Miami Heat vs. Atlanta Hawks: Kiss the Cook

​Did we just wake up in Bizarro World? Because usually when the Heat visits Atlanta, the Hawks tend to go all Cirque du Soleil on their asses with their slam dunk aerial assaults, sparking the home crowd into a frenzy and causing Josh Smith to hop up and down and act like a prick. But last night, Daequan Cook (yep, that guy) and the Heat bench (yep, those guys) decided to put an end to all that nonsense.

Daequan unloaded the pain on the Hawks to the tune of 17 points, going 3-for-5 from the three-point line and single-handedly sparking a fourth quarter run that would put the Heat ahead for good and make Josh Smith chew on his mouth guard and think about it for a while.

With 7:53 remaining in the fourth, and the teams knotted up at 71, Cook knocked down back-to-back threes, igniting a 10-0 run by Miami. This from a guy who's been averaging 4.5 a night. Udonis Haslem added 14 points, and Dorell Wright contributed 10, as the Heat reserves outscored the Hawks bench 45-8 for the game. But in the end, it was Cook who was the catalyst, scoring 13 of his 17 in the fourth and giving the Heat their first win in Atlanta since March of 2007. Best of all, the bench's scoring outburst kept Dwyane Wade from having to pull one of his nightly "What? My team is sucking again?! I'm on my way!!" miracles out of his ass. And that's always a plus when the Heat beat a contender like Atlanta.

So the Heat go into the All-Star break on a high note, winning two in a row and putting themselves back in the thick of things in the East. Now if only Daequan can find a way to not win the three-point contest this weekend so as not to jinx himself like last year, then everything will be where we want it. Right here in Bizarro World.