2x Official (2) Miami vs. (7) Philadelphia Thread

[Tim_Hardawayy]

This must've just been posted, because I missed it earlier. Rerisen, this should help answer your earlier question about why Miami is so bad in those situations this year.

Scoring with the game on the line is a tough task. Stakes are raised, defensive effort is sharpened and referees tend to swallow their whistles. Thus, we find that field goal percentages take a dive in the last few minutes of the game, especially when the team is desperate for a make. The average field goal percentage in the NBA is 45.9 percent. When the game is within three points in the last five minutes, the average field goal percentage drops to 42.0 percent. In the situation that LeBron is 1-for-8 in this season, the league average field goal percentage plummets to 25.7 percent.

Plenty of "clutch" scorers have struggled with that spotlight this season. Kevin Durant in that situation? 2-for-10 (20 percent). Paul Pierce? 1-for-4 (25 percent). Ray Allen? 0-for-2.

This is just one snapshot of their careers. How have LeBron and Wade performed during their lifetime in the NBA? LeBron's 1-for-8 campaign this season pushes his career field goal percentage in that situation to 26.0 percent (19-for-73), just a hair above the norm. Sometimes LeBron will go through a hot patch and sometimes he goes through a cold stretch. Right now, he's icy cold. And Wade? Despite his sterling reputation as a closer, Wade now stands at a paltry 19.7 percent in 61 career field goal attempts in those situations.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamih ... eally-mean

Courtesy of Tom Haberstroh.

As an aside, I'm kinda surprised at the Heat Index. I expected it to be a total garbage section of ESPN's website, and some of it admittedly is (don't care for some of the minor stories, or anything Michael Wallace or Windhorst write). But Haberstroh and Arnovitz have been cranking out solid material all season long, Haberstroh almost like a mini Hollinger and Arnovitz with some excellent X's and O's breakdowns.

[Chosen01]

So the league average is 25.7% with Durant and co hovering around 23%? here I was thinking the rest of the league was shooting 50% while LeBron and Wade were the only ones not converting efficiently in 5 secs or less.

Mind=Blown

[Ruhiel]

I know a lot of you are seeing the Sixiers for almost the first time. Iguodala, Meeks and Thad have struggled. But what is you non-biased take on guys like Jrue (20), Turner (22), Thad(22), Lou (24) and Meeks(22)? I'll leave out hawes(22) and Speighst(23) becasue those guys are bums who have no future with the team.

Jrue Holiday: great player that has peaked athletically but his IQ could make him a great player. A unique combo guard with good defense and shooting, all around.
Meeks: 3 point shooting. An average to below average defender at either backcourt position. But he can be hidden at the point guard position sometimes. TS% is in big man accuracy territory. Rare caliber of shooter. Reliant on shooting but when he shoots its going in.
Lou Williams: His PER, or per-minute production rate is Jamal Crawford territory. Unfortunately he is defensively PG as well.

Turner: inconsistent, still consensus is he can become a top SG ie Brandon Roy. Unfortunately, he can't play off ball. Does play defense well but his physical attributes are not elite at SF. At SG he can be hidden more. Better defender than Roy.
Similar to Iguodala but better pull up jumper, less athletic?

76ers backcourt is loaded with scoring and wing players are good.
Young is special. Led the team in per minute production albeit at the PF position which leads nowhere in the Eastern playoffs.
Many GMs are hoping Turner, Young, Iguodala cannot coexist if not winning wise then financially wise. Many teams are starved for talent at these positions. Personally I don't know what bigs could be had for any of them. The 6ers are behind the 8ball ala Charlotte with Gerald Wallace/S-Jax.
6ers lack of a center means they will only get so far and teams will wait for the 6ers to give up a player and then swoop in.
As a .500 team they might give up a pick to sweeten the pot but idk what "center" the 6ers would target. The best they can do is power forwards or budget centers like a Jason Collins.
Until they get a center they will continue losing and the young players will develop bad habits.

[mopper8]

As an aside, I'm kinda surprised at the Heat Index. I expected it to be a total garbage section of ESPN's website, and some of it admittedly is (don't care for some of the minor stories, or anything Michael Wallace or Windhorst write). But Haberstroh and Arnovitz have been cranking out solid material all season long, Haberstroh almost like a mini Hollinger and Arnovitz with some excellent X's and O's breakdowns.

