Swamper on the scene: Heat at Cavs, 3/20/13
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:29 am
For years, my friend Mike and I talked about driving to Cleveland to see a Cavs game. It's only a 2.5-hour drive, and the best player in the world played there, so it made sense. And I was still angry at myself for not seeing LeBron when he played a high-school game in Pittsburgh back in 2002. Of course, we never went.
This season, I've had a renewed interest in basketball, so Mike bought Cavs/Heat tickets as a birthday gift. When he bought the tickets, the Heat hadn't won 877 games in a row, but we knew that it could be a pretty special night, even if the Heat won in a blowout. We had no idea what we were in for.
Okay, back up to Monday. Heat/Celtics on ESPN. The Celtics jumped out to a 17-point lead, and I thought, maybe this is the night that the Heat just don't have it in them. A blowout loss during a long road trip -- that happens to every team. But they kept hanging around, hanging around, and eventually won it. So the streak would be intact for Cleveland.
Drove into town yesterday, heard on the radio that Kyrie Irving was hurt and wouldn't be playing. I guess he's been out for a while, but I think I can be forgiven for not following Cavs' news too closely. So a lopsided win was looking even more likely.
Pulled into the parking lot and was greeted by a smirking guy who handed me my ticket and said, 'Welcome to South Beach.' Yes, it was March 20, and it was snowing in Cleveland.
We walked into the arena super-early, so we watched a lot of the pre-game warm-up. I love this time, an hour or two before the game. Loved it when I still played. Just going thru the motions, getting loose, finding a rhythm. (I wish that baseball stadiums opened early enough so that I could watch more than the last 10 minutes of batting practice.) Watched Shane Battier drain a bunch of 3s from the corner, then some of the Heat played a loose game of 3-on-3. Big tv lights circling the floor as the local-news reporters did their stand-ups between 6:00 and 6:30.
Starting line-ups. We figured that it would be big and loud, and it was. The Cavs have a hype man who gets a lot of face-time on the jumbotron, kind of a poor man's Will.i.am. He introduced the team, and huge pyro shot out of the scoreboard. We were sitting in the upper deck, but the pyro made us noticeably warmer. It seemed like an awful lot of effort to go thru for a team that's going to win 25 games this year. But okay, let them have it. Not much else to root for in Cleveland these days.
Game time. Let's go. And then we noticed some guys in suits walking on the floor under the scoreboard, and some kids with towels trying to mop up something. Apparently the fuel from the pyro was leaking. The players were sent back to the locker rooms, the scoreboard was lowered, a dude with a ladder climbed up, and he just shoved a bunch of towels up in there. 40 freaking minutes later, we were ready to start. Again.
Something on the scoreboard about the key match-up being Tyler Zeller vs. Chris Bosh. Mike laughed and said, 'Yeah, good luck with that.' Then Zeller scored a couple of quick baskets, and I said, 'I knew that if Zeller played his game that Miami would have a lot of trouble tonight. He's completely dominating Bosh.'
LeBron was booed every time he touched the ball. That was to be expected. It seemed like more of a perfunctory boo, tho, not the venomous boo that he heard in 2010. But still, boo. He threw down a rather vicious dunk on a breakaway early, which drew a mixed reaction from the crowd.
Early on, Miami just could not hit its shots, and Cleveland played better than expected. Much better. They went on a 19-0 run at one point and opened up a huge lead. I'm not sure if anybody believed that they would hold it, but the Cavs fans were ecstatic. During half-time, the energetic guy sitting next to me said, 'Man, I've been waiting for this since 2010.' His eyes were watery. Didn't know what to expect the second half. If Miami could knock a few points off the lead in the first 5 minutes, then maybe they could make a game of it. But if they were still down by 20-25 points, they might just pack it in and keep playing Chris Anderson all night.
The first few minutes of the third quarter, it was more of the same. Cleveland playing well, Miami's shots not falling. But then, very suddenly, it changed. Miami started hitting shots, and they started getting into passing lanes and creating a lot of turnovers. A 27-point lead turned into 22, then 19, then 15, then 10, etc. Luke Walton played a lot of minutes and looked awful. It was sad. Bill Walton is one of my favorite historical players, so I was hoping that his son would at least hold his own, but he hurt the Cavs last night. And some guy behind me yelled, 'Where the hell is Zeller?! Why is he on the bench?!' Miami cut it to 6, then Cleveland hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer, so they had a 9-point lead heading into the 4th quarter. It didn't last long.
LeBron decided that he was going to take over every possession, either dishing off to Shane Battier or Ray Allen, or hitting 3s himself. He hit a couple of 3s to tie the game, then did his little celebration thing, and the air just went out of the arena. More big shots from Battier and Allen and Mario Chalmers, and Miami went up 8. Cleveland came back, had an either/or call go against them in the final seconds, but Miami won, 98-95. The guy next to me, who had been yelling and jumping out of his seat the entire game, went completely silent at the final buzzer, just standing there looking at the court, numb. I wanted to give him a hug. Miami won its 24th straight game, and 20,000 people very quickly and quietly filed out of the arena.
Wade and Bosh were mostly quiet, tho I enjoyed the first few minutes of the second quarter, when LeBron and Chalmers were out of the game, so Wade controlled the offense exclusively. He's a joy to watch.
LeBron finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. In the 4th quarter, he had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
And some dude ran onto the court in the fourth quarter. He got up to LeBron before security could stop him. LeBron rubbed his head. Mike said, 'He handled that a lot better than James Harrison would have.'
