Written by Tom Haberstroh at ESPN.com
The Miami Heat just pulled off something that none of its three championship teams did: score at least 115 points in consecutive games.
This isn’t supposed to happen in the Eastern Conference, where pitchers’ duels are preferable to home run contests. In fact, you’d have to flip the calendar back to the 1995-96 Orlando Magic to find an East team that put up that many points in regulation in consecutive playoff games. Yes, two decades ago. Heat rookieJustise Winslow was two months old at the time.
After going up 2-0 against the Charlotte Hornets with a 115-103 victory, the Heat personnel did their best to downplay the significance of what they’ve done. Within seconds of leaving the court, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng and Udonis Haslem had already done the vet-savvy thing and delivered postgame speeches to the team emphasizing and emphasizing again that they’ve done only what they’re supposed to do: protect home court.
“It’s just two nights,” Wade said at his locker.
But forget that. Take a step back and think about the cast of characters putting on this show. Joe Johnson has been with the team for less than two months after being waived by a 21-win last-place Brooklyn team. Winslow and Josh Richardson are rookies, but they played 32 and 31 minutes, respectively, in Game 2. Hassan Whiteside was playing at the local YMCA three years ago. Wade is 34 years old, coming off four Finals trips in the last five seasons.Amar’e Stoudemire and Gerald Green are on veteran minimum contracts.
And then look at the coaching staff. Erik Spoelstra owned the 24th-ranked offense at the All-Star break, and in January had just lost assistant coach Keith Smart to undergo 30 rounds of chemotherapy for a rare form of skin cancer. And then Spoelstra found out that Chris Bosh’s blood clots had returned, effectively ending the star’s season for good.
Spoelstra had been on vacation when he got that phone call.
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