Some post-game thoughts (Heat edition)

That was a really big win . . .

• This was probably Brandon Roy's finest game so far this season. Not only did he score 28 points, but he did it with remarkable efficiency.  He shot 11-14 from the field and 5-5 from 3-point range.  He made all of his shots in crunch time to ice the game.  By contrast, Dwyane Wade also had 28 points, but he was 13-31 from the field. 


• In his typical Jekyll and Hyde style, Martell Webster had an excellent game the night after having a terrible one.  He had 15 points on 4-7 shooting and finished the game with an impressive +24 (which was easily the highest plus/minus of any Blazer).  


• LaMarcus Aldridge also bounced back after his worst game of the season last night.  Tonight he had 23 points and 8 boards.


• Andre Miller was the winner of the point guard derby tonight.  He had 17 points on 6-10 shooting and was rewarded by being the guy in the game at the end (both Bayless and Blake finished tonight's game on the bench).  


• Jerryd Bayless had a relatively quiet night, recording 6 points and 2 assists in 16 minutes of play.  Encouragingly, though, Bayless again hit two 3 pointers.  By my unofficial math, that raises his 3-point percentage up to 35% for the season.  If he can continue to hit threes at that rate going forward, it will open up the floor for him and the rest of the team.  Consistent outside shooting is his ticket to even greater playing time.  Bayless also looked pretty good with the ball.  In addition to his two assists, he had a couple of good passes that should have resulted in buckets.  


• The newest Blazer, D-League call-up Anthony Tolliver, made a brief appearance in the game tonight.  Unfortunately, he seemed to be unaware that Michael Beasley is left-handed and ALWAYS goes left.  In fact, it almost seemed that Tolliver was trying to force Beasley to go left.  Beasley readily obliged, scoring several easy baskets in a row.  And that was it for Anthony Tolliver.  Not a great start.  


• But Tolliver did get more minutes tonight than either Dante Cunningham or Jeff Pendergraph, neither of whom saw any action.  McMillan instead chose to play Juwan Howard for 18 minutes.  Howard played decently, not making many mistakes and pulling down 5 boards and 2 points.  


• Overall, this was a really good win for the Blazers.  They were playing an above .500 team on the road on the second night of a back-to-back.  And they were down by 6 late in the fourth quarter.  But they pulled it out.  With two really difficult road games still to go on this road trip, that's huge.  They needed this one in a bad way.  And they got it.