We listened to the post-game show on WTAM as we drove out of town. Two guys were talking about the possibility of LeBron returning to Cleveland after the 2014 season. As Eminem would say, 'Let it go. It's over.'
This season, I've had a renewed interest in basketball, so Mike bought Cavs/Heat tickets as a birthday gift. When he bought the tickets, the Heat hadn't won 877 games in a row, but we knew that it could be a pretty special night, even if the Heat won in a blowout. We had no idea what we were in for.
Okay, back up to Monday. Heat/Celtics on ESPN. The Celtics jumped out to a 17-point lead, and I thought, maybe this is the night that the Heat just don't have it in them. A blowout loss during a long road trip -- that happens to every team. But they kept hanging around, hanging around, and eventually won it. So the streak would be intact for Cleveland.
Drove into town yesterday, heard on the radio that Kyrie Irving was hurt and wouldn't be playing. I guess he's been out for a while, but I think I can be forgiven for not following Cavs' news too closely. So a lopsided win was looking even more likely.
Pulled into the parking lot and was greeted by a smirking guy who handed me my ticket and said, 'Welcome to South Beach.' Yes, it was March 20, and it was snowing in Cleveland.
We walked into the arena super-early, so we watched a lot of the pre-game warm-up. I love this time, an hour or two before the game. Loved it when I still played. Just going thru the motions, getting loose, finding a rhythm. (I wish that baseball stadiums opened early enough so that I could watch more than the last 10 minutes of batting practice.) Watched Shane Battier drain a bunch of 3s from the corner, then some of the Heat played a loose game of 3-on-3. Big tv lights circling the floor as the local-news reporters did their stand-ups between 6:00 and 6:30.
Starting line-ups. We figured that it would be big and loud, and it was. The Cavs have a hype man who gets a lot of face-time on the jumbotron, kind of a poor man's Will.i.am. He introduced the team, and huge pyro shot out of the scoreboard. We were sitting in the upper deck, but the pyro made us noticeably warmer. It seemed like an awful lot of effort to go thru for a team that's going to win 25 games this year. But okay, let them have it. Not much else to root for in Cleveland these days.
Game time. Let's go. And then we noticed some guys in suits walking on the floor under the scoreboard, and some kids with towels trying to mop up something. Apparently the fuel from the pyro was leaking. The players were sent back to the locker rooms, the scoreboard was lowered, a dude with a ladder climbed up, and he just shoved a bunch of towels up in there. 40 freaking minutes later, we were ready to start. Again.
Something on the scoreboard about the key match-up being Tyler Zeller vs. Chris Bosh. Mike laughed and said, 'Yeah, good luck with that.' Then Zeller scored a couple of quick baskets, and I said, 'I knew that if Zeller played his game that Miami would have a lot of trouble tonight. He's completely dominating Bosh.'
LeBron was booed every time he touched the ball. That was to be expected. It seemed like more of a perfunctory boo, tho, not the venomous boo that he heard in 2010. But still, boo. He threw down a rather vicious dunk on a breakaway early, which drew a mixed reaction from the crowd.
Early on, Miami just could not hit its shots, and Cleveland played better than expected. Much better. They went on a 19-0 run at one point and opened up a huge lead. I'm not sure if anybody believed that they would hold it, but the Cavs fans were ecstatic. During half-time, the energetic guy sitting next to me said, 'Man, I've been waiting for this since 2010.' His eyes were watery. Didn't know what to expect the second half. If Miami could knock a few points off the lead in the first 5 minutes, then maybe they could make a game of it. But if they were still down by 20-25 points, they might just pack it in and keep playing Chris Anderson all night.
The first few minutes of the third quarter, it was more of the same. Cleveland playing well, Miami's shots not falling. But then, very suddenly, it changed. Miami started hitting shots, and they started getting into passing lanes and creating a lot of turnovers. A 27-point lead turned into 22, then 19, then 15, then 10, etc. Luke Walton played a lot of minutes and looked awful. It was sad. Bill Walton is one of my favorite historical players, so I was hoping that his son would at least hold his own, but he hurt the Cavs last night. And some guy behind me yelled, 'Where the hell is Zeller?! Why is he on the bench?!' Miami cut it to 6, then Cleveland hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer, so they had a 9-point lead heading into the 4th quarter. It didn't last long.
LeBron decided that he was going to take over every possession, either dishing off to Shane Battier or Ray Allen, or hitting 3s himself. He hit a couple of 3s to tie the game, then did his little celebration thing, and the air just went out of the arena. More big shots from Battier and Allen and Mario Chalmers, and Miami went up 8. Cleveland came back, had an either/or call go against them in the final seconds, but Miami won, 98-95. The guy next to me, who had been yelling and jumping out of his seat the entire game, went completely silent at the final buzzer, just standing there looking at the court, numb. I wanted to give him a hug. Miami won its 24th straight game, and 20,000 people very quickly and quietly filed out of the arena.
Wade and Bosh were mostly quiet, tho I enjoyed the first few minutes of the second quarter, when LeBron and Chalmers were out of the game, so Wade controlled the offense exclusively. He's a joy to watch.
LeBron finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. In the 4th quarter, he had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
And some dude ran onto the court in the fourth quarter. He got up to LeBron before security could stop him. LeBron rubbed his head. Mike said, 'He handled that a lot better than James Harrison would have.'
We listened to the post-game show on WTAM as we drove out of town. Two guys were talking about the possibility of LeBron returning to Cleveland after the 2014 season. As Eminem would say, 'Let it go. It's over.'