The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after Atlanta won Game 5 over Miami 106-91 to go up 3-2 in the series.
How can the Heat be anything other than the worst team remaining when they came into the playoffs as an underdog and, now, Dwyane Wade is not 100 percent? Hey, it's just another way of saying that coach Erik Spoelstra is doing a great coaching job.
Miami was down 23 points at halftime, and the only reason to watch the remaining 24 was to find out who was going to commit the next hard foul and who was going to be on the receiving end of it.
Atlanta 106, Miami 91: Recap | Box Score Atlanta Leads Series 3-2 | Next Game: Friday @ Miami
This is too easy, right? You watch all year as Memphis rolls through Conference USA without a challenge. You listen to the debates about whether it'd finish any better than sixth in the Big East. You ponder its tournament seeding, weighing the impressive lack of losses against the unimpressive quality of the competition against which the record was built. And then Memphis gets smacked in the mouth and knocked out in the Sweet 16 by a team from the Big 12 and you get to say, "See?? See?? We TOLD you they couldn't play with the teams from the real conferences! Oh-ver-RAY-ted!"
Hey, I was ready to buy the ticket, take the ride, too.
Even as a staunch skeptic of the Utah Jazz' legitimacy as a title contender, twelve wins in a row is twelve wins in a row. The Jazz definitely looked like they'd turned the corner and were putting all the pieces together that Ziller so eloquently laid out when he warned us all of the coming Jazzocalypse.
Jason Williams was ahead of his time -- if YouTube existed when he came into the league, he'd have made at least a couple of All-Star games simply because of fan popularity. Even so, he had a nice run in the NBA, evolving into a solid shooter after injuries robbed his ability to play at his old breakneck speed.
He's had a devil of a time staying healthy the last several years (he missed nearly 20 games a year during his time with the Heat) so it wasn't a huge surprise when he announced his retirement last September. But, as it so often happens with athletes pushed out of the game after frustrations with injury, he's changed his mind, filing paperwork with the league earlier this month in hopes of getting the green light to come back.
It can be frustrating talking to NBA veterans -- they're so used to being in front of the camera that they've become conditioned to speak in cliches, making it nearly impossible to get them to say what they're really thinking. But rookies? As Mario Chalmers proved earlier this week, that whole "talking in front of a camera thing" is hardly second nature:
Did he think he was on the radio? These "NBA Arena Link" things seem to be done via web cam, so I suppose the camera could be easy to miss. But still, they teach this at the NBA Rookie Symposium, right? Didn't you go to that, Mario? Oh, wait ...
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Brandon Roy brought a thief class for Saturday's game in Paul Allen's basement, and Washington's mages Wizards just couldn't hang. Roy rolled 20 after 20 on his pickpocket attempts, and ended up with a whopping 10 steals in a fairly low-possession game.
Caron Butler, despite good scoring output (31 points), had almost as many turnovers (nine) as the entire Blazers roster (10). To go with his steals, Roy offered 22 points, five rebounds, seven assists and two blocks. Roy, you are overpowered. When will the Dungeon Master take control of this thing?!
Each Wednesday, Under The Microscope looks at a different player in the National Basketball Association and where they are in the season, how they're perceived on and off the court, and gives you a look at them in detail. Tonight the Miami Heat take on the Denver Nuggets on national televison, so we thought we'd start with the star rookie for the Heat, Michael Beasley. Join us after the jump to see where Beasley is and where he might be headed tonight.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
LeBron James' big day (as if the other 364 are not) was ruined by Dwyane Wade's friends. Wade had a fine game himself (21/5/12), but Mario Chalmers, Miami's starting forwards and Daequan Cook made the real difference in the Heat win.
Chalmers had 21 points on 9 FGAs, and went 6-7 from three. He also had eight assists, three steals and (this is the big one) zero turnovers. On any night, that's lovely. Against an elite defense like Cleveland, that's incredible. Cook helped with some more sharp outside shooting -- 5-7 from three, 17 points on 9 FGAs -- while Udonis Haslem and Shawn Marion did exactly what they need to: Cleveland had only eight offensive rebounds in 40 opportunities. Great work on the glass for the typically iffy Heat.
Shaq Saves Lives: ... or at least Phoenix, down Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire (who earned an ejection in the second quarter). Shaquille O'Neal racked up 24 points on 13 FGAs, shot 8-10 from the line, pulled 13 rebounds and swatted three Grizz shots. Perhaps most importantly, he did all that playing big minutes (38) on the second night of a back-to-back. Diesel is gunning for an All-Star berth.
Sucker Free: A Chris Paul triple-double (15/10/16) no longer shocks anyone. But figure this: Paul had a direct hand in 32 of New Orleans' offensive possessions. He had two turnovers in those 32 possessions. Simply outrageous.
Stephon Marbury and the Knicks might still be haggling over the details, but there's little doubt that a divorce is coming soon. So what then? Is he really so poisonous that there's not a single team in the league willing to take a flyer on him?
I don't think so. Playing for one of the league's most dysfuctional franchises in the country's biggest media market can make anybody look bad. I'm not trying to absolve Marbury of fanning the flames, but there are a lot of players around the league who are just as much of a head case but manage to fly under the radar simply because they don't play in New York.
Plus, when he does hit the market, he'll almost certainly be on his best behavior in hopes of salvaging his reputation. And with the Knicks on the hook for most of his salary, he'll likely sign for a prorated share of the veteran's minimum. Despite all the controversy surrounding him the last few years, he'd be a low-risk gamble, especially on a team with strong locker room personalities willing to keep him in his place.
On Wednesday's night of head-bursting box scores, the nine steals earned by Mario Chalmers got only a spot of mainstream attention. Only one player turned out nine picks in a game in '07-08 -- Chris Paul, who had 10 extra minutes of work to rob the Mavericks last February. But the Chalmers thievery explosion against Philadelphia isn't necessarily a complete lie: in Miami's other three games, Chalmers has six more steals. And it's all a part of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra's master plan.
Spoelstra has developed an attacking, active defense for the extremely athletic Heat, putting the team through a long, grueling Monday practice devoted entirely to perfecting improving it. It's worked terrifically in two of Miami's game: the Heat forced 25 Philadelphia turnovers on Wednesday, and 25 against Sacramento last Friday. Overall, Miami is second in the league in defensive turnover rate, up from ninth in '07-08. Spoelstra definitely has the roster for the plot. Dwyane Wade has played the passing lanes well his whole career, and Shawn Marion has quick, quick hands.
But it also might be a ploy of necessity: Miami has two true centers, so to speak: Mark Blount and Joel Anthony. For understandable reasons, those guys are combining for fewer than 15 minutes a game. Udonis Haslem is a star defender ... at the power forward. Protecting his neck against the bigger teams of the league is a smart move made possible by the stabby hands of Chalmers, Marion and Wade on the perimeter.
The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after Atlanta won Game 5 over Miami 106-91 to go up 3-2 in the series.
This is too easy, right? You watch all year as Memphis rolls through Conference USA without a challenge. You listen to the debates about whether it'd finish any better than sixth in the Big East. You ponder its tournament seeding, weighing the impressive lack of losses against the unimpressive quality of the competition against which the record was built. And then Memphis gets smacked in the mouth and knocked out in the Sweet 16 by a team from the Big 12 and you get to say, "See?? See?? We TOLD you they couldn't play with the teams from the real conferences! Oh-ver-RAY-ted!"
Hey, I was ready to buy the ticket, take the ride, too. 
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. 
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. 
On Wednesday's night of head-bursting box scores, the nine steals earned by 
