Joey Whelan is a reporter at KFYR-TV in Bismarck and contributor to HoopSpeak and D-League Digest. He is also an impressively persistent bugger. This is his first post at Hardwood Paroxysm. Â Welcome him. -Ed.
Photo via Jerrycharlotte on Flickr
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
– Robert Burns, 1785
I wonder if Stan Van Gundy has read much Robert Burns. At best it’s unlikely, with the arrow wavering heavily towards no. But in these harsh economic times, there just isn’t time for 18th century Scottish poetry like there used to be. Chances are he’s at least somewhat familiar with the penultimate stanza, a well aged saying believed to have been the inspiration for Steinbeck’s classic novel Of Mice and Men and perhaps of some unbeknownst comfort for SVG on the receiving end of the highest single-game point total in the NBA this season.
With a well documented weakened frontcourt anchored by Dwight Howard and the ghost of Gortat’s past, the Magic managed to play Lebron James exactly as they wanted: force him away from the basket. Yet on a night where number six took 19 of his 25 shots from outside the paint, King James turned in his finest performance in a Miami Heat uniform. Much like the mouse in Burns’ eight-stanza classic that winds up being displaced from his home by a plow, James carved through Orlando like a blade through soil. How can this not be the most satisfying night of the season for the League’s new villain of the moment? The King spent the entire first quarter providing evanescent moments of joy to the Magic coaching staff as he “settled†for jumpers, only to rain down a barrage of 20-footers on his way to the best single-game start of his illustrious career.
Lost in the pomp and circumstance of an otherwise monstrous individual effort was the manner in which James buoyed his teammates. The Heat sans the reigning MVP shot 40%, lacked offensive creativity and movement and for the most part seemed content to get out of James’s way when he was on the floor. The rest of the night was an assortment of forced jumpers from Chris Bosh who spent almost the entirety of his 38 minutes floating along the far side of the floor, proving more loafer than facilitator. This is the kind of game that will have fans talking but Eric Spoelstra losing sleep as his team looked more as it did in those opening tumultuous weeks of the season than it has as of late.
As much as Lebron’s supporting cast proved mundane, Orlando’s best laid plans were fruitful early – very fruitful. By combining the high pick and roll with constant ball rotation on the perimeter, the Magic allowed Dwight Howard to take advantage of the weaker interior defenders patrolling the paint for Miami. The first quarter was an offensive clinic, with Hedo Turkoglu serving as playmaker feeding Howard as he rolled to the basket while Erick Dampier could only scramble to recover in time. When the initial play failed to yield scoring opportunities inside, the Magic swung the ball with such precision and speed that even the Heat’s ball hawking perimeter defenders were left scrambling and unable to provide help defense inside.
Just how effective was this means of offensive attack for Orlando? In the first quarter 8 of the Magic’s 18 shots were within five feet of the basket. But as is so often the case, Howard’s perpetual free throw woes blossomed into a grotesque 3-for-13 showing, thus rendering the big man a suddenly less than appealing scoring option. Joel Anthony will likely be heaped with praise for his hustle and effort, holding Superman to just one point in the second half. While Miami’s undersized big earned his pay, Orlando distancing itself from kind of offensive synergy it displayed early is what ultimately handicapped their superstar.
But of course all of these secondary storylines will be swept away by Lebron’s juggernaut performance, the payback game, the response to Otis Smith. It’s curious that James waited until the third meeting between the two teams to make his first real forceful and public retaliatory comments regarding the gauntlet Orlando threw down during the summer – waited until the Heat had asserted itself as being the real deal. Perhaps that’s why James had a sneer on his face almost from the opening tip until the moment the final buzzer sounded. Maybe it was months of waiting to finally show Smith and the Magic what he and his teammates are capable of unleashing when provoked.
And so Magic fans breathed brief sighs of relief as James hoisted up another jumper rather than overpowering defenders on his way to the basket, only to be greeted by one more buried shot.
I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth born companion
And fellow mortal!
OK, so maybe James was far from sorry as he torched Orlando’s defense and assembled a stat line that has been attained by few individuals in the last 25 years, but surely one can’t argue his unsettling destruction of the widely expected and anticipated outcome. While Lebron can be just as streaky as any other athlete, as SVG so eloquently put it, sometimes he just blows up defensive plans. It’d a difficult task to find anyone willing to refute the approach of forcing him to put up long two’s – a shot he connects on just 40% of the time – versus toiling with his near 70% success rate finishing at the rim.
You saw the fields laid bare and wasted,
And weary winter coming fast,
And cozy here, beneath the blast,
You thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel plough passed
Out through your cell.
When best laid plans are shattered and cast away we are often left at the mercy of the driving force behind the destruction at hand. And while Robert Burns’s field mouse is left to cower at the foot of man’s upheaval of nature, the Magic can only press on to the next game in the wake of the collapse of their defensive scheming.
