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Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 10:26 pm**

So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 10:44 pm**

If I were to list the things that hurt the heat it would be in no particular order:

Size
3 pt shooting
Ball movement
Quick point guards

Spurs hit all of those categories whereas Okc doesn't and the Heat are the only team in the league where Durant doesn't enjoy a matchup advantage.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:00 pm**

OKC are basically 2 maybe 3 players deep and play ISO which means we can focus on stopping individual players. Spurs are deep and can hurt you in a million ways. We get burned by role players more often than superstars.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:05 pm**

DivineFury wrote:OKC are basically 2 maybe 3 players deep and play ISO which means we can focus on stopping individual players. Spurs are deep and can hurt you in a million ways. We get burned by role players more often than superstars.

Not only that, the Spurs are like the Mavs 2011 on steroids. They move the ball around until they find an open shooter and we don't defend the 3 well. We refuse to change the system and end up with a scenario where Danny Green is the Final MVP in an alternate world :nonono:

.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:13 pm**

PaulieWal wrote:
DivineFury wrote:OKC are basically 2 maybe 3 players deep and play ISO which means we can focus on stopping individual players. Spurs are deep and can hurt you in a million ways. We get burned by role players more often than superstars.

Not only that, the Spurs are like the Mavs 2011 on steroids. They move the ball around until they find an open shooter and we don't defend the 3 well. We refuse to change the system and end up with a scenario where Danny Green is the Final MVP in an alternate world .

Well thing is that's actually smart defense. You always want to make them shoot, even if it's wide open, from distance.

Danny Green did end up regressing towards the mean by the end of the series. But if you watch the spurs this year and how TP is just cutting up defenses at the basket, you start to realize how good our D had to be to keep him away from being efficient 20+ ppg.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:15 pm**

What I'm slightly confused about is how OKC seem to defend Spurs and their ball movement, Parker in the PnR better than the Heat do. It seems to me like the Spurs should cause the Thunder the same sorts of problems or does Ibaka just have that much of an affect?

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:17 pm**

DivineFury wrote:Well thing is that's actually smart defense. You always want to make them shoot, even if it's wide open, from distance.

What? How is giving 3 point shooters open looks "smart defense"? That's like saying it's smart defense to give Ray Allen open looks :-?

. Obviously, Green isn't on Allen's level but it's only smart if you are making guys who are NOT good shooters take the 3. Giving guys like Green, Marco Belinelli, and Patty Mills open 3s is a death wish.

We gave Green so many open looks that by game 4-5 even when we were contesting him he was red hot. Obviously he cooled down in games 6 and 7 but that's because we started running him off the 3 point line.

Edit: We lost to the Mavs because of the same defense with them finding open 3 point shooters and nearly lost to the Spurs. Our defensive scheme works better for iso offenses like OKC. There is a reason it has struggled in two Finals against the Mavs and Spurs. Both teams had good 3 point shooters. Giving them open looks is like giving them practice shots. The best defenses don't give wide-open 3 point looks. They either close out or run the shooters off the line (Chicago, Indiana). Thing is two years ago we had the athletes to close out but now LeBron is the only good athlete on this team. Wade's defense comes and goes, Battier is done, Chalmers and Cole can't get their head out of their ass half the time.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:24 pm**

PaulieWal wrote:
DivineFury wrote:Well thing is that's actually smart defense. You always want to make them shoot, even if it's wide open, from distance.

What? How is giving 3 point shooters open looks "smart defense"? That's like saying it's smart defense to give Ray Allen open looks . Obviously, Green isn't on Allen's level but it's only smart if you are making guys who are NOT good shooters take the 3. Giving guys like Green, Marco Belinelli, and Patty Mills open 3s is a death wish.

We gave Green so many open looks that by game 4-5 even when we were contesting him he was red hot. Obviously he cooled down in games 6 and 7 but that's because we started running him off the 3 point line.

Smart defenses adjust which is what we did with Green. But I'll take 3pt shots by Green over TP ripping up the paint. Obviously wide open 3's aren't preferable, but we usually at least contest them.

But our defense is about protecting the interior, and good help defense/switches. If you pass enough though, you will always find someone open with our defense. But I'll take that over something like OKC where it's 1 on 1 and Perk or Ibaka have to fly in as your last resort if you get beat. Sure they get blocks, but they also leaves guys open for passes and easy dunk/layup.

Posted: **Mon May 19, 2014 11:27 pm**

DivineFury wrote:Smart defenses adjust which is what we did with Green. But I'll take 3pt shots by Green over TP ripping up the paint. Obviously wide open 3's aren't preferable, but we usually at least contest them.

But our defense is about protecting the interior, and good help defense/switches. If you pass enough though, you will always find someone open with our defense. But I'll take that over something like OKC where it's 1 on 1 and Perk or Ibaka have to fly in as your last resort if you get beat. Sure they get blocks, but they also leaves guys open for passes and easy dunk/layup.

Bro, giving 3 point shooters open looks is never good defense. Wade and James even said after game 3 against the Nets that our defense leads to open 3 point looks for the other team. That really scares me against a team like the Spurs. You can't give them open looks.

