NBA and College Basketball Thread

[Hell_ping]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Referring to the Finals themselves.

If OKC advance, I'll say 6, not 5.

[sky black swordman]

Well its official boston lead the series 3-2 . Boston has a chance to finish the Heat in game 6 in Boston.
The thing that maybe killing the Heat are missed free throws.
And like I said before if they lose then the Big 3 will be broken up.

Thunder and Spurs wil most likely go to game 7. Well thats from my POV anyway.

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Dilla

If Miami loses, James is probably going to get singled out again even though it was arguably Wade's inability to play well early that costs the Heat.

(And there will probably be a bunch of posters that haven't posted in this thread all season suddenly pop out the woodwork.)

Agreed to an extent. While Wade is my favorite player, he's come up too small in key situations against the Celtics this series. I saw these damning stats in this ESPN article.

In a 7:37-span in the second quarter that saw the Celtics shrink the Heat lead to two points, the Heat took six 3-pointers and another 20-foot shot from Bosh, committed four turnovers and took three foul shots, one of them a result of a Boston defensive three-second violation.

In the second quarter, when the Heat could've run away from a Celtics team that shot 33.3 percent for the first half, James was 4-of-7 from the field for 11 points. The rest of the Heat were 1-of-15 for seven points.

That includes 0-of-4 for a scoreless Wade in the period, and a collective 0-of-6 from 3-point range from everyone not named LeBron.

With all that said, LeBron was again too passive in the fourth.

[ReaperxKingx]

I really have to ask, did anyone expected this playoff round to be like this? The Higher overall team are down against their more weaker overall opponents. I seen so many times in the playoffs, the weak overall team somehow manage to beat the higher overall team. The most surprising one to me was the Mavericks getting knocked out by the Warriors in the 2007 first round playoffs. Now the most talented and complete Spurs are losing against the Thunders and the current NBA team with the highest cap salary in the NBA at 88 million dollars Boston Celtics beating the 3 man army Heat. Wow that is all I got to say. What is everyone's thought on this?

[Dilla]

Not really surprised. Some teams just match-up better than others. Besides, if the playoffs of any sport went as expected, the #1 seeds would be playing each other in the championship ever year.

[Hell_ping]

Well, the thunder won. Spurs blew it after the first half, I must say.

[Last Sinner]

This is the kind of resilience OKC lacked last year. These were the leads they were surrendering to Dallas. This time, they're taking them back from San Antonio. Kudos to them. Love their dynamic and self-belief. Durant would be a great champ.

Well, time to see if the parts of Miami that aren't Lebron James wish to wake up. Bosh, can't be as harsh on him due to the injury. But the lack of bench contribution and Wade fading ever since the Indiana series has been too much of a hindrance. They can pull it out, but back up James and do something to shut down Garnett. He's had way too much freedom this series. Pierce is scoring mainly from attrition and Rondo is playing at his peak. If they don't want to be the butt end of everyone's joke for the next century, Miami had better get their heads out of the sand and bring it.

[judasmartel]

There's been talk about the NBA being scripted among forum discussions in our country. Usually, the flames come from the Lakers and Heat fans who can't accept the fact that the Lakers were out of the Playoffs early (I meant by "early" they should be in the Finals, if you know what I mean), and that the Heat are only one loss away from elimination.

I know some of you aren't surprised by these talks but imagine what could have happened in 2002 should Sacramento have gone into the Finals instead of the Lakers.

IMHO, it is the NBA marketing's job to market the NBA Finals as convincingly as possible, even if teams not named Lakers, Heat, Celtics, or Spurs fight for the championship. Yes, even if its the New Orleans Hornets vs the Charlotte Bobcats. If they fail to do that, I won't watch the NBA anymore because high-market top-tier teams always advance to the Finals anyway.

@ECF This really is a must-win situation for Miami, or else they would break apart, and Bron might become the butt of "ringless" jokes for the next century.

[Dilla]

If Durant wins a ring before LeBron does, this is going to be a really long off-season for him.

[ReaperxKingx]

Really surprised, Thunders won the round. As for the Spurs, what is there to say they just didn't bring it. What is going to happen in the off season for them, and the Heats and Boston Celtics are next. I wonder who is going to take the round?

[Dilla]

Looks like Bron Bron took Pierce's bravado in Game 5, personally.

Good job, LeBron. He stepped up in all quarters tonight in an elimination game on the road. 45 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists.

Wade, once again, struggles. He needs to be productive all quarters and pick up some of the slack for LeBron if they are going to win Game 7. We all know he is capable of it.

Bosh is the wildcard.

[Frailty]

Originally Posted by Dilla

Bosh is the wildcard.

that's expected. He's still recovering from his injury.
he's pushing it if you ask me.

