It’s Dean Wade!

Well my Chowd Half Fam, I started this week by hyping your basketball team because your basketball team was on one of the all-time heaters. And they stomped the hell out of Frisco basketball team. And they looked like they may never lose again. Going into last night, it looked like the Celtics might never even play a close game again.

In fact, that’s how it looked all the way into the fourth quarter last night in Cleveland. Because Boston led by 16 entering the fourth. And that lead ballooned to as MANY as 22 points with 9 minutes left. At which point ESPN put the Chowd win probability at 99.9%. 

And then something happened that’s very familiar to Chowd fan. DWade happened. Dwade is gonna DWade. And DWade went vintage DWade last night. As only DWade can.

Of course I’m talking about DEAN Wade. AKA the new DWade, apparently. AKA the guy who just lost his freaking mind in the fourth quarter last night and put on an absolute laser show and singlehanded won a game that was already lost for the Cavs against the hottest team in the league. 

This dude Dean Wade scored 20 points in the fourth quarter. He outscored the entire Celtics team in the fourth quarter.  It was like he caught the Celtics’ heater, like the Celtics heater was contagious and it spread to Dean Wade. And turned Dean Wade into DWade. And then suddenly DWade couldn’t miss a shot. 

Literally. Dwade didn’t miss a single shot in the fourth quarter. He didn't miss a shot, he scored 20 points, he outscored the entire opposing team and he led a 20+ point comeback… the last player to do all four of those things in the same fourth quarter was... Kobe freaking Bryant 22 years ago. So apparently DWade wasn’t just channeling DWade, he was channeling THE MAMBA too.

That’s all it took to cool off the Celtics. All it took was Dean Wade losing his mind and having the best come-from-behind individual fourth quarter in over 20 years. 

This comeback would have still been incredible if it was a team effort. But it really wasn’t a team effort. It was Dean Wade effort. It was the Dean Wade game. And no offense to Dean Wade, but I didn’t know the dude had it in him. I can't say I ever expected to see a Dean Wade game.

This is a guy averaging 5 points per game this season, 5 points per game for his career and he had never scored 23 points in an NBA game until last night. That was his career high scoring night. And he almost got that career high all in one fourth quarter against the hottest team in the Association.

If that wasn’t all crazy enough, the dude ultimately won the game on a put back dunk with 19 seconds left.

“IT’S DEAN WADE, COMING OUT OF NOWHERE” you can say that again. What a perfect description for that entire game, summed up in seven words. IT’S DEAN WADE, COMING OUT OF NOWHERE. This is why Ian Eagle is an absolute all-time legend. 

It’s Dean Wade, coming out of nowhere to end one of the hottest heaters we’ve ever seen. But that’s not all it took, because the Cavs almost lost this game anyway despite DWade coming out of nowhere. 

The refs overturned a shooting foul against THE CAVS THAT WOULD HAVE put Jayson Tatum at the line down one WITH LESS THAN A SECOND TO PLAY. And MAYBE the Ref Show shouldn’t have overturned that call because the Cavs were all up in Tatum’s landing space. 

It wasn’t egregious, but I’ll side with my Chowd half FAM that it was an aggressive overturn. What I won’t side with Chowd half fam on is the Kristaps Porzingis putback that got wiped out on that Tatum foul call. KP didn’t get it off in time. The clock stopped because of the foul.SO that Tatum shot was gonna be the last shot if there was no foul call. 

So no, the refs didn’t rob the Celtics by wiping a Porzingis buzzer beating put back to save the winning streak. And frankly, I don’t think Porzingis is all that broken up about it. Not based on what he said after the game. 

Based on what he said after the game, it sounds like KP was happy that the Tatum foul got overturned and his putback didn’t count and the Celtics finally lost. 

It’s a good loss? Really? Is that a thing? Especially by a team that’s known for not finishing!  It’s not like we haven’t seen this from them before.  It’s not like they’re not known for not finishing games.  That’s why that’s a concern. 

See, to me, losing a game where you let one dude off the bench go insane and single handedly beat you after you had a 22 point lead with 9 minutes left and a 99.9% win probability… IS ACTUALLUY a BAD loss?  In fact, a terrible loss.  And to spin it as anything other than a colossal choke job is pretty moronic:  don’t’ believe me, check in with KP’s teammate, Jaylen Brown: he knows.  He doesn’t think that them going into the tank against a busted up Cleveland team is a good thing: he knows it’s a terrible thing:

But KP SEEMS TO THINK it’s healthy because they were feeling a little too invincible. They were smelling themselves a little too much. So I guess the logic is, they took a big dump in their pants to smell that instead. 

AND WOULDN’T YOU KNOW, DWADE is a Chiefs fan. And this is only relevant because of course, the Kelce brothers were courtside for that game last night.

Because of course they were. Where AREN’T the Kelce brothers right now? Of course they were courtside for that insanity last night, rocking Cavs uniforms and chugging beers and cheesing it up for the cameras. Where else would they be? 

Of course they were there, and you just know they were regaling Clevelanders with stories of Super Bowl drama. Stories the Clevelanders know nothing about and have never experienced for themselves. Stories like walking it off in OT in Vegas or that one time the biggest dong on the team combined with the biggest brass set for the best trick play ever.