As you know, I agree with everything above, but I just wanted to add that I'm of the opinion that Haberstroh >>> Hollinger. Both make use of advanced stats, but Hollinger has a myopic focus on boxscores, whereas Haberstroh seems much more able to look at a number of different metrics and put them into an overall team context. He'll look at team performance in terms of points per possession when a given player is on the floor, and look at the effectiveness of certain 5-man units. As such, he's much more able to grasp who is and is not an effective player, and not simply good at filling up the traditional box score (which is really the only thing Hollinger seems good at when doing analysis)

Sad thing is, Holilnger actually seems to be pretty sharp when breaking down a game he's watching...he just sucks at applying math to the bigger picture stuff.

[tk76]

Thanks for the input on the Sixers coolstorybro and Ruhiel. I agree that Holiday is the only clear can't miss building block (although not a franchise one) while the other pieces may or may not pan out.

Discussing hoops with you guys has been interesting. Miami obviously has a ton of fans. Their fan-base gets a bad rap for being ban-wagoners- but I'm sure that is unfair to the real core loyal fans Miami has. Sort of like when Iverson made the Sixers an "it" team for a while. We had a bunch of Iverson fans who wanted to bask in his greatness and really were not all that into the Sixers or being a true fan. They also could be loud. You strip that group away and you are left with the loyal one's that live and die with the team through good times and bad.

There is nothing wrong with have a component of the fan-base that is fair weathered. That is certainly how I am with the Phillies. But it is the core group of die-hards that is the lifeblood of any franchise (or maybe its having a good owner, management and some good luck ) Either way, definitely jealous of what Miami has. Enjoy the ride and appreciate whet you got- because it won't always be so great.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

Either way, definitely jealous of what Miami has. Enjoy the ride and appreciate whet you got- because it won't always be so great.

Hey for those of us who have been on this ride long enough, we know it. Imagine if right in the middle of AI's prime (we're pretending he never became a cancer to his team in this scenario), it was discovered he had a life-threatening illness, and you not only had to blow up your entire team, but you had to deal with your best player's life being in danger. That's what longtime Heat fans had to go through 11 years ago.

That was easily the worst blow I've ever received as a sports fan. To go from thinking that summer we were going to compete for a title, to find out "the franchise" not only couldn't play, but was physically in danger.

Btw, I didn't comment on your players because I hate judging based on such small sample sizes. I honestly haven't seen Philly enough this year to give you an accurate assessment on any of them, I could only tell you how they're playing in this series.

I guess if I had to choose, I like Holiday the most in terms of consistency. Louis Williams has a lot of Jamal Crawford in his game like someone else said, Meeks is obviously pretty much just a shooter, and I don't know what to think of Turner yet. Thaddeous Young (and this is probably unfair, but only based on what I've seen of him) looks to be one of those hyper athletic tweeners that never gets it. I can't see him being more than a 6th or 7th man that comes in for energy. He's got a Shawn Marion type game without the funky jumpshot.

[Rerisen]

This is just one snapshot of their careers. How have LeBron and Wade performed during their lifetime in the NBA? LeBron's 1-for-8 campaign this season pushes his career field goal percentage in that situation to 26.0 percent (19-for-73), just a hair above the norm. Sometimes LeBron will go through a hot patch and sometimes he goes through a cold stretch. Right now, he's icy cold.

The numbers are interesting, but I'm not sure if we should say its just a cold streak, open and shut case. I think the variable of the new team and new balance of that team on the floor are worthy considerations of why he might not be doing so well.

Well, we should certainly get more instances to add to our sample size as these playoffs go along.

[Iversean]

Please, the Heat played poorly yesterday and still almost won. No real fan believes that you could take the series past 6 with EVERYONE healthy. Miami is much better than Philly and that is a FACT.

PS. -Miami in 7 against Boston. Sixers will be watching from home like they should.[/quote]

I didn't even speak about that in my post? What are you smoking? Can I get some of it?

