The Miami Heat blew out the New York Knicks 100-67 in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The main story isn't just the ineffective play of Carmelo Anthony. Nor is it Tyson Chandler playing with the flu. There are three main points from this game that I will touch on. Feel free to chime in on the comments on this travesty of a basketball game. Unfortunately, I'm going to sound like one of "those fans" but it's certainly justified.
1. Iman Shumpert injury:First and foremost, we all hope that he is ok, but this is a huge blow to a Knicks team that has seen a vast improvement on the defensive side of the ball and the rookie out of Georgia Tech was the primary reason for that change. His energy and suffocating defense is the shot in the arm this team needed this season. At the time this is being typed his exact injury is unknown, but if he cannot play in this series the slim chance of a first round upset will be long gone. A sad end to a remarkable rookie campaign for Shump.
2. Home calls: I absolutely hate it when fans blame the officials for nothing when the game is getting out of hand. However, the officiating in this contest was atrocious. Simply awful! The overblown calls and lack of calls all game long worked in favor of Miami. Baron Davis running into Mario Chalmers after hitting the 3 pointer was the lone "gimmie" call for New York. Other than that, it was egregious call after egregious call all game long and no one benefited more from that than.....
3. Flop-a-mania: LeBron James. 8 time All-Star. 2 time NBA Most Valuable Player. Odds are he might be MVP this year. With God given talent and all world ability, why would he engage in the practice of flailing like a fish out of water? It's a cheap part of the game that is ruining a sport that, once upon a time was an exciting, physical spectical. An old fashioned mano-a-mano brawl under the basket that seperated men from boys. Since some people still incist on making the James-Jordan comparison (all 12 of you), let's compare the two in terms of drawing fouls: Mich
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