To Play Hard Or Not To Play Hard

A better celeb friend, and then this.

The tale of two teams.

Not the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat; the low-energy Heat and the high-energy Heat.

Miami continued their In-Game Maintenance Program for the first 2.5 quarters of tonight's match.  Brooklyn built a double-digit lead, and the defending champs looked like they were sleep walking.

Then, just like that, the Heat decided they couldn't wait till late in the fourth to wake up.  They turned up the intensity level on both sides of the ball and closed with a 16-37 run, beating the Nets 89-102.

On this night, LeBron took a back seat to D Wade as the latter showed his nagging knee and ankle injuries won't be affecting him every game.  He scored a season high 34 points, with many throw-back type Wade drives.  His high-light play coming off a slightly-higher than needed alley-oop from Ray Allen (over Kris Kardashian).  His best since Game 6 in the Indy series last year.

Is Andre Blatche (another) one that got away???  He could have been had with a minimum contract.  And I don't buy the possible "locker room issues"; not with this team of champs and vets.  Not to mention trying him out to "see how it goes" and dumping as needed is pretty effortless.  Especially with his upside (and the Heat's size limitations).

Bosh has a horrible night, not scoring in the first half.  Finishing with as many rebounds as Norris Cole (2).

UD came up big in the second half with six second-half rebounds and good defensive effort (+17 for the game).  Heart, defense, rebounding.  If only his jumper could make its way back.

Cole was a nice spark off the bench.

The Nets strategy to trap at the end pretty much didn't work.  The Heat busting it with fun stuff like a James layup and Allen three.

The Heat have played the toughest schedule in the league (by winning percentage), and are tied for the best record.

12-3