I was strictly talking about injuries and how they affect us more than the Heat.
I know Miami is much better than the Heat and with everyone healthy I stated in Phillys board that we would just make the series competitive with a SHOT at forcing a game 7 and who knows after that. This is the NBA where Amazing Happens.

Your clearly changing the subject because you know I had a valid point on the injury report after you brought Mike Miller and Udonis Freaking Haslem. If you read earlier before this series started, I even predicted Miami in 5. So what the hell are you talking about?

[Iversean]

haha btw unbiased, stop trolling onto the Philly boards. Just shows the kind of person you are

And I'm a real fan, I do think we could beat the Heat if 100%. Let it be known that us beating the Heat would prolly have a miniscule chance of happening lets say 10%, but weirder things have happened in sports. It doesn't make me less knowledgeable of the game. I support my team with full faith, like already said:

In my head: Heat in 5
In my heart: Sixers in 6 or 7

What's wrong with believing? I've already stated Miami's roster is superior by lightyears. I never denied that. You're a waste of my breath. And Philly will be watching from home, but who gives a damn. Miami will soon be fishing just like us, Heat is not winning the CHIP this year.

I do believe they will though, just not this year. BOOKIT

[unbiasedheater]

haha btw unbiased, stop trolling onto the Philly boards. Just shows the kind of person you are

And I'm a real fan, I do think we could beat the Heat if 100%. Let it be known that us beating the Heat would prolly have a miniscule chance of happening lets say 10%, but weirder things have happened in sports. It doesn't make me less knowledgeable of the game. I support my team with full faith, like already said:

In my head: Heat in 5
In my heart: Sixers in 6 or 7

What's wrong with believing? I've already stated Miami's roster is superior by lightyears. I never denied that. You're a waste of my breath. And Philly will be watching from home, but who gives a damn. Miami will soon be fishing just like us, Heat is not winning the CHIP this year.

I do believe they will though, just not this year. BOOKIT

I am unbiased about the Heat. I am not trolling your board. I said that it is a great board and that you have great fans. I also said that Philly won a pride game and they are an up and coming team. I have a problem with one poster, who makes moronic statements about my team ( even the Sixer fans agree with me). I am not trolling the board so get a clue.

Based on what is Miami not winning a Chip? I didnt know you knew that future?

[Leto]

^ There is no such condition in the human experience as "unbiased"

[tk76]

It's best to be aware of the biases you have and try and take them into account. Otherwise your head is in the sand like a Boshtrich.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

It's best to be aware of the biases you have and try and take them into account. Otherwise your head is in the sand like a Boshtrich.

Bingo. And don't be dissing the Boshtrich.

[Leto]

It's best to be aware of the biases you have and try and take them into account. Otherwise your head is in the sand like a Boshtrich.

The first step to that is understanding that everyone has a bias...

[yattydaddy]

^ There is no such condition in the human experience as "unbiased"

[Sixerlover]

So the league average is 25.7% with Durant and co hovering around 23%? here I was thinking the rest of the league was shooting 50% while LeBron and Wade were the only ones not converting efficiently in 5 secs or less.

Mind=Blown

The league average is 25%, but you guys are at 5%. 5x worse then the AVERAGE. That's why the media is making a big deal out of it.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

So the league average is 25.7% with Durant and co hovering around 23%? here I was thinking the rest of the league was shooting 50% while LeBron and Wade were the only ones not converting efficiently in 5 secs or less.

Mind=Blown

The league average is 25%, but you guys are at 5%. 5x worse then the AVERAGE. That's why the media is making a big deal out of it.

And if they made 4 more they'd be at 25%. 4 shots over the course of a whole season. Do you grasp the concept of sample size?

Make no mistake, the media is making a big deal about it because this is one of the first things they were going to scrutinize with this team. They were asking, "Who takes the last shot?" the very first day all 3 guys were signed.

[Leto]

I think the whole who takes the last shot etc is way overblown. Who cares? The Heat should be more concerned with how they keep getting hammered in the 1st quarter.

[6_Rings]

Philly steals another fo sho

[Dirty Water]

Philly steals another fo sho

Whatever allows the old men of Boston to heal up!