I'm disappointed in Westbook wanting to be shooting guard in the opening 5 min and all of 1st quarter for that matter. He needs to penetrate and distribute and create movement and participation and get the whole team going. His shots are being rebounded by about 4 Heat in the paint every time he misses. That's the equivalent of a turnover in that the shot is not contested nor is the rebound.
OKC does need to start better. Westbrook needs to drive and dish. Shoot only when in the flow of the game. I think these 2 teams split and then will be able to evaluate last 3 games based on the play of these next 2.
Didn't see the entire game and haven't looked at the boxscore, but from what I did see, I have a feeling FT shooting had a lot to do with the outcome.
Third Coast... I saw chunks of the game, and the Thunder were not in the best lineup or in a flow to take care of a lot of opportunities late in the 3rd quarter to start taking over the game. It felt very ugly, clumsy, poor decision making, ill-conceived shots, and bad night at FT line as you say. Thunder may be losing their fire and will or something. As a fan, I damn near worn out following the playoffs to be honest. Feels like it's been going on for about five years.
Thunder did not play great offensively for the entire game. The 4th qtr they went away from their team offense and reverted back to their 1 on 1 games. Miami simply played better at the end. Suprised to see Durant not getting to the FT line more and not making very many when he has this series. The officials made for a very unfun game to watch. The game was out of flow and there just wasn't consistency with contact. At times James or Durant would get take large amt of contact under the basket and there would be no call. Then sometimes like that Wade drive to the bucket in the 4th there was litterally no contact and they blew a whistle. Hardin was also off for the Thunder as well as Sefolosha.
Durant picked up his fourth when they were up by about 6 or 7. They were playing well, playing with patience. Once he left they had a four-point play from DFish and then nothing for a long time. They lost flow almost completely and their D became spotty. They never really got flow again and never led again. The Thunder are young, lack a true point (though one of their best players fills that role) and don't have a really strong presence in the paint. They have some depth to help try to combat those deficiencies, and the Heat are no necessarily built to take great advantage of those issues (they are getting too many easy buckets in the paint, but not because they have an unsolvable force in that phase of the game). Hopefully the Thunder can evolve and respond because neither of these teams is particularly great or free from serious points of weakness -- the series remains there for the taking.
added thought... could the Heat hit a wall? maybe played out their highest level of output the past couple of games...? Can they have a miserable night one of the next two at Miami? The Thunder have to win one more to get back to OKC. Last night was for the taking when they got up 7 or 8, and I think 9 or 10 at one point. They should have taken chances and kept the players on the floor.
Ibaka says that James only plays defense for a few minutes and not the entire game. LeBron calls Ibaka stupid. Should be interesting tonight.
If Westbrook and Harden would shoot well in the same game, this would be a different series. As I said in a previous post, I don't normally complain about calls, but the officiating disparity tonight is the worst of the finals. Perhaps if the Thunder would whine and scowl at every touch like James does they would get more calls.
I like it - homefield advantage ought to be less when you're comparing records from two different conferences. Also historically speaking it hasn't made a lot of difference to have that 5th game at home for the lower seed. The higher seed has swept those games on the road more often than they've been swept in them.
I know a team that drops one of the first two at home still has to take one on the road and in the grand scheme of things it probably matters little, but I guess I'm just old school. I remember the back and forth great series of yesteryear with the old format. Supposedly it is a TV thing and that's pretty much the controlling factor in professional sports these days.
By now I'm willing to tip my hat to the Heat in a lot of ways. James is nails when it comes to positioning and shooting in the paint. One of the best moves aside from Kobe Bryant. He's just really a good close in shooter in traffic. Two, the Heat are showing they have roll players who can nail jumpers(3's) and make a difference. Three, they are playing like the better "team" now. But, I hate the way they try to draw fouls, and I've become a HATER of all such defensive moves. If there is one thing I hate in basketball it's charging fouls. I say just get rid of the foul completely. Ball handlers have the right of way and you have to stop them. Period. If you foul, you foul. But the ball-handler cannot foul. I'm also against fouls called on the ballhandler who is trying to clear a space. Just back the f**k off and see if you can defend the ball. Not the man. The ball.
I haven't liked the officiating in this series at times due to their inconsistency. They can allow hard contact and watch guy getting knocked into the front row and then they will call a ticky tack foul b/c a superstar is going to the bucket. It seems to be playing into Miami's style of play better and OKC just hasn't made the adjustments. I would not have thought Hardin's jumper would have disappeared and without him the Thunder do not have another scorer to step up and they are losing and will lose the series. LeBron is simply playing the best basketball of his career and playing at an MVP level right now. Durant is not. Miami's bench is stepping up and either Chalmers or Battier is providing extra scoring and big shot making. The Heat look like a team that has been there before and that is b/c they were here last year. OKC looks like a team that is happy enough to have made it here but doesn't know just yet what it takes to win it. This series could still go 7 but I just don't think OKC is going to win at this point.
