Category: Miami Heat Blog

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Opinion: Halfway through season, LeBron playing like MVP

At the start of the season, many in the basketball world figured that with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade playing on the same team, neither one would have a real shot at winning the 2010-11 NBA MVP award because their stats would be lowered. Chris Bosh being on the Heat as well factors into it as well, of course.

Yet now, in early February, LeBron is steadily emerging as the league favorite to capture the award again.

Chris Perkins of Fox Sports Florida reports:

Miami (38-14) is winning. That’s the biggest requirement for the MVP. The Heat is only a half-game behind Boston (38-13), which is almost the unanimous pick to win the Eastern Conference.

And James is producing. He’s averaging 26.4 points per game (second in the NBA), 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists. For his career he averages 27.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 7.0 assists. So there’s been no big statistical sacrifice by joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form Miami’s Big Three.

Plus, James has already won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month Award twice (actually, he shared it with Wade in January), and he has the NBA’s highest-scoring game of the season with his 51-point outburst at Orlando. James has made the Heat better and he’s made his teammates better.

The other MVP candidates? Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the league’s leading scorer at 29 ppg, is probably the favorite. Durant also averages 7.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

If I had to vote today, I’d go with LeBron for sure, especially the way he’s on fire over his last 10 games.

Grizzlies sign Jason Williams

Grizzlies sign Jason Williams

The Memphis Grizzlies signed free agent guard Jason Williams, Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced Monday.  Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Williams, who played four seasons in Memphis from 2001-05, is the franchise’s all-time assists leader (2,041).

A member of the inaugural Memphis Grizzlies in 2001, Williams played four seasons in the Bluff City (2001-05), where he averaged 11.9 points, 7.2 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 30.7 minutes in 284 games (277 starts) and helped lead the Grizzlies to their first two playoff appearances (2004, 2005).  After his time in Memphis, the 6-1, 190-pound floor general won an NBA Championship as a starter for the 2005-06 Miami Heat.

Selected by the Sacramento Kings with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 1998 NBA Draft, Williams holds career averages of 10.6 points, 5.9 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 29.7 minutes in 777 career games (667 starts) over 12 NBA seasons with the Kings, Grizzlies, Heat and Orlando Magic.  The 35-year-old, who ranks ninth among active players in assists (4,683), posted 2.1 points, 1.5 assists and 1.4 rebounds in 10.7 minutes in 16 games this season for Orlando.

Williams also ranks in the top 10 in Grizzlies history in three-pointers made (497, 2nd), steals (369, 4th), points (3,379, 9th), three-pointers attempted (1,528, 2nd), assists per game (7.2, 2nd), games played (284, 10th), games started (267, 7th) and free throw percentage (.817, 5th).

Memphis’ roster now stands at 14 players.

LeBron James scores 51 as Heat edge Magic

Just when it seems like we’ve said every positive thing about LeBron James imaginable, he goes and unleashes a game like this:

The AP reports:

LeBron James scores 51 as Heat edge Magic

LeBron James had 51 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, including a 23-point first quarter, to lead Miami to a 104-100 victory over Orlando on Thursday night.

It was a season high for James, whose scoring effort tied for the fifth most points of his career.

The Heat exploited a thin Magic front line that was missing injured starting forward Brandon Bass. They led by as many as 23 points. Dwyane Wade added 15 points and Chris Bosh 13.

Jameer Nelson led Orlando with 22 points. Dwight Howard had 17 points and 16 rebounds, but only one point after halftime and was just 3 for 13 at the free throw line. Jason Richardson chipped in 16…

James started his scoring spree in the opening 12 minutes, going right at Turkoglu and later Earl Clark when he came in off the bench.

He had 23 points the period, hitting all nine of his field goal attempts and going 5 for 6 at the free throw line, as the Heat took a 30-26 lead into the second quarter.

The 23 points by James broke Alonzo Mourning’s first-quarter Heat scoring record of 21 points, which he set in 1996.

The only concern here is how much LeBron did and how little everyone else did, but let’s not think about that right now.

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Real Housewives of Miami will include wife of Scottie Pippen

There seem to be about a million “Real Housewives of…” shows on Bravo, so naturally the people need more. And they will get it, now down in Miami, Florida.

