Game 1 Post Game NBA Finals

[djkeem]

this team is so unpredictable u just dont know what to expect lol but i thought we played okay just got to execute a lil better in the second half

[imchillin]

I don't want to accept the reality that Lebron may have to control every game from top to bottom and play defense on KD throughout, but it may just be the case.

Durant dropped 36 on 12/20 shooting with some FT's... and beat LeBron and Wade by himself in the 4th.

But Durant man, he will get his. I think limiting Westbrook, who almost had a triple double, will be more better for us.

By throughout i mean most of the game, not every minute but most. Sort of the way we played him the last time we played them in miami

Yes i think the answer is to limit westbrook but only guy I believe can is probably Cole, not wade. And getting cole to play. Well that's another story, rookie in the finals


But like I said, lebron has to lead and his performance has to be very cerebral. He has to make Kd work on defense not bail him out with jumpers

Wade has to, more than anyone understand that his bad shots are killing us

Watching the 3rd qrt now, wade turnovers and bad shots, turned the game around

[ecnirp]

I want to see this LeBron next game:



I know he is buddy-buddy with KD, but come on, pull a Marion and get in his head a little bit. It would help if you lessened KD's confidence and make him have mental breakdowns in his first NBA Final.

Dude looked poised like a vet out there.

Darn,I miss the 70's,80's and 90's era of Basketball,when a guy could be your best buddy off the court,but on the court he was your mortal enemy.

You can tell by their body language,that some of these players don't really won't to be mean or defeat their friends on the court. These are crazy Basketball times we are living in...

Do you have the game DVR'd? I cant quite remember when. In either the 2nd or 3rd Qrt..But Westbrook (who is also friends with LeBron) threw an elbow at him after a play. Basically said GTFO me. LeBron looked at him like Dude WTF? Westbrook looked at him like the enemy. hell with friends. Look at the game again. Im trying to find the play now. But that play made me say...oh **** these guys arent playing that friend crap, they're trying to go at the Heat.

Its time LeBron end the friend **** with these guys.

Edit: It happens at the 5:43 mark of the 2nd Qrt. Thunder down 11....Just before they made their run..

Westbrook throws an elbow at LeBron after a missed basket. Told me all I needed to know about the Thunder. They aint trying to be friends. They view you as the enemy.

[OtW]

Free throws weren't even an issue today it seems...

if you guys are looking for a positive.. .

We need to keep the ball movement up, get post up opportunities, diversify Bosh's use in our offense, not continue to use him as a BAIL OUT SHOT SHOOTER CAMPED AT THE THREE POINT LINE, body up Kevin Durant, and PUSH THE BALL IN TRANSITION. At half time, OKC had 2x as many TO's as us, but had 9 more fast break points, that's not right.

We can still win this series. It is only the beginning. We can still split and take control IN MIAMI where the whistle will hopefully favor us and where our role players can step up more consistently (being at home and all).

Let's split in OKC and win three straight in Key Biscayne .

EDIT: IDK why everyone in the media views Miami as a whole/ the location of the AAA as South beach. South Beach is further south I am pretty sure than the AAA. South Beach also has Ocean Drive and such. The AAA is more down town Miami/Key Biscayne area. IDK why they keep referring to it as "South Beach".

Hell LeBron technically did not take his talents South Beach. He lives in Coconut Grove.

[imchillin]

Lol watching this game in the 3rd quarter and I have to laugh. Absolutely gave this game away.


Wade really messed up bad. Very bad. And this isn't hate, watch the last two quarters again and see for yourself

We need wade of last finals back ASAP

[ecnirp]

[LeMVP]

Just finished watching the game. Really looks like a missed opportunity to me. We were up until the end of the 3Q and the 4Q was basically us being down 3-5pts and trying to close the gap.

LeBron: he shot 46% but it really looked like 30%. He tried to get his jumper going early but couldn't. For the rest of the game he was really efficient under the basket, but not worth a penny from outside. 30-9-4 is a good line; I specially like his defense (4 steals), but it's worth nothing without a win. He really needs to get his jumper going with Ibaka/Perkins waiting under the basket.

