Miami Heat Blog – Page 102 – NBA Blog

Chris Bosh out indefinitely with abdominal injury

Miami Heat All-Star power forward Chris Bosh will be sidelined indefinitely with a lower-abdominal muscle strain.

It is feared that the injury may force Bosh to miss the rest of the series against the Indiana Pacers — and perhaps for the rest of the postseason…

Ronny Turiaf and Joel Anthony are expected to see extended playing time during Bosh’s absence. Turiaf played well starting the second half of Sunday’s Game 1 victory, while Anthony gave the Heat a big lift off the bench.

— Reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Chris Bosh hurt in Heat-Pacers Game 1

For the Heat, the pain goes deeper, with the question being how deep into Chris Bosh’s abdomen. The All-Star power forward was lost for the second half after sustaining a lower-abdominal strain on the follow-through of a second-quarter dunk that resulted in a 3-point play.

Coach Erik Spoelstra did not sound as if Bosh was coming back any time soon.

“We have some time now. We don’t know what Chris’ status is,” Spoelstra said. “We won’t know until we get an MRI, move on from there.”

The initial sense was not encouraging.

“You saw the look on his face,” teammate Dwyane Wade said, “you knew something was wrong there.”

— Reported by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Heat beat Pacers in Game 1 of Round 2

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade carried the Miami Heat offense in the second half. With Chris Bosh gone, they had no other choice.

And if Bosh doesn’t return soon, it may have to become a trend.

James accepted his third MVP trophy from Commissioner David Stern before the game, then scored 26 of his game-high 32 points while playing every second of the second half – adding a season-high 15 rebounds as well – to help the Heat survive some rough stretches and pull out a 95-86 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Sunday night.

Wade scored 29 points for the Heat, but the concern level was ramped up considerably afterward because of Bosh, who did not play in the second half because of a lower abdominal strain. The Heat expected to learn results of an MRI exam on Monday…

David West and Roy Hibbert each scored 17 points and combined for 23 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 10 points each from Darren Collison and George Hill. Indiana controlled long stretches of the first half and didn’t trail by more than two points at any time until the fourth quarter, when it was outscored 25-16. Wade and James scored 42 points in the second half, while Indiana’s entire roster managed 38…

James scored 16 points alone in the fourth, matching Indiana’s total. Nonetheless, the Pacers sounded confident for days leading up to the start of the series, and left Sunday night sounding the same way…

Bosh caught a pass from James near the foul line late in the first half, took one dribble to start a drive past Hibbert, got down the lane and dunked the ball hard with his left hand while the Indiana center appeared to hit his right arm. Bosh fell forward as he landed, resting on his hands and knees for about 15 seconds before getting up slowly. He made his free throw, and as he headed back the other way he grimaced and grabbed at his midsection…

Danny Granger shot 1 for 10 in the game, scoring only seven points…

Everything was undecided until the final moments. Hill made a 3-pointer with 4:51 left, getting Indiana within 86-85. But the Pacers went cold from the field, James had a dunk in transition to make it 90-85 with 4:10 left, and his jumper with 31.8 seconds remaining wrapped up the Heat win.

— Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Pacers coach Frank Vogel says Heat are biggest floppers in NBA

The Heat’s second-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers hasn’t even begun, but already, Miami has drawn the first charge.

This one had nothing to do with Udonis Haslem or Shane Battier stepping in the way of a driving Pacer and it did not result in a referee blowing a whistle. Rather, Pacers coach Frank Vogel assumed the whistle-blower role, labeling the Heat the worst floppers in the NBA.

Given an opportunity to backtrack, Vogel instead went on South Florida radio Friday to say there are times Heat defenders begin to fall “before contact is even made.”

Scoffing at the suggestion he was providing the Heat with bulletin-board material, Vogel told 640-AM host Orlando Alzugaray he was merely saying something that “needed to be pointed out.”

The Heat refused to fire any counter charges, saying the series is about Game 1 at AmericanAirlines Arena at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, not about any verbal lobs.

— Reported by Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post

LeBron James is winner of 2011-12 NBA MVP award

LeBron James of the Miami Heat is the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2011-12 NBA Most Valuable Player Award, the NBA announced today. James earns the honor for the third time in four seasons and becomes the first player since Michael Jordan to win at least three MVPs.

James totaled 1,074 points, including 85 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 voters that consisted of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada as well as an NBA.com MVP fan vote. For the third consecutive season, the NBA and Kia Motors America gave fans the opportunity to submit their votes by ranking their top five choices through a dedicated Web page on NBA.com. The fan vote counted as one vote and was compiled with the 120 media votes to determine the winner. Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote received.

Rounding out the top five in voting are Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant (889 points, 24 first-place votes), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul (385, six first-place votes), the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (352, two first-place votes), and San Antonio’s Tony Parker (331, four first-place votes).

James led the Heat to a 46-20 mark and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Despite averaging a career-low 37.5 minutes, the eight-time All-Star led the NBA in plus-minus score differential (+7.6) and ranked third in scoring (27.1 ppg), while pacing the Heat in assists (6.2 apg) and tying for the team lead in rebounds (7.9 rpg). In addition, James established career bests in field goal percentage (.531) and three-point field goal percentage (.362).

