Thursday, December 20, 2007

Heat Lose Another Close One

Yet another magnificent performance from Dwyane Wade, who is looking more and more like his old self, leading this team as far as he can with 41 points. However, it was Udonis Haslem this time with an unorthodox, yet clutch jumper to tie in regulation.

Sadly it wasn't enough as the Heat lost again in overtime, this time to the New Jersey Nets 107-103. The Heat got no help from the refs who blew a call that should have given us the ball back down 2 with 18 seconds to go. Instead the Heat were forced to foul and ended up with another home loss.

This was yet another deflating loss as the Heat led through much of this game and lost another player to injury. This time it was young point guard Chris Quinn, who left the game in the 3rd quarter with an ankle injury.

Dorell Wright had an incredible first half, scoring 11 points and grabbing 7 boards, 5 on the offensive glass. His energy is something this team desperately needs, but for the most part he disappeared in the 2nd half as Riley inexplicably turned to Ricky Davis.

The aforementioned Davis had another poor showing from the field, but it wasn't out of lack of effort. And yes, that was an Earl Barron sighting. Barron playing some of his first meaningful minutes of the season and made a couple of nice buckets, but also forced a shot or two. Shaq's performance was typical of the season and he fouled out in overtime without making much of an impact.

The story of the night was the play of Dwyane Wade, who has played back to back nights of extended minutes. Sadly, his efforts have been for naught as the Heat continue to find ways to lose. Now they consistently allow over 100 points and are getting beaten on the boards all the time. Tonight they got out-rebounded by terrible rebounding team in the Nets. Somehow Pat Riley has to find a way to upgrade this roster because it's simply not working.

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