Wade: I won't say much about him. He disappointed me the entire season and now the entire Playoffs (except two games maybe). His jumper isn't going, but the shots he takes are atrocious. If he's efficient outside the scoring it's ok for him to get only 19pts, but not like this. Only positive things I noticed during the game were some really nice dishes and a good overall defensive effort.

Bosh: a complete non factor. All I remember are 2-3 wide open 2s he knocked down. He really was invisible, even for a player coming off the bench. I'm sure he's still feeling the injury, but it's the Finals and we need a lot more out of him.

Battier: like I said the whole season, our most important role player. His defense was A-, his offense A+, you can't ask much more from Battier. His good shooting even kept Ibaka out of the paint for a long time, that's what you call spacing the floor for LeBron/Wade. Props to him.

Haslem: he had a big first quarter in rebounding, but disappeared for the rest of the game since. Foul trouble didn't help, but he wasn't an option on offensive at any time.

Chalmers: quiet game. He had a good start with some buckets and a handfull of good assists, but didn't show up for the rest of the game. 12pts 6ast are a ''good'' line for him, but we need more.

Miller: I like him, but he is completely useless when he plays 10min and takes only 2 shots. We have to either run plays for him and hope that he gets hot or leave him on the bench and play some Cole instead.

Anthony: played two minutes. OKCs bigs weren't a factor at all so he didn't need to play longer.

Spo: looks like he had a gameplan, but wasn't able to adjust it correctly through the game. We got good looks early in the game with plenty of assisted baskets and were able to move the ball quite well (except 2-3 chucked up shots by LeBron). The rest of the game was less pleasant, as during longs stretches the offense was ''try something, then somehow give the ball to LeBron and wait for him to pass it''. Our transition defense was flat out horrible and the overall defense in the 4Q subpar. His timeouts hadn't any impact on the flow of the game late.

All in all it was a winnable game. If LeBron makes his jumpers OR Wade shows up OR Bosh would put up average number we win this game, even with a bad transition defense and a lot of easy points for OKC. I have the feeling that to win game 2 we need either a historical performance by LeBron or Wade to show up. Both don't seem to likely to me, but Wade contributing should be the focus point for Game 2. There is no reason why he puts up only 6 points in the first half and waits that we're down to attack the basket 2-3 times. Battier won't be able to hold those numbers during the whole series, Bosh will have to step up.

[DefenseWins]

Your second-half score: Durant+Westbrook 41, Miami Heat 40.

OKC gets a win on a night when Harden scores just 5 pts. Heat take a loss on a night when Battier scores 17.

- missed opportunity...

Game 1: Thunder 105, Heat 94. Too many jumpers. Too little resistance at the rim. Fast break points: 24-4.

[Miamis3rdRing]

Your second-half score: Durant+Westbrook 41, Miami Heat 40.

F***. That. S***.

That's the sort of crap our superstars do and are supposed to do to other teams. What an embarrassment.

@LeMVP - Solid player by player analysis. I agree all with those.

For me our chances in this series comes down to Wade and Bosh. LeBron is going to deliver his averages, unfortunately Durant is also capable of putting up those types of numbers as we saw tonight. It's crucial that Wade/Bosh step up and carry some of the burden.

[LeChosen1]

Lebron can drop 60 still doesnt matter if heat dont play defense. Same as last series and Pacers their play on defense usually reflects how they play on offense. Giving up 100+, not gonna win to many games like that

[PurpleRooster]

Why not implementing a similar style that Boston played agasinst Miami.

Quick and hard doubles of Westbrook. Take him out of the game. We all know Durant is great but he alone won't beat you.

As for Harden, unlike some other people, he doesn't strike nearly as much fear to me.

[LeMVP]

Tom Haberstroh ‏@tomhaberstroh
LeBron: "We have to get more guys in there to give me and D-Wade rest."

Was probably posted here before, but I just saw it now. Pretty clear statement imo. LeBron needs 2-3 minutes at the end of the 3Q.

His PO minutes averages (1st round to Finals): 37.8 - 42.2 - 45.9 - 45.5.

[PurpleRooster]

Jordan actually played very hard defense for long minutes at an old age. He has a point there. PLUS drop 50 on people with an actual jumper.

