ESPN.com analysis

Breakdown of today's Celtics-Heat game below. Count the cliches in a mere handful of paragraphs.




It's about mental toughness and intestinal fortitude.

It's about confidence and respect.

It's about demons and monsters.

“And we've got to slay that demon, so to speak,” said Heat swingman Mike Miller, who missed a wide-open 3-pointer that could have sent the previous meeting with Boston into overtime at the Garden.

Instead, Miller's bad miss sent the Heat to yet another demoralizing setback against their biggest demons in the league.

 

The NBA's regular season in April is a cliche in itself.

I do like the last couple of days of the season, though, when teams activate the fourth-string scrubs for some action. We used to call it Mikki Moore week.

 

Another cliche: breakdown.

 

I used to like the word until Tom Petty started singing it all the time.

 

We spend more time talking about what MIGHT happen in sports these days that what DID happen. I wonder why that is?

 

Maybe because our imaginations aren't rigged like all professional sports, up to and including the NBA, the NHL, the NFL and the WWE.

Believe it or not, MLB isn't rigged but is run by reptilians, so that counts for something.

 

That's one of my favorite 2 a.m. songs. Unless I'm in the car and concerned about its condition.

 

Is any of this really surprising? Par for the course for ESPN.

 

Or par for the court.

 

Agreed. And they refer to themselves as "experts."

 

Engrossing dispatch or word dump?

 

That Miller used "demons" in a quote is fine. But did you need to use the exact same word in the grafs immediately before and after that? Is there a thesaurus in Bristol?