A for effort, but it doesn't make much sense.

Dwyane Wade was pissed that the Indiana Pacers were celebrating their Game 2 win in Miami earlier this week, and he was pissed that the refs weren’t calling fouls the way he’d prefer. So when most people expected him to respond with a Dwyane Wade game in Indiana last night, he shocked everyone when he barely showed up with a Harold Miner game. Wade scored 5 whole points as the Pacers trounced the Heat 94-75, and the “haters”, I believe, are throwing a parade in every major city this morning.

It’s just one game, and unless the Heat lose the next one, I think it’s safe to say the notion of the Heat being in panic mode is a bit silly and premature. But for at least one night, the people who have begged and prayed for the Heat to lose were celebrating their butts off on Twitter. And my favorite Tweet, which I assume was meant to mock all of the people Tweeting incredibly nasty comments at Wade and the Heat, came from Wade’s girlfriend, Gabrielle Union.

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"Hey you kids, get off my damn lawn!"

With less than 10 minutes to play in the 4th quarter of last night’s Game 2 matchup between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, Dwyane Wade got a little pissed. Pacers guard Dahntay Jones seemingly went up-and-down on Wade (I knew a girl in college who mastered that) but the Heat star wasn’t too pleased that the refs didn’t call a foul. So he stood there and let the Pacers score.

As Mario Chalmers brought the ball back down, the Pacers forced a turnover and Wade was pretty much fed up. He sprinted after Darren Collison and jacked him in the back for a flagrant-1 and the title of the Dirtiest Player Not Named Metta World Peace. The Pacers went on to win Game 2 78-75, impossibly stealing one on the road, and they celebrated as such.

Just another thing that pissed Wade off.

“I heard they wanted to be like the Dallas Mavericks, in a sense,” Wade said. “I saw their little celebration at the end of (Game 2). I don’t know if they didn’t expect to win, but every night we go out on the court, we expect to win.” [...] “They say their identity, they say they want to be like Dallas,” Wade said. “So they celebrated like Dallas, I guess.” (Via Slam Online)

I understand that the guy’s going to be a little ticked when he feels like things didn’t go his way, even if he did, you know, miss a chance to swing the final score in his team’s favor. But whereas LeBron James never felt comfortable with the role of a villain, it seems like Wade has just fully embraced it and added, “F*ck it, we’re turning this up to 11.”

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Indiana Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough is the prototypical love him or hate him player. He’s energetic, intense and borderline obnoxious on the court, so fans of the team he plays for love him and those he plays against hate him. In the Pacers’ first round series against the Orlando Magic alone, he showed that even though his numbers are low coming off the bench, he contributes best by getting into opponents’ heads and causing them to make mistakes.

I’m also the perfect example of a basketball fan who typically hates Hansbrough, because I find his intensity more arrogant than infectious. But during this first round series, in which his Pacers defeated the Magic 4 games to 1, I learned to respect him more than I ever have. Originally, I thought that Hansbrough was just a mouth-breathing dolt, grunting and derping his way through games and awkwardly lunging for undeserved chest bumps and high fives.

I’ve now learned, though, that there’s so much more emotional and intellectual depth to this athletic warrior and I want to pay tribute to Hansbrough in order to once and for all crush the misconception that he’s anything but a winner.

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The Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers have one of the more understated and heated rivalries building in the NBA, but nobody really talks about it because it’s the Magic and the Pacers. Yawwwwwwwwn, amiright? Speaking of yawns, Danny Granger and a few of his Pacers teammates are probably a little tired this morning since they were out partying in Orlando until 2:45 a.m. Big deal, because I’ll bet Chris Duhon is still out drinking right now.

But it is a bit of a big deal, because while leaving Club 23, Pacers backup center Kyrylo Kesenko was confronted by some Orlando “fans” – and I use quotes because at 2:45 a.m. they’re really just random assh*les looking for a fight – and one even pushed the 7-footer. Then all heck broke loose. Heck, I say!

More from TMZ, “As Kyrylo tried to walk away from the situation … the mob grew in numbers and the taunts became louder.

That’s when Kyrylo’s teammate Danny Granger charged towards the clubgoer … only to be restrained by some of his friends.” (Via TMZ and their ridiculous love for ellipses.)

I’ve included the poor quality cell phone cam video of the altercation after the jump, and I think TMZ is making Granger out to be a bit more badass than he actually he is. Either way, I’m not one to preach about grown men knowing better than to go out partying, but if you’re as recognizable as Granger or, better yet, you’re a 7-foot European dude, people are probably going to talk sh*t.

I know I would. But from like two blocks away, because I’m not stupid.

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The majority of the national media picked the Indiana Pacers to beat the Orlando Magic in 4 games, and the Florida sports media is so convinced that the Magic are going to lose quickly that they just stuck to making up news about Dwight Howard instead of predicting the series outcome. But on Saturday night, the Magic had other ideas, as they defeated the Indiana Pacers 81-77 in the first game of their incredibly boring first round matchup.

The Magic went on an 11-0 run to close out the game, and the victory was sealed when Indiana’s Danny Granger traveled with less than 8 seconds left and down by just 3. And all the way at the end of the Magic bench, Chris Duhon, of all people, turned Granger’s one stupid play into the weekend’s best sports meme not involving Dontari Poe trying to make out with Roger Goodell.

So of course the crafty minds of the Interwebs took some musical liberties with the original video of Duhon’s travel dance. And if they get in trouble for using unlicensed music, maybe Duhon can help them out with the bills with his $3.5 million salary.

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In extremely important sports news to me, Cleveland.com is reporting that Cavaliers mascot “Moondog” was taken to the hospital after a good natured game of pre-game man-to-dog roughhousing got out of control and nearly cost him an eye. The injury came courtesy of Indiana Pacers forward David West, so of course when I read “Cavs mascot sent to hospital by West” my first thought was that Delonte West had rolled back into the 216 on his tri-ped superbike, tore open whatever flower box he’s using to conceal his machine guns and shot the poor dog to death.

Anyway:

The club did not update his status for Sunday’s game against Orlando. It’s unclear whether the Cavs, already without Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao among others, will need to promote a mascot from the NBA Development League.

“He jumped at me so I thought we were playing around and then the next thing I know he went down,” West told reporters after the game. “It was definitely an accident.”

Moondog was spotted running through the hall, his dog head removed, clutching a towel to his eye. The mascot occasionally has fun sparring with opposing players before the game or during a timeout. Moondog and West exchanged some playful punches and apparently one caught him hard enough to do damage.

Also of note is the adorable follow-up, with West feeling increasingly guilty as he’s asked about it and asking people to “make sure he knows [he's] sorry”. I wouldn’t know how to feel if I encountered an anthropomorphic basketball playing dogman and accidentally blinded him. Pretty sure Dave just violated the Prime Directive.

In a related story, Jeff Pendergraph took a wrong turn in his van and manslaughtered Lake County Captains mascot Skipper.