HEAT! THUNDER! THE NBA ON NBA!

All right. So, given the fact that I could not care less about the Ravens and the Steelers, I am doing a running diary on the Heat and Thunder. This has several benefits to me. I get to watch my favorite player on my favorite team (D-Wade on the Heat) and the man I had tagged as being my second favorite player in Kevin Durant.

Watching the team with the worst record in the league play the current 6 seed in the east when the AFC championship is going on? That's dedication.

7:08 PM: Eric Snow looks like a baby.

7:10 PM: Wade has shaved a lightning bolt into his head for this game. Wade has given us a new wrinkle with his 'do every couple of weeks from the modified mohawk, to the early nineties "steps" and now the Flash bolt. He is really coming to play.

7:11 PM: Yikes. Marion is out today. Which means Diawara is going to start and . . uhh . . .I have no idea who is coming off the bench. Look for a lot of Chalmers, Cook, Wade, Beasley, Haslem lineups tonight.

7:12PM: Jeff Green looks sharp handling the ball. Point forward?

7:13 PM: Miami fumbles the ball three times on their first possession. Diawara! Anthony! The NBA on NBA!

Jeff Green is a crafty score on the inside.

7:15: KD is wearing a tshirt underneath his jersey!! I think this is the first time I have seen a guy in the NBA do this!! He looks goofy. I love the Durantala. This game by the way is energyless/

7:16: Ha. Westbrook has an assist because D Wade wasn't guarding Mason. Shocking.

7:17 PM. Chalmers needs to learn how to finish without getting his shot blocked. Needs to see some AI videos or something. He just has no shot.

7:18 PM: Wow, Jeff Green is very good, and a brilliant ballhandler. Did we know this?

7:19. 4 Minutes in. Wade has 8 points. The Thunder don't understand that you have to keep pressure on Wade, because Wade can get to the rim just as easy when you lay off him as he can when you play him tight.

7:20 Westbrook glides past Chalmer for a pullup.

Update on Durant's "Tshirt". We see that They are actually shoulder pads because he has a shoulder contusion. Good news: He now looks even goofier. Bad news: The Tshirt under the jersey is not coming back anytime soon.

7:23 PM: Westbrook and Chalmers are going at it hard. Fighting for post position, guarding up and down. Good matchup.

Thank God PJ Carlesimo is off the sidelines. Durant only has 4 points but he is catching tand shooting in good spots on the floor.

7:24PM Wade jumps 100 feet in the air for a rebound.

7:25 PM Its 17-15 Thunder after Green gets to the hole for a layup. I am wildly impressed with his game.

7:26 M Announcer. . Miami ahead by a "stickman" instead of point. I shall use that.

7:27 PM: On cue, Daequan Cook, AKA poor man's Michael Redd right down to the school checks in.

7:28 PM: What a last 3 minutes. Westbrook tries to take Chalmers off of the dribble. Chalmers stays in front of him, steals the ball. Runs it down to the other end. Westbrook challenges the layup, but Haslem finishes with a monster dunk. At the other end of the floor, Chalmers gets in Russel's face a little bit, and Westbrook elbows him away bringing the ball up the court. Wade makes a fancy drive and finds a wide open Joel Anthony for a dunk. BUT! Here comes Westbrook from the sky with a nasty block. The Thunder go on a fast break the other way, but the Heat are back. Durant sees Beasley ahead of him, and jumps from the dotted semicircle. . BUT, bricks the dunk, he actually some how over jumps it and misses. Joel Anthony gathers it in, passes it to Cook, who throws it to Wade. But Russ Westbrook is sneaking up for a steal/to draw a charge from D-Wade at half court. Wade doesn't see him, we think. Wade catches it and in one motion flips a behind the back pass to Chalmers who was streaking to his left. (How Wade saw Chalmers or Westbrook is beyond me.) Then Wade keeps running gets the ball back from Chalmers and throws down an absolute filthy, earth shattering dunk.

Now, I believe this thrilling sequence of basketball of events probably tells us everything we need to know about Wade, Chalmers, Westbrook and Joel Anthony. This is a microcosm of all of those players' seasons. Unbelievable. Sadly, it does some disservice to Durant and Beasley. But it was almost cool to see Durant get overhyped for a shot to dunk on the guy who out statted him in college. I paused the TIVO just to describe all this. Back to the game.

7:37PM: Phew timeout. Loe this Russ Westbrook. Got to love Mario too. This game needed some chippiness.

7:38 PM: By the way Wade has 14 points. We are still in the first quarter. Wait, no . . 16.

