As one of my boyz would say, today's blog is a two piece spicy. One is a rant, the other props.
First, I have to give some props to the Miami Heat, in part because I have been riding them pretty hard lately. They stopped the Lake show's eight game winning streak and their own five game slide with a hugh 94-88 win last night in South Beach. The Heat was led by Chris Bosh with 24 points and my boy, King DWade who had 20 points, including eight in the 4th quarter. More importantly, Wade took over in the final stanza, including a take from the Black Mamba leading to a Prince James dunk giving the Heat the lead for good. The win also (officially) clinches a playoff spot for the Heat. Nice to see the big three bounce back and earn (for a change) a big win.
Now the rant. Lazy and poor officiating cost Rutgers University a chance at a win in this week's Big East tournament. The three officials, Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton, did not (in a sense) officiate to the whistle. They actually did worst then put their whistles in their pockets; they mentally checked out before the game ended by not stopping play when the St. John's player stepped out of bounds with time still on the clock. I personally don't know which is worst, that or the league not correcting the error that everyone watching the game saw. For me, somebody from the league office should have went into the officials locker rooms and basically made them earn their paychecks fully.
All players and coaches want is a chance to win the game. It's just not good for the game for things like this to happen. What really gets me in rant mode is how officials (both pro and college) give that air that they are right ALL the time and how would you even think that they could miss a call. That arrogance is a far different appearance than just confidence in their abilities. Do you think they would have done that if that if they had to face the press after the game? I just would like to know how they would feel if they didn't get their direct deposits in part because the clerk forgot to hit the enter key before leaving for the day.
Enjoy the games this weekend. This week's Friday's Freeze Jukebox is so nice I did it twice (from back in the stacks):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LvTpjK-MEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBWHTVMnut4
I have to say that I've been enjoying watching the Heat lose (hated to see them beat
ReplyDeletethe Lakers, for a season sweep yesterday). It's not surprising to see the Heat bench being
outscored, since they have tied up much of their salary cap in the big 3. Too bad that they didn't spend much on what seems to be the toughest positions to fill on a team - point guard and center, which the Thunder just took care of by trading Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins (to add with an excellent point in Westbrook). Throw in a guy named Durant (seems to be a decent player - wink, wink!), and I think you have the makings of a powerhouse team.
This leads me to the Wizards - I know that they are putrid now, but at least we seem to have gotten a break by being able to draft John Wall, who should be our QB of the future (just hope we don't allow him to bolt ala King James - build Ernie, build!!!) Now if we can just get a beast in the middle (Sullinger, Kanter), and add a free agent or two, we might actually be competitive in the not too distant future.
Back to the Heat - their kryptonite seems to be a great, penetrating PG, so I don't think that they can take out a Rondo led Celtic team in the playoffs, let alone a Derrick Rose (playing like MVP??) led Bulls team, who can also trot out Boozer and Noah in the paint (another Heat weakness), and play excellent defense.
I'll be looking forward to the NBA playoffs this year - it should be very interesting!