Miami vs. OKC in Finals

I think the Lakers part ways with their entire bench, ditch one of the "Big 2" starters, and blow it up for a year and hope they can make it back to the Playoffs before Kobe retires.

Next year the Lakers should have Kobe, World Peace, and Sessions starting. They'll have one out of Gasol/Bynum (my guess is Bynum) and another PF they pick up on the market. Their entire bench will get younger and quicker, especially at the guard/swing spots. I could see Jordan Hill getting re-signed, but probably not anyone else. They might lose a ton of games, but they'll have fun doing it.
 
LA has no point and that is where the series was hopelessly. No D at the point and no O at the point.

Had the Chris Paul trade went through they would have been sound for a 7 deep.

I don't feel bad for Kobe. He's well paid, plays like a son of a *****, and lives the dream. Sometimes your team is not that good and he doesn't tend to make this group better.
 
Dexter Pittman just pulled a Ron Artest style move there. Didn't really take Pittman to be that kind of player.
 
^^^ Saw that too. Totally uncalled for. Should be a flagrant 2 and draw a suspension. There's no place for that crap in any sport. Dexter's already been spending too much time around the divas on his team.
 
Just saw Haslem's retaliation foul on Hansbrough for the first time and that was definitely a flagrant 2.

I agree the Hansbrough foul on Wade was just a good hard foul going for the ball.

That foul by Pittman is about as bad as it gets. Maybe LeBron will help pay his fine.
 
I wish Dex hadn't done that. That's the kind of play that will not be forgotten around the league and may prevent him from getting work in the future.
 
OKC moves on to 3rd round to face Spurs. Should be a great series and at this point I think it can go either way. Spurs have home court and that will be huge. OKC just wants to take one of the first 2.

Miami seems to be limping on, but it does advance to 3rd round to face either Boston/Pacers. Miami without Bosh is not as interesting a matchup as this seemed to be 2 months ago.
 
The East is depressing- who here wants to see Miami and Boston again? I am so rooting for Philly to win although I know it won't happen.

Miami and SA are polar opposites. One is star oriented, one is team oriented. One likes their coach, one accepts him. One plays team defense and passes, the other feeds the superstars. One team wins when the bench plays well, one team loses if the bench plays too much. One superstar has 4 rings and is working on his fifth, the other has a superstar who moves his talents around the country.

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If the Celtics played as large in this series as the mega hype pre-game introduction for game 7, they would probably have swept the Sixers.

OMG, there's Doris Burke's annoying nasal monotone again ...
 
OKC has done their part and taken out 3 great championship calibur teams. Miami was up 2-0 but has since lost 3 in a row and both Bosh and Wade appear to be banged up a bit. They continue to be limping along but face an elimination game tonight against Boston. Boston will get beat bad by OKC IMO...they just are too damned old to keep up with OKC.
 
If Boston wins I think OKC runs them out of the gym. If miami wins you will see a competitive series with all kinds of storie lines regarding Durant/Lebron.
 
Looks like potentially a great series. I don't like Miami, or James, but they can be very formidable when the latter is on.
 
No doubt. James has led his teams to the finals twice now (07 against Spurs and 11 against Mavs). Miami was not expected to go to the Finals last year in year 1 of their newly assembled team. It says alot about how great of a player he is.

This will be a great series, one that I have been expecting to see and waiting to see for a couple of months now. No real suprise these 2 teams are in the finals. This will be a great series.
 
After watching the Thunder-Spurs series, I came away from watching the Celtics-Heat not that impressed with the play of either Eastern Conf finalist.

I thought the Spurs and Thunder, over six games, displayed a remarkable style of play, adjustments, re-adjustments, roll-playing, ball-movement, and the ability of more than one or two players holding up a game or taking over a game. A lot more of that came across to me that what the Heat and Celtics were doing.

The Mavs swept that series last year. If Thunder win the first two games at OKC, the Heat will go back home having lost 6 straight NBA Final games and this new team configuration having not won a home NBA Finals game at all.
 
Thunder vs. Heat. Sounds like a girls fastpitch softball game.

Hook'em!!!
vince.gif
 
The Thunder never gave up after an abysmal start and struggling for much of game 2. Now it's road warrior time.

I don't normally complain about officiating, but that obvious foul by James on KD's shot that could have tied the game late was hard to take. That is a call the ref has to make.
 
Wonder how long it will take the Thunder to realize that Shane Bat-E-Hay cannot be allowed to just camp out at the perimeter and shoot "horse" shots. I think the closest anyone has been to him is 10 feet when he shoots.

Frustrates the hell out of me when a guy does that with no one even remotely contesting and making him uncomfortable. The others are going to make their points... why not eliminate him?

I would love for Bosh to just stay in the game the whole time. It's Shane that, to me, is killing it. Those are just free freaking points. They let him start off the game running up the score. Why? What sense does that make?

The Thunder need to start games -- first 10 minutes -- with a fierce freaking defensive effort. Blanket everyone and don't let anyone get uncontested shots.
 
Game 2 was a very close game that could have easily gone the other way. It was a bad non call at the end but the officials were blowing calls wrong the whole game and some went the Thunder's way but they just happened to get the last bad one. I expect some more close games but the Heat did get the split at Oklahoma City which is what they wanted.
 
Colin Cowherd this morning led off with what I've been worried about and talking about, Shane Battier.

Cowherd said everything in match ups cancels out... coaches, one has defense, one has offense; one has star power, one has best shooter... and so on.

The factor not factored in before the series... Battier. He's shooting 70% for his 3s. That's killing the Thunder right now and putting them in 13 point and 17 point holes.

Why in hell the Thunder don't respect that and shut his *** down in the opening 5 minutes is beyond me. Maybe not worry about him much later in the game after you've established a rhythm, but damn... this is like leaving a key 3-pt shooter for the Thunder wide open all the time. Especially in the opening minutes of the game.

If nothing changes, Battier will be the difference and Heat win the series. Plus I quit watching again like I did last night for the 1st quarter. That was the dumbest ******* defensive strategy to just let the guy sit there and be Steve Kerr and Robert Horary.

The way the games are going you might as well start each game with the score Heat 10, Thunder 0. Then play with a handicap. That's what you're doing for just sitting back and letting Battier be maybe the first player ever in the history of the NBA Finals to be considered a non-player on the field by the opponent. Stupid.

My scheme?
I start the game with Westbrook on Battier.
Sephalosa on James.
Durant on Wade.

Westbrook bothers Battier and fights for a swatted ball, steal and breakaway. Westbrook stays close on Battier, and Sephalosa and Durant prevent anything cranking up on James and Wade. You play with that.

Tip my hat to the Heat for recognizing Battier's potential and just killing the stupid Thunder defensive tactic with it.
 
Durant's answer to questions about the late foul: "I missed the shot..." Kid is 100% class. This will be a great series if the Battier issue is addressed, and I think it will be.
 
Tomorrow's game, while not that critical in the overall scheme of things, could say a lot about how this series goes. The loser of game 3 is going to start feeling some pressure.
 
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