Agreed completely. It's not even that he needs to play like that, which makes it all the more annoying to me.

John might (not) appreciate this (at all)

(funny part circled)

So Heat and Thunder. Thoughts?

It's the matchup the networks wanted, that's for sure. I wonder what the Vegas line will be. I'm sure the Thunder will be favorites (as they should be), but I think the line and the actual results will be closer than most are thinking.

just give me 7 games

Miami during the regular season was awesome at defending in transition. obviously they aren't gonna stop the Thunder in transition. but i think they are gonna do better at slowing the Thunder down than the Thunder will against them. in fact, Miami is excellent at defending basically eveything the Thunder do well (isolation especially given that Miami's two strongest defenders match up well with the Thunder's best iso options, and stopping the pick and roll up top), except spot-up shooting. basically, the Thunder's best chance comes down to whether or not the shots are falling, cause they are gonna get the looks.

the Thunder defend everything well except transition. but the question is, will Miami try to take advantage of this and speed up the game and trust their transition D against an insanely talented Thunder team, or will they slow it down and try to out shoot them? personally, i think they will try and slow it down, but the stats suggest they should turn it up cause i just don't think the Thunder's transition D is nearly as strong. but if they think they can take out Westbrook (which is actually possible), they probably will slow it down and dare the Thunder to out-shoot them (which they can lol).

my breakdown...
depth: Thunder
home crowd: Thunder
free throws: Thunder
transition: Heat (Thunder have the better offense slightly, Heat have a much better defense)
shooting: Thunder
at the rim: Heat
turnovers: Heat
rebounding: Heat

both teams get to the line a ton obviously, but the Thunder are better at the line. so this could honestly be a ref-based series. if there are a lot of fouls, the Thunder get the advantage imo. also the Thunder give up a ton of turnovers and Miami are a turnover forcing machine. advantage Heat without question.

strangely, the Heat are excellent at keeping teams away from the rim, despite not having a traditional shotblocker. and for whatever reason, teams seem to go at the Perk/Ibaka combo more than their reputation should allow (but even if Perk/Ibaka are great, they aren't stopping LeBron at all).


my opinion: i know all the sportscasters are gonna argue that the Thunder have the matchup advantage. but i don't know. they aren't gonna stop LeBron from getting to the rim, their best offensive options are Heat defensive strengths, they turn the ball over a lot, etc. the things they do well- shooting, free throws- are things Miami does nearly as well. and their second best player hasn't done well against Miami the last two years. with that said, yes they have more depth, a great home crowd, and they could get hot from outside and absolutely demolish the Heat.

prediction: OKC in 7, because Miami's bench is just awful lately and i have faith in Harden to get hot and i think that this is a series where home court is huge (because Miami's home court sucks and OKC's is awesome). also i think the Heat will choose to slow the tempo and dare OKC to out-shoot them and i think OKC will do it. but if this series is high-scoring, i think the Heat take it running away much to the surprise of everyone who sees OKC as the best transition team.

One more random thought about "clutch" I'd like to throw out. People often define clutch as the game-winning shot that gives the team the lead. I think people often forget that if it's 98-96, and you make it 100-96, that's just as clutch and important. Lebron performed well in crunch time tonight, lengthening that lead like crazy in the fourth quarter.

still think the Thunder will win, still will enjoy it

also john, u one crazy mofucka

Thunder in 5.

yeah, if you miss a shot that would have made it a two possession game and the other team makes a shot after the miss that ties it or takes the lead, then you just performed poorly in the clutch, even though there was no potential lead change or tie forcing.

exactly. I suppose you could argue that being clutch to make a comeback is more impressive than being clutch to lengthen your lead, because there's more pressure, but it's still performing well in crunch time no matter what way you cut it.

my predix = Thunder in 6, Westbrook as Finals MVP, four months of hella annoying ESPN articles saying Lebron doesn't deserve to be scrutinized the way he is (because, you know, it's not like there should be any minor repercussions to having the privilege of making millions of dollars as a basketball player)

lebron is a basketball genius who works his bum off and is a great ambassador for the sport.... leading your crappy team to the nba finals for the third time while earning millions is certainly no worse than earning millions while being lazy, out of shape, not being able to shoot free throws, not knowing your team's playbook, and otherwise being a dolt...

i do agree that westbrook should have a very good series, given the matchups... harden, too... he's just too quick for miami's wing defenders...

Chalmers, Wade and LeBron?

i do think Harden will take advantage of the attention focused on Westbrook/Durant. but i just don't think Westbrook is gonna have a good series at all. in the last two seasons, he's shot 31% against Miami.

Bosh did a great job last night.