The Hawks and Heat Want Drama, Too

Just to make sure that the majority of NBA playoff series go long, it's the Heat giving up their hard-won home-court advantage with an 81-71 loss to those pesky Hawks. I'd say more about this, but the plain and simple fact of this series is that when Dwayne Wade plays well, the Heat win going away; when he doesn't, as has happened in Games 1 an 4 of the series, they lose going away. It's compelling ball just because when Wade's on, he's one of the most watcahable players on the planet, but from a strategy standpoint, it's just that simple.

Tonight, Wade was 9 of 26; the Heat lost despite getting 20 from Jermaine O'Neal and 19 from James Jones. A whopping 2 points from the 4 bench players didn't help matters, and neither did 25 from the Hawks bench... but just save yourself the trouble and check Wade's night. This series is just that simple. (And for the record, I think he has 2 out of 3 good games in the remainder of this series. Joe Johnson hates this matchup, folks.)