Small Ball/SpoBot

[Flash4thewin]

I disagree w/ Spo not receiving credit for yesterday.

Its SPO who put LeBron in the post..He waited till game 3, but he finally did it.

Spo instead of keeping up with Battier as first BIG off bench and putting him on WEST, he put Size on WEST all game and brought BIRDMAN off the bench first.

Spo with his BIGGER lineup, he didn't have to double as much as he had more size, which helped our legs.

The same reason why SpoBot pressed vs. Chicago. He pressed knowing Chicago only had a few guards and wanted to tire them out. In this series, when he went SMALL, I felt we were just over working for no reason due to the size issue. It didn't help that not only were we giving up easy buckets and having to work twice as hard, we also missed everything,...

Last NIGHT SPO did his JOB & we had a BIG WIN. I've said it numerous time, SPO is a good between GAME COACH, but in game is where he lack creativity.

To be fair this is not game two, its game three so it took almost 6 days for Spo to make an adjustment that a coach like Pop or Phil would have made in game. And this is something to celebrate? The Big three were created to aspire for greatness and multiple championships but right now we have people actually praising Spo for making an adjustment 6 freaking days later? Im sure its just the hang over effect but when you think about it one would be upset it took this long for an adjustment. I

[EscapoTHB]

I disagree w/ Spo not receiving credit for yesterday.

Its SPO who put LeBron in the post..He waited till game 3, but he finally did it.

Spo instead of keeping up with Battier as first BIG off bench and putting him on WEST, he put Size on WEST all game and brought BIRDMAN off the bench first.

Spo with his BIGGER lineup, he didn't have to double as much as he had more size, which helped our legs.

The same reason why SpoBot pressed vs. Chicago. He pressed knowing Chicago only had a few guards and wanted to tire them out. In this series, when he went SMALL, I felt we were just over working for no reason due to the size issue. It didn't help that not only were we giving up easy buckets and having to work twice as hard, we also missed everything,...

Last NIGHT SPO did his JOB & we had a BIG WIN. I've said it numerous time, SPO is a good between GAME COACH, but in game is where he lack creativity.

To be fair this is not game two, its game three so it took almost 6 days for Spo to make an adjustment that a coach like Pop or Phil would have made in game. And this is something to celebrate? The Big three were created to aspire for greatness and multiple championships but right now we have people actually praising Spo for making an adjustment 6 freaking days later? Im sure its just the hang over effect but when you think about it one would be upset it took this long for an adjustment. I

You don't want to make major adjustments to the lineup that won 27 straight just on a knee jerk. Spo gave it time to be a sample size before making the move. Otherwise you will lose the locker room because when you make an adjustment to the rotation it's a big deal. It completely throws guys routines, and sometimes messes with their ego. You are telling them that they aren't good enough to beat the Pacers the way they've always played. So it's a big deal to make these kind of changes.

I think people don't understand that. This isn't a videogame. There are egos at play, and coaches--the good coaches need the evidence to be there before making the move. We couldn't make huge changes after just game 1 because we won that game. I think the fact that Spo was able to make the adjustment between game 2 and 3, and the team reacted well--speaks to the level of trust the guys have in his decisions at this point.

The only guy I think that can get away with large scale rotation changes game to game is Popovich--but he's got like a decade plus with those guys and a fist full of titles.

[EscapoTHB]

Oh and In-game--is there a better coach in the league at drawing plays up out of timeouts? We almost always score out of timeouts, and the play he drew up to get Lebron the game winner in game 1 was really great.

There was a play last night to end the half where he designed this great strong side action with Lebron and Wade crossing on the low block, which distracted the weak side just enough to get Ray Allen a WIDE OPEN 3. It was kind of amazing to watch the execution and the creativity. Spo doesn't get enough credit for those things.

[MastaKiiLA]

No offense, but if Pop would have made all those adjustments "in-game" then why did they drop 2 games to the Warriors? The best adjustment that series might have been Steph's bum ankle deciding to call it a season.
If you don't think Spo makes in-game adjustments, just look at this series. In Game1, West lit us up in the first half. In the second half, we limited him to just 6 FGA. He made 3 of them, but his attempts were halved, and were all much further from the basket.
It's nice to imagine a coach with a vaudevillian cane, just yanking guys out of the game when they have a few bad moments, but that's just not Spo's way. He gives guys a chance to play through things. I remember last night I was yelling at my screen at how stupid Rio was with those stupid and1s (I still maintain that he leads the league in and1s allowed). However, Spo let him ride it out, and look at the results. Left up to me, he'd have been yanked, and Cole wouldn't probably contributed some shaky minutes. Instead, Spo let Chalmers play through it, and we got some big plays from him.
I don't know why it's so hard to trust someone with such a great record. It would be one thing if we lost a lot of games, or looked shaky or whatnot. However, we win a lot, don't have many flaws, and rarely look flustered. Trust the process, folks. Stay the course and do not let go of the rope.

[Mutnt]

I disagree w/ Spo not receiving credit for yesterday.

Its SPO who put LeBron in the post..He waited till game 3, but he finally did it.