I'm not watching tonight. Don't want to watch the Heat celebrate a win in other than a 7th game. If they win tonight, I'll stay off local sports and all ESPN shows for the next 7-10 days. If Thunder win, I'll watch the replay and tune in for Game 6. But I won't watch this Take-a-Charge & Flop style basketball.
Coaching pattern for Heat for the finals.... 1. Two or three guys... fold arms, move into position, take charging foul. Run up foul count on Thunder. 2. PUt up three's and hope for the best. If going good, then good. 3. Big Three play your best and keep at it. 4. Aim to win close games. 5. But the main effort is to Fold Arms, Draw Charges. in other words, play chickenshit basketball. If I'm a player, I go in to the charge and cold-cock the guy in the face with my elbow. I now fully hate Battier and Chalmers and the Heat for this ******* suck-*** style of basketball. Never recall seeing this much of that in any series, any team ever, going back to the 60s and 70s.
additionally.... prior to end of first half... 10 pt differential, Thunder trailing, Thunder with ball.... Top of key, Westbrook dribbling, clock winding... Durant to his left, equal position top of key to the side, wide open, defender playing back slightly... Westbrook.. you idiot... pass the ball to the 3-time scoring champion and take a chance to cut it to 7 Nope, he freaking pentrates, gets tangled up, dishes to somebody who shoots a low percentage 2pt jumper and misses. I've also had enough of Westbrook not dishes as first choice in key shot-making situations to Durant. I have to tip my hat to Heat for much better ball distribution decisions in this series, and I think Westbrook has prove he really can't be a complete team player in the sense the Heat can. The merit play has shifted to the Heat. Westbrook doesn't have as much of what the Heat have, in championship play. I'm very disappionted in Westbook now. He got away with some things up to now, but no more.
Right now I think I can coach a winning team in the NBA. I see the formula. Hope for better than 50% three's from a couple of players. Learn to take charges and build your game around that. Taking charges does several things... a) Frustrates the hell out of the opposition b) Breaks their momentum, builds yours c) You get FT's to add extra scores, you take away theirs d) It builds more frustrations e) Breaks ... and so on If the whole NBA becomes like this, it will become known as the Little Chickenshit League. James is settling into the background tonight as a floor general and senior captain of the team, with he and Wade and Bosh adding here and there. But Battier, that other guy what's his name not missing any three's with four fouls, and Chalmers, with the referrees going along with the game style, are wining it... correction, running away with it. I enjoyed these playoff games many years back. It's now become a horse **** game, and I have to say the Spurs gave it their all to try a little of that themselves but didn't overplay it.
Hard to say whether the OKC "formula" worked or not, since Westbrook and Hardin did not look the same in the finals as they did the whole season and playoffs up to then. Also true, as said, that the Heat role players were way over their heads. Still, it was when Bosh got healthy that the Heat basically won out over the last two series. He pulled KG out of the paint so James could drive, and it turned out that he's a class above Ibaka. James did outplay Durant I suppose, but he had a lot more help. It was extremely frustrating that Westbrook could never set Durant up on a normal point guard assist, running a normal play.
As to the charges, Battie's been doing that since he learned it at Duke. But the biggest problem was it was a bad matchup for OKC. Durant is just not strong enough to keep James out of the lane and the double teams left shooters open all over the floor. If OKC had a legit shot blocker, it would help. OKC needed a guy like Miriam to put on Lebron that has more upper body strength. James could play Durant 1-1 and although Durant was going to get his points, they didn't have to double team near as much. Throw in Hardin sucking the whole series and you get a 4-1 series. Miami's subs still had to make their shots, but damn, they were wide open. Lastly it just seemed all the breaks went to Miami. Foul on James at the end of game 2 that could have been called and tied the game. Dumb *** foul on Westbrook. Just nothing went their way, but Miami played lights out and deserved this one.
VYFan and wadster.... good posts. I feel better now. I shrunk my ESPN gadget on google home page and turned off TV and will throw away Fri paper and not watch sports for a few days just so I don't have to hear anymore about it. The series fell all apart in what turned out for Thunder to be their worst matchup they could have gotten, and fate smiled on the Heat. In the 3rd qtr they hit 5 of 8 threes and scored 36 points. 15 on the threes. Out of sight, out of mind. I hope the Thunder mgmt will also see the series as exposing things in the Thunder makeup. Maybe the 4-1 loss is worth it if they really look at this team and realize it's not yet a Laker, Celtic or Bulls solid makeup. They just got beat by a group that took everything going their way to hold back the Thunder, but you have to be able to deal with that. You have to not let the factors that beat them in this series, beat them.
All the loser fans in the state of Oklahoma can crawl back into their crevices. I give them a week before they start spouting off about Stoops and his boys
