The American Airlines Arena . . . And Heat-Warriors

By Moose


And yes, that is the man, errrrrr, kid behind the keyboard. Now you can put a (beautiful) face to the incredibly writing. That's me from our seats at the game. Now stop staring and read the article.


So this week I've been in (well, I'm not there anymore, but anyways . . .) Florida visiting family, and I thought a few months ago that going to a Heat game would be a great idea because, well, Miami doesn't come close to filling the arena. I looked on eBay, and, well, great seats for a cheap price was available, so we picked them up.

This was the second NBA game that I had been to, I went to a Heat-Jazz game last year at the AA Arena, ending in a Dwyane Wade game winning buzzer-beater. But after becoming an even larger fan (I didn't post on SLAM or Hibachi or anything else then) this was an even more exciting experience. Notice how I've never been to a Celtics game. The reason for that is, everything's sold out, and if you wanna get tickets in Boston you gotta pay three times face value.

I arrive at the arena and go to the parking garage that is insanely convenient, right next to the stadium, although it is a hefty $20 for one car. We pay and all that and make our way to the arena. I looked up at the enormous building right next to the Port of Miami, and we make our way up the steps and all to the arena to be greeted by polite people at the front who take our tickets and let us go through.

The first thing that I saw was a giant wall-length portrait of Chris Quinn glaring at us in a suit and tie, next to other sane-looking people. Or at least more sane-looking. Because that Chris Quinn picture was scary as hell. OK, now it's about 6:45, about 45 minutes until the game starts. Hoping to meet players or coaches or somebody, I make my way to the lower level in hopes of getting to the court. I make it until about 25 rows from the floor before a security guard stops me and asks to see my tickets. Of course, I don't have seats there, so I'm escorted out of the section and into my own.

I go to the first balcony and to my seat, section 323, row 1, seat 6. This seat was amazing. More that I had ever dreamed of getting. It was nice stuff. We could almost see the players' names on the backs of their jerseys. These seats were a surprise, last year I was on the second balcony, eighth row or something like that. But this section made me giddy. I sat there for a few minutes almost hopping out of my seat at the awesome tickets that I still couldn't get over.

The players came out and started warming up, and lemme tell you, they are professionals, no doubt about it. Never before had I seen so many guys swish so many hoops in so little time. Of course, I kept my eye set on D-Wade, who really couldn't miss a shot in warmups. Another dude who knocked down everything? Udonis Haslem. He's got that midrange jumper down pat, in games and in warmups.

I looked up at the starting lineups and wondered why Crawford wasn't there, disappointed. There wasn't an announcement or anything for the whole game about it. So they were without their four best players, and listing them made me realize that the Warriors are better than their record shows. Maggette, Crawford, Jackson, Ellis and Biedrins is a nice starting five, even if three of them are combo guards. But the starters last night were Biedrins, Wright, Watson, Azubuike and Belinelli.

The arena is a nice one, the Jumbo-tron was good-looking and the wrap-around scoreboard toggled the players' and teams' total stats for the game, a great reference. The only thing missing was a board that had the scores from around the league, you know, I had to keep up with my Celtics making history last night (Rondo with 18, 4 and 4!). There were an awful lot of "De-Fense!" chants and other things of the sort that made you want to throw your soda at the dude playing them, there were a few too many of those. But that's what I expected, anyways, so it wasn't a problem.

DJ Irie, down pretty much right below me, began his crowd pump-up routine, in which he stands at his DJing spot and pretty much dances with two of the Heat Dancers while asking the fans if they're ready for some Heat basketball("!"). After a thoroughly impressive singing of the national anthem by a seemingly talented woman, and a few words of thanks at halfcourt from Dwyane Wade for supporting the Heat in the struggling economy, the game was upon us.