[sky black swordman]

Originally Posted by Frailty

that's expected. He's still recovering from his injury.
he's pushing it if you ask me.

I agree with you he is .

To win Boston needs to play with all they got . To be honest I am surprise they lost .
I am so surprise Coach's move to leave his key players still play when they already knew the game was lost.

[Drob_QB7]

I wonder what excuse Skip Bayless will Have about Lebron's crazy performance

[Westlo]

Van Gundy is completely right, the criticism for James is out of hand, can you imagine if he shot as poorly as Pierce did in tonights game? Also Wade gets nowhere near as much heat as Lebron, he has been costing on the ring while Lebron cops all the blame... fair enough for the Dallas series since Wade would've been Finals MVP but Lebron carried them through the Celtics and Bulls series last year along with Bosh.

I'm someone who would always argue that Wade was > Lebron, I thought it was a travesty his 08-09 run (which imo is his peak, even better than his championship run) didn't get him an MVP. But since Lebron joined the Heat it has been made clear to me that he is the superior player by far, even though Wade still has flashbacks of his 08-09 run.

I'm not a fan of Spo, hated him due to his treatment of Michael Beasley. It would sadden me greatly to see either him or Scott Brooks become a championship coach... it was a pity Doc Rivers resigned with the Celtics after they lost to Miami last year...

[Last Sinner]

Lebron is just in a zone now. Can other people join him or what?! If Wade can get at least 25 and a 3rd person chips in major, Game 7 is theirs. They can't rely on that many Boston players sucking like they did tonight. Wade may have been quiet but Pierce...4-18 shooting? Allen was sub-par again, Garnett didn't dominate enough. Rondo leading scoring as many times as he has this series is stupid. If Boston's scorers were actually on-par, this series would have been over already.

I think Wade's problem has been the absence/restriction of Bosh. Garnett has been utilised to shut down Wade big time this series. It's near impossible to stop Lebron, so go after his best bud. It makes sense.

Well...Game 7 goes to whoever supports James or Rondo more. That Miami crowd had better let it rip and bring an atmosphere worthy of this series.

It's weird - remember how last year the experts thought this showdown would go to 7 and then it went to five because of Bosh's dominance? Come to this postseason, they think 5 or 6 and because of the shifts in dominance, this is the one that goes to 7?

I made than OKC in 5 statement pertaining if Boston were the ones that get through. If Miami do, OKC would need at least 6 if they're to win. I'd still favour OKC because they're playing 7+ deep and way beyond their norm. However, if people start supporting James...Miami can do it. He can't do anymore himself. Wade and that bench has to lift. And Bosh needs to heal...

I'd like an OKC-Miami final so then I'm glad with whoever wins. If it's OKC-Boston, I want OKC to utterly annihilate Boston without mercy.

[judasmartel]

I smell potential Rondo vs James (read Bird vs Wilkins) in Game 7.

[Hell_ping]

But Rondo's not a scorer (Missing the point deliberately here)

Lebron was hot on 19/26 shooting, and that's what you want to see from him in the face of adversity. He showed that he wanted to win and played like it. Also, the presence of Bosh really helped Miami since KG couldn't dominate the post as much as he did during the last 3 threes. Problem here would be Wade because he hasn't been playing that well other than games 1 and 5. They will need Bosh to be fully healthy if they advance and take on the Thunder though because their interior would be outmatched. However, the Celtics did shoot rather poorly though.

@Westlo, Van Gundy may be quite biased at times (since it's ESPN), but I do respect him when he says such things about how criticism on great players were harsh. He did the same for Kobe when the lakers lost in the 2010 finals game 5 after he scored 19 out of 38 points in the game in 6 minutes. And yes, the criticism are quite unjust at times. We can only sit back and respect the work players like Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Howard, Durant, Paul and other superstars play this game because we might not see players like them ever again.

[judasmartel]

So if the Heat really wants to win, all of them must contribute. Not just their Big 3. Even their bench needs to contribute. But yeah, Wade is rather cold in this series, Bosh played limited minutes in this series, but I believe he will play a lot of minutes in Game 7. It's Bron calling almost all the shots lately.

So I believe that LeBron is learning how to play to literally save his life. He's definitely going there. And if he manages to close out games in the final seconds on a regular basis, no doubt he will get that ring.

@Commentators Then how about Reggie Miller, Steve Kerr, and Kevin Harlan? I can't differentiate Harlan from Marv Albert. They sound the same to me.

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by judasmartel

I smell potential Rondo vs James (read Bird vs Wilkins) in Game 7.

Pierce trading shots with LeBron is much more likely, especially after how poorly he played last night. Regardless of that possible duel, Wade and Bosh have to contribute more offensively, especially early on.

On another note, some sports fan just deserve to be punched. The guy that poured beer on LeBron after the game is scum.