7:39 PM: Beasley looks very frustrated. Wade has to become friends with this guy or something. Green just took B-Easy off the dribble with ease and drew a foul.

7:40PM: Wade has the blinders on. He just made a contested jumper with his feet on the three point line.

7:40PM: Durant just called for a travel. I'm not sure if he will be able to get to the rim consistently from 20+ feet. I have never thought his handle was sick or anything. He certainly doesn't have the same handle as Green.

7:42PM: Wade put a Jeff Green short jumper into the stands. . There is Durant. He caught a tough pass in the paint. And he rose and shot the ball easily ove Magloire. Durant could play center if he needed to on offense.

7:43 PM: Durant attacks the rim from the free throw line, and breezes past Cook for a layup. God he is smooth. Free throw line and down.

7:45 PM The announcer hoax: "Chris Quinn has made 21 straight free throws. ." Not 22.

FIRST QUARTER OVER: I'm exhausted. 31-27 Heat. This is entertainment.

7:50 PM NBA TV does this weird thing, where we will mis twenty seconds of game play sometimes. They'll just drop us in at the eleven minute mark with no explanation.

The Thunder never show out on these pick and rolls. Chris Quinn just drilled a wide open shot on a weak pick from Haslem.

7:51 Durant can shoot over anyone. There is no guarding him. There KD made a little dribble move and found Wilcox for a hoop.

7:52 PM: I am lost why Watson and Russel don't play more together. Watson should be playing 30 minutes a game. He just diced through 4 Miami defenders on a secondray break. Why isn't he always in?

7:53PM: You know what Chris Quinn ain't all bad. He is actually penetrating a little bit this game. and had made two plays. Is he a legit backup PG? Maybe so.

7:55 PM: Hmm.. Daequan Cook is a player to watch. With Beasley in foul trouble and Wade on the pine, they are running Cook of screens for jumpers and he looks very very comfortable getting open, and taking that shot like Miller and Hamilton. This is a good sign for Miami.

7:56 PM: 41-37 Heat. The THunder are taking zero advantage of this non Wade time. It feels like they haven't made a shot this whole second half.

8:00 PM: Haha! Magloire with a baby hook. He does not jump by the way.

Wow. Jeff Green just moved past D-Wade with ease off the dribble. Granted I think Wade was setting up for a block. But I really like Jeff. He is so under control.

45 - 38 Heat. 8:01 PM.

8:03PM: Yikes, Westbrook just threw down a nasty dunk on Chalmers and started at him. Absolutely filthy.

8:05PM: Westbrook skied for an offensive board, and hit a wide open .KD from 3. Durant doesn't miss open shots.

8:08 PM: Mason and Wade are chippy. Westbrook and Chalmers are chippy. Heated exchange between Mason and Wade.

8:09 PM. End of the half. Wade and Cook hit 3s to make it 57-50 at the end of the half. The only thing I could have asked from the first half would be for Beasley to not get three fouls in 5 minutes so we had a little Durant-Beas matchups going. Beasley looks tired, nervous and uninterested. I know he's better than Mario Chalmers. But, Mario never seems out of place or overmatched. B-Easy on the other hand, seems out of sorts a lot.

8:21 PM. . .Annnnnnnnndddddd. . . . We're back.

8:22 PM: Wade blocks Westbrook hard to open the second half. Wade!

8:23: Mason throws down a nasty dunk on Anthony. 62-53 Heat. Durant is showing some more passing and rebounding than usual.

8:26PM: Wade drops a 3 over Mason and stares him down. Wade has 24 points, and is shooting the ball easy tonight.

8:27 PM: Durant looks awkward on defense but he seems sort of effective

8:34PM: I have cracked a Bell's Hopslam ale. I'm losing steam. Something fancy needs to happen soon. I want Durant to go on a tear.

8:34 PM: I love Wade but I hate his pump fake/ try to draw foul nonsense. You shouldn't be able to do that crap.

8:35 PM: Chalmers makes a crafty move past Westbook and finishes with a finger roll. He is playing great tonight, not looking out of place against Watson or Westbrook or are fine fine players.

8:37 PM: Beasley checks back in. Lets see if he doesn't need to foul immediately.

8:40 PM: Nick Collison and Nenad Kristic have combined for 0 impactful plays so far. And, on cue, Kristic misses a 22 footer.

The game has seriously devolved for the Thunder. Miami is not playing great but they have lost their offensive mode. They don't really play well otgether yet. It's a bunch of one on one guys. They need Watson to help out.

