Fuck Yea[h] NBA

The Miami-Boston game appeared over, then Ray Allen did what he’s done more than any NBA player in history; he rained down threes like the Egyptians failed to heed his warnings of plague. Sure, the commentators and twitter users I follow all mention the zone defense disrupting the Heat’s offense, but I prefer to think it was Ray Allen that made this into a game, and Norris Cole that saved this from turning into a collapse by Miami.

Allen’s shooting is a plague for teams like Miami that use their athleticism and superior talent to jump out to huge leads midway through the game, but can’t keep up the pace because they’re incapable of playing at that frenetic pace when they possess a double digit lead. It’s not good game management to play fast when you want to eat clock. Slow down offense that takes full advantage of 24 seconds isn’t something Miami can do very well.

But back to Ray Allen, who continues to change games with his dizzying onslaught from beyond the arc. He’s so smooth even an impossibly angled shot from the corner, the kind that frequently grace Larry Bird highlight videos, leaves the twine hanging from the rim and rims securely untouched. Ray Allen is the greatest 3-point shooter of all time. We saw again why tonight, even though his team didn’t win.

Thankfully for Miami fans (ugh—stop chanting MVP for a rookie that’s played two games) Norris Cole was fabulous right when Miami needed their big three to be fabulous, but the Celtics again started slow and again fought back with Allen’s threes and some timely buckets by Dooling and Bass. They also, again, lost in the end. 

Back to Miami again because they’ve thoroughly manhandled two supposed contenders (although it’s been OKC-MIA across the board for most writers), but failed to play from behind—most conclusively tonight.

When people complain about LeBron’s post game, it’s not to the detriment of his incredible speed and size. His athleticism and ball-handling are why he’s in MVP discussions every year, but it would be the low-post game where he could get easy buckets late in games when Miami is playing prevent offense by slowing the ball down and using all of the clock. We’ll get plenty of chances to see Miami playing from ahead this shortened-season, and everyone will eventually know if LeBron really did work with his back to the basket. I’m not convinced, and you shouldn’t be either.  There have only been two games played this season (unless you’re the woeful Lakers), so lets wait and see. 

PHOTO: Getty VIA