Beasley just did a long post game interview with Jason Jackson and after watching it I'm pretty sure Beasley is somewhat insane.
Really good team win. Beasley was HUGE tonight. He gave you what this team was missing, which was a guy off the bench that can create offense with backups around him. More importantly than that, he was very active on the boards and worked hard on defense. Johnson also was obviously very good. You could tell Dragic was amped up and I think that caused his foul trouble. But in his limited minutes he was good as well.
"Teams are gettig more physical with me and im down for it. Thats why i lift weights" - Whiteside after the game
Nice win tonight. Especially nice to see our guards outplay Bledsoe/Knight. I said so on Twitter..but I think Spo found 4 guards he can play night in and out and be happy with it. Rotation at guard should be: Wade/Dragic (Starter Minutes) RIO (Combo) TJ (backup to both starting spots)
Problem to me is the guys in question don't bring consistency. Certainly not Tyler Johnson, who seems he only plays well every third game. Dragic seems to only play well every other game thus far. Chalmers is...Chalmers. Beasley is a lunatic and they have to depend on him to replace some of what Bosh had. Henry Walker is shooting .314. It's fun when they're on like tonight but some of the other games are a bit painful. Seemed like they were more willing to run the offense through Whiteside until he got ejected, so that's a positive.
When you got Wade/Dragic each logging 35 mpg...Chalmers and TJ don't have to do all that much. Rio has been a top performer in the NBA for years now, so you only need a guy to come in and give you 12-15 athletic minutes. I think TJ can do that. Michael Beasley can score. His issue is his brain. If he thought the game as good as his skill set is, he would be an all-star. Maybe this time he "gets it". Walker is shooting shots he is being afforded. As long as he shoots 35% from 3, he will do fine as the swing forward.
Not sure how much you can count on TJohnson against teams that are more disciplined and focused on defense, particularly come playoff time. I mean the Suns are absolutely dreadful on that end of the floor, especially on the road. They're 28th in the League in ppg ahead of MIN & LAL. Gotta see him do it consistently against a teams that actually try on D. It's like that one nice game Napier had against the lowly Knicks...grain of salt. His athleticism and energy can get him points against a soft team like Phoenix, but I'm not sure his general bball IQ and play within the offense shows up when the competition is higher. We haven't seen that yet on a nightly basis. The rotation issue right now is Deng's minutes. He just can't play this much for weeks on end like he used to (40, 38, and 40 mins the last three games). They don't trust Ennis at all, it seems, so you're kind of counting on Walker, Beasley and/or smallball to spell Deng. And two of those guys are also slotting into the 4. It's kind of like last year when they had no true backup 3 behind LeBron to take a bulk of the minutes when necessary and be effective on both ends. Tough going with only one reliable wing.
Man, right now I just really love the fight of these young guys on the Heat. Whiteside doesn't back down from anyone. Honestly the team has seemed a little soft for a Pat Riley team during their run the last few years. I know the focus is on next year, but I like what I am seeing even this year. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Well he's shooting 31% that's the problem. I'm just not sure I see a good team without Bosh. Not yet. I saw a pretty bad performance by Phoenix. I guess we'll see how it is going forward but it seems to me like Tyler Johnson has these games that make you think wow this kid can play...and then he has 2 or 3 more where you're like oh god, this lineup sucks. And of course Dragic right now sucks every other game like clockwork. Which doesn't bode well for the Lakers game, except...well, it's the Lakers.
Give them this though, they're 4-3 since the break and two of the losses came by 2 points each. The stat trends probably favor them quite a bit considering they've scored 722 points and allowed 685 in seven games, average 5 point differential in their favor. Not sure what stats the basketball folks prefer tho.
The Heat are really entertaining this year to me even if they're not very good. Finding Whiteside and then trading for Dragic probably provides as much fan entertainment and reason for enthusiasm as fighting for a #2 or #3 seed. If not more. Getting alternating hero performances from guys like Tyler Johnson, Henry Walker and Michael Beasley also provides a nice spark of entertainment. I get the feeling Dwyane Wade's having a lot of fun with this, too. When Wade's happy I think we're all happy.
Someone on twitter tells me Ira Winderman said that the players won't explicitly say it but they're feeling like this year is sort of a bye week to rest after four years of extremely high intensity championship chasing.
they have played like it at times...and the Heat's knee jerk "resting" of players with even minor injuries suggests it as well.
I could see that. But the other side of things is that the East is so bad amd so wide open...it gives you ideas. "Hey, we didn't really play with a high level of intensity this season, but look we have a decent first round matchup. Hmm." Win a series in the postseason and then anything can happen from there.
That's probably true to the extent that guys like Wade don't have any grand notions of winning the championship, but I'm sure they all want to get in the playoffs, even if that's only for a series. But if the heat draws, say Toronto, I have to think that would get their juices flowing as a series that could potentially be won. And if it's Cleveland, even though we wouldn't win, I think there would be supreme motivation from Wade and the guys that have been here to at least go toe to toe with LeBron for the full 7 games and push them to the limit
He's done. Mirza Teletovic, who had the same issue diagnosed in January is on blood thinners until July. Only then can he resume contact. So I imagine Bosh is going to be on the blood thinners until July or august. Plenty of time for training camp, but too far out to make a miracle return this year.
Should be. In the article on Teletovic, he said he wanted to reach out to Bosh on the issue. He said that he is already working out, shooting, etc. Just can't take any contact.
If they "wanted to"..it could have been a 4 week injury, with expedited Blood Thinner meds and then a 2 week recovery. They opted for more extensive treatment, that will have him on medication for at least a month and then require a month to recover..so 8 weeks..so that's the season essentially.
I am stunned. We are kicking the Hawks a** right now (1st quarter) with no Harden. Their coach just got T'd up. He looks confused, lol. Harden has to be enjoying this. I hope we can keep it up for 3 more quarters. On another note, I see Lebron is going off today. We've awaken a monster.
His PPG would be a lot better if we actually fed him the ball more often... He should be getting 15-17 FG attempts per game...
