Sunday night's battle between the Eastern and Western Conference's cream of the crop was supposed to be about who was playing. It turned out to be about who wasn't. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were given the game off versus the Spurs and if something seems off about that, recall that on November 19, San Antonio sat Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Danny Green against Miami. There's no need to scratch your head as to why they were scratched from the lineup; the move was retaliatory. The Spurs were fined $250K, which is a lot of scratch, as the league established a "No Parking" prized players in prime-time precedent. The league has to level similar sanctions in this case. James and Wade were given a break, but Miami can't be.
Officially, LeBron was listed as having a hurt right hamstring and Wade a right ankle injury, but with Rory McIlroy in attendance, Erik Spoelstra might as well have written down "toothache" on the report. Maybe their tummies hurt from eating too much Easter candy*. Or perhaps they got lost during an egg hunt (so much for the buddy system). Whatever the reason given, it's as fake as the plastic grass that lines baskets during the holiday. The day before April 1, the Heat weren't fooling anyone.
*They weren't made available for comment after the contest, so not a peep(s) was heard from them.
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