, of seizing a game...because they are mediocre with mediocre talent and mediocre resolve. These are the games that happen when it's mediocre all the way down on both sides. Mediocre is as mediocre does.
National cognos tonight are projecting a LAC pickup of Russell Westbrook after Utah buys him out. The locals here, not the nationals, are injecting the "Heat" into the mix. Russ is not coming to Miami, such a deal would be complex with multiple moving parts and the trade deadline is tomorrow at 3 pm. Which means that on the last day when Miami could improve its roster it will enter the last third of its season with its only roster move giving Dewayne Dedmon and a second-round pick to San Antonio to lower Micky Arison's tax exposure. Nothing to improve the team. They're resigned to 45 wins. Agayne.
