<div align="center"> <font size="5">@</font> </div> Game: <font color="red"><u>Portland Trailblazers</u></font> @ <font color="Orange"><u>Miami Heat</u></font> Date: Tuesday 11/23/04 Time: 7:30pm EST Channel: NBALP Sunshine Network Live Boxscore: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2004112314 Note: If you have a preview written please post it. Thanks. Yahoo Preview: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Miami won its third in a row Sunday, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 93-83 to improve to 5-1 at home this season. Dwyane Wade had 25 points and Damon Jones tied a career high with five 3-pointers, including four in the final period, as the Heat improved to an Eastern Conference-best 8-3. Shaquille O'Neal took just seven shots, but scored 19 points and added 12 rebounds and six blocks. O'Neal said his teammates failed to get the ball to him a couple of times when he was open but shrugged off the oversights. ``They've never played with a big man of my caliber,'' he said. ``I'm a special big man, you know. This is like the best team I've been on in a while. We've got good shooters, and I've got people not worrying about their stats. It's a good fun team to be on, and I look to have fun this year.'' The Heat have lost four straight in the series with the Blazers and three in a row in Miami, but Portland comes into this contest with just one win in four road games this season. </div> Get your preds in early.
Malik Allen has been placed on the Injured List and Christian Laettner has been activated from the IR. He might get his first Heat start tonight. This is gonna be a great test for Rasual Butler and Udonis Haslem to go against Zach Randolph and SAR. If the Heat play strong defense and land their shots they can take this game. I think the Heat will win this game by 6.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">We've got good shooters, and I've got people not worrying about their stats. </div> Referring to Kobe...heh
My two favorite teams are playing the Blazers in the next two days. The Heat are playing them tonight and the Magic play them tommorow. GO HEAT AND MAGIC!
Impressive....Shandon Anderson - 15 pts, 3 stls - at the Half D Wade - 14pts 6 assists Shaq - 12 pts 6-7 FT
Damn the rim hates ud. more than half his shots have gone in then hit the rim and gone out . He's also getting destroyed off the dribble, he's gotta stop the ball from getting to the guy he's defending cuz the Trailblazers are looking for him. Were doing ok but we can be doing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. We're not even trying in this game and that allows the Trailblazers to get back in the game. I'm not worried about this because last year's team started clicking and winning after the All-Star break. BTW big ups to shandon anderson, this guy is killing Portland with 2-3 3PTers and 4-4 from the field with 2 boards and 1 assist.
This was just a horrible game for the Heat. All they had to do was defend and land their shots and they did neither. I swear If I saw them miss one more shot I was gonna puke. SVG did an awful job of not calling a timeout and letting Portland go on a 12-0 run at times. Haslem just couldn't land a shot if his life depended on it. Wade after the first half did not even try getting his team involved. Damon Jones was never even looked as a scoring option. Just a real pathetic display by the Heat and SVG. Just really ashamed of their performance especially after blowing a 12 pt lead.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting OGmAXiFY:</div><div class="quote_post">easy....no one can stop shaq...no one can stop d.wade Miami 105 Portland 92</div> Nice prediction, ok have Miami beaten an above 500 west team yet?
OMFG how could the Heat lose to the blazers AT HOME. All the Heat had to do was play simple defense and FEED THE DAMN BALL TO SHAQ! THey did neither. Which is why they lost. I mean they only let Shaq shoot 8 shots that whole game. 5-8 is pretty good. THey just need to feed it to him more. I cant stress this one thing enough, FEED THE BALL TO SHAQ EVERY TIME HE IS IN THE GAME! Theu need to use Shaq a lot more offensively. I mean 4 blocks is great on the defensive end and the presence he creates is great too. THey need to feed Shaq a hell of a lot more though. Van Gundy should establish that as numero uno. They won't win with Wade as their first guy. THey need to have Shaq take most of the shots, as he makes more of them than Wade does, and if Shaq is in trouble pass to a open 3 PT shooter or a dring Wade its as simple as that.
This was very embarrasing. Hopefully the Magic will win tommorow so I can have one of my favorite teams win. Wade didn't look as good as he has the past couple of games. Oh well there is always next game.
The Trailblazers did a good job of guarding Shaq and Wade and leaving Haslem completely open. If Malik Allen wasn't injured he would've easily sunk in half those shots. Haslem was shooting the ball extremely well but in the last three games he's been struggling with the mid range. Either way a lot of the blame has to go to SVG, it's his job to give this team the best chance of winning and he didn't do sh--.
The Blazers did a great job defensively. Maurice Cheeks deserves credit for devising a plan to limit Shaq and Wade. Shaq was getting 2ble and 3ple teams and they were clogging the lanes on WAde. The Blazers did their homework and the Heat simply did not make their shots. <font color="Red">The strategy is actually simple</font>: restrain Wade & Shaq and make the role players beat you. If the rest of the guys don't step up, look for every opponent do use the same strategy. I would do this if I had to defend against Wade and Shaq. <font color="Red">Shaq took only 8 shots !!!</font> This is unacceptable and Van Gundy needs to make sure this does not happen again. Udonis needs to keep his confidence high throughout the game. Great players don't get bothered by missing shots or by the refs. Udonis seemed like he couldnt get over his poor start. Nice to see Shandon Anderson shoot the ball well. Looks like Rasual has some competition. Hopefully the Heat learns from this defensive scheme because it is certaintly not the last time they will see it. <font color="Red">Best Remedy for an Ugly Loss??? ----> Atlanta Hawks </font>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ace2k2:</div><div class="quote_post">OMFG how could the Heat lose to the blazers AT HOME. All the Heat had to do was play simple defense and FEED THE DAMN BALL TO SHAQ! THey did neither. Which is why they lost. I mean they only let Shaq shoot 8 shots that whole game. 5-8 is pretty good. THey just need to feed it to him more. I cant stress this one thing enough, FEED THE BALL TO SHAQ EVERY TIME HE IS IN THE GAME! Theu need to use Shaq a lot more offensively. I mean 4 blocks is great on the defensive end and the presence he creates is great too. THey need to feed Shaq a hell of a lot more though. Van Gundy should establish that as numero uno. They won't win with Wade as their first guy. THey need to have Shaq take most of the shots, as he makes more of them than Wade does, and if Shaq is in trouble pass to a open 3 PT shooter or a dring Wade its as simple as that.</div> We were feeding the ball to Shaq all the time, except there was pretty much a constant double team on him AT ALL TIMES because Haslem was having a terrible night and the Blazers took their chances on leaving Haslem open every trip up the floor and it worked since he couldn't sink a bucket to save his life. They knew Haslem was having a bad night and took advantage of it, we were basically playing 4 on 5 the entire night when Haslem is on the floor. U wasn't contributing at all, yet SVG continued to leave him in the game.
Yea, it was a horrible game, but some team would have done the same thing sooner or later...I'm glad its still early in the season and we can figure out new plans.
