Hater's Holiday! The Heat Finally Lose!

Call out sick today, streak through the streets, break some car windows, punch a stranger in the face! It's a celebration for haters everywhere, as well as for those that embrace all that is right and just in the world. The Miami Heat have finally lost a game! These past two months have been a non-stop barrage of LeBron worship and general fawning over the greatness that is the Miami Heat. You couldn't turn on ESPN or read a sports related blog without incessant chatter over everything that is wonderful about the Heat. And I hated it. I dreaded even watching Sportscenter and not just for the incredibly lame jokes the anchors tell. I kind of understand how those Americans stuck in Iran felt in Argo. The Heat juggernaut held all of us haters hostage for nearly 2 months! But now we can breathe easy. It's beginning to almost feel like Spring in the tri-state area:  the sky is blue, the sun is shining, girls are starting to wear skirts and there's a great big L next to the Heat's name in the sports section.

Enjoy it for now, fellow haters. While the taste of defeat is sweet, alas it is short lived. The Heat are still a dominant team, and I know I wasn't the only person who felt like Miami would still pull a win out of their ass even when they were down 9 with 2 minutes left. And they were a defensive rebound away from having a chance to make it a one possession game with about a minute left but Carlos Boozer (who made some great and some really, really stupid plays last night) scored on a put back to seal it. They've shown they're on another level when they really focus and it's a scary thing for every other team and fan base in the NBA. But, there's a slight glimmer of hope that the haters can take solace in. The short-handed Bulls who started Nazr Mohammed in place of Joakim Noah (ugh) and still without D Rose pushed the Heat around a bit and frustrated LeBron, so much so that he committed his first flagrant foul since 2007 (which oddly enough was on Wade back when James was with the Cavs) on a elbow to the chest of Boozer. It was strange to see, the usually unflappable LeBron losing his cool like that. That's usually the stuff that mere mortal hot heads like Carmelo pull. But the Bulls pushed, bumped and even tackled (see the photo above) LeBron all night and provided a blueprint for other teams to maybe have a chance against Miami. Much like the bad boy Pistons employed the "Jordan Rules" which was little more than just sending 3 of their goons to assault MJ on every drive to the basket, Chicago basically let Bron and the Heat know that if they were going to beat them it would hurt. But oh does it feel good to be a hater today. Enjoy it for now, my comrades in Heat Hate. We might not like LeBron when he's angry.