Spo instead of keeping up with Battier as first BIG off bench and putting him on WEST, he put Size on WEST all game and brought BIRDMAN off the bench first.

Spo with his BIGGER lineup, he didn't have to double as much as he had more size, which helped our legs.

The same reason why SpoBot pressed vs. Chicago. He pressed knowing Chicago only had a few guards and wanted to tire them out. In this series, when he went SMALL, I felt we were just over working for no reason due to the size issue. It didn't help that not only were we giving up easy buckets and having to work twice as hard, we also missed everything,...

Last NIGHT SPO did his JOB & we had a BIG WIN. I've said it numerous time, SPO is a good between GAME COACH, but in game is where he lack creativity.

LeBron in the post wasn't the reason why we won, it was effective and it let us get a crucial advantage going into the 2nd half, but we would've blew them out if LeBron played EXACTLY like he did in Games 1 & 2. What made us a clearly superior team last night was everyone hitting what they're suppose to hit (outside of Battier & Cole). It was the exact opposite of the first two games.

There was a reason we put up the best scoring half of the season (and against an elite defensive team like Indy), people were just not missing.

Hmm, yet we still sucked defensively in the 1st half... Doesn't matter who Spo had brought of the bench in what order, West & Hibbert (+ Hill) were owning our asses. It took a godlike offensive effort (and some suspect ref calls) for us to get a bit of a cushion. Check the offensive rebounds too, we still got murdered...

Anyway, I agree the rotations were better by Spo. You gotta question though, how much of that is because Haslem was scorching, because the main difference yesterday was just playing Battier less. If Haslem were his good 'ol normal putrid self then I bet Battier gets 30 mpg again, which could be the case as soon as in Game 4, mind you. Other than that, Ray and Birdman played pretty much in the realm of their regular playing time.

I don't know, I feel like the Heat were doing pretty much the same things they did in Games 1 & 2, the key difference being our players (Haslem, Bosh, Wade, Chalmers) were hitting their shots and we didn't make stupid mistakes turning the ball over. That alone is pretty significant in the offensive scheme and it was proven why last night. Defense was putrid in the 1st half, but it got kinda decent in the 2nd, naturally you'd think Indiana doesn't have the firepower (even though they significantly overmatch us down low) to keep scoring 25+ points per quarter.

[Flash4thewin]

I disagree w/ Spo not receiving credit for yesterday.

Its SPO who put LeBron in the post..He waited till game 3, but he finally did it.

Spo instead of keeping up with Battier as first BIG off bench and putting him on WEST, he put Size on WEST all game and brought BIRDMAN off the bench first.

Spo with his BIGGER lineup, he didn't have to double as much as he had more size, which helped our legs.

The same reason why SpoBot pressed vs. Chicago. He pressed knowing Chicago only had a few guards and wanted to tire them out. In this series, when he went SMALL, I felt we were just over working for no reason due to the size issue. It didn't help that not only were we giving up easy buckets and having to work twice as hard, we also missed everything,...

Last NIGHT SPO did his JOB & we had a BIG WIN. I've said it numerous time, SPO is a good between GAME COACH, but in game is where he lack creativity.

To be fair this is not game two, its game three so it took almost 6 days for Spo to make an adjustment that a coach like Pop or Phil would have made in game. And this is something to celebrate? The Big three were created to aspire for greatness and multiple championships but right now we have people actually praising Spo for making an adjustment 6 freaking days later? Im sure its just the hang over effect but when you think about it one would be upset it took this long for an adjustment. I

You don't want to make major adjustments to the lineup that won 27 straight just on a knee jerk. Spo gave it time to be a sample size before making the move. Otherwise you will lose the locker room because when you make an adjustment to the rotation it's a big deal. It completely throws guys routines, and sometimes messes with their ego. You are telling them that they aren't good enough to beat the Pacers the way they've always played. So it's a big deal to make these kind of changes.

I think people don't understand that. This isn't a videogame. There are egos at play, and coaches--the good coaches need the evidence to be there before making the move. We couldn't make huge changes after just game 1 because we won that game. I think the fact that Spo was able to make the adjustment between game 2 and 3, and the team reacted well--speaks to the level of trust the guys have in his decisions at this point.

The only guy I think that can get away with large scale rotation changes game to game is Popovich--but he's got like a decade plus with those guys and a fist full of titles.

I did bypass the ego part but your 100% right on that. Its an aspect that does go overlooked and we do sometimes see things like a video game. The idea to play Lebron in the post isnt a huge change but its more of convincing Lebron to do it. Its small changes that should have been done early like taking Battier off West since we were getting killed in that match up but i guess ego does play a role. What i did like and found hilarious was Spo was ready to yank Mario out after one of his brain dead mistakes but then before we can get a subs Mario goes into Super Mario mode and Spo is like "nah i'll keep him in the game"

That said i am still just at a loss for why we cant or wont publicly talk about the refs? Why cant we take the fine? I refuse to believe we as an organization have done nothing. Lets say we are trying to be private about the complains but if nothing has changed so far it is time to escalate the complains to a public level. Release a greatest hit video compilation of every non called foul of Wade/Lebron/Bosh getting wacked just in this series. It would be all over ESPN. That would force the issue.