It was something of a surprise that the media walked into the final 15 minutes or so of the Heat's first practice session and actually saw some basketball. We normally get nothing but free throws, especially at times like this when we really want to see more.
It was four-on-four and the idea was defensive drills, but it was still a chance to see the new guys get at it.
Bron was IN-TENSE from the second we walked in. Made it look like he was going a bit over the top for the cameras, but it felt pretty genuine at the same time.
There wasn't much to learn from this first day, except watching LeBron and Dwyane match up a couple of times made one thing stand out:
Dwyane's going to get even better after being defended by Bron every day in practice. Dwyane has managed to get his against Bron when he was in Cleveland, but one-on-one it's still a physical mismatch, with Bron having four inches and maybe 40 pounds on him while almost matching Dwyane's quickness. Now that he can attack LeBron regularly, even Kobe will seem like less of a problematic defender come game time. That could mean great things for Dwyane.
As for Bron, no one can check this guy anyway. It's amazing to watch him barrel through the lane and have five guys hit him (or in this case four guys) and he still gets a shot off.
Both those guys looked like they were in great shape, and for that matter so did guys like Eddie House, who hasn't even been in Miami during most of the informal gatherings, and MIke Miller and UD. Bosh was kind of a non-factor in the few minutes we got to see. It wasn't really set up for him to do anything other than take a mid-range jumper and get rebounds -- plus offense wasn't what this was about.
For those who don't think this can be a great defensive team, they're dead wrong. Bron seems to embrace defense. It's how he'll get his break-out dunks, and he's as vocal as they come on that end. I'm still a proponent of him and D-Wade starting in the backcourt together, mostly for defensive purposes. They would be absolutely intimidating, almost like Jordan and Pippen were.
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