Miami Heat: Shut Your Mouth

On Friday night the Heat blew out the Magic by 26, effectively silencing the doubters and haranguers still relishing the loss in Boston. As intended, the athleticism and size of the Heat wrought havoc on the Magic, making everyone short of Dwight Howard look swallowed and beaten by big streaks of red and white. And the fact everything went according to plan explains why the entire Heat team kept throwing up hand gestures like the one pictured above. It’s a clamped beak and its connotations are obvious: ‘Shut your mouth; stop squawking’.

It kinda reminds you that the Miami Heat don’t just want to win, they want to embarrass the league, journalists and booers for hating on them. But if I were Coach Erik Spoelstra I’d worry about fostering such a fickle attitude; one game they’re panicky and chaotic, the next their gesticulating like a dynasty, after only their third game.

Another thing I’d like to point out, early on in this great Miami/Boston/Lakers rivalry, is this: Miami management will spend all season as generalists; trying to get the Heat to play like team. Whereas Los Angeles and Boston can afford to be specialists, thinking specifically about how to shut down Miami, how to cripple them by attacking their weaknesses. And there are a lot of weaknesses.