Game Time: Los Angeles vs Miami

First Quarter

• Miami ahead 5-4 after Dwyane Wade hits a ridiculous three pointer from the left corner, he came off a high screen and roll on the left wing, was pushed along the sideline by Zach Randolph, Zach then went back to his man who was rolling to the hoop, Wade stopped, Gordon got back to his man, Wade went up with a hand in his mug and drained it.
• Anthony had a brilliant rejection early in the game.
• Nice cut by Camby from the top of the key down the middle, his teammate finds him, he puts too much english on the layup and blows the easy two.
• Zach Randolph along the baseline, right side, facing up his man from 16 feet, a couple of jab steps, knocks down the jumper. Baron Davis followed that up with a long J of his own.
• Udonis Haslem earning a couple of trips to the line in the early going.
• Shawn Marion creating off the bounce, he uses the screen and roll, drives towards the elbow from the right wing, jumps up in midair and throws it back to his screener who has vacated the area, the pass ends up in the second row, turnover.
• Miami lead 13-11 after Camby’s trip to the FT line
• Miami turn it over, Camby with the lead pass ahead to Thornton, he takes it strong to the rim, gets fouled. He makes the three point play.
• Five minutes have passed, Wade gets another hoop. Miami ahead 15-14.
• Zach Randolph driving off the right wing, into the lane, lefty hook from 8 feet, misses
• Haslem misses a wide open jumper from 17 feet along the left baseline
• Thornton gets the isolation against Marion on the right wing, blows by him, gets to the rim, layup
• Wade runs the screen and roll, top of the key, with Haslem, Haslem rolls, Wade spots him, layup.
• Chalmers drive and kick to Haslem for the 17 footer left baseline, misses again
• Haslem has been very involved offensively here in the first quarter. He has 10 points already, 10 of Miami’s 21.
• Joel Anthony takes a seat, Michael Beasley enters the game
• Clippers turn it over again, Chalmers pull up three on the break as LA get back, he misses, rebound tracked down by Camby, quick push ahead, Thornton gets it above the three point line, knifes by his man down the middle of the paint, gets to the cup, a layup
• Timeout Miami
• Clippers lead 25-21
• In Miami’s 8 wins this year Dwyane Wade has averaged 30ppg on 58% shooting
• Wade slices through the paint again and gets another one
• Gordon returns the favour on the other favour, he takes it hard to the rim, gets hit by two players and still finishes the shot. His strength is something else. Misses the FT badly.
• Wade hits the stand still three pointer from the right wing
• Wade drive and kick to Beasley, he’s spotting in the right corner from downtown, misses. The commentator (I forget the names, Mike something) said Beasley has made 5 threes this year, the other commentator says he missed 14.
• Wade misses a pair of long jumpers from the left wing. Baron Davis leads the break on the second miss, gets to the rim, misses the layup, Randolph is there for the putback.
• Baron Davis holds the ball for the final shot, starts dancing at the top of the key, blows by his man, misses the layup. Clippers missing a lot of shots at the rim.

