In case you haven’t been keeping up with the team dynamics of the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, well, Mario Chalmers gets yelled at. A lot. (See above photo of [Chris “Velociraptor” Bosh][1] in the face of his prey.)
Poor Rio. When he played at Allen Fieldhouse, thousands of adoring fans screamed for him. Now the most popular player on the planet howls at him. Look how enraged team/NBA alpha dog LeBron James gets with Chalmers during this timeout against the Indiana Pacers in late December:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5jXkcD_56Q
Hey, don’t worry about it, people. Bron was sorry.
This is nothing new for Chalmers, of course. Even Bosh, the least revered member of the Heat’s “Big Three,” has turned shouting distance into close-talking with the sixth-year point guard on national television…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLDqQP7ifa8
Multiple times.
Finally, on Tuesday, someone with clout had Chalmers’ back. D[uring the Heat’s trip to the White House][2], when President Barack Obama honored the NBA’s back-to-back champions, the commander-in-chief couldn’t pass up an opportunity to give the Heat grief about the way they jump all over Chalmers.
Congratulations to Chalmers on the presidential pardon for his on-court miscues.
See. Now all the Heat are happy. Thanks, Obama.
—
Not so fast, Xavier
——————-
When Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Xavier Henry got diagnosed with a knee injury back on Dec. 30, the one-and-done KU product figured he would be back in the lineup within a week to 10 days.
[In this update from Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times][3], though, it appears Henry could be sidelined longer than anticipated:
> According to a team spokesman, Henry
> experienced knee soreness on Monday
> after running through an on-court
> workout on Sunday. Henry will spend
> the next several days doing
> non-weight-bearing exercises.
Pincus reported Henry, averaging a career best 10.1 points a game this season, doesn’t have a return date anymore for the slumping Lakers (14-25).
And ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Dave McMenamin wrote Tuesday night [Henry will be out “at least a week”][4] due to a bone bruise in the swingman’s right knee.
On Monday night, Henry hinted at his frustrations via Twitter:
Bein patient is one of the hardest things to do right now..
— Xavier Henry (@XavierHenry) January 14, 2014
—
Markieff bounces back
———————
[After enduring a scoreless outing and an ejection][5] in Phoenix’s previous two games, Suns backup power forward Markieff Morris returned to the land of productive NBA players Wednesday [with 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists][6] in the Suns’ 121-114 victory over the L.A. Lakers.
[The Bright Side of the Sun blog][7] called Markieff the team’s barometer — when he plays well, the Suns have success — but the big from Kansas didn’t get an A+ overall:
> Markieff Morris was the Suns best
> player early, tallying 9 points and an
> assist in his first 6 minutes of play.
> He still forced a lot of fallaways and
> played poor defense in the post.
And even though Markieff redeemed himself from a production standpoint, his twin Marcus (two points, three rebounds) picked up his bro’s slack in the technical department, earning a whistle on this scuffle, which happened to follow a Markieff dunk, as the Suns failed to get back in transition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP34H0oQL3Q
—
Keep up with the statistical output of all the former Jayhawks in the NBA [daily at KUsports.com][8].
[1]: https://twitter.com/Universe_Man_/status/214554724798693377/photo/1
[2]: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/15/3871052/president-cracks-jokes-as-miami.html
[3]: http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-xavier-henry-slowed-knee-soreness-20140113,0,1377218.story#axzz2qa4tTt2q
[4]: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lakers/post/_/id/38503/henry-still-at-least-a-week-away
[5]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/hawks_nba/2014/jan/14/markieff-morris-ejected-now-has-eight-te/
[6]: http://www.nba.com/games/20140115/LALPHX/gameinfo.html?ls=slt#nbaGIboxscore
[7]: http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2014/1/15/5313728/final-score-phoenix-suns-121-los-angeles-lakers-114-win-win-lose-lose
[8]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/mens_basketball/hawks_nba/
