Sneeze Page

For my E-Business class, I am required to post a sneeze page in my blog. I am choosing to do a time related sneeze page because it makes the most sense for the topic that I am posting about. It is perfect timing for me to post a sneeze page because the NBA regular season has just ended, and the post season is just beginning. I would include my entire blog as a “best of/worst of” post because everything I posted about was of great importance. I posted about topics that I felt strongly about, and I cannot narrow it down to just a few of my posts to create a “best of” list because it would just be too short. Instead, I recommend that everyone read through the blog posts from the beginning of my blog all the way up until now. It will give you a nice recap of how the season went for the Miami Heat. It will also lead you to many resources that you can check out to gain further knowledge on the Miami Heat for the future because I will not be running this blog after the class has ended. Topics that I have covered include general basketball knowledge, product reviews, blog reviews, and the Miami Heat. If I were to suggest a few of these posts out of all of them, I would recommend that you read my posts on the charge call in basketball. I feel very strongly about this topic, and I feel that you can gain a lot of knowledge from these posts.

Nothing Left to Say

I don’t know that I can begin to explain my disappointment with the Miami Heat right now. I had called my friend’s Bulls team out earlier this month for losing to the Washington Wizards, and maybe it’s just karma, but the Heat turn around and lose to them too. The depth of this Heat team has to be about the worst in the league for any of the playoff contenders. They have recognizable names, but it’s almost like they’re star struck when they get out on the court with LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. Maybe they’re star struck from all the celebrities in the crowd. It takes a specific kind of player to be able to mesh with these NBA stars and media stars. I’ve noticed the weakness of this second team all season though. When LeBron is out of the game, the score immediately gets sliced in half. The lead that the Heat have over teams is erased within half a quarter if it even takes that long. LeBron can’t play all the minutes in every playoff game, so I really hope Wade and Bosh are able to step up when LeBron isn’t in the game. Anyone that has an MVP vote must be well aware of how atrocious the Miami Heat are when LeBron isn’t on the floor. I’m not exactly sure on his plus/minus numbers, but they have to be the best in the league. The Miami Heat are so much better with LeBron on the floor.

Heat vs Wizards Preview

Just like last game, the Miami Heat will be benching most of their star players with injuries or just giving them a bit of rest before the playoffs. But for God’s sake, this is the Washington Wizards we’re talking about. I can take a loss to the Celtics because they have veteran leadership, and they’re going to be in the playoffs, but, again, these are the Washington Wizards. This team has nothing to play for, and they are just a no good very bad rotten team. The role players for the Heat should be able to pound the Wizards on the boards and in the low post, or that’s what I hope to see them do at least. I hope they don’t fall in love with the three ball because that could lead to a different mindset going into the playoffs. I don’t know how much control Coach Spo has over this team, so their mindsets could be transformed very easily. The Heat cannot get away from pounding the ball inside, getting good looks at the rim, and getting to the free throw line. Falling in love with the three point shot would kill this team in the playoffs because the saying with three point shots is “you live by the three, you die by the three.” I’ve been a part of teams that have lived and died by the three, and this saying is extremely true. After you see 4 or 5 in a row not drop, you begin to doubt yourselves. After you doubt yourselves, all is lost.

Bad Loss

It looks like those role players that I talked about having good games just weren’t up to the occasion last night against the Boston Celtics. As I predicted, the star players for both teams sat for a majority of the game if they were dressed at all. Mario Chalmers was dressed for the game, and he played well. He has improved greatly from last year, and I hope he has gained some experience from last year’s playoffs. If his decision making is improved from last year and he doesn’t get rattled, then he’ll be able to control the games tempo and keep everyone in check. The one thing I don’t like about Mario Chalmers is that he defers the point guard role to LeBron James a lot during the course of the game. LeBron has said that he is more comfortable in the facilitator role, but he can’t be stealing the ball from Mario like that. Mario cannot create his own shots as easily as LeBron, so when he is forced to become a wing player, he is very ineffective. When LeBron is a wing player, he can create his own shots from the wing. He can also post up, whereas Mario Chalmers cannot. This being said, I’ll get back to the game. The game was boring, low scoring, and I actually found myself flipping between other games during this one. This was not one of the classic matchups that I had hoped for. The intensity wasn’t there. If the intensity was there, even with the role players this would have been a good game.