There was also hand checking, so it was even harder for Jordan to score. He was also double teamed... or even quadruple teamed but when you have a jumper, it's hard to be stopped. It's why Durant is looked upon as a special player. He can shoot.

LeBron and Wade's jumper is streaky. Wade has to be 100% for it to work.

playing defense vs the more physical defenses is different, but still playing hard on both ends of the floor for a long time, is a bit similar. Especially in an era right now where there are touch fouls.

Jordan was great, but your post proves just how inflated and perpetuated his his ghost is.


"Hey Pippen go guard Durant.....also Rodman play mean and go grab 20 boards..."

[narmerguy]

Tom Haberstroh ‏@tomhaberstroh
LeBron: "We have to get more guys in there to give me and D-Wade rest."

Was probably posted here before, but I just saw it now. Pretty clear statement imo. LeBron needs 2-3 minutes at the end of the 3Q.

His PO minutes averages (1st round to Finals): 37.8 - 42.2 - 45.9 - 45.5.

Agreed, this has to stop. 46 minutes a game is just not going to cut it, certainly not early in the series when we haven't dug ourselves a do-or-die hole yet. Give the guy a breather. Give everyone breathers. I mean, 41 minutes for Shane Battier? Ugh, his play is good but not 41 minute a game good.

[PurpleRooster]

:cry:

I have a pretty legit beer buzz, but that aside that made me laugh so hard.

[imchillin]

Such a winnable game, I felt extremely comfortable most of this game until the end of the third and we took bad shots

I felt really good about this series. I wish wade was last year's wade and lebron played just like this


One thing with our stars, they tend to try to act too calm when we lose, most times I can see it hurts lebron but wade tends to become so "chill" and defensive about how he plays he tends to play down his mistakes


Say what you will about kobe but the guy is OD competitive. We played this game in the end like oh its ok we can lose this, especially wade. Why must he shoot so many 3s knowing he can't shoot


The guy almost single handedly blew this game, bosh was invsible


Lebron better flip the switch

[LordkeiiN]

battier's effort is wasted >,<

[Pimpwerx]

Disappointing loss, but OKC made an adjustment at halftime that we didn't respond to. They were getting too many easy points in the paint in the 3rd, and their defensive pressure increased.

We didn't attack the basket enough. We overcommitted on any penetration from Westbrook or Durant, leaving guys open for cuts and putbacks. Battier played good defense on Durant, but the length is just too much. He's too damn good. Lebron needed to play on Durant from early in the 4th. I don't know if he was tired or what, but we let KD get off on Shane at the wrong time. On the other end, Lebron was not making Durant work hard at all for most of the game, bailing him out with long jumpshots. I thought after he clanked his first 2 of the game that he'd get it, but he and Wade were bailing OKC out with their play.

We've gotta rotate better on defense. We got visibly sloppy/lazy in the 2nd half. Put Bron on Durant more and Wade on Westbrook. On offense, Wade and Bron should keep attacking the rim, even if they get blocked more than usual this series. The chances for fouls are there. Likewise, Rio needs to keep on the attack as well. His long arms allows him to draw a lot of contact. If he's not gonna take the open 3, he needs to put it on the floor with purpose, drive and dish/shoot.

Was Bosh a problem on defense? I didn't notice him getting beat a lot, but his +/- was terrible. Then again, all those dunks by Collison and Perk were probably due to him or Haslem. That can't be happening.

Anyway, on to Game2. The first half showed we have the ability to contain their offense and generate good looks of our own. It starts with defense. Win on Thursday and we steal HCA. That's the plan. PEACE.

[King_John]

I read a post on the General Board which confirmed my feeling that I had last night

"the thing about this thunder team, is that seem, they feel beatable...like a good prizefighter...they lull you into some false sense of security, of hope. you watch what they are doing, and think ok, weve seen that before, weve seen better, and then the next thing you know, they are ahead, and then they are pulling away, not looking back...they did it to my lakers , they did it the previously red-hot spurs, and they will do it the heat as well...

it pains me to admit this to myself, let alone on a public forum...but they are the best team in the league this season... "

what do you guys think?

[WD]

@7:22a, just heard Lebron's tape about needing a little rest on 792theticket

For the first time I am hearing ERIK from last night - I have one question - "why does Lebron even guard positions 1-5 who does that?"