I feel like Miami was lucky to get away with g2. Here's why

[thinktellectual]

Analysts, coaches, commentators, players and fans keep talking about "little things" and in g2 (and recently in general) I keep seeing some little things that sap my confidence in Miami's chances of getting that 3peat and make me worry more than I should.

Things like:

* Lebron allowing Lance and sometimes PG to blow by him on D. That shouldn't happen. I hope that's not a sign of Lebron tyring down. I also hope it's not a sign of him having picked up some bad habits during a season of mostly coasting on D.

* Wade getting the ball wide open for a mid/long 2 or 3 and hesitating, doing a pump fake and wasting 2-3 seconds that allow his man to catch up and the opposing D to get set again, basically forcing the Heat to start the attack from scratch. This is part of the reason the Heat had to take a number of forced shots late in the shotclock. I know Wade has an amazing FG%, but I'd rather have him take the open shots.

* not attacking the basket enough. Wade is too slow now to do it consistently, but if there's too much attention on Lebron, Chalmers and Cole should look to attack more often. **** Hibbert, take it at his chest. He's gonna lower his arms and the refs won't allow that to pass for "verticality" anymore, not like they did last year.

* not enough Bosh near the paint. Bosh has the quickness to take West or Hibbert off the dribble, but you have to put him in position to succeed. I know he's been shooting the 3 very well, but still, if he takes it inside he can put some PF on West or Hibbert

* not enough backdoor cuts. This is a big one. The Pacers have been overplaying the passing lanes like crazy, but the Heat won't punish them with backdoor cuts. Try and pull this **** on the Spurs and there'll be a layup line behind you.

* too many layups by the Pacers out of the Heat's trapping D. If they figured out the D and they can easily escape the traps, make some damn adjustments. Although those seemed more like miscommunication by the Heat players, which shouldn't really happen after 4 years executing the same system. Not that I'm a big fan of this system.

* Lebron sometimes reverting to his Cavs-days habit of pounding the ball too much at the 3p line. Which leads into my next point:

* too much ISO. Waaaaay too much ISO. There seems to be far less movement on offense compared to last season. The Heat to move the ball, but mostly on the perimeter, without enough cuts and screens that take the action towards the hoop.

These things won't necessarily stop the Heat from winning (g2 is the proof), but they do make it more difficult.

Maybe I worry too much, maybe I am too much of a perfectionist, but I feel that if they'd address some of these issues they would have little trouble against the Pacers and I'd feel much more confident about them winning it all.

[Dupas]

You could make so much arguments and i couldnt relate to any one of them. But thats just me.

[DWadeno3]

If you wanna complain about game one, that's fair, but game 2 was a far superior game on both ends of the floor and a lot of your so called issues weren't present, at least not to a degree where you could point them out as critical. There is always room for improvement, but you'll find that in every game. Nonetheless, you not only have to respect that Indiana plays a lot better than they have in any previous round but also understand that they're not a good matchup for us. The most glaring part of it is obviously rebounding. They had an ORB% of 33.3 compared to our 19.4% in game 2 and that'll never go away because this is where we're overmatched. We have to compensate it by forcing them into inefficient shots and being efficient ourselves. In game 1 we didn't do that when they had an eFG% of .574 and ours was at .551. This was all the while they had an ORB% of 21.9 compared to ours of 11.4. Go through the game thread there and you'll find a long post by me on our atrocious defense that night.

In game 2, however, our eFG% was more or less the same at .567% but theirs dropped to .456%. This is a strong indicator of a much improved defense on our part because we made those shots tougher which hurt us in game 1. As I said you'll always find flaws, but it's matter of limiting their advantages and making good use of your own and we did that in game 2.

So I don't see where we were lucky or where we could've been much better. We played better than them for the most part and deserved to win a big game on the road. Even the Spurs, who are the example of close-to-perfection, looked pretty mortal against a Dallas team that was well coached and executed properly against them. You could easily go through every game and point out several flaws in the Spurs' play.

[greg4012]

If you wanna complain about game one, that's fair, but game 2 was a far superior game on both ends of the floor and a lot of your so called issues weren't present, at least not to a degree where you could point them out as critical. There is always room for improvement, but you'll find that in every game. Nonetheless, you not only have to respect that Indiana plays a lot better than they have in any previous round but also understand that they're not a good matchup for us. The most glaring part of it is obviously rebounding. They had an ORB% of 33.3 compared to our 19.4% in game 2 and that'll never go away because this is where we're overmatched. We have to compensate it by forcing them into inefficient shots and being efficient ourselves. In game 1 we didn't do that when they had an eFG% of .574 and ours was at .551. This was all the while they had an ORB% of 21.9 compared to ours of 11.4. Go through the game thread there and you'll find a long post by me on our atrocious defense that night.

In game 2, however, our eFG% was more or less the same at .567% but theirs dropped to .456%. This is a strong indicator of a much improved defense on our part because we made those shots tougher which hurt us in game 1. As I said you'll always find flaws, but it's matter of limiting their advantages and making good use of your own and we did that in game 2.

