The Portland Trailblazers

The Heat on the road are incredible.  LeBron and Wade are playing like two guys who just got out of prison and the people in the stands were the jury who sent them there.  It's plain to see why no home team has been able to beat them in the last 11 games and why no home team is about to, either.  Either the Heat play well and win easy, or they play not so well and get locked in a duel in the final few minutes.  When the latter happens, they will prevail every single time because LeBron and Wade are unstoppable in stretches when they need to be unstoppable, and should they happen to miss an important shot, that's okay, because they've got the refs too psyched out to dare not blow the whistle in their favor.  Additionally, the Heatles have become so scary that their opponent (even if it's a strong home team, like the Blazers tonight) can't help but tighten up and choke away any slim lead they've built over the first 45 or 46 minutes.  And if a team lets the Heatles off the hook and allows LeBron and Wade to take them into overtime, like the Bucks and the Blazers have done in the last two games, they can FORGET ABOUT IT, because those two beasts (LeBron and Wade) will never, ever lose a game in overtime.  Needing to play their best for just five minutes, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will never be beaten in an overtime session.  At this point I am almost ready to bet my life on that, because I can't imagine any team in the NBA that can overcome LeBron, Wade, and three frightened referees. 

When the Blazers were inbounding the ball with 24.6 seconds left in regulation and the game tied at 93, I was BEGGING their dumb asses to work their offense for the best shot possible and not worry about leaving the Heatles time on the clock rather than doing the usual idiotic NBA move of killing the clock and leaving themselves with no time to do anything other than throw up a horrible shot that misses badly 9 times out of 10.  Well, either I wasn't hollering loudly enough or the Blazers are just too stubborn, because killing the clock is exactly what they did, and all they wound up with is a terrible shot by Andre Miller that got partially blocked.  Miller recovered the ball in time to throw up another horrible shot that had no chance.  And that was that, because once the Heatles got the OT they were shooting for, it was lights out and they knew it.  At that point, with Portland's 91-84 lead blown, the Blazers were toast.  They were crispy toast.  Extra crispy toast.  Actually, they were just the blackened crumbs left on the plate after crispy toast has been consumed and washed down with coffee.  That's all that was left of the Blazers and their valiant effort.  Forty-six mintutes of playing hard and seven minutes of gagging hard.  For Portland backers, losses don't come any tougher than that one.

From ESPN.com:

James buried two deep 3-pointers and made two free throws in the extra period for the Heat (30-9), who have won 21 of their last 22 games after a slow start to the season. Chris Bosh added 18 points and eight rebounds. The Big Three combined for all but 11 of Miami's points.

"I had to do whatever it took to win," James said. "Coach put me in that position and it created a mismatch for them and I was able to use my athleticism and quickness against whoever was on me."

"That's what big-time players do," Matthews said. "He was coming down, hitting big shots -- daggers -- and we couldn't do anything about it."

Portland's veteran players were well aware that James has a history of torching the Blazers in the Rose Garden -- he is averaging 33.5 points and 10.6 rebounds in his last seven games in Portland -- and there was some concern in the locker room that the intimidation factor would come into play if the game was close.

Gee, ya think?  That intimidation factor will seep into the home team's locker room before every road game the Heatles play for the rest of the season.  I can't wait to see how the Heatles dispose of the hard-trying Clippers on Wednesday night.  Will they squash them like bugs, or will they humor them for three quarters before turning on the jets and leaving them spinning in the fourth?  It's up to the Super Friends how they want to handle it, because it sure as hell won't be up to the Clippers.

I think that whatever I do with the Heatles will leave me feeling stunned.  And then mad.  But ultimately, just sad.