We Killed The Heat: You're Welcome Cleveland

Two years ago, an injured Jazz team went on a February tear, going 15 and 1 and winning 12 in a row. Everyone started to talk about the Jazz being the best kept secret, a team everyone had slept on that would actually be able to put up a very big fight. Then the Jazz lost to the Atlanta Hawks. That loss set them back a little, but they rose to fight on. The next team on their schedule was the Miami Heat, an only OK team. The Jazz, who at this point were not adept at ever winning away from Salt Lake (or crushing bad teams), took a lead and seemed like they would hold on down the stretch. But they failed. Committing turn-over after turn-over, failing to score on fast-breaks, and a general lack of killer instinct allowed the Jazz to let the Heat back into the game late in the fourth. The same thing happened in overtime number 1: we got up early, failed to hold on, Dwayne Wade scored a gillion (actually, just 50). And, amazingly, again in overtime number 2. Then, in overtime 3, the Heat ran away with it. I knew, frantically reloading the gamecast on my computer screen, that we had just suffered a devastating blow, one that had destroyed our season. We limped through some more games but could never recover the magic of February and ultimately exited the playoffs in the first round.

That was a blow to the Jazz, but one we ultimately recovered from, as evidenced by our recent play. Now we're so good we've gone for revenge. Early on in this season the Heat lost to the Celtics and the Hornets. Everyone wrote off the Celtics loss as the first game and the Hornets loss as a really close game against the hottest team in the league. People were still talking 70 wins. But then the Jazz came to Miami and, coming back from so far behind it seemed they couldn't see the Heat, let alone catch them, the Jazz coolly iced them on a Millsap career night. Up until that point the Heat had been congealing into a really good team. They completely joked on the Magic, shutting them down harder than Boston or LA could and, apparently (in games I didn't watch), did similar things to other teams that would get laughed out of the West. But after the Jazz took it to them people started to grumble, asking if the 70 wins, Finals in five, scenario might be more fantasy than reality. And that seems anathema to the guys on that team: their Kryptonite is being questioned. As soon as it began they proceeded to loose to every single team with a record better than .500. The Heat were always going to be met with a lot of vitriol, but they could have buckled down and welcomed it, much like the guys from the youtube video I am currently obsessed with would have. Instead, they have begun a circular firing squad. It seems like LeBron or his people have leaked his displeasure with Spoelstra to the press and that any day now, Mike Brown will be the Heat's head coach (ESPN will be setting up a Spoelstra suicide watch very soon).

This team will go through some very public pain and may be forced to trade one of the much hyped big three. All because an unheard about Millsap (Knapp sack) went off against an otherwise tightly controlled defense. Which now can't defend to save it's life. Defense is all about trust and chemistry, knowing that when you block the lane or switch up your teammate will come in and pick up your guy. The Heat used to have that, they don't anymore. While they unravel, we keep rolling, beating a Lakers team firing on almost all cylinders, and having fun. As Dwayne Wade smugly put it after murdering the Jazz in 09, "Just another day at the office." As was his loss in Dallas. I think this Heat team will improve and end the season at 50 wins, losing in the second round of the playoffs. There will be a time when this seems brash and cocky, but right now the Heat are hurting. And if they fire Spoelstra they could be hurting a lot more before they're feeling good. So, for now, you're welcome Cleveland, hope you too get a chance to kick 'em while they're down on Thursday. To Miami I respectfully give this advice: if you want to stop being kicked then stop going to the office, stop bitching about each other, stop letting your egos inflate like you just won a championship, and thug up.

Trade Day: In Review

This year marked a more exciting than usual, but still not as exciting as some hoped, trading deadline. Nevertheless, some exciting things happened. Keeping with this blog's storied tradition, I thought I would examine the day through the solipsistic lens of what it means for Jazz fans. First of all, it seems the Knicks cleared house, getting rid of (in rough order of importance) Nate Robinson, Darko Milicic, Cash, Jordan Hill, and Jared Jeffries. And acquiring in their stead Tracy Mcgrady, Edie House, J.R. Giddens, Bill Walker, and Brian Cardinal. This is important because the NBA trade rules allow New York to dump all the money they've splurged on nobodies (see above list) all at once when McGrady's (and others') contract runs out this summer. That'll leave them with a huge amount of money to land LeBron, Dwayne Wade, or Chris Bosh or maybe even two of those dudes (more on that below). But all that future of basketball in New York stuff aside, this is good news for the Jazz. It looks like New York has completely and utterly given up on this season and is now willing to take a knee, muddle its way through till the end, and recoup during the off-season. That will rise the value of their first round draft pick, which the Jazz own.

And, speaking of the Jazz, they had a spirited day of talks with Miami. The Heat front office came at them with a crazy-desperate-last-minute, non-stop list of names for a possible Boozer deal. The Jazz held their ground, as they have all season, even when Chalmers and Beasley were added to sweeten the deal. What this tells me is that the Jazz think they've got this season locked enough that they can attract real talent next year on the strength of their green jerseys and Deron, Don. It also tells me that Miami is seriously and severely worried that D-WADE! will leave them if they can't acquire anyone whose presence would put the heat in serious contention (I write Dwayne's nick-name like that because it's the least respect I can show him, his normal, terrible nickname being not worthy of his skill). And while the ship has not yet sailed on that (they might sign Stoudemire, whose Suns turned them down today and yesterday, in the off-season). It's looking screamingly likely that the Heat's management are too incompetent to hold onto their golden god. I see him in NY along with Bosh (after my dream finals of Nuggets vs. Cavaliers, I see both LeBron and Anthony sticking with the teams that brought them this far [oh shit, they're playing as I type and are tied 102 -102!!!!]).

The Jazz also traded my favorite puppy-dog/explosive dunker Ronnie Brewer for some garbage Memphis pick and cap-space relief, so we'll see how I feel in a few days. But as of right now I'm cautiously optimistic that this was a pretty good day for the Jazz. Our show runners seem to know what's up, New York is conspiring to help us, and while nothing happened to really shake up the West (possibly sinking our foes), such a shake-up might have spelled our doom. We know where we fit in this West, and that's as the third best team. We can beat all of these teams with the dual exceptions of Denver and LA. Nothing about Trade Day drastically changed that.