Miami vs Boston

Wow, this NBA season has gone by extremely quickly, and the regular season has pretty much been wrapped up. However, there is still one classic matchup between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat left for the season. Don’t get your hopes up though. Coach Spoelstra will probably rest a lot of the star players, and I expect that Doc Rivers will be doing the same thing. We’ve seen Coach Spo doing this a lot over the past few games, and it’s been kind of boring. I understand why he is doing this, but I also understand the disappointment that the fans feel. A lot of the fans buy tickets early, and they get excited to see matchups like this. However, when they get to the arena, they see their favorite players dressed in suits instead of their normal game time attire. Maybe I’m wrong though. Loyal fans support their team no matter what, and they will be rowdy and raucous no matter who is playing because every win builds team morale. This being said, the Miami Heat need this win in Boston because they have been so awful on the road throughout the entire season. This will also give the bench players a chance to prove that they belong on the court, and maybe they can build some of their confidence going into the post season. Bench player confidence will be instrumental in the Heat’s success in the post season. Teams will be keying in on LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, so bench players will have to knock down open shots.

Link Post

For my E-Business class, I was given the task of making a link post. I previously analyzed Hot Hot Hoops as a blog that I wanted to make my blog more like, so I felt that it was a good idea to build upon a post that they had already made. Their analysis of the game is great, and I shared some of the same ideas. In their post (http://hothothoops.com/2012-articles/april/heat-wrap-up-home-schedule-with-victory-over-rockets-97-88.html), they said that the Heat seized control of the game and took advantage of a beatable opponent. This has been a problem for the Heat all year as I have posted about earlier. They have trouble beating those teams that they should beat a lot of the time. They play down to their competition, but tonight they were able to get the win. Also, Hot Hot Hoops said that LeBron James strengthened his case for being the MVP. LeBron James is obviously the best choice for MVP in my opinion. Most people argue that LeBron James cannot be the MVP because he plays with too many good players, and then they say that Kevin Durant should be the MVP. My problem with this is that Kevin Durant also plays with extremely good players. Russell Westbrook and James Harden are two prolific NBA players, and they are both capable of scoring 30-40 points on any given night. If LeBron can’t get MVP because he is playing with too many good players, then Kevin Durant is also out of consideration for the league’s most valuable player.

Analyze a Top Blog

For my E-Business class, I was given the task of analyzing a top blog for the niche market that I am posting about. Obviously, the niche market that I am in is NBA fans specifically Miami Heat fans. There are many blogs about the Miami Heat, and most of those are more successful than mine as it stands right now. One of the most successful blogs about the Miami Heat is Hot Hot Hoops, www.hothothoops.com. This blog is successful because it analyzes not only things affecting on the court life, but it also analyzes and reports things that are affecting Miami Heat players off the court lives. People are always interested to hear about off the court issues because generally, they are just more interesting than what goes on during the games for the most part. Also, people like to point fingers at players off the court lives and say that what they do off the court has an effect of how they perform on the court. The design of the blog is very impressive, as well. The colors are vibrant, and every post has a picture, video, or some other form of graphic to accompany the text. This is one thing that my blog is missing. I could utilize some of the design forms that this blog has to offer for my own. My blog is very dark, so readers may not be attracted or want to stay on my page for very long. Also, I don’t have many pictures, so it doesn’t capture attention very well.

