Details: When: Monday, January 3rd Where: American Airlines Arena, Miami Time (Seattle): 4:30 TV: Fox Sports, League Pass Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (22-6)</font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="Red">Miami (25-7)</font> Damon Jones Dwyane Wade Eddie Jones Udonis Haslem Shaquille O'Neal Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Mateen Cleaves: Strained shoulder, ruled out. Casanova Swift: Strained hip, ruled out. Damien Wilkins: Knee tendinitis, ruled out. <font color="red">Miami</font> Malik Allen: Back spasms, ruled out. Jerome Beasley: Strained lower back, ruled out. Dorrell Wright: Abdominal strain, ruled out. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]The Sonics' biggest challenge for the season thus far, arguably eclipsing playing the Spurs on the road and the Suns at home. The Heat were widely tipped to dominate the East after aquiring Shaquille O'Neal before the season, and after a slow start, they have won 14 straight, and are miles out ahead in the East. They are also 5-6 against West teams this season, but those six losses came first up, meaning they have won their last five games against teams from the opposite conference. The Sonics play Miami again on the 9th. [/list] <ul> [*]A very interesting game, match-ups wise. Vitaly Potapenko should see his way back into the rotation, just to have six extra fouls to use against the Big Aristotle. With Udonis Haslem next to him, the likes of Reggie Evans, Nick Collison and Danny Fortson can't really afford to focus solely on Shaq, as Haslem will clean the boards and make the most of any tidbits he get in terms of scoring. In the backcourt, I'd like to say the Sonics have the advantage, but Damon Jones on Luke Ridnour and Dwyane Wade on Ray Allen is very close, and might even favour the Heat. [/list] <ul> [*]All-Star Watch: Rashard Lewis is absolute key for the Sonics' chances of victory. He is the one position Seattle have the advantage at, as Miami start small with Eddie Jones at the three. Lewis needs to get to the basket much as possible, and try and draw fouls on O'Neal. He also needs to post up Jones whenever possible, as he has a big size advantage over the natural shooting guard, and is a much better player than the Heat's back-up in Rasual Butler. [/list] <div align="center"><u>Random Family Guy Quote</u></div> Meg: You could kill all the girls who are prettier than? Death: Well, that would just leave England... <div align="center"><font size="6"><font color="DarkGreen">FAM</font> </font></div> All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
Let's go heat go... we can win this. It's a close game in the 4th quarter, which is when we thrive. Hopefully we can pull a win out. Lewis and Allen are unstoppable right now, but Shaq is dominating them.
Man, we had this game in the pocket.... how could we let this!!! Why didn't Wade take the last shot... why didn't he take the shots in crunch time not Laettner or Jones... jeesz.
Yeah, come on guys...Shaq and Wade fouling within the last minute didn't help. The Heat as a team lost this game. I really think you can beat them in Seattle though...because I doubt Wade will start the game with poor shooting next time, and that goes for Damon Jones as well.
I just mad cuz we had the chance right there. FREE throw. FREE. and 3 of them. It was a great game and i loved watching it and all. I don't care our 14 game winning streak has ended. Reaction would have been better if this was some 2 game winning streak or something. Nothing about winning streak. We played a great great west team and fought to the end. But come on you have to admit that it's frustrating when a jump shot guy misses a free throw when it counts the most. Oh well great game by the HEAT tonight.
The Sonics played a good game. They killed us on the boards. We had plenty of chances to win this game. Christian Laettner had a 4 foot shot to win it after Damon Jones missed the three. Ray Allen was AMAZING !!! What do you guys think of Seattle strategy of guarding Wade with Rashard Lewis and Radmanovic (both 6'10" forwards)???
Free throws cost us, not just the ones EJ missed in the end but throughout the whole game. We are ranked 29th in the league in team FT%, that's pathetic.
Supes got out of jail in this one, but we'll definately take it. Should make the return game very interesting, particularly as we seem to be playing better on the road than at home of late.
