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Im sorry but I keep seeing people saying on here...."Well why didnt LeBron play like this in the finals?"

I agree. LeBron blew it. But Spo blew it just as much as LeBron. You cant tell me that Phil Jackson, Pop, Doc Rivers or Pat "on the sidelines" wouldnt have figured out a way to help their struggling super star. Spo got it handed to him by Carlisle.

It was LeBron who carried the Heat to the Finals. However, even though Wade struggled against the Bulls he still made some clutch plays. Spo got caught up Wade and LeBron "figuring" it out instead of putting LeBron in a position to succeed. Where the pick and rolls with Wade/LeBron? Where was the quick hitting plays to get a basket? Rick Carisle coached circles around Spo. Spo sees LeBron is in a funk offensively....yet he has playing huge minutes and chasing Jason Terry off screens? This wasnt DROse where LeBron could just wear him down. Spo had LeBron in a position to be worn down. There were ways for LeBron to be more productive, I agree LeBron blew it...But Spo was as much at fault and it drives me crazy that every one acts like it was just LeBron. Hell...If Spo really wanted to "make a statement" he would have challenged LeBron to take 20 shots a game no matter what. Tell him to stop being so passive. But no...Spo just figured it was LeBron and Wade switching roles. LeBron the man against the Bulls with Wade in support. So they would switch against Dallas. But as Barkley said..that cause LeBron to be even more passive.

Spo has done a much better job this year. Yes LeBron has improved in some areas, but I just couldnt understand some of the coaching decisions in the finals. But ultimately we all wish LeBron just overcame the adversity like Dwade...but he didnt..*sigh*

Im not yet sold on Spo....Its not that he isnt a good coach. Its just does he have the personality to get these stars to do what he wants them to do. Why do you think the Heat are playing so well without Wade? Because it's simpler. Its less Chiefs out there to overrule Spo or do their own thing.

Watching Spo coach last season made me have a greater appreciation for coaches that coached loaded teams. Hell...I thought Phil Jackson's jobs were easy. But he did a masterful job of handling egos and putting guys in a position to succeed. Same way as Pat.

I like where things are going....Just hoping when Wade comes back...Spo doesnt become a "spectator" again. Cause if LeBron starts playing "average" again...I dont know if Spo's coaching is going to save the team. I hope Im wrong...but then again...I hope LeBron keeps playing great so you dont have to worry about that.

Yes, Spo failed.

But LeBron is the one on the floor. He's been in the league a long damn time. He's a supposed super star player.

Why didn't he overcome the situation? Do you think Phil Jackson was holding Michael Jordan's hand for every big game he had? Jordan had the BBALL IQ and talent to make it happen on the court. Phil helped, but it was more MJ than anyone. Otherwise, you would see lesser players beat out better players simply because the coach is better. That rarely happens.

Better talent wins. The NBA Finals just showed me LBJ's bball IQ is not as high as I thought, and he still chokes.

Listen to yourself. You are trying to explain away why LeBron James couldn't score a point in the 4th quarter for 4 straight NBA Finals games.

No. It's 80% LeBron's fault.

can we please stop talking about the Finals..that **** is a black mark in history and for the life of me I cant understand why any Heat fan would want to revisit it or relive it any way or discussion.

meh.. this is the last time I'll talk about the Finals. We have to move on. I'll mention it here and there but not really talk deep about it... but anyway

I remember after Game 3, Wade kept saying he was the leader of the team, etc etc. It started to make me wonder if something was going on, LBJ was passive beyond belief, who knows if they talked it over and Wade was like "I'll carry this team".

To me LBJ has to be the main scorer, the Heat have succeeded more that way (besides the Boston series possibly where Wade crushed them then LBJ finished)

But yeah even though he was passive, he disappeared in the 4th basically every game besides game 1...

I can't really find an excuse for that. For him standing at the perimeter. Pat Riley said he has a go to game but not a go to move? Something like that. Well, enter the post... we'll see how that goes. But in a lot of close games, LBJ didn't do that (this year).

But I will say this, Spo didn't have the personnel to work with. Unhealthy Miller, Haslem with no lift, BIBBY getting ran over by Barea and couldn't hit shots besides Game 2, Big Z should have played IMO or Dampier, but that didn't happen, JAMES JONES should have freakin' played because he was ready to go despite injury. I know in the playoffs the bench gets smaller, but the bench wasn't that great to begin with. After Wade's hip injury in Game... 5? the bench was good though. That's all.