So I don't see where we were lucky or where we could've been much better. We played better than them for the most part and deserved to win a big game on the road. Even the Spurs, who are the example of close-to-perfection, looked pretty mortal against a Dallas team that was well coached and executed properly against them. You could easily go through every game and point out several flaws in the Spurs' play.

I agree with both you and the OP to some extents. The HEAT's defense was much improved, and the OP's concern regarding "too many layups by the Pacers out of the HEAT's trapping D" was a major issue in game 1, but adjustments were made that solidly curbed that in game 2.

I agree with you that our offensive execution was at a level where we have no right to complain. BUT, OP does have a point that in both games 1 and 2 our offensive movement, spacing, and ball movement left a lot to be desired. Wade does sometimes ruin the flow and execution of the offense by hesitating on his wide open looks (that were created by well executed ball movement), but if he is hitting his iso shots and fadeway looks at the clip that he has, then I got no complaints there.

In terms of our offensive ball movement, the Pacers D does deserve credit, as they are truly elite and have been doing a solid job forcing us into situations. But, it did piss me off seeing us scared of the paint in the first half of last game. If you all noticed, in the first half when one of our guys would drive to the paint, they would not even consider going to the basket once Hibbert was seen. I get that he is really good at protecting the rim, but like none of those offensive sequences resulted in good offense despite the kickouts (because Pacers weren't crashing), so you have to test Hibbert and at least make him work, even if it's not an optimal look.

LeBron also has not been himself on D (like the OP alluded to), whether due to bad habits or fatigue. It's more his awareness (or acting on it) than anything else.

[DWadeno3]

I agree with both you and the OP to some extents. The HEAT's defense was much improved, and the OP's concern regarding "too many layups by the Pacers out of the HEAT's trapping D" was a major issue in game 1, but adjustments were made that solidly curbed that in game 2.

It wasn't as much an issue of our system as it was an issue of the guy defending the screener not doing his job, thus allowing middle penetration. It's a simple case of a lack of effort, nothing else.

I agree with you that our offensive execution was at a level where we have no right to complain. BUT, OP does have a point that in both games 1 and 2 our offensive movement, spacing, and ball movement left a lot to be desired. Wade does sometimes ruin the flow and execution of the offense by hesitating on his wide open looks (that were created by well executed ball movement), but if he is hitting his iso shots and fadeway looks at the clip that he has, then I got no complaints there.

I didn't see that much of a problem with Wade in game 2, he was playing well within the flow of the offense. While he has a tendency to avoid the midrange J and continue to look for something better and LeBron has a tendency of holding on to the ball for too long, it wasn't bad enough in either case to warrant much criticism, especially given how well they both played.

In terms of our offensive ball movement, the Pacers D does deserve credit, as they are truly elite and have been doing a solid job forcing us into situations. But, it did piss me off seeing us scared of the paint in the first half of last game. If you all noticed, in the first half when one of our guys would drive to the paint, they would not even consider going to the basket once Hibbert was seen. I get that he is really good at protecting the rim, but like none of those offensive sequences resulted in good offense despite the kickouts (because Pacers weren't crashing), so you have to test Hibbert and at least make him work, even if it's not an optimal look.

LeBron also has not been himself on D (like the OP alluded to), whether due to bad habits or fatigue. It's more his awareness (or acting on it) than anything else.

I agree that we have to attack them harder, Hibbert is soft as s***, he ain't gonna do anything when you attack him all game long other than foul out at some point.

In game one LeBron was terrible on defense because he was roaming too much but in game 2 his defense was decent. Lance Stephenson is not a good matchup for him, he's pretty athletic and fast and has good handles, so he can beat LeBron off the dribble. Cole for example has better lateral quickness than LeBron and thus was able to stay in front of Stephenson.
LeBron can guard Stephenson for a few possessions, but it takes a lot of energy out of you. People were saying he shut down Rose in 2011, but he only guarded him for a few possessions in a crunch time while Chalmers was on Rose for the most part because everything else is an unnecessary waste of energy.

[MHeat0279]

dribble penetration needs to be controlled, stephenson was again killing us in game two with dribble penetration until cole started to guard him, he did control him, but if Indiana adjusts this we will need to counter act it again, we have glaring holes that will make the series very difficult, it is what it is at this point, do not hold your breath waiting for Bosh to play a decent game against this team, Lebron does need to attack the paint more and draw some fouls on hibbert and west, and our guards must try to stay infront of their guards, easier said than done, but i think that will be key, save for this year's stephenson their guards are not very good creating off the dribble, unless they blow by you, this series would be way easier if Oden was ready to give us some solid good minutes without fouling on every play, but like i said it is what it is at this point, they do have advantages on us that we can not fix, the rest is to play the best we can, with as much intensity as we can and hope for the best outcome. They are creating way too many opportunities to score just with stephenson's dribble penetration.

