Golden State:120 Miami Heat:113

SF Gate

Boxscore

For 3 quarters of the game the Warriors were listless, had no passion and were getting beating up a Miami Heat team that I thought had the same attributes and also came off a bad loss to Portland. Wade was making his shots and doing his usual flopping, Shaq was going perfect from the floor 6-6 in his 1,000th career game why the Heat didn't give the ball to him more is anyones guess and Ricky Davis followed his Warrior killer script chipping in with 22. For the first 3 quarters the Heat dominated. Then as the 4th unravelled not only did Golden State step up their offense going on a 21-4 run which ended the game but Davis did a fantastic job on Wade signifying a true team comeback.


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What a 4th quarteer. I have yet to see and probably won't see a quarter as good as that all season. For the first 3 Riley decided to rival the Warriors style of ball and play small. however coming off a back to back the last twelve minutes are often the hardest for any team to adjust too and thats what happenned with Miami. The team just looked burned out and despite Ricky Davis's scoring Golden State eventually burned them out with the tempo that has been loved by NBA fans everywhere. To try and explain the problems that led to Miami's lead for starters it was the cold shooting with Shaq and Alonzo keeping us adrift from the key so we had to resort to 20-25 Footers with the only making them was Jackson. The transformation to making these in the 4th was fantastic but shots made in the 1st by Biedrins and Jackson kept the deficit even closer. Jacksons repeated ability to draw contract under every drive to the basket is more impressive then his hustle.

In the 4th and moneytime quarter rather then giving credit to the guys who hit their shots to make this comeback why not give credit to people like Barnes who is one of the rare cases in which his boxscore is lying. Boxscores don't measure the hustle and fighting for loose balls which is what Barnes specialises. He constantly fought for Rebounds and loose balls and despite his 5 points he is exactly the player Dunleavy never turned into. Azubuike once again proved he should be the MIP this year. Seven boards in 20 minutes is worthy of attention going up against Shaq or Mourning. He also sprakled the comeback with some huge outside shots. Davis had his usual big offensive game but what about his defense on Wade on moneytime. I'll leave the readers deciding whether he was actually better on D or was Dwayne simply tired?. Monta's mental toughness critisced by yours truly was gone in the 4th quarter with some big plays and a handy dunk whick shook the Heat a little. He had 21 and for the time being questions about his mental toughness are gone.



Can we also give a pay raise to Sidney?. Seriously even tonight our Free Throw shooting went up and was one of the main reasons which made this win possible. Either that or the Warriors decided to secretly hire Rick Barry. One of our major weaknesses came through just in time to help Golden State gain a moral boosing vicotry. Sounds good to me. Miami shot better , outrebounded Golden State 57-40 but had more turnovers. To use the famous slogan I BELIEVE

Update: It isn't often I decide to go retro very often but the Run TMC squad had the same type of game as far back as 1991.


Update #2: And from going retro to modern day here is highlights from the game. Once again major credit to Bogleg for compiling these highlights of all the games with no corny music as a background soundtrack. It comes with the full package.