The Heat are hungry, while the Thunder settle

One win win away from an NBA championship, and this particular group will not let it get away. The heat took a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Thunder and now have history on their side (in the NBA finals, team that take a 3-1 series lead are a perfect 30-0). The thunder started out the game like the desperate team clearly looking to tie the series up. They jumped out to a 17 point lead.
This Miami Heat team though, will win the NBA championship. Faced with all the adversity possible , the Heat toughed out the win. Something that perhaps last years group wouldnt have been capable of. It is in my opinion, not a matter of a lack of talent for the Thunder, but more of who wants it more. The 50-50 balls, the hustle plays, the Heat clearly have won all those battles. Down 17, the Heat fought back using the most unlikely of sources, Norris Cole the rookie provided the offense to power the Heat back into the game.
           When Lebron James went down with what seemed to be cramps, the Thunder smelled blood in the water and still couldnt take the win. Russell Westbrook had perhaps the best game of his playoff career with 43 points, but committed a crucial foul on chalmers after a jump ball.  Speaking of that jump ball, down 3, and with 3 seconds left in the shot clock, Shane Battier tipped the ball out of kevin durant´s hands and right into Chalmers, who was then fouled inexplicably by westbrook (three seconds left in the shot clock for the heat). Thats what this team has become, a team who finds a way to win basketball games.
It hasnt always been pretty, but  when Lebron has 26, wade 25,  and Chalmers 25, you know that this team is ready for a championship. Today it was Chalmers, the previous two games it has been Battier. Okc however has gotten nothing beyond Westbrook and Durant, to the point that tonight in the 4th quarter it seemed like they were playing 2 against 5. Harden has been terrible and nowhere  near his 6th man of the year status. Before The finals, Harden had never been held to single digits scoring this postseason.
        Westbrook, has been higly criticized (myself included) for taking so many shots, but how can you blame him when nobody else has stepped up? James Harden will not sleep for a while this summer, his performance was so dull, that it came to a point where he had a wide mid range shot and still hesitated. It is important to note that he struggled as well in the semifinals when he had to spend so much energy guarding Kobe. This series he spends all his time either on Wade or Lebron, and perhaps its taking a toll on him. But championship teams find a way, the Thunder seemed content with being here, The Heat are not. Thats why, the Miami Heat will be 2012 NBA Champions.
       When the Thunder look back, they will know it wasnt because of a lack of talent, but because of who wanted it more, and right now, nobody wants it more than the Miami Heat, 1 through 12. NOT just the big three.

Heat take a 2-1 series lead after an ugly game 3

         As game 4 fast approaches, the Thunder and Heat stand on two different grounds. The Heat were here last year, up 2-1, and heavily favored over the Dallas Mavericks. A sensitive topic when speaking to anybody on the Heat roster and a lingering shadow for Lebron James. Lebron who had a very disappointing 2011 NBA finals has said that he did not make game changing plays as his team was accustomed of him doing, and vowed to change that this time and so far has delivered. Dwyane Wade, after a rocky first game to these finals, has had two great games (25 points 7 assists and 7 rebounds in the game 3 victory), his energy on both sides of the ball has been great, and he continues to be the designated offense initiator down the stretch.  While Bosh continues his dominance of the boards and providing enough offense by picking his spots. We also cannot undermine the HUGE contributions of Shane Battier who continues to shoot lights out for the Heat.

photo from bettor.com

         The Oklahoma City Thunder, managed to not fall behind to begin the game (although they started off trailing 10-4 and turning the ball over several times) and Durant despite being guarded a lot more by Lebron James, continues to be unstoppable. The Thunder opened up a 10 point lead midway through the third but Durant picked up his fourth foul after a Dwyane Wade pump fake that seemed to have little or no contact. Brooks also decided to sit Westbrook, which allowed the Heat to go on a run and take the lead back. Durant for the second straight game found himself in foul trouble and the superstar has said he´s been frustrated with the issue (ironically Paul Pierce found himself in the same dilemma last series). The Thunder have outscored the Heat 286 to 285 so far and still trail the series 2 games to 1. The thunder gave the game away when Durant sat out in the third quarter and Brooks inexplicably sat Westbrook out as well. Another factor to consider is free throw shooting, The heat went an impressive 31-35 from the line while Oklahoma went 15-24.
           The problem with Oklahoma is that they live and die by the jumpshot, and the lack of assists on their points. Okc is essentially an isolation team, their points come off isolation plays and the most pick and roll basketball you see is when James Harden is on the floor. On a night in which both teams played abismal, the Heat escaped because of their free throw shooting, and because they managed to contain Durant from midway through the third quarter all the way to the end. If Oklahoma is making their jumpshots, they are practically unbeatable, However, last night they shot 4-18 from the three point line and Durant had an abysmal 4th quarter. The Heat look poised to take this championship, but a few plays there and a few calls here, and Oklahoma could have easily been up 2-1. After all, the home team has only won all three games of the 2-3-2 format just twice, so there´s no reason to panic if your Oklahoma, the last team to win all three home games it? The Miami Heat in 2006

