Game 5 Recap: Bittersweet Victory

Three Things:

1. Hawks won an ugly 3 hour free throw contest. Look I understand the need for the refs to keep the game under control in order to make sure no one gets injured. There were a few hard fouls in the early stages and they needed to reign everyone in, but my goodness there needs to be some balance. It seems the officiating in these playoffs is an either everything or nothing concept. They either call everything or they let the players murder each other. There's no in between. After a couple of stare downs that ultimately led to nothing, they decided to call everything. If I never see another game officiated by Tony Brothers, Dick Bavetta and Violet Palmer again it will be too soon.

2. Al being hurt is a problem. My heart broke when I saw him writhing around on the floor in pain. See unlike The Nature Boy, if Al lies on the floor for extended minutes it isn't an attempt to gain attention. After the initial replay I thought it was his knee. Clearly that would have been unfortunate. It turns out it was his ankle, which is still bad, but not as bad as a knee. They started treatment on it immediately after he entered the locker room so basically we have to play a game of wait and see. Za Za has been fantastic off the bench and that's where he needs to stay. I hope you're sitting down for this next part. If Al can't go, we need to start Solo. Before you ask, yes I'm serious and no I haven't had anything to drink this morning. We need Za Za's energy off the bench. Sometimes he comes in and his efforts immediately change the tone of the game. It's the same reason we need Flip off the bench. He's a spark as is Za Za. Hopefully Solo can provide a few good minutes here and there and Za Za can come in and do the dirty work like he always does. This is how it has to be. P.S. When Josh helped Al to the free throw line from the bench my heart melted.

3. Josh Smith's dunk attempt......... Let me start out by saying I almost died laughing when he tried it. Seriously I almost fell out of my seat. It was unbelievable. The only thing I said to the guy sitting beside me was "Josh is a damn fool" while laughing hysterically. We were both amazed and I got several text messages from people sharing my disbelief. It was pure comedy that he would even attempt to do something like that in the middle of a game. The fact that it was a playoff game only made it that much more hilarious. Of course the Heat players are all offended. They think he tried to embarrass them. They are clearly a self absorbed group of people. Josh's dunk attempt was not about trying to show up the Heat. It was purely about trying to incite the crowd at The Highlight Factory. Those who regularly watch or attend Hawks games understand his relationship with the crowd. Yes the team needs him to rebound, score and block shots, but more than anything they need him to do something amazing to get the crowd amped up. That's where the motivation for that dunk attempt came from. I twittered Woody needed to bench him, not because he shouldn't have done it, but because I didn't want him to get hurt considering I knew the Heat's feelings would be hurt.

* Bonus thing: Dwyane Wade is the biggest drama queen in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, he should be in movies, not just commercials. That's why he is referred to as Nature Boy. His acting is very much on par with that of Ric flair. Ridiculous. And the media needs to stop feeding into that bull****. I don't want to hear about back spasms anymore. He didn't wince one time last night about his back. And, if we're being honest, the only time it seemed to bother him in Game 4 was when he missed a shot or he was looking for a foul call and the refs didn't oblige. I'm so over Dwyane Wade and the theatrics. Quit with the B*tcha**ness!