Second Quarter

• The Clippers make their first substitutions of the night. Paul Davis and Taylor enter for Camby and Baron.
• Offensive foul on Beasley, turnover, first possession of the quarter. Chalmers giving him some reassuring words on the way back down. Beasley chewing his mouthpiece hard, look of frustration on that chew.
• Beasley with the defensive rebound on LA’s air ball
• Beasley misses a 20 footer top of the key, Clippers fight each other for the rebound and loose the ball out of bounds
• Cook squirms into the paint, pull up J from 15, hits it
• Hahaha … lovely play from Cook, he fell over on his shot, was on the floor, Clippers rebound, outlet pass to his man, his man tries to dribble around Cook, Cook reaches out and slaps it out of bounds. Great work to stop the fastbreak.
• Beasley picks up his second foul. Again, a look of frustration. Commentator feels that Beasley has looked lost so far tonight, and he’s right.
• Tie game 30-30
• 10 minutes to play in the first half
• Beasley right wing, faces up Randolph from 18 feet, blows by him, lefty hook in the lane, gets it
• Thornton makes a lazy pass, deflected into the backcourt, he retrieves it, 10 seconds on the shot clock, he dribbles up, flies by Marion, takes it hard to the rim, gets hit, takes two free throws, misses both, rebounds his second miss, dribbles out, Chalmers comes over from the weakside and knocks Thornton’s dribble loose, out of bounds, Clippers ball.
• Skinner misses from 17 feet top of the key, rebound Beasley.
• Beasley pops out, gets the pass from Chalmers, 19 footer right wing, takes it, makes it
• Mike Taylor making the pass right wing, Cook playing the passing lane, another deflection, out of bounds again. Miami have come so close to stealing the ball on several occasions tonight.
• Timeout
• Taylor looks at the clock, five seconds has to take it, runs around a Davis screen, shoots off the dribble, nails it
• Beasley spins inside, scores with the outstretched left hand. Excellent finish.
• Nice drive and dish to Taylor, he misses the wide open jumper from 18 feet on the right wing
• Beasley offensive rebound, takes a bounce, layup, misses. He fouled his man with the clearout but it wasn’t called.
• Lovely pass from Baron Davis to Paul Davis for the layup. Beasley helped on Baron, nobody helped on Beasley’s man.
• Baron Davis takes a quick J left corner from 20 feet, hits it
• Miami leading 38-37 as Cook misses a jumper, offensive rebound, ball moves from left to right, Beasley pops out and hits another jumper from the right wing from 19 feet.
• Paul Davis tips the missed shot back up and in
• Halfway point in the quarter
• Timeout
• Beasley averaged 18ppg in his first five games. He’s down to 12ppg now, what’s the difference there?
• Zach Randolph with a two handed defensive rebound. Always nice to see.
• Davis with the hop and the skip to blow by Diawara, gets to the rim, layup, fouled, makes one of two. The Clippers foul shooting has been terrible tonight.
• Bad pass to Randolph who had his man sealed, turnover.
• Long rebound tracked down by Camby, he passes it ahead, second pass to Davis, Baron drives it strong to the rim, charging foul.
• Quinn knocks down a triple
• 46-40 Miami
• Taylor with a beautiful bullet pass to Camby on the pick and roll, layup
• Zach thought about the three, two players run him off the line, why? Zach passes it to Baron, he nails a three
• 49-45 Miami
• Timeout Miami
• 2:30 left to play in the first half
• Beasley out on the right wing, faces up Camby, drives left, beats Camby, gets to the other side of the rim, uses the rim to protect the shot, fouled by Camby, three point play. Beasley now has 17 points in the quarter. Guess that frustrated look from earlier has disappeared, right? Damn right.
• Marcus Camby strips Wade, dives on the ball, steal, loose ball foul on Wade trying to get it back, that looked harsh. Camby to take two free throws, makes one of two.
• 52-48 Miami
• Clippers force another turnover. Beasley left wing, drives left, toeing the baseline, trapped, jumps up, nobody to pass to, turnover.
• Thornton penetrates, gets to the rim again, charging foul. Good anticipation from Haslem there.
• Wade and Randolph trade baskets, Zach missed a runner, got his own board and scored the contested putback layup
• Miami turn it over for the third time in four possessions, great hands from Thornton, Baron pushing the ball, Thornton running the wing, Baron throws the lob pass, alley oop dunk
• Wade knocks down a 20 foot jumper
• Baron holds it for the final shot, drive and dump to Camby for a layup, good.

Halftime

• Miami lead 56-54
• Miami are only up two against the Clippers after getting a 17 point quarter from Beasley? That doesn’t feel right. Beasley has 17 and 5 at halftime and he wasn’t even Miami’s best player – Dwyane Wade takes that acclaim with 15 points, 7 dimes and 4 boards. Both Beasley and Wade are 7-11 from the floor.
• Clippers edge it on the backboards 21-20
• The Heat have shot 52.4% from the field, 22-42, and have made 5-13 from downtown plus 7-8 from the FT line. They have 15 assists on their 22 hoops.
• ESPN’s turnovers stats say that Miami had only 6 first half turnovers, felt like more, not sure if that’s accurate.
• Clippers have made 22-45 shots for 49% shooting, making 3-6 from downtown and shooting only 6-13 from the FT line. They also have 15 assists on 22 baskets.
• Zach Randolph leads the Clippers with 14 and 6, making 7-14 field goal attempts. Marcus Camby has 8 and 7 on 7 field goal attempts. Al Thornton adds 11 points (4-5) and 1 rebound in 18 minutes. Baron Davis has only 6 points on 7 field goals, but he does have 5 assists.
• Actually, their top trio - Camby, Baron, Zach - are only 12-28 from the field with their teammates shooting 10-17 from the floor. Something wrong there.