Heat escape back to South Beach with a split

Russell Westbrook guarded by D.Wade
Image source: observadorglobal.com

            The Miami Heat head back to South beach humming, at least for a night as they used an incredible start to game 2 of the NBA finals to pull out a win. The Heat once again started off well as they took an 18 to 2 lead at the beginningof the game while Oklahoma continues to struggle with slow starts. The Thunder just like in game 1 rallied but ultimately fell short after Durant missed a 7 footer on a controversial play in which Lebron may or may not have fouled him that would have tied the game with about 7 seconds left. The problem with Oklahoma City at least for this night, begins and ends with Russell Westbrook, who scored 27 points on 26 shots. Westbrook plays the ¨PG¨ position and yet he takes more shots than Kevin Durant who continues to have monster games in a very efficient way. It is not to say that Westbrook had a complete disaster of a game, he scored 18 points in the second half on 8 for 16 shooting.
         However, going 2 for 10 in the first half is a big reason why the Thunder fell behind and it makes no sense that westbrook didnt continue to feed the hot hand at the time. James Harden came out firing, making sure that his game 2 performance would be much better than his game 1, so why didnt westbrook the point guard of the team go to the hot hand? Instead his team fell in a big gap and Westbrook was decimated on national television by Magic Johnson, the greatest point guard to ever play the game. The stats show that when Westbrook shoots more than Durant the Thunder generally win, but thats because the team is better than most of the league on most nights. Yet, in the NBA finals against the other best team in the league, unless westbrook is making most of those shots at an efficient rate, the Thunder are looking at a long shot at winning the NBA championship. This series already looks like is going to be one of the best finals we´ve had in years (along with the 2010 Boston vs Lakers that went 7 games), but westbrook must be efficient if he´s going to continue to be a volume scorer. At this point of the season, we cannot expect Westbrook to change his game and be more of a traditional point guard, nor should he (they made the finals with him taking all those shots), but for Oklahoma to stop getting off to slow starts, their pg needs to follow the script of the second half of game 2, to start out game 3.

6 Fouls of the day

1. In a RARE incident involving a San Antonio Spurs player, Tony parker will be sidelined for a week after injuring his eye in the fight that broke out in New York involving Chris Brown and Drake, Parker who will play with the France national team this summer said he was with his friend Chris Brown when people started throwing punches at them
2. 2.Phil Jackson said he was not interested in coaching the New York Knicks if he had been asked nor the Orlando Magic. Jackson stated That Stoudemire of the Knicks, is a great player but that he needs to be in the right system and he just doesnt fit with Carmelo Anthony, who Jackson said needs to pass the ball more instead of just stop stopping ball movement once it reaches his hands.
3. After shooting terrible to start the playoffs, Battier has been on fire from three point range in his first two finals game, will he continue his hot streak from behind the arc? or will the Oklahoma City thunder make adjustments? either way, Battier´s shooting along with Bosh´s strong play will no doubt open up driving lanes for James and Wade, something they desperately needed during Bosh´s absence
4. Okc Coach Scott Brooks, limited Nick Collison´s minutes in game 2 and went instead with Perkins, a decision questioned by many, as collison´s intangibles were clearly missed in game 2, will Brooks once again limit him in game 3?
5. After a disappointing first two finals appearance by Lebron James against San Antonio and last year against dallas, Lebron has had 30 plus points in the first 2 games, it will be interesting to see if James will continue his strong play in the finals and maybe finally get over the hump and get his first ring
6. Spoelstra Continues to tweak and change his rotation on a game to game basis, playing Lebron James and Dwyane Wade heavy minutes, and failing to go deep into his bench, Spoelstra has changed his starting lineup numerous times during their current playoff run, and it will be interesting to see if it will continue as the finals roll on.

Heat is on D.Wade and the Heat tonight

As game 2 fast approaches in Oklahoma city, all eyes will undoubtably Be on Dwyane Wade. Wade, who before Tuesday's game 1 was averaging 30.6 ppg in the finals, has been everything but himself. Battling a knee injury which he has spoken little of, Wade has allowed teammate and league M.V.P Lebron James to carry the load. Lebron himself has said that he tries to tell Wade from time to time to take over and be that Dwyane Wade that everybody has come accustomed to seeing. Lebron James had another well rounded game with 30 points and 9 rebounds, but he didn't shoot the ball well and it wasn't enough to upset Kevin durant's huge 4th quarter and second half rally. Meanwhile Wade managed only 19 points on 19 shots, and at times seem reluctant to even take shots, twice he came down and struggled to decide whether to shoot the ball or pass it (first time he was called for a travel and second time he pump faked the shot wide open and when he finally shot it missed it). When Chris Bosh and Lebron came to Miami to join Wade, the idea was for each to no longer have to carry th burden of carrying the whole team by themselves and win championships. Whether Wade is hurt or not, he needs to be more than just A deferring superstar for the heat to stand a chance against the young and hungry Oklahoma City Thunder. If Wade needs prove of it, he just needs to look back to last year's finals when Lebron inexplicably played well below his standards and left Wade to do all the work and in the end Dallas took the championship from them in six games. Wade has said that he will look to score more in game 2 and Oklahoma expect wade to have a much bigger game, James harden is expecting a much more aggressive Dwyane Wade, and Perkins has warned everybody that Wade usually follows a bad game with an huge one. However, Miami must also expect a better game from Harden who spent much of game 1 in foul trouble. Another big storyline is how long will Eric Spoesltra allow durant to be defended by players not named Lebron James. Durant (who asked to guard the M.V.P before the game) was on fire in the fourth quarter and by the time Lebron got on him, it was, in my opinion too late for Lebron to try to cool him off. Spoelstra must also decide whether he continues to bring Bosh off the bench, at this point Bosh is ready to start and they need his production to ease Lebron and Wade's scoring burden.If Miami wishes to take the series back to South beach tied at one game apiece however, it will ultimately rely on whether Wade can shake off his struggles and deliver a vintage performance to help his M.V.P teammate and shift the momentum in Miami's favor. Otherwise the Heat will fall in a 0-2 hole that will send the Heat into a world of trouble and Wade into more questions about whether he is still an Elite player.