Entries by Mateo Mayorga

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Draymond Green strikes again

Hide the women and children: Draymond Green assaulted someone again on national TV. This time, the victim was Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkić of the Suns. Disciplinarian Joe Dumars must’ve had a conniption, witnessing the infamous league bully roundhouse another man six games after his return from, you guessed it, strangling a peacemaker. What does coach […]

Heat narrowly escape the Hornets in Charlotte

Duncan Robinson flexed his new skills. Jimmy Butler invaded the paint. And the reserve crew outscored its Charlotte counterparts by 16 points, starting the miniseries with a win in hostile territory. To the Heat’s benefit, the Hornets missed a few makeable trays over late closeouts, but it only held a five-point lead after the opening […]

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: T.J. McConnell and Bruce Brown extinguish the Heat

Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a rookie night, the infamous turd quarter returned, two players went down, and defense was an afterthought in the Heat’s loss at home to the up-and-coming Pacers. In Bam Adebayo’s absence, Orlando Robinson and Kevin Love contributed 30 points and six rebounds, and the Heat’s frontcourt still got outworked. Miami’s record […]

The Pat Riley series, part 3: No end in sight

The Knicks were furious and wanted three first-round draft picks plus $3 million in compensation for Pat Riley abandoning his post. But it settled on one FRP and a million in restitution, letting him and the Heat off easy. For context, in 2000 (five years later), the Minnesota Timberwolves tampered and were reprimanded by the […]