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PostGame: Miami Heat 86, Cleveland Cavaliers 81

The Award Winning Heat Dancers Work It Video
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I will admit I had my doubts heading into today’s game. I surely thought we were going to get waxed by the Lebrons. A little home cooking helped as the Heat held the Cavs below 40% shooting to bring them one game below .500. Our whole experience going to the stadium was interesting. The Heat need to do something about the parking situation because I have never drove around in circle’s so much at an arena just to find ten dollar parking. Once we found parking getting into the arena was a breeze. The trip down was easy as well for quiet Sunday afternoon. It’s always sweet driving to the game and having one of these badboys pull up next to you. He was heading to the Heat game as well. Upon arriving to the arena we were greeted by the image on the right. That thing absolutely towers over the entrance of the arena. It was a beautiful site. Enough about the trip to the arena and me acting like a tourist, let’s look at the game recap.

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Shaquille O’Neal had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Jason Kapono added 17 points and 11 rebounds for his second career double-double, and Alonzo Mourning scored 15 points in 18 minutes for the Heat, who improved to 2-7 without Wade. Cleveland was outscored 48-28 in the paint, 15-6 in second-chance points and 38-18 in reserve scoring. All that allowed the Heat to survive — despite shooting only 43 percent from the field, 17 percent from 3-point range and 50 percent from the foul line.

What do you think Lebron is saying to Shaq during the free throw in that picture above? Lebron shouldn’t even be looking at The Diesel when he is shooting free throws. He will hear about that later from D-Wade via text message.

Antoine Walker was simply awful. Now I have always watched Toine from the comfort of my house always screaming obscenities at the TV when he chucks up a tippy toe three. I never realized how bad that sucked the energy out of the crowd and absolutely kills a Heat rally. There were numerous occasions where Toine would control a defensive rebound, bring the ball up court, and proceed to chuck up a three 4 feet behind the 3 point line. Is this really necessary? Now mind you if there is one thing I want Toine to be doing, it’s taking the ball to the rim, but even that can look like a huge clusterf*&^ sometimes. And to think I had a girl sitting in front of me who still thinks Toine and GP are in their prime. To top off the Toine fiasco, he finally hit his first free throw since Dec. 29, ending an 0-for-10 slump. He’s 20-for-60 from the line this season, his .333 percentage the worst among anyone in the league with at least 60 attempts. Excuse me while I vomit.

All in all it was a great day. The crowd was into it and was surprisingly packed. Even though it was a game of the week against Lebron James on a Sunday, I didn’t expect the game to draw that many people to see the all +35 team. There was a buzz in the crowd with the news of D-Wade seeking a second opinion on his shoulder and you could hear various fans discussing what Wade should do. Regardless, Wade is an icon and fans want him back as soon as possible, and healthy.

The Heat flew to New York after the game for a Monday matchup against the Knicks. I feel this is a must win game to get us back to .500. We have Washington, Chicago and Detroit for the next 3 game swing, and I think we can take at least 1 of the 3 but dropping the game against the Knicks would really set us back. It’s pretty sad how important each game will be going down the stretch. Perhaps the Heat should consider showing up for the first half of the season next year, apparently those games do count.

For more game photos please visit the SporTech Gallery. I also uploaded more videos to my UnCut Video account. You can check those out here. Enjoy and…

GO HEAT!