Third Quarter

• Shawn Marion has been quiet. The Heat run a play for him out of halftime but nothing comes from it.
• Shawn messes up as he tries to create his own shot, turnover.
• Camby drives along the baseline, gets to the rim and lays it in
• Chalmers with a nice drive and finish inside.
• Thornton isolation left wing, 16 feet out, jab step, takes the face up J, nails it
• Haslem misses a jumper. Haven’t seen much from him since the early 10 points to start the contest.
• Tie game 58-58
• Baron Davis gets a clearout, as the whole left side of the floor, he drives left, D helps out, he turns back right, posts up, defense relaxes but stay close, he takes a fallaway J, misses.
• Drive and kick Wade to Marion, corner three pointer, misses, defensive rebound Camby
• Marion misses again
• Wade with the authoratative dunk after coming down the middle of the lane. That was nice.
• 8 minutes to play in the third quarter. Miami lead 60-59
• Wade draws the touch foul as he drives left towards the baseline on Gordon.
• Randolph face up jumper right wing 17 feet out, hits it.
• Drive and kick to Marion, he takes a bounce inside, 5 footer, misses again. Wade is doing everything to get Marion a basket right now.
• Chalmers knocks down a triple on the left wing
• Randolph trapped along the sideline, almost throws it away but it bounces off of bounds off Miami
• Timeout
• Eric Gordon takes some contact as he goes to the rim hard, misses the layup, offensive rebound Thornton, putback, fouled. Gordon stuck on 5 points for some time now. Thornton makes his first free throw, Clippers now 9-18 from the FT line tonight, he makes the second.
• Miami lead 65-63
• Wade left wing, comes off the screen, Camby deflects the dribble, Gordon does a good job defending Wade and contesting the shot at the shot clock buzzer, misses
• Gordon travels, turnover
• Baron Davis is now 2-11 from the field. He has 6 points and 6 assists.
• Chalmers probing off a pick and roll, drives the baseline, finds Anthony, miss, offensive rebound Haslem, passes out, Miami swing it side to side, three pointer right wing good from Mario Chalmers.
• Marion cheats off of Thornton on the left wing trying to sag off and help on the top of the key, Thornton moves off him to create some space for a passing angle, nice pass, Thornton takes a bounce and dunks it home hard.
• Travel on Thornton, turnover.
• 68-65 Miami
• Timeout Miami with 3:30 left to play in the third quarter
• Baron Davis misses a heaved three pointer against the shot clock. Very poor possession, had nothing going and didn’t try to get anything going in the last few seconds of the clock.
• Beasley picks up his offensive foul for shoving Thornton to the ground.
• Baron backs down Chalmers, kicks it out to Taylor, three pointer, miss, defensive rebound, Wade leaked out, pass ahead, slam dunk.
• Thornton knifes down the baseline and gets the layup, no good, Clippers fight for the rebound, keep it alive, five touches, Zach gets it, short shot, misses, Davis runs it down but knocks it out of bounds.
• Beasley has it stripped by Taylor, Baron Davis picks it up and leads the break, pass to Taylor for the layup on the right lane, fouled, two free throws, he makes one of two.
• 25 seconds to play in the third, Wade brings it up, holds it, makes his move, drives down the middle, kicks it out to Cook for a three right wing, nails it. Nice play.
• The Clippers have missed 10 free throws tonight and are down 5 points