Ann Oldenburg of USA Today reports:

Bravo is gearing up for a new city, new cast and new drama with the newest player in its Real Housewives franchise: sizzling Miami. The Real Housewives of Miami follows six of the “most connected and influential women of Miami as they live their lives to the fullest in this sunny city where the party never stops,” according to a release from the network.

The cast includes Larsa Pippen, wife of NBA superstar Scottie Pippen, whom Bravo describes as a “snarky Lebanese beauty” who “shares the unofficial title of Hottest NBA Wife” with her friend and fellow cast member Cristy Rice. The series will make its debut at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Feb. 22, bumping Season 4 of The Real Housewives of New York to later this spring. So yes, you’ll have to wait until then to catch up with the Countess.

And, E! reports:

Larsa, described as a “snarky Lebanese beauty,” has four young kids with the Chicago Bulls superstar. Her recently divorced pal Cristy is a Miami native with three kids who runs her own clothing store.

The basketball fan crowd and Real Housewives fan crowd isn’t necessarily the same core audience, but I’m sure some of you out there will tune in.

Larsa Pippen (below):

Christy Rice (below)

Kevin Durant gets mad at Chris Bosh

Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City, the Thunder hosted the Miami Heat and came away with a 108-103 loss. After the game, Kevin Durant (7-of-20, 33 points, 10 rebounds and four steals) talked about why he got mad at Heat forward Chris Bosh (8-of-13, 20 points, seven rebounds).

The Chicago Tribune wire services report:

Kevin Durant gets mad at Chris Bosh

Durant says he was upset because Bosh got involved in his conversation with a teammate. Bosh says Durant was telling James Harden that next time, he should dunk on Bosh. Bosh had fouled Harden on the previous play to prevent a fast-break layup.

“I think he was telling Harden to dunk on me, or dunk the next one,” Bosh said before giving a cleaned-up version of the exchange. “I expressed that, ‘No, he’s not going to dunk that.’ And he expressed, ‘Yes, he is.’ It just kind of went back and forth.”

Both Durant and Bosh were called for technical fouls. It was Bosh’s second of the season and the first that will count against Durant, who also had one rescinded earlier this season.

“I’m no punk. I wasn’t even talking to him, first off. He decided to butt in and I’m not going to just let that slide, especially in our house,” Durant said. “Like I said, he’s not one of those guys that I look at and say, ‘Oh, he has a rap for talking back to guys or always getting into it.’

Durant, who while extremely competitive rarely tends to get heated, also said the following about Bosh: “There’s a lot of fake tough guys in this league and he’s one of them.”

Dwyane Wade`s tinted goggles rejected by NBA for game

The AP reports:

The NBA has rejected the tinted goggles that Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade(notes) planned to wear for the start of Thursday’s game against the New York Knicks to protect his eyes from the bright lights as he recovers from a migraine headache.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says the league disallowed the glasses when they inspected them after Miami’s shootaround Thursday morning. The NBA said the tinting was too dark, giving Wade an unfair advantage because the opponent could not see his eyes.

Chris Bosh may not return for 1-2 weeks

The Miami Heat have not been at full strength lately, and it appears another week or two will go by before that situation is rectified.

Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald reports:

Chris Bosh may not return for 1-2 weeks

Heat forward Chris Bosh indicated Monday that he could be sidelined for an extended period of time due to his high ankle sprain.

Bosh injured his ankle more than a week ago when Omer Asik of the Chicago Bulls fell on his leg while diving for a loose ball. A week after the sprain, Bosh was still experiencing too much pain to run on a treadmill. On Monday, Bosh sat out another practice. Guard Eddie House also did not practice due to an ankle sprain.

“It’s quite boring to be me right now at work,” Bosh said. “I’m still just trying to feel it out. It’s a different situation. I’ve never had a high ankle sprain. I don’t really know how to gauge anything.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Bosh isn’t “ready for anything full speed, or side-to-side or with contact.” The coach also didn’t refute questions that Bosh could be out one or two more weeks.

The Heat are currently 31-13 and are the second seed in the Eastern conference, behind the Boston Celtics.

Chicago man gets 13 years for robbing Antoine Walker

The AP reports:

A Chicago man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbing former NBA star Antoine Walker at gunpoint at his home in 2007.
Demorris Hill was tried late last year for the robbery, but the jury wasn’t able to reach a unanimous verdict…

Two other men also have been convicted in the robbery, and a third is awaiting trial.

Hill is also charged in a similar robbery at the suburban Chicago home of New York Knicks Center Eddy Curry.