Last night, Paul Millsap showed off his previously-unknown perimeter shooting stroke, while scoring 11 points in 28 seconds to power his Utah Jazz to an overtime victory over the Miami Big Three. Millsap was 3-3 from behind the arc during this explosion, after going 2-20 during the rest of his NBA career. So yeah: Paul Millsap, 3-point bomber.
Who knew?
Certainly not the Miami Heat, who surrendered what was, at one point, a 22-point lead to the Jazz and lost in overtime. Oh, the Jazz got the winning-time job done with their franchise point guard on bench due to fouling out. Not only did Millsap’s newfound outside shooting touch get the Jazz back in the game, his last-second tip-in sent the game to overtime. Needless to say, his 46-point (the most by a Jazz player since Karl Malone delivered the mail) 9-rebound game was indeed beast-like.
There are highlights of Millsap’s awesome finish, which is just one of the reason I love the Internet: Does Millsap’s performance lead credence to Jason Whitlock’s article about Chris Bosh being soft? Considering the results-based business sports is, I’m sure Whitlock thanks it is, but how many times did Bosh actually man up on Millsap?
He certainly wasn’t guarding him on the perimeter when Millsap turned into Jeff Hornacek. That was Udonis Haslem, for two of them anyway. Bosh flew out at him during the second three-point bomb, but that has as much to do with Deron Williams drawing Miami’s perimeter defense and pitching it to Millsap.
The other two were directly on Haslem, as was the weak box-out attempt on Millsap’s tip-in that sent the game to overtime. While Bosh might not be the rebounding beast, ala Dennis Rodman, to Wade and LeBron’s “Jordan and Pippen” act, he’s not the only source of the Heat’s weak inside play. Haslem deserves as much scrutiny here as anyone on the Heat’s roster.
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