05/16 (Heat Thumped) Quickie

If you want the Heat to lose this series, last night's Game 1 in Chicago was a best-case scenario.

After looking so unstoppable against the Celtics, the Heat looked overmatched against the Bulls' defense (quantum leap from Boston) and rebounding (offensive) and posterizing (Taj Gibson!)

Chris Bosh even had a good game, and it didn't matter. The home crowd cheered the Bulls, everyone at home (or on Twitter) jeered the Heat and after a taut 1st half, it was essentially over after the 3rd quarter, without even a "patented NBA run" proffered by the Heat.

Now, let's go back to the old playoff maxim: They don't really start until someone loses at home. If the Heat win Game 2, the series script instantly flips.

So enjoy it now.

***

Thunder run past Grizzlies to reach NBA West finals: Hard not to root for OKC to get past Dallas, putting Kevin Durant on the Finals stage (although it's hard to pick against the Mavs, who dispatched the two-time defending champs so effortlessly).

By the way, let's take a sec to praise the Grizzlies, who as an 8-seed nearly got to the conference finals -- all without their best wing player, the injured Rudy Gay. If they can keep Marc Gasol, making it back to the NBA's version of the Elite Eight isn't unreasonable to expect.

Jorge Posada apologizes: I understand why he did (and, by the way, it was a half-hearted "kind of" apology), and he's certainly not very good, but I go back to Joe Sheehan's point that this all comes back to Joe Girardi's unwillingness to do anything about the Jeter issue. And when the Yankees end up not making the playoffs -- and Girardi ends up being fired -- maybe they will finally deal with it. (Meanwhile, don't let this noisy object off to the side distract you from the way the Red Sox came to NYC and swept the Yankees.)

Jose Bautista hits 3 HR: Three words -- Not. A. Fluke.

Amazing story out of Phoenix, where Suns CEO Rick Welts went public yesterday that he is gay, a rare open exec at the top levels in sports. (It dovetails with that PSA that ran on TV yesterday of the pick-up hoops players using "gay" as a slur for "dumb," then being admonished by Grant Hill and Jared Dudley for it. Great to see that effort getting airtime on a game as watched as Bulls-Heat Game 1.

It is my older son's 5th birthday today. More on that milestone later. It's a big one for him -- and for me and his mom.

-- D.S.