Fourth Quarter

• Beasley opens the fourth with a three pointer from the left corner. The Heat have scored 9 three pointers tonight.
• Miami post up Beasly, he works on Randolph, right block, goes left, spins towards the baseline and takes a right hook, misses. Solid move though. Good D by Zach.
• Clippers going small with Baron Davis, Mike Taylor and Eric Godon. Wade and Cook are the wings for Miami so the Clippers are fine.
• Wade dribbles up court slowly, turns on the gas as he turns midcourt, blows right by his man, goes down the middle of the lane and stuffs it home.
• Thornton returns the favour on the other end with a follow slam of his own. Baron missed the initial shot.
• Dallas beat Sacramento tonight, they’ve won 6 of their last 7
• Wade with a beautiful pass to Beasley, layup. Wade slid by three players to make that pass.
• Wade takes a break. He deserves it.
• Thornton has some FTs, knocks them down. Mardy Collins enters the game for Gordon. Gordon has gone to the bench, now he’s on the floor and is being treated, no idea what’s wrong with him. [Update: It looks like it might be his right hamstring]
• Haslem knocks down another jumper
• Thornton is at power forward with Paul Davis at center. Haslem is trying to defend Thornton. The Clippers have to give Thornton a shot at working him over. Thornton is a good one-on-one scorer, no reason not to give him the ball, it’s not like anybody else on the floor has it going. Thornton has 23 points tonight on 11 shots. Randolph is the only other player with more than 10 points and he’s on the bench.
• Timeout
• Miami lead 82-77
• 8 and a half minutes left to play
• Taylor kicks it out to Thornton, 20 footer, missed, rebound Camby, he takes a short shot from 9 feet, misses badly. The Clippers have made only 1 of their last 12 shots.
• Beasley with an acrobatic drive and layup, miss, rebound Haslem, falls out of bounds. Clippers ball.
• Thornton posts up Haslem, spinning drive off the left block, draws the foul. He’ll shoot two more. The Clippers have taken 31 free throws to 9 for Miami. Thornton splits the pair. Amazing difference in free throws, and the Clippers are still losing.
• Eric Gordon is grimmacing on the bench. It’s undetermined if he’ll return. He’s holding his hamstring over on the bench, doubt he comes back.
• Beasley drives left, slices through the paint, lefty layup
• Camby fouled on a runner, he’ll shoot two free throws, makes two.
• Dwyane Wade is back already. That was a brief rest.
• 84-80 Miami
• 7 minutes to play
• Taylor showing some good pressure D on Chalmers, gets lost on a screen off the ball later on the possession though, Chalmers pops out, misses the three pointer, rebound Haslem, lay in good.
• Taylor darts down the lane, bounces the ball off his knee and turns it over.
• Lovely give and go between Wade and Beasley, fouled on the layup. Bad defense by Mardy Collins, he turned his head to the basketball when he thought Wade would cut down the baseline, Wade noticed and cut back the other way and had a step on Collins by the time he reacted, the pass also made it there before Collins reacts. Wade misses both FTs.
• Baron Davis getting his shin checked out by the trainer over on the bench, now he re-enters the game.
• Baron posting up left post, nice step through, layup good.
• Wade dribbling top of hte key, passes over to Beasley, Beasley drives and kicks it out to Haslem, Haslem passes up the shot, Cook does not, missed, Wade goes for the steal, knocks it loose but out of bounds.
• The Clippers crowd are doing the wave
• Thornton is being defended by Cook, he posts him up, turns and faces, beats Cook with the quick first step, misses the easy shot, rebound Zach Randolph, putback good.
• 86-84 Miami with 5 minutes to play
• Wade’s pass hits Haslem in the chest. Great pass, Haslem wasn’t paying attention.
• Nice pass by Davis to the cutting Randolph, layup inside. Great pass. Zach draws teh foul and makes the free throw. The Clippers have their first lead in a long long time.
• Cook’s driving layup is swatted by Camby out of bounds. Fourth block of the night. It’s still Miami ball.
• Camby limps to the sideline after coming down awkwardly on that block. Mardy Collins replaces him. It’s his right ankle. He’s being checked over now. That’s a killer blow for LA, they were just starting to get some rhythm going.
• Baron Davis with the drive and kick to the right corner for Zach Randolph, he hits the three pointer.
• Timeout Miami
• 90-86 with three minutes to play.
