Thoughts On LeBron and Carmelo

Watched Miami in the 4th quarter last night. Yuck.

When I was a young man of 25 I played softball with a bunch of lawyers -- I knew one guy, didn't know the others. They had a guy who played shortstop, about 35. Good shortstop. So I played second base. I wasn't that good at second base. He wasn't as good as I was at shortstop. And we really did not get along on the field. We had no timing and committed just dumb mistakes (both called a popup, neither caught it).

We just were not made to play together. One day, the one guy I knew on the team said, "HM, go play short." Charlie plays short. "No, you are 25 years old, you are younger, faster, better, stronger arm. You will play short from now on." And Charlie? "Who cares?"

I played short, Charlie quit, and we were 3 runs better a game playing with whoever showed up to play second base each week.

Miami is my old softball team from 1990. James is their best guy, but Wade has been there longer. Both guys feel the need to defer to one another, causing both to be worse. In games against good opponents, you need one star and a bunch of guys who stand and wait for the ball.

Last night, if you played Wade with Mike Miller you would have had a better chance of winning the game. If you played James with James Jones you would have had a better chance of winning the game.

So -- who has to step up??? The coach. Sorry, someone has to say, "Late in games we run plays for ______________." That is it, end of discussion. The other guy has to learn to stand and wait for the ball off double teams.

Why is Miami so bad in close games? James and Wade are not complimentary players, and they cannot get out of each other's way.

Melo to Knicks -- wow, how has Denver been so good?

What George Karl has done is to get great effort from the guys he had PRE-Carmelo and replace Chauncey (whom I thought would be a huge loss) with Ray Felton. Felton and Lawson played 63 minutes between them last night.

It remains to be seen whether Denver can continue their winning ways when they face stiffer competition in road games (Utah, who lost just barely to Denver, is in complete free fall; the other Nug road win sans Melo was at Milwaukee), but, so far so good for the Nugs.

Melo in NY -- getting big pub', making the Knicks big money, yet another team that defeats Miami in a close game. Otherwise, giving up a ridiculous amount of points, including 115 to Cleveland.