In case you have been living under a rock this morning, last night Chicago halted the Heat’s streak at 27 games. To me, the streak was cool because it brought some more interest into what seems like an endless 82 game regular season. Long gone is the sprint of the lockout-shortened 66 game slate, and for that reason alone another lockout can’t come soon enough.
The streak was amazing mostly because of the nature of the sport itself. In football, the more dominant team wins almost all of the time. Baseball is so quirky that the best team in the league can lose to the league doormat on any given night, and no one will so much bat an eyelash. Basketball lies somewhere in between those 2, but there are enough factors (such as a bad shooting night, a lack of energy in back-to-back nights on the road, some calls that go against you, or an opposing player going off out of nowhere a la Jeff Green last week) that stringing together that many wins in a row is pretty tough…kind of self-evident when you consider a longer streak had only been put together once.
Cue Nate Robinson and Kurt Heinrich.
So, does last night’s game and the end of the streak actually mean anything? Not really…Miami is still going to finish the regular season as a 60+ win team and the East’s number 1 seed. Even though Chicago, Indiana, and New York all boast winning records against the Heat so far this year, they would all be heavy underdogs in a 7 game series with Miami. To me, no team will post a serious threat to the Heat before the Finals. Some people say teams with size will give them problems, but if you go big against them you still have to somehow guard their fast, speedy, sharpshooting lineup on the defensive end.
To really have a chance, you have to do 1 of 2 things (and probably both). You either need to go crazy from the 3-point line (as the Knicks did to them twice earlier in the year), or you need to knock them on their a** and hope that the refs let you play a little bit (as the Bulls did last night). The key to the 2nd point is the officials though, because if they do let some of the physicality go, then you will at least be in the game and possibly have LeBron muttering to reporters about what is and isn’t a basketball play. If they don’t, then you will find yourselves in constant foul trouble, and Miami will feast from the free throw line. For every other Easter Conference playoff team, it’s a hit or miss strategy…but it may be their best bet.
A welcome site for fans of other Eastern Conference teams to say the least...
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