Celebrating the Winner

After the Heat lost their fifth game in a row Tuesday night, I was tempted to write a post titled "Schadenfreude in Pictures" or some such thing, and throw up lots of pictures of Lebron and Wade holding their head in their hands and Bosh looking generally sad, or photoshopping tears onto them, or that sort of thing. And that type of post has its place, particularly when you have a blog in which none of the writers are from Miami and is composed of red-blooded American boys raised under the notion that you win fair and square and don't just team up with the other neighborhood bully to establish dominance. It has its place, yes, but just as important, it has its time - and that time is not now, at least not for us.

Since its so early in the blog, its important to get things off on the right foot. Things aren't typically going to be so clear-cut, but in general I'm going to try and lean towards the "love" side of things vs the "hate". So today, new blog audience, we celebrate the teams that beat the Heat - Portland Trailblazers, and the Chicago Bulls, and the Spurs and the Magic and the Knicks.

Built the Right Way
Looking past the 5 game losing streak, the Bulls have actually beaten the Heat twice in the past seven games, which included the Heat's only win (against the lowly Wizards, who at one point this week played 5 rookies on the floor at the same time against the Bucks.) The Bulls are awfully luv-a-bull right now, with a slew of stars coming into their own (Rose, Noah, and Deng) and a coach that's having them play the "right way." I think what many long-time NBA fans like to see is a team that wins with players that it drafted and cultivated, playing strong defense, rebounding the ball, and having lots of motion in its offense. Check, check, and check - and Rose is the top MVP candidate right now to boot. Nobody thought the Bulls would be a championship contender this year, but go over to John Hollinger's playoff odds on ESPN.com and you might be surprised to learn that under his calculations the Bulls - not the Heat, not the Lakers, not the Celtics or Spurs - have the best odds of winning the championship this year. This year.

If we're talking about teams that "play the right way," calling the Spurs the poster child for this notion is like saying Biggie could flow pretty well. About the only controversial thing the Spurs have done in the past 10 years is Tony Parker's (alleged!) philandering ways, but come on - this is a French basketball player, what'd you expect. The Spurs have drafted their superstar and built a team around him for the past 20 years (Robinson and then Duncan), putting pieces around him with probably the league's strongest draft record over that period. Parker and Ginobili and George Hill and Dejuan Blair - these weren't top-10 guys, they were typically second-rounders that the Spurs saw potential in before anybody else. They have a great coach, they play defense, they space the floor better than anyone and they move the ball. They shoot well. They do it all - except get their names in the papers. They are Bruce Willis in Unbreakable and the Heat are Samuel L. Jackson.

Money Talks
The Magic and Knicks don't get to be viewed in the same reverential light, despite doing nice things with their franchises in recent years. The Magic have been plunging into salary cap hell in the hopes of winning a championship now, but they aren't building their team in the draft the way the Bulls and Spurs did. They've gone the free agent route, and while its great they are showing their determination to win, its much more Miami-style than San Antonio. Furthermore, its more likely they don't win than they do win at this point. They did draft their best player, Dwight Howard, but haven't necessarily surrounded him with the best possible complement of players, and they certainly haven't done it on the cheap. The Magic are good enough to beat the Heat in a game, but I'm not sure they are good enough to beat them in a series, and I'm pretty positive they wouldn't beat the Lakers or the Spurs.

The Knicks are arguably more Miami-ish than Miami is; Miami at least drafted D-Wade but the Knicks are a team full of free agent imports. Its like Gangs of New York, but without any of the nativists (so... missing half the movie. Nevermind.) Nevertheless the Knicks have pulled themselves out of basketball purgatory by jettisoning dead weight like Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury, and truth be told, they wouldn't have gotten Carmelo if they hadn't drafted the assets that they used in the trade (Gallinari, Chandler, etc.) And they are genuinely fun to watch now, with Carmelo and Amare a fantastic encore to the Nash & Amare show in Phoenix a few years ago. Its interesting to note that the Knicks came together in much the same way as the Heat - Amare left Phoenix to sign with the Knicks, and Carmelo forced a trade by being a big baby all season - but people don't hate them nearly the way they hate Lebron/Wade/Bosh. I don't have a good reason for why they get a pass, but if someone figures it out, let me know.

Strength through Adversity
This brings us to the Trailblazers. Portland has dealt with more adversity this season than most teams have over the past several years, with injuries to two franchise players - Brandon Roy and Greg Oden - as well as a number of role players. (You can obviously contest Greg Oden being "franchise" player given the fact that he hasn't done anything in the league, but he was drafted to be a franchise player, and if Portland hadn't taken him they'd be sitting pretty with Kevin Durant right now.) But through it all, Portland has survived and is sitting at 6th in the West right now with a 37-27 record. Lamarcus Aldridge has emerged to be a top-notch big man and outplayed Bosh the other night. Roy has fought through the fact that he doesn't have knees anymore and, although his production is currently reduced from previous seasons, I wouldn't bet against him playing like his old self in the playoffs. The Trailblazers aren't a championship contender, but they have heart and have come through adversity without complaining (or crying...) and are playing really good basketball right now. You can't exactly say the same for a certain team on the other side of the country...

Let's see what happens in the playoffs
Of the teams we mentioned here, the Spurs, Bulls, and Magic are legitimate contenders, while the Blazers and Knicks are more "fun to watch" right now than anything else. The Heat, of course, are championship contenders as well. Its nice to watch the Heat fail - really nice, actually - but its better to watch these other teams succeed. The true test of a team is in the NBA's second season, the playoffs, so we'll see if anything happening in the regular season will have any bearing on what really matters. Here's hoping one of the five recent victors goes further than those bad guys down in Miami.