NBA schedule: Heat, Clippers roll over opponents

But when the Thunder play the Heat, their biggest strength becomes their biggest weakness. Given that the Thunder probably have to go through Miami to win the title, this is a problem.

Miami’s defense is predicated on creating scramble situations to force turnovers and get the opposing offense out of rhythm. To beat the Heat, you need to move the ball quickly and make decisions on the fly. They want you to take an extra second to think about where the ball should go, because that’s all they need to close down the passing lane. Whenever the Thunder play the Heat, they too often take that extra second, or more, to think about the next move, ruining offensive flow and playing right into the Heat’s hands.

Heat 110, Thunder 100

While the shot clanked off the rim and the streak ended, James could not be too disappointed with a performance of 39 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. He “only” shot 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) and made 4-of-8 three-pointers to lead the Heat to their second victory over the Thunder this season.

This one makes Scott Norwood feel better about himself.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the play preceding the foul was a terrible airball, too. Just an all-around feel-good time for Clippers fans with this possession.

Before the injury, Odom had a pair of rebounds, two blocks and one point from a free throw.

Oklahoma City will enter the NBA All-Star with the second best record in the Western Conference. At the moment, the Thunder are 39-14 overall, trailing only San Antonio in the standings.

Some good advice when it comes to reacting to technical fouls is to, well, not react.

Or maybe some better advice is to just be Dwyane Wade instead. If it helps, Wade would be ejected from the game with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter after recording his sixth foul.

Annnnd whoops! Bank shots look a lot harder without the bank part.

I mean, goodness, LeBron’s just making contested stepback jumpers like it ain’t no thang.

And why’d it start? Well, per this Miami Herald beat writer, a Thunder fan started heckling him. Then LeBron didn’t miss for the rest of the half, reeling off 10 quick points. #LeBronIsNotNice

It looked like Durant might have injured his elbow, shoulder or hip on the fall, but he somehow popped up and stayed in the game. Thunder fans and NBA fans everywhere dodged a huge bullet there. That could have been reeeeealllly bad.

****

Never have I seen anyone dress for Valentine’s Day as well as Sager. Where do you even get a tie like that?