2022 - 2023 POST GAME MIAMI HEAT - HOME

Referring to the JT for MVP train on alert, I was watching First Take yesterday and one of the questions was basically who's better for MVP, Luka or Steph? Mad Dog Russo was on there as well and he did his part then it got to Stephen A. He started but before he got into his rant, he said to the effect that, "I'm going to insert Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics into this MVP conversation because he's playing some incredible ball and IMHBAO has earned the right to be in this MVP race. Then he went on to answer the original question but it was refreshing to note that he knows the deal and used his platform to go outside the answer of the question and make the world aware that JT is no joke.

Just curious for all 75+ MVP's named, how many also won the championship that year?

Anyway, good for Stephen A. bringing that to everyone's attention. And it was a sincere, legit set of comments on JT and Boston.

First off for my rant, as great as we are looking and playing during this stretch, we have not been separating ourselves from the Bucks. Even after last night, they are still only a game behind us in the loss column after we've gone 14-1. Just a quick reality check there. They are right on our tails and not skipping a beat sans CM. Again, Bonnie Situation scene with Mr. Wolf's "vacuum" comments inserted but not quoted here.

Where did we win the game last night? One would think it was with the 3-ball again as we made 4 more threes than the Heat for +12 points there. Since the victory was 13 points, "that would be a pretty good guess, Mr. Brown...but you'd be wrong" as my college accounting professor would say. (BTW, he could somehow tell and predict with great accuracy that you had been out the night before partying and drinking and he knew you hadn't done your homework for class that day as a result and would call on you during class...)

But if you do the math, the Heat made 5 more two-point shots than us for a -10 difference that all but removed our 4 more 3's advantage. So then when you look at the free throws after those calculations, you see where we won and from what...making 11 more free throws from driving to the basket, making the layup/dunk and getting a free throw or 2 from being fouled! And all this talk about 3's!! I wasn't counting the And 1's but there were a few last night for us. The Heat fouled us 21 times and we attempted 23 FT's (three were from technicals I believe) from that. This also implied that we got at least one FT per foul which means even on fouls 1-4 before the penalty, we were getting fouled in the act and subsequently going to the line. If those fouls were non-shooting fouls before the penalty, that ratio would be considerably less than one. Anyway, math lesson over. I bring all this up because Scal referenced all night in the CHA game on Wednesday that we had such a huge advantage with the 3's made (24 vs. 11 in the end) which is a +39 and this was how we won. Final score was +35. For the most part, he's right. But if he had applied that logic to last night's game he'd be wrong as laid out above.

Loved Brodgen's "quiet" 21 off the bench. Looks like we didn't need Doogie last night either. And unless he was hurt, CJ pulled him for being the weakest link. He wasn't on. Something subtle here with CJ and in-game adjustments. CJ treated this game like it was a playoff game, and in a sense with the B2B scheduling, these are indeed "playoff-like" games. He only really played 3 off the bench. MIA will treat Friday's game like a G2. They actually can and will make adjustments against the same team. I'm not sure how much they can do since both teams played 50/40/90. All one team has to do is play a little defense. Maybe that 50/40/90 stat isn't as big a deal for the team as you may have thought. Let's use last night's games as a small sample space.

Of the 13 games played representing 26 teams, only 3 teams shot 50/40/90 last night. Boston, MIA and...PHX. Three others were close but not really. Pelicans, Nets and Kings. Not surprising on Kings. Surprising on Nets. We're going to need to put them in their place Sunday, that's all I'm saying. Kyrie needs a 10-15 game break. He's been working way too much lately. Anyway, on the 50/40/90 Team Stat, just something to talk about.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. That's what I saw last night.

db

I also don't know if anyone else saw this because of all the different feeds we're all on for watching games but there was a piece during last night's game on the return of RWIII with footage of him practicing 3-on-3 it looked like.  Did anyone see this besides me?

Anyway, I couldn't tell from the camera angle and from the clothes he was wearing if he was overweight or if he had spent some considerable time in the weight room on his upper body.  I want to say the latter and if so, look out.  He's not a twig anymore.  Does anyone have recent pics of him (within the last couple of days) to confirm or deny what my eyes may have seen and/or his workout routine since being out?  Thanks!

db