It started off ugly. There were chippy foul calls, passes to the opponent, trouble hanging on to the ball--it just wasn't working for either team. But at the end of the first quarter it was close, with the Warriors having a 24-21 advantage over Miami. Wade only had five points, although the points that he did score were in great fashion, driving to the whole or pulling up for smooth jumpers.

The second quarter is when Daequan Cook happened. He hit five three pointers while going five for seven, lifting up Miami and getting the score 47-41 Heat as they jogged to the locker room. Wade was still not extraordinary, but he was doing well. Impressing me at the half on the defensive end was Joel Anthony, stopping Andris Biedrins like nobody's business. And Biedrins is BIG. When he unfolds, it was clear he could grab past the rim while standing flat-footed. Another huge guy: Brendan Wright. The dude's got a huge wingspan, obviously, and is just enormous. But he's a bit skinny and a bit soft down low, as I noticed during the game.

Oh yeah, and just another thought: Marco Belinelli is one of the ugliest players in the league. In real life? Gotdamn. In the third quarter Wade started to come out a little bit more, dishing out the dunk assists better than most, Marion being on the recieving end of many of these. The Matrix did miss a couple of alley-oops though, and that was somewhat disappointing. For the Warriors, Randolph was impressing me (of note, he had a sick putback dunk where he just snuck in the middle. Nasty), C.J. Watson was impressing me and Kelenna Azubuike was doing what I knew he could. Who wasn't impressing me? Marco Belinelli. Dude couldn't buy a basket. He went 3-11 from the field, and I guess it just wasn't working for him that night.

In the fourth quarter with the score close, Dwyane Wade decided that the Heat were not going to lose this game. He checked back in and just took over. He scored 18 in the fourth quarter alone, all of them in style. Driving to the hole, getting fouled, and over again. There was one play where it was a three on one and he cut to the hoop and still scored, no teammates in sight. Crazy stuff. He pulled them ahead as chants of "MVP!" started to ring out from the stands, me included in them. I quickly exited the arena and went back to the car that we took, and we listened to the chorus of car horns ringing out in the slightly sketchy Miami neighborhood.

The game was a great one, even if the Warriors' better players weren't participating. Dwyane Wade had a close to superhuman night, scoring 32 well-earned points, grabbing 8 boards (and Marion stole about two from him, shoulda been 10), dishing out 8 dimes, stealing the ball three times and topping it all off with three monster blocks. Wade was on. Except for the charity stripe, which wasn't quite a great performance. Dwyane shot 6-10 from the free throw line. I guess the MVP chants got to his head a little bit. You gotta wait until after the shots to do the MVP thing.

It was nice to see my guy Anthony Morrow out there, he finished with 8 points, 1 assist and 7 boards. He's still my darkhorse ROY candidate. Great potential from Morrow, he shouldn't be slept on. C.J. Watson shot well, finishing with 18 points, nailing two from long. Anthony Randolph played with poise, finishing with 10 points, 2 blocks and 6 boards. Azubuike also did his part with 16, 9 and 3. It was also nice to see Turiaf not in a Lakers' uniform, it's easier to like him that way, because I always liked how he played.

On the Heat side, Daequan Cook finished with a season-high 20 points going 5-7 from long, adding four rebounds and an assist. Joel Anthony shined on defense, holding Biedrins to 6 points and 9 rebounds. Udonis Haslem knocked down the 15 footer all day, ending up with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 dimes and a block. Mario Chalmers looked like he was trying to do too much, trying to force tough passes through a tight defense, finishing with 5 turnovers. Beasley also had a game full of rookie mistakes, finishing with 5 points and 2 turnovers.

The game was awesome, to put it bluntly, especially for someone with barely any live professional experience. The Heat played great, the young guys impressed (on the GS side, at least) and the fans were pretty good. The place was about 2/3 full, most likely less than that, but it just wasn't that full. It was a great experience, I liked the arena, and I saw what Dwyane Wade could do. Pardon mistakes too, this isn't my best work. It was just a great game. OK, you can resume staring at the picture now.

--Moose