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Heat blog – Miami Heat blog
The 2010-11 NBA regular season is in the books, with all 30 teams in action Wednesday night. The NBA playoffs begin Saturday.
The first round matchups in the East are: Bulls vs Pacers, Heat vs 76ers, Celtics vs Knicks, and Magic vs Hawks.
The West’s first round matchups are: Spurs vs Grizzlies, Lakers vs Hornets, Mavericks vs Blazers, and Thunder vs Nuggets.
The complete first round series-by-series NBA playoffs schedule is here.
The AP reports:
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LeBron James scored 27 points, Dwyane Wade added 14 and the Heat moved closer to wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the East playoffs by beating the sliding Celtics 100-77 on Sunday.
Miami moved a game ahead of Boston, and trimmed its magic number to clinch the second seed to two.
Chris Bosh added 13 points and eight rebounds for Miami, which had been 0-3 against Boston this season.
Paul Pierce scored 24 points and Kevin Garnett added 21 for Boston, which lost for the 10th time in its last 19 games.
The Heat finally solved the Boston hex, beating the Celtics for the third time in the last 21 meetings. Bosh had been 1-13 against Boston since March 2007, and the Celtics ended both the 2009-10 seasons for Wade (in the first round) and James (in the second round).
Miami won for the 13th time in its last 16 games and outrebounded Boston 42-26, the Celtics’ total a season low.
Ray Allen scored 13 points for the Celtics. Rajon Rondo was held to just seven points and five assists on 3 for 8 shooting.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports:
Tinker Hatfield is the Michael Jordan of designers at Nike, a legend in the shoe design field and the guy who runs the company’s “Innovation Kitchen.” He also, apparently, is not a fan of LeBron James’ associates.
Hatfield rarely does interviews and guards his secrets closely. But he did a private appearance at a Miami shoe store last week in which he took some questions from customers. During the session, which was recorded and posted on YouTube, Hatfield said he stopped personally developing James’ signature shoes because he didn’t like dealing with those around James.
“I don’t like working with LeBron’s entourage,” Hatfield said. “It’s too many people, too many ideas, too many opinions.”
It is the second time in the last six months Hatfield has publicly taken a shot at James various friends and managers. During a similar event last October in Santa Monica, Calif., Hatfield told a group of listeners at a shoe store that “I used to work on LeBron’s, until his entourage kind of pissed me off.”
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
The AP reports:
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Miami Heat forward LeBron James has now scored 2,000 points in seven straight seasons.
James entered Wednesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks with 1,998 points this season. He made a pair of free throws with 2:12 remaining in the first quarter to reach the 2,000 milestone.
The NBA’s two-time reigning MVP is the eighth player to score 2,000 points seven times. At 26, he’s the youngest member of that club.
Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal reports:
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Basketball star LeBron James is joining forces with renowned hedge-fund manager John Henry and veteran Hollywood producer Tom Werner in a deal that brings together one of the biggest stars in sports and two of the world’s most renowned teams.
The deal between Mr. James and Fenway Sports Group will give Mr. James a minority stake in the soccer club Liverpool, which FSG owns. FSG, which also owns the Boston Red Sox, is partnering with Mr. James’s sports-marketing firm, LRMR Branding & Marketing to become the exclusive world-wide representative for Mr. James.
The deal marks the first time that a professional athlete at the top of his game has taken an ownership interest in a team with the size and reach of Liverpool, which is one of the most popular and powerful sports franchises in the world.
It also adds yet another dimension for Boston-based FSG, which became a global operation last October when it bought Liverpool for $488 million. The company was founded as New England Sports Ventures nine years ago after Messrs. Henry and Werner bought the Red Sox and 80% of regional sports channel New England Sports Network. In 2007 Fenway became 50% owner of the Nascar auto-racing team Roush Fenway Racing.
ESPNsoccernet reports:
James is also going into business with the Boston Red Sox, as FSG is also the parent company of the Red Sox and a co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing.
“What FSM does for Roush Fenway, Liverpool and the Red Sox, we will now do for LeBron James,” Fenway Sports Marketing (a sister company of FSG) president Sam Kennedy said. “We will aggressively pursue business opportunities for him.
“We are fortunate to have blue-chip brands like the Red Sox, Liverpool and Roush Fenway. This represents the next step in our evolution, to represent one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet.”
Shandel Richardson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
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The Heat remain unsure whether forward Udonis Haslem will rejoin the team this season.
Haslem did not practice Tuesday because of soreness in his left foot. He’s been out since November when he underwent surgery to repair ligament damage.
Haslem progressed the last month, but the Heat continue to say “it’s too early” to tell if he will return.
“He did a lot more work during the road trip than the week before,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“I’m not getting coy about it. None of us know at this point. Until he’s able to go full speed, running, cutting, side to side and contact work and how his foot responds to that, we won’t know. He’s still a ways form that.”
Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald reports:
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Heat forward Mike Miller admits he feels a little guilty.
He was supposed to be in the running for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Instead, the likable shooter could be considered one of the NBA’s biggest individual disappointments of the regular season. The significance of that statement is not lost on Miller, who has struggled this season due to injury.
“You do feel guilty at times because you want to be able to do more and help but I have to make sure I’m healthy for the stretch we have left,” Miller said.
At this point, that’s the most important thing — that Miller is as healthy as possible for the Heat’s playoff run. He has played in only 36 games this season because of injuries, including torn ligaments in his thumb, a nasty series of blows to the head and, most recently, a bruised right knee.
Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News reports:
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Could Eddy Curry be joining the big three in Miami?
The former Knick, who came to epitomize the team’s failings under Isiah Thomas, worked out for the Miami Heat in recent days in a move that could foreshadow his signing with the team for the playoffs.
“Pat (Riley) worked him and about a half-dozen guys out as part of a big picture look,” a team spokesman said Saturday without elaborating. “Anything else is pure speculation.”
According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Riley put Curry through his paces in Chicago and scheduled the 7-footer to visit Miami early next week for another workout and a physical.
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John Wall of the Washington Wizards has been suspended one game without pay, and Juwan Howard of the Miami Heat has been fined $35,000 for their roles in an incident during a game on Wednesday, March 30. Additionally, Miami’s Zydrunas Ilgauskas has been fined $25,000. The penalties were announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
Wall has been suspended for his Flagrant Foul, Penalty Two, which included throwing a closed-fist and forearm into the midsection of Ilgauskas, and Howard has been fined for escalating the altercation. The incident occurred with 8:48 remaining in the second quarter of the Heat’s 123-107 victory at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
Ilgauskas, who received a Flagrant Foul, Penalty Two, for an elbow to the face of Wall, has been fined for making an obscene gesture following his ejection.
Wall will serve his suspension on Friday, April 1 when the Wizards host the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
Shandel Richardson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
| Derrick Rose |
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| Kid is ballin’ |
Earlier this season, James backed New York Knicks center Amar’e Stoudemire for league MVP. With a few weeks left before the playoffs, things have changed.
James said Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose is his choice. Rose is generally regarded as the top candidate, with the Bulls on pace to earn the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Rose has kept the Bulls afloat despite injuries to Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah.
“I think Derrick Rose,” James said. “What he’s done for that team, with all the injuries they have and them being first in the Eastern Conference. They’re playing some really good basketball.”
James said he was leaning toward Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki until he was injured. Now, he’s in full support of Rose.
“You’ve got some guys here that have done their job also,” James said. “But Derrick Rose definitely has gotten a lot of the exposure and a lot of the media attention because of the work he’s done. He’s playing some unbelievable basketball.”