[kyphi]

Maybe I worry too much, maybe I am too much of a perfectionist

I agree; eat more fiber

[Tony15]

Everyone who's posted in here makes fair points, but the title of this thread indicates that we were lucky to win Game 2, and that's simply not true in any way, shape or form. Do you honestly think that we're going to play the way we're capable of on offense every game in THIS series? Against this Pacers' defense? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you simply haven't been watching this team the last couple of years. Indy's defense can make any elite offense look pretty pedestrian....it's simply a matter of ball movement and aggressiveness. On top of that, our three-point shooting has been key part to our title winnings, and the Pacers are one of the best if not the best team at guarding against it......

As DWadeno3 said already, the Pacers are simply not the greatest matchup for us. That's because they hardly downsize, and the only way this series could put some ease on us, is if we force Vogel's hand to do so. Regardless, LeBron is going to have to be more aggressive against Hibbert and the rest of Indy's bigs, and get to the line because our FT attempts in this series so far isn't going to cut it. We need to force the refs hand....otherwise you'll have a repeat of Game 1, and everyone knows how lovely that went.

[EscapoTHB]

Meh. We won the game. Fact is we've got the two best players on the floor this series, and when push comes to shove they don't. Lance Stephenson was great through 3 quarters, in the 4th all he could do was flop. Lebron and Dwade when it's winning time can beat anyone. None of these games are going to be pretty. But we split on the road. We're where we need to be.

This series will be a 6 or 7 game series. People just need to prepare for that. And not get so up and down, so early in the series.

[coolnerd88]

WE'RE GOING TO THREE PEAT ANYWAY, WE DID IT LAST YEAR!!!!!

Is all I'm hearing these days. I'm right with there too, I think we get past the Pacers because in all my years of watching basketball, I can tell the Pacers aren't mentally ready yet. They have the first step, which is wanting to go through the Heat, however they are mentally tough yet to do that and P.George hasn't ascended yet. I think we end this in 5 or 6 if we play how we're supposed to.

The Spurs however are a completely different animal. They have championship pedigree, they are experienced like we are, there series came down to TWO anomaly's that probably won't happen again given the same opportunities and they have a hard-on for s worse then the Pacers do.

Pop is a better coach then Spo despite what homer delusions anyone has and I PERSONALLY think if we match again, they take it in 6.

I would feel better if 2011 Wade were playing bt now-a-days I sit back wondering if Wade is going to keep it going and I have NEVER HAD THAT PROBLEM, 2013 and 2014 have altered that tho. He's still the greatest Heat player ever in my eyes and it's Wade County forever, however he's not that reliable and we'll need him to be should we make it back to the finals.

I don't know about this year my fellow Heat fans, it is what it is.

[greg4012]

there series came down to TWO anomaly's that probably won't happen again given the same opportunities and they have a hard-on for s worse then the Pacers do.

You fail to mention the third anomaly of their defense against us basically just being trying to mentally f**k with LeBron and praying he won't make wide-open jumpers. Without that, the series doesn't go 7. I doubt we'll see that from LeBron again.

And Wade is much more reliable this postseason than you're giving him credit for. Right now, he is twice the player he was last postseason.


West always looks better. The East is just as good on top, the East just plays a more rugged and defensively-oriented brand of bball.

I have mad respect for the Spurs, and think they can take us. But, c'mon with this same stuff every year. We seem to enter every Finals (except 2010 ironically) as the underdog b/c of how good the Western teams look heading into it.

[Dupas]

the op should talk about indy defense and spurs defence. Its like bmw to a fiat lol

[NBA82]

It's probably worth noting that Indiana has shot absurdly well from 3 in Games 1 and 2. They're at around 45% from 3 for the series and that's weighted down by misses in garbage time of Game 1. While that game was still competitive, they were well over 50%.

Can't imagine they're going to remain over 40% for the series when all is said and done.

[IggieCC]

It's probably worth noting that Indiana has shot absurdly well from 3 in Games 1 and 2. They're at around 45% from 3 for the series and that's weighted down by misses in garbage time of Game 1. While that game was still competitive, they were well over 50%.

Can't imagine they're going to remain over 40% for the series when all is said and done.

Yeah, that's the hope. Our defense is designed based on the assumption that opponents 3pt shooting % is not going to be ridiculous for the 7 game stretch. We will be screwed otherwise. And we might be screwed against the Spurs should we face them this year because they are capable of making well over 40% if our defense is not on point. But that's not our problem right now.

If we over-help and pack the paint too much, even crap shooting Indiana can shoot pretty well from 3pt line against us.. and that's just... sad... it's been frustrating (to me) for years now..
Every year we get some sort of hope (this year was Oden) and at the end of the year we are playing the exact same way with mostly the same players but they got the job done for the past 2 years so I won't complain too much

[heatlespeatles]

We won because we are the better team. The end