This season, James was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month twice (January and February), and he captured Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors six times, extending his NBA record for the most Player of the Week awards to 37. James has scored double-figure points in 419 consecutive career games, the seventh-longest streak in NBA history, behind Michael Jordan (866), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (streaks of 787 and 508), Karl Malone (575), Moses Malone (526), and Oscar Robertson (428).

The NBA MVP trophy is named in honor of the late Maurice Podoloff, the first commissioner of the NBA who served from 1946 until his retirement in 1963.

Read NBA fan opinion and share your views in this basketball forum topic.

Heat eliminate Knicks from playoffs in Game 5

LeBron James had 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both scored 19 points and the Heat ousted the shorthanded Knicks 106-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday night.

The Heat won the series 4-1, and will meet Indiana in the East semifinals starting Sunday in Miami…

Carmelo Anthony scored 35 points for the Knicks, including a spinning jumper over James at the end of the third quarter that pulled New York within 81-67. It was far from being enough to stave off an all-too-familiar playoff result for Anthony, part of that 2003 draft class that also yielded James, Bosh and Wade.

Anthony has played 54 postseason games, being part of wins only 17 times. A misleading stat for certain – it’s hardly all on him – and no shortage of people in the Heat organization interrupted their celebrating of a series-clincher to tip their caps Anthony’s way afterward…

James shot 48 percent from the field in the series, Anthony shot 42 percent. James averaged 6.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists, Anthony averaged 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists…

Amare Stoudemire scored 14 points, Landry Fields and J.R. Smith both added 12, Mike Bibby had 10 and Tyson Chandler grabbed 11 rebounds for New York, which is 1-8 in playoff games with Anthony and Stoudemire as teammates…

Miami went 7-1 against the Knicks this season, including playoffs. The Heat won three of four games against Indiana this season.

— Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Jeremy Lin will not play in Knicks-Heat series

Mike Woodson cleared up all the questions and speculation about Jeremy Lin’s status Tuesday. The interim Knicks coach said Lin will not play in this series.

As the Knicks prepared for Game 5 on Wednesday night, Lin and team doctors told Woodson to go on without the point guard.

“He’s just not ready,” Woodson said. “They will let me know when he’s ready, and I’m sure he will step up to the plate and say ‘Hey, I’m ready,’ when that time comes. But right now he’s out. He’s not ready.”

The Knicks already lost Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis in this series to devastating knee injuries. Mike Bibby will start Wednesday, and J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony will also handle some of the point guard duties.

— Reported by Al Iannazzone of New York Newsday

Dwyane Wade might not play in Olympics

Speaking of which, Dwyane Wade sounded slightly less than 100 percent certain he’ll be in London no matter what, even after accepting the invite to what would be his third Olympics after being prodded by his 2008 Beijing teammates (“Kobe was like, ‘if my old self is playing, you can,'” Wade said — and I’m sure Kobe said ‘self’ there, aren’t you?) into putting the band back together one last time.

“I told them, I said, listen, I’m just going to see how I feel,” Wade said last week. “This is about being healthy — I think, for all of us, going into the summer healthy — and taking it from there.”

This was somewhat surprising to Colangelo, reached Sunday night.

“You could, today, probably come up with 10 or 11 that look pretty solid unless something happens,” he said by telephone. “Wade’s one of those guys, but if he feels like he doesn’t have anything left or doesn’t think he can go, then we’ll make a decision as to who replaces him. We do have a lot of flexibility because we have guys who can play so many positions.”

— Reported by David Aldridge of NBA.com

Melo scores 41, Knicks beat Heat in Game 4

Amare Stoudemire raised his hands in the air, one covered in padding, as streamers fell from the ceiling above him.

Finally, New York could celebrate an NBA playoff victory again.

Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points, Stoudemire had 20 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a cut hand, and the Knicks snapped an NBA-record, 13-game postseason losing streak by beating the Miami Heat 89-87 Sunday in Game 4 of their first-round series.

”I think it’s the first of many,” said Stoudemire, his left arm back in a sling to keep his hand elevated. ”Tonight was a great win for us, for our fans to finally get over that hump of those consecutive games that we lost, I guess the Knicks, lost over those years in the playoffs.”

— Reported by the Associated Press

Shaq earns doctoral degree in education

He’s officially Dr. O’Neal now.

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal received his doctoral degree in Education from Barry University Saturday morning along with another 1,100 students during multiple commencement ceremonies at the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami.

Like all things done by the four-time world champion, 15-time All-Star, movie star, rapper and entertainer, O’Neal, 40, accepted the degree in style. Wearing a custom-made, bright red XXXL-sized gown, the seven-foot-one, 325-pound former Miami Heat center got on one knee so Dr. David M. Kopp could place a light blue hood around his big neck.

O’Neal then stood up and lifted his professor like Tarzan was rescuing Jane. “Swept off my feet,” Kopp described the moment, celebrated with loud cheers from the crowd.

O’Neal then walked over and hugged school president, Sister Linda Bevilacqua before walking off stage posing for photos in his cap, gown and hood like all the other graduates. On his way back to his seat, O’Neal strolled by a star struck row of graduates and handed out high-fives like he was walking past his old teammates on the bench.

— Reported by Manny Navarro of the Palm Beach Post