Promote A Blog

Today I’ll be promoting a blog. The blog that I’d like to promote is along the same lines as the blog that I am currently posting on from time to time, but they are more timely and are more informative than I am. Here is a link to this blog, http://www.heatnetmix.com/. The Heat Net Mix provides readers with rumors, news, and personal opinions through blog form. Where my blog is generally just my views from games and happenings within the past few days in the month, the Heat Net Mix will provide readers with things that could happen in the future through rumors, things currently happening through news, and things that happened within the past few days through the personal opinion blog section. I recommend this to all fans of the Miami Heat because the views that they have are unbiased toward any particular team in the NBA. Having an unbiased opinion is important in the sports world because you will be presented with facts that won’t lead you to places you don’t want to be in an argument about sports with one of your friends. If you only hear statistics that are favoring one team, then you won’t be well informed. Heat Net Mix will give you both sides of the story, so you will be well informed. You will be able to talk about the Miami Heat freely with everyone that wishes to engage in conversation with you about NBA basketball, and you can school Chicago Bulls fans that have recently hopped on the bandwagon.

Heat vs Contenders

Earlier this month, the Miami Heat played both the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls. The Boston Celtics are a very old team, and the Miami Heat should run them off the floor, but they didn’t. The Chicago Bulls are playing without Derrick Rose, so the Miami Heat should run them off the floor, as well, but just as with the Celtics, they played down to their competition. The Heat have enough talent on the team to run circles around a team without Derrick Rose, but they keep playing at a level that is well below their own. In high school, I was on a team that was victim to this phenomenon, too. But in high school, it’s a lot harder for kids to turn the switch when it comes times to play in the post season. I’m not worried about the Heat in the post season, but I just hope they don’t get set in their ways of playing down to the competition. They are almost guaranteed to have a 1 or 2 seed in the playoffs, so they’ll be playing one of the lower caliber teams in the Eastern Conference. If they play down to their competition, then they could be beat by one of these lower caliber teams, and that would be embarrassing. That is the last thing that LeBron James needs. LeBron needs to start leading this team when they play the lower caliber teams. The role players need to get up for these games just as they do for the bigger games.

Heat vs Thunder

This was a classic matchup of arguably the two best teams in the NBA. Some would argue that the Bulls are the best team in the league, but I just find that hard to believe because Derrick Rose isn’t playing. How can a team be the best in the league without their best player? Back to the main point though. The Thunder and the Heat played tonight in a matchup that we might see again in the NBA Finals. The Heat came out on top, but the game was at home, so I don’t put much weight into the fact that the Miami Heat won this game. I really hope we see this matchup in the NBA Finals. Westbrook is one of my favorite players, and LeBron James is my favorite player. Also, the matchup between Kevin Durant and LeBron James will be one for the ages. LeBron James is probably the best defensive player in the league, and Kevin Durant is probably going to be the scoring champ. If LeBron is able to shut down KD, then the Heat would easily win this series, but when a guy is 7 feet tall, it is very hard to stop him from the perimeter or anywhere on the floor for that matter. If anyone can do it, that person is LeBron James. I feel like LeBron will elevate his game to a level that no one has ever seen before. Everyone keeps doubting him, and I think this will be fueling his fire.

Heat vs. Celtics

Was this some kind of April Fool’s Day joke?  I would have said it was if I hadn’t been watching the Heat play during this entire past month.  Another road game, another loss, and I’m not surprised.  The Heat shot 35% from the field and missed 10 free throws.  Free throws are free points, but they wouldn’t have mattered in this game.  The Heat are just getting outplayed on the road every single game.  It doesn’t matter who they play now, they just need to get a road win.  The playoffs are coming up, and they are going to be receiving more scrutiny than any other team in NBA history.  At the center of that scrutiny will be LeBron James.  LeBron is playing decent basketball right now, but he needs to inspire his team.  He needs to get his teammates involved like he used to during the stretch of games where they were winning easily by double digits.  Against the Celtics, LeBron had 0 assists.  He has continually been on record saying that getting his teammates involved is his favorite part of the game of basketball, and last night he didn’t do that at all.  I believe the confidence of this team is failing them, and their “swagger” has always been what they’re all about.  Without the confidence to be able to win on the road, they won’t ever actually win on the road.  They are embarrassingly bad away from South Beach.  The playoffs are looming on the horizon, and I feel like LeBron is really feeling the pressure.