As I said, we can't play the same defense anymore and shouldn't because our team is not as athletic anymore. It was 2 years ago, but now we need to play more "traditional". Not to mention so many teams have made adjustments and know how to exploit our system.

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 9:01 am**

blammo wrote:So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

The finals ?
Are we talking about the finals ?

Last time I checked, the Pacers were up 1-0 in the ECF, and Miami played like **** and looked completely overmatched.
I feel they need to win 3 straight to steal HCA from the Pacers and advance, but I doubt they still have it in them. It seems to me like this team it's on its last legs, both literally and figuratively. I hope I am wrong and I hope they roll out 8 wins in a row, but I worry. A LOT.

Oh, and that theoretical matchup advantage that the Heat has with OKC is widely overrated. Since 2012 Durant took a couple of steps forward, Ibaka took a leap, while Miami took a small step back. Yeah, OKC lost Harden, but everybody's basing their opinion on the 2012 Finals, when Harden was MIA anyway.

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 3:06 pm**

PaulieWal wrote:
DivineFury wrote:Smart defenses adjust which is what we did with Green. But I'll take 3pt shots by Green over TP ripping up the paint. Obviously wide open 3's aren't preferable, but we usually at least contest them.

But our defense is about protecting the interior, and good help defense/switches. If you pass enough though, you will always find someone open with our defense. But I'll take that over something like OKC where it's 1 on 1 and Perk or Ibaka have to fly in as your last resort if you get beat. Sure they get blocks, but they also leaves guys open for passes and easy dunk/layup.

Bro, giving 3 point shooters open looks is never good defense. Wade and James even said after game 3 against the Nets that our defense leads to open 3 point looks for the other team. That really scares me against a team like the Spurs. You can't give them open looks.

As I said, we can't play the same defense anymore and shouldn't because our team is not as athletic anymore. It was 2 years ago, but now we need to play more "traditional". Not to mention so many teams have made adjustments and know how to exploit our system.

Without a center it's not really possible to play traditional defense though. Bosh can't be our rim protector in a man or zone defense. I think our defense is good enough to win, at least certainly to beat the Pacers. I'm not phased by Game 1. But then again I'm probably one of few who never thought a Pacers series was going to be easy. This could go 7 again easily.

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 4:34 pm**

blammo wrote:So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

** You are done...baiting and trolling

--heat4life

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 4:49 pm**

not to be a dick, but let's focus on beating Indiana before we start talking about Western Conference opponents.

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 5:55 pm**

My bad, of course Pacers could still beat the Heat, should have put that in the OP, the question was all hypothetical.

How can i see what ThePacer31 wrote now that its been removed?

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 7:28 pm**

blammo wrote:So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

Easy answer?

Because basketball is not played on paper.

Posted: **Tue May 20, 2014 7:34 pm**

thinktellectual wrote:
blammo wrote:So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

The finals ?
Are we talking about the finals ?

Last time I checked, the Pacers were up 1-0 in the ECF, and Miami played like **** and looked completely overmatched.
I feel they need to win 3 straight to steal HCA from the Pacers and advance, but I doubt they still have it in them. It seems to me like this team it's on its last legs, both literally and figuratively. I hope I am wrong and I hope they roll out 8 wins in a row, but I worry. A LOT.

Oh, and that theoretical matchup advantage that the Heat has with OKC is widely overrated. Since 2012 Durant took a couple of steps forward, Ibaka took a leap, while Miami took a small step back. Yeah, OKC lost Harden, but everybody's basing their opinion on the 2012 Finals, when Harden was MIA anyway.

When a good chunk of your offense is stuck between two players like Durant and Westbrook, you're not beating Miami. When it's a high paced offense, you're not beating miami. When Ibaka always vanishes against Bosh, you're not beating Miami. You have Perkins playing, you're not beating Miami. If WB and KD are the only playmakers, you're not beating miami. They made a massive error in letting Harden go. LBJ, Wade Bosh > KD WB. Just not enough firepower.

Evenly spread out like San Antonio is and how the Pacers were on Sunday and you could beat Miami. Simple.

Posted: **Wed May 21, 2014 1:33 pm**

If we do get to the finals and play the Spurs again--surely Danny Green won't have another finals like last year.

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2014 3:41 am**

Guys are you been watching the Spurs in WCF. I must admit they're much better than last year. I think we have a 50/50 chance to win. We need to play much better and be ready when the time comes.

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Posted: **Thu May 22, 2014 10:55 am**

blammo wrote:So it's seems to be widely accepted that the Miami Heat matchup well with OKC.
It also seems to be widely accepted that the San Antonio Spurs match up awfully with OKC.

Why is it that San Antonio are tipped to give Miami a tougher time in the Finals, and this seemed to be the consensus even before Ibaka's injury.

Spurs play like a well oiled machine, scary at times. Fine example of that was today's rout of OKC. Heat on other hand are dominant in stretches and can be awful at times. Still, we won last year. This time around it can prove to be much tougher.

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2014 11:10 am**

Stop with these stupid threads about finals
Mods do your damn jobs

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