This year it's much more reliable. I think it will help in the playoffs and the decisions should be easier for Spo. His time management can suck though.

Keep in mind Dallas was deep as hell and had every position filled. Heat no center, no reliable bench, passive as hell SF while Dirk was killing it. It was meant for them to win. :\ OR maybe LBJ choked just to see Kidd get a ring, who knows (they are good friends).

Something's going to happen if Heat don't win this year, that I know.

I also don't expect LBJ to average 45 minutes a game in the playoffs... I think that got to him. I remember when LBJ was out there Dallas would go on a run, offense was stagnant, LBJ hesitant. THEN when he sat on the bench, Heat went on a huge run. That's just strange to me.

Heat had the worst bench, we had Mike **** Bibby playing minutes in the finals. Look at the +/- numbers for the Heat with his corpse out there. smh

I think what's not even being considered is Lebron's enormous defensive dropoff. He went from being the best defensive player on the floor through the first 3 rounds, to being almost a zero-impact defensive player in the Dallas series. This doesn't strictly pertain to man-defense either, his help defense was far weaker (if existent at all).

If any of you are familiar with ElGee's EV stats:

http://www.backpicks.com/2011/06/08/lebrons-passive-aggressiveness-and-his-big-d-funk/
http://www.backpicks.com/2011/06/13/2011-nba-finals-recap-by-expected-value/

I know it's not the reliable stat, but individual DRTG paints the same picture.

First 3 rounds: 100.6 DRTG
Finals: 110 DRTG

Now in the other series that people insist he "choked" in, this was not the case. The eye test proves that, whatever he was (or wasn't) doing on the offensive end, there was no defensive dropoff. In Game 5, he switches to guard Rondo, instead of Pierce, and the result was Pierce going off for 21/11/7 on 49% TS in a series in which he averaged 13.5 on 43.8% TS.

There was definitely an effort issue in the Finals. For whatever reason, he just wasn't trying as hard on the defensive end, where his dropoff was arguably larger than the offensive end

Good point, I do remember LBJ having Terry punk him big time. I think that was a bad idea to begin with.

He was finished guarding Rose at the end of games and to make it worse, you have him guard Terry? This is where someone like Battier comes in, since he does the dirty work. LBJ and Wade don't like to chase other guards, especially around screens.

Also Marion was outplaying him, while LBJ should have shut him down. Marion shouldn't have been dropping 20, consistently too...

he was the Heat's best player throughout the entire playoffs...dude got tired and Wade tried to carry them and Bosh wasn't doing any better. Spo was playing Mike Bibby for some freaking reason.

It's a long time ago, it doesn't matter anymore.

Wrong. It's also Pat Riley's fault for those old dinosaurs. What you are seeing now is an improvement in LeBron's game and having proper shooting around him to space the floor. There is still a center issue, but it could materialize in Eddy Curry or be addressed in the offseason. This team if it remains healthy should win the Championship.

For the last time, we lost the Finals because of LeBron's defense, not his offense. Contrary to reactionary belief, our offense was absolutely fine with Wade at the helm, the difference was that while in Chicago Wade struggled offensively but was still a beast defensively, LeBron dropped his production offensively and fell off the map defensively too.

I see no reason why our offense should change other than making some attempts to get one of our big 3 some easy baskets here or there if they are struggling. We don't do it for Wade or Bosh, I don't see why we should be okay with forcing shots for LeBron either. To say we should force LeBron to take 20+ shots a game no matter what just because he is LeBron is stupidity. Remember, they all got together so that that didn't have to happen.

In general, I feel this new offense is tailor made for LeBron anyway, and forces Wade/Bosh to make even bigger adjustments than last year (ie Bosh calling himself a random guy on offense, Wade going several possessions without touching the ball whether he's hot or cold), so the idea of force feeding him even more just seems overboard. What if he is shut down, similar to last year's finals and simply can't put up the 30+ on insane efficiency like he is now? What if his jumper is not falling, or teams make more of a concerted effort to contest his jump shot? Our offense should come within the flow of the game.

Off-season topic.IMO FWIW

I'm not going to blame Spo or Lebron directly for the loss.

I will say that there are a lot more coaches that we could have won the title with last year instead of Spo as compared to players we could have won with instead of Lebron.

I still can't believe we still had Bibby starting by the beginning of the Finals.

We should have been pushing the pace against the Mavs. Instead we let them slow down the game.