Fire Up the Bandwagon

The Heat are back. That's right, the Heat are back.

If anyone with a neuron watched the game this afternoon, a clashing of two potential juggernauts (3 Finals MVPs on the floor at the same time - Wade, Shaq and Duncan!), then they witnessed the return of the Miami Heat. Finally.

Shaq played a lively 24 minutes, and is still returning from his knee injury. You couldn't tell. The Diesel dropped 16 and ravaged the Spurs frontcourt at will. Oberto, Elson, Duncan, it didn't matter. Shaq had at least 3 rim-rocking dunks today; the rims are still shaking at this very moment.

Wade did his usual superhero imitation, only without the phone booth. He didn't score a field goal in the first quarter, but dropped 18 points (of his 26 total) in the 4th by himself. The Spurs had no answers except run at him and flop and pray for a foul.

"It was a great game until Dwyane Wade decided to take over," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "And then it was over."

Yet, this is not unusual. This is how the Heat are expected to win games, and especially at home. They dump off into the post for the Big Fella or clear out and let Wade take over. What is a little more interesting is who finished the game out and who was contributing to the win.

Ron Rothstein seemed to have enough. Shaq was in foul trouble, so he put Zo in at the start of the 4th. Then, Zo gets clocked for a few fast fouls (say that three times fast) and the Heat go small. On the floor is Wade, EJ, Posey, Walker and Haslem. All they do is end up running the Spurs out of the building on the heels of a 15 point lead.

"Great defense. It surprised me a little bit."

Tony Parker shouldn't have been surprised, all of a sudden he couldn't score anymore. Duncan's shot wasn't falling. Ginobili went cold. It shouldn't be a coincedence as two masters of perimeter defense, Eddie Jones and James Posey, were on the floor at the same time. Even ex-Heatian Bruce Bowen, who polished his skills under the tutelage of Keith Askins, had to be impressed. Rothstein was, "Eddie was huge. Capital H, capital U, capital G, capital E. He was terrific."

EJ did finish up with 12 points, one basket was Wade-like, as he attacked the basket and spun around backwards to flip the ball in the net. He was also 4-4, but the real key was his defense. This is the main thing the Heat needed to get going - better defensive efforts. And it is contagious - Posey was brilliant as both he and EJ worked tirelessly to stifle the Spurs offense. To the point where for a seven minute period, the Spurs did not score a field goal (9:15 to 2:07 left in the 4th).

In fact, that small lineup did so well, it didn't need to see Shaq return and he sat out for the remaining 15 minutes plus.

If you told anyone that today the Heat would be in the 4th quarter with both Shaq and Zo on the bench, they would have guessed either it was a complete blowout, the two were in foul trouble, or something very bad had happened.

How things change in a matter of days. The Heat went from a lackluster performance against pretenders the Cavs, to a toe-to-toe matchup with the first-class Spurs which resulted in a bit of a blowout for the Heat.

Only starting to get healthy, although lacking Jason Williams, the Heat are showing that the champs aren't the chumps everyone might have written them off to be.

Now, it is just up to the Heat to continue to work and get better. Meanwhile, I will dust off the bandwagon, fire up the engine, and start driving around just in case anyone wants to grab a seat.