The faithful here can seem rather casual in their sports ardor ? supportive, excited, but too busy with South Florida's many diversions to be obsessed.
Then again, this is one of the most important weeks in the history of the Miami Heat. Home court might need to save the home team.
If the Heat don't win at least two of the three games here, they probably don't win the title. If they don't win the title, they don't complete the only mission that counts (again). If they don't complete their mission, there will be pointed calls for Plan B. Whatever that is.
"Today," coach Erik Spoelstra noted Saturday, "starts the bunker mentality."
So it's crunchtime in a city that, when it comes to sport, is best known for ? well there's the issue. It's hard to get a handle on Miami.
Is it a big-market NBA franchise? Must be. Look at all the marquee stars, the incessant buzz, the whiff of privilege.
Wrong, and that comes from the very top.
"As soon as they acquire a couple of players, and the sun shines, everyone says it's a big-market team," NBA Commissioner David Stern mentioned. "It's not. It's a mid-market team."
Is it even a basketball city?
Probably not through and through. Too many beaches for that sort of thing.
Is it a baseball city? The Miami Marlins have an odd history of having never won a division title, but owning two World Series championships.
But no, not even with a new ballpark. When the Marlins played up the road at the Miami Dolphins' place, you could shoot a bazooka shell through the grandstands and not harm a soul. Now that they're in their own stadium near downtown, the crowds are far better, but they're averaging fewer fans a game than the Minnesota Twins.
Is it a pro football city? That's always been conventional wisdom.
Just don't look at the standings. The team that played in five of the first 19 Super Bowls hasn't been back in 27 years, or played in a conference championship since the 1992 season, or won a playoff game since the 2000 season.
Is it a college football city? The University of Miami was once a dynasty, even if occasionally a naughty one.
But then, how come the dynasty seldom sold out?
A hockey town?
Surely, you jest. The Florida Panthers - the southern-most team in the NHL? dwell somewhere in the suburbs, but if you're an out-of-towner, you need a GPS to find them. What says hockey more than playing next to the Everglades?
Which brings us back to the Heat, at the moment in need of a home-court boost.
The decibels Sunday night probably won't match Oklahoma City's. Dwyane Wade said the noise when he was shooting a free throw there was "the loudest I've ever heard it."
But it won't be from lack of expectation. The Heat went 28-5 here this season.
"A lot of stuff has been said about our fans, and it will always be said about our fans, but they're our fans," said Wade, adding he thought they hit a new high in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics.
Any surge in enthusiasm would appear to touch all demographics. The here's-something-you-don't-see-everyday story going around this week was what the victim of the infamous face-eating attack - a homeless man named Ronald Poppo - said to his doctors when he recovered enough to talk.
"Go Heat."
The most dangerous weapon Miami has often presented to visiting teams has been the nightlife, not the fan noise. And the Thunder will be here for a week. Someone asked coach Scott Brooks if he was worried about his players.
"What about the coaches?" he answered.
OK, then.
"My wife's in town."
Everything seems in place for a series growing in fervor. "I think we don't like that team,'' Thabo Sefolosha said Saturday of the Heat, "and we've got to play angry.''
Sunday sounds like a beautiful day for the beach in Miami. At night, there will be a basketball game.
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