Here's what Udonis Haslem said to Pat Beverley at halftime, and other stuff about the Rockets' excitable guard

Patrick Beverley plays defense like that half-crazy wild man you used to know back in high school who always wanted to pick a fight with the biggest guy in the room. The Rockets' starting point guard is a live wire of annoyance on the court, and that's against teams that didn't insult his manhood and cut him at the end of training camp back in 2010.

That would be the Heat. On Tuesday, Beverley got some revenge.

Mr. Chaos provided the Rockets with an overwhelming perimeter presence and helped limit Heat guards Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole to a combined 3 of 12 from the field. Beverley was especially relentless against Cole, who the Heat drafted in 2011 after apparently realizing the error of its ways in getting rid of Beverley for ... what ... exactly ... Eddie House? Something tells me Beverley would have matched up pretty well against one José Juan Barea in the 2011 NBA Finals, but let's not go there tonight.

So, Beverley was jawing with the Heat's players pretty much every second he was on the court, which was exactly 1,972 seconds. At one point, it appeared like Heat coach Erik Spoelstra subbed Cole out of the game so Cole wouldn't completely lose his mind and do something stupid. Cole might be the most level-headed player in the NBA, by the way.

After the halftime buzzer, Udonis Haslem walked over to Beverley for a brief conversation. I asked Haslem about that conversation...

"I was just giving him a hard time," Haslem said. "It was nothing serious. I just told him to stop talking crap and looking over at our bench. I know Pat. I think he the spent the summer with us. He's a hard-nosed kid, a real competitor, and I respect the road that he took and the success that he had, but he was just doing a lot of yapping and I told him to stop looking at our bench and talking crap.

"It wasn't nothing personal. I got a lot of love for Pat Beverley, but he was just looking over at our bench and talking and he's always got something to say. We're cool off the court, but in between the lines, I don't like it.

"You play against a team that you worked out for, or you felt like you should have been there, or they made a mistake by letting you go, you try to prove something. And I guess he came out tonight with a chip on his shoulder."

Something tells me that's pretty much every night in the life of Pat Beverley.

Did LeBron's big night give him the edge in the MVP race?

Shot chart of LeBron's 61-point game against the Bobcats. Lots of green here.

So, did LeBron's big night against the Bobcats push him ahead of Kevin Durant in the race the MVP? Magic Johnson certainly thinks so. Here's Johnson's tweet in support of James.

 

LeBron set all kinds of records with his 61 points. Let's make a list:

—For starters, James' 61 set a franchise record, eclipsing Glen Rice's 56 against the Magic.

Heat's top single-game scoring performances

61 LeBron James vs. Charlotte Bobcats 3-3-14

56 Glen Rice vs. Orlando 4-15-95

55 Dwyane Wade vs. New York 4-12-09

51 LeBron James @ Orlando 2-3-11

50*** Dwyane Wade vs. Utah 3-14-09

50 Dwyane Wade @ Orlando 2-22-09

50 Alonzo Mourning vs. Washington 3-29-96

 *-Indicates an overtime period

—LeBron's 37 in the second half set a franchise record for points in a half.

—The monster third quarter — 25 points, 9 of 11 shooting, 5 of 5 from three-point range — set franchise records for points and field goals in a quarter.

—LeBron set career single-game highs in points (61) and field goals made (22) and tied his career high in three-point field goals made with eight (second time in his career).

—And in perhaps the biggest indicator that LeBron has at least evened the race with Durant for the MVP award, the Heat's star forward has made at least 66 percent of his field goal attempts in each of his last five games. During the five-game stretch he’s shooting 74-109 (.679) from the floor.

Heat's Family Fest highlighted by Udonis Haslem's love of snakes

Highlights of the Heat Family Fest on Sunday included Birdman playing basketball with a group of youngsters, plenty of great dogs up for adoption and one enormous snake draped around the shoulders of Udonis Haslem.

"I've always had this weird thing for snakes," Haslem said.

Haslem's fascination for snakes began during his time at the University of Florida. Pat Riley joked that Haslem might have grown up in Liberty City, but he's an Everglades guy at heart. No arguments here.