8:40 PM: Beasley on Durant! Finally. And, Durant moves past him. And surprise, surprise, Beasley gets whistled for a non existent foul. Heat are still up 10. Again, Durant moved past him from the free throw line. The Thunder need to play Watson, Westbrook, Green, Durant, and Wilcox in crunch time.

8:43 PM. I'm enjoying this game less and less. Heat are up 12. Beasley is playing terrrible and I have no idea who this Weaver guy is for the Bobcats.

8:45 PM: I know Westbrook is good on defense but he is showing very little resistance to Wade. That still leaves only Lindsay Hunter and Kirk Hinrich as the guys I have ever seen actually control Wade a little bit.

8:46 PM: Beasley drives past Durant for a basket on a sharp little layup on a drive. Then OKC comes right back and nails a baseline jumper.

8:50 PM: This game has convinced me for sure that my scouting report has been right on him all along. Dirk Nowitzki, but, a better shooter. I can't imagine a situation where this guy could miss a free throw. Heat are still up 11. Wade has gone silent. Beasley has woken up. Durant

8:52PM: What can I do to get NBATV some decent commercials? Good god, these production values are mind numbing.

8:55PM: Beasley is completely frustrated in this game, and the Thunder can't punch back. the offenses have gone flat.

8:56 PM: Durant penetrates and kicks to Durant who drops in his 27th point of the game on an open 3. Why would you leave him open. OKC has a pulse down 8.

8:57 PM: Durant from 3 feet beyond the arc! DRAINS IT! For his 30th point. OKC is down 3 now! KD is one of the best shooters I have ever seen. Finally, they take advantage of Wade being off the court. 10 minutes left in the fourth.

9PM: I'm totally back into this game now. Watson and Brook playing together with Weaver, Durant and Krstic.
Wade comes in and drills a shot right away over Westbrook.

:01PM. Wade comes off a screen and nails a shot over Krstic. 2-2 in the 4th.

90-83 with 7:46 left.

Watson makes a great play against Chalmers, and leads a fastbreak. . Green finishes...

WADE posts up Westbook at half court to get the ball! Then he fakes a shot and hits a wide open Chalmers who nails a 3. 93-85 Heat.

9:05PM: I think it's all over for the Thunder. Durant had a good low post up against Cook and couldn't get it to go.

Crunch time lineups:
Watson, Westrbook, Green, Durant Collison.

Chalmers, Wade, Cook Haslem, Magloire.

9:08 PM. Collison and Magloire exchange baskets. I just wrote that?

Westbrook pooped upa fast break after a Wade miss. Heat come back and find Cook for 3. Heat up 11 with 4 minutes.

Up 14 with 4 minutes. Chalmers nails a 3. When Cook and Chalmers hit 3s. Miami wins.

The game is winding down. So, let's dole out the soccer style ratings for all the players involved.

• Mario Chalmers - 6 - Can't ask for anything more from this chap. He was the equal of his counterparts when he could have been overmatchd.
• Dwyane Wade - 9 - Capital game from Wade. The world's best player playing his best. Lead distributor, blocked a few shots, and didn't punch his rookies in the face.
• Diawara - 5 - Yahkouba played some D, and nailed some threes. That's all he does, and tonight he did it well.
• Haslem - 7 - Dominated the interior tonight. A little dissapointing when he had opportunities to create his own offense, and failed.
• Joel Anthony - 3 - Was a presence. Could not finish on offense, couldn't defend the rim.
• Daequan Cook - 6 - Really showed his offensive game tonight. Shot coming off of screens, and shot threes with hands in his face. Generally made his shots, proved that you can run an offense through him. A revelatory game.
• Michael Beasley - 2 - Foul trouble. Lack of hustle. Showed a drive and a block. Otherwise, not much.

• Russ Westbrook - 5 - Ornery, intense, athletic, and stuffed the stat sheet. He played one good half and one very uneven one.
• Kevin Durant - 8 - A efficient and fun game from Durant. He did everything on offense and almost brought his team back into the game with some classy shooting. Can he offer something on the other end?
• Jeff Green-8- Impressed on both ends of the floor. Other than Wade, he was the man of the match, showing his veratile scoring regimine and ability to stay in front of guys on defense.
• Desmond Mason - 3 -I liked his orneriness in defending Wade. Unfortunately Wade torched him, mercilessly. Did have a big dunk, though.
• Nick Collison/Nenad Krstic - 3 - I have no idea what either one did. They are big, white, and goofy. They did a good job defending Haslem.
• Earl Watson - 5 - Good game from Watson, but some silly mistakes at the end.
• K. Weaver - 4 - No idea who this guy is. He's athletic and made a couple plays in 13 minutes.