• Clippers get a three pointer. Miami run down the other end, ball works over ot Marion, he takes it hard to the rim, fouled, goaltend on the finish, he makes the FT.
• 93-89 Clippers lead
• Baron Davis flies down the side, drops it off to Zach, layup, missed, rebound, putback is good. Zach rebounded his own airball, violation he passed to himself.
• Marion misses a short shot
• 2 minutes to play
• Baron has it, takes an off balance difficult fallaway jumper off the dribble after running off a high screen from 18 feet right wing, hits it.
• Timeout
• The Clippers should win this now. Miami had this game, bad loss for them.
• 95-89 Clippers lead
• Inbounds to Wade, he works on Baron, comes off a screen, passes it back to Haslem, 17 footer top of the key, misses.
• The Clippers had three drive and kicks but couldn’t get a shot off. Baron after the third drove and had to force another difficult fallaway, he hits it
• Wade responds quickly with a basket of his own.
• Kickout to Baron Davis, three pointer from the top of the key, miss
• Wade dribbles up and nails a three pointer to half the lead
• 97-94 Clippers with 47 seconds to go
• Davis milks the clock, over to Taylor, back to Baron, he heaves a long three, misses, rebound Haslem. Pass ahead to Wade, he runs way too much time off the clock, drive and kick, Haslem hits the 18 footer on the baseline.
• Timeout Mike Dunleavy
• The Clippers are up 1 point with 7.6 seconds left to play
• Miami has to foul now. The Clippers advance it to the 3/4 mark. Baron Davis will inbound the ball. The Clippers have Novak on the floor. Davis throws the inbounds pass, stolen by Wade but he falls out of bounds. Wade says he called a timeout as he fell on top of a referee. The refs are not sure. Are they going to give Wade the ball? Possession is huge here. 7.2 seconds remaining, plenty of time. The refs are having a long talk. Clippers get the ball. They just showed a replay, bad call, very bad call, Wade wasn’t out of bounds when he made the call. Why can’t they check a replay? There’s 7 seconds left, they just be able to watch a replay here. Wade is really angry right now. The Heat’s coaches are complaining. The refs talk again, they’re going to change the call. They changed the call. Wow, they’re right but how do you change the call after making that first decision? They didn’t see anything new. They changed it based on the Heat’s fierce objections. Wow. Clippers can’t believe it.
• Timeout Miami
• 97-96 Clippers with 7.2 seconds to play. It’s Miami ball.
• Miami just need a basket here. Wade is going to drive this one.
• Chalmers will inbound the ball from the 3/4 mark on the right hand side. Chris Quinn enters for Marion, good sub. The Clippers have a foul to give.
• Inbounds to Wade, he’s fouled, 2.9 seconds to play. The Clippers did an excellent job running down the clock.
• Final timeout by Miami. 20 second timeout again.
• This final shot is going to be a difficult one for Miami
• Chalmers inbounds it to Wade, he runs into Camby after fumbling the pass, like he did on the previous inbounds pass, Wade takes the fadeaway over Camby, air ball.

Good win for the LA Clippers.

Bad loss for the Heat, they were in control of this game for a long time and should have won it. They collapsed in the fourth. The Clippers weren’t even playing well.

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Miami lost the game because Dwyane Wade fumbled the inbounds pass at the 7.2 seconds mark and the 2.9 seconds mark. The first one resulted in bad clock management and the second resulted into running into Marcus Camby and a fadeaway three from 26 feet with Camby in his face as a game winning shot. You have 7.2 seconds and that’s the best shot you can get? Terrible.

Wade also had an awful possession on play prior when he allowed far too much time to slip away on the shot clock. He hemmed his team in with that one. His steal bailed on the Clippers inbounds pass bailed him out on that mistake.

Spoelstra deserves some criticism too. By the looks of it he didn’t warn his team that LAC had a foul to give so they ended up losing 4.3 seconds of clock on that final Heat possession which made it difficult for Wade to create for someone else, it was either a catch and shoot or a Wade forced shot.

Miami controlled the game until midway through the fourth quarter when they collapsed and stopped playing intelligent ball on offense, and gifted LAC with some easy buckets on the other end. They put in a very good performance up until that point, but then they fell apart. The final three plays with poor decision and clock management describe their fourth quarter well.