NBA Finals Thread: Mavericks vs. Heat

[Strategist1]

That lack of a solid 2nd scorer/3rd scorer is killing the Mavs, and the point guard situation.

Stevenson, Terry, Peja, Barea.... Its on these 4 guys. But credit should be given to MIami's defence. They run out at their shooters and they pretty much close out on most 3 pt shot attempts. That's why these guys are struggling. When they step within 20 feet, Wade/Lebron ...and guys like Haslem, Anthony, Bosh are there to contest shots.

[djsunyc]

dallas got out of a weak west. the 3 best teams in the league were in the east.

[doudoub]

[sh00n]

[Spicy P]

Jeff Van Gundy looks like the biggest rapist/child molester

[K1NG]

Haha, great stuff. JVG could use some cucumbers.

[bakafool]

Chalmers was the difference maker in this game. Miami is getting good production from its bench.

[Too Late Crew]

I wonder if they ever going to allow calls to be changed when they see obvious mistakes/violations) when reviewing out of bounds or 2 vs 3 point shots.

I don't think there was "biased" reffing last night but it seems stupid to review a play that was CAUSED by a violation and ignore the violation.

The foul on Kidd was a glaring example. They reviewed it to see if his foot was on the line when he attempted the shot to see if he got 3 or 2 shots. The only reason his foot was on the line and he got 2 shots is that he TRAVELLED. It was late and obvious.

Its like reviewing a traffic camera to see if Joe was at fault for an accident and if he should be charged with reckless driving or not stopping for a stop sign. Then the tape shows that it was actually JANE that was driving! But you go ahead and charge Joe anyways.

The Chalmers 3 same thing. They reviewed it to see if the buzzer went but the shot shouldn't have mattered because of the backcourt. That one was especially bad because they can review if your foot touches the 3 line, if your foot touches the out of bounds but NOT if foot touches half court line?

As for the game its amazing how stagnant Miami's offense gets at times. I chalk it up to this being their first year together.

Two things people often forget about this team/series:
1.How many teams win a Championship with 4 new starters?
2. The Dallas Mavs have a 91 M payroll 2nd in the NBA. They will pay approx 20 M in luxury Tax. They will pay out 111 MILLION for players this year. The Heat have a 67 M payroll. The next time people whine about 3 stars coming together maybe they should think about the Mavs spending more than DOUBLE the salary cap trying to win a championship and see what's "fair"

[LittleOzzy]

I really feel for the Mavs, I wanted to see Dirk get a title but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

If they win the next two they have a slight chance, but I don't see that happening anymore.

[bakafool]

The Mavs have to pounce early and avoid early deficits.

[J-Roc]

It's amazing to think back to LeBron and his "decision" and how it could work out so soon. And basketball-wise, it wasn't supposed to. LeBron and Wade, both ballhogs. No real centre. No real point guard. The way they've built this team, it's not a blueprint for other teams. If you want to pair up two stars whose games are so alike, they need to be top-5 talents to win a championship in spite of everything.

[Dirk_diggler_41]

Two things people often forget about this team/series:
1.How many teams win a Championship with 4 new starters?

I don't know--how many teams have added the best player in the NBA in his prime via free agency along with one of the best power forwards in the game? How 'bout never. "Chemistry" is the biggest bull in sports.

[Too Late Crew]

Two things people often forget about this team/series:
1.How many teams win a Championship with 4 new starters?

I don't know--how many teams have added the best player in the NBA in his prime via free agency along with one of the best power forwards in the game? How 'bout never. "Chemistry" is the biggest bull in sports.

So it should be easy to throw out exa,ples of teams that added 4 new starters and won a championship if chemistry doesn't matter. We are all waiting.

[Southward1]

A couple of things...

Terry scares the crap out of me anytime he's on the court. He takes fast-break 15 foot jumpshots without somebody with him in transition. He takes those side corner 12-15 foot contested jumpshots, which are basically the toughest shots to take in the league. His defense is just terrible and it's all hands. He's a horrible rebounder and has no court-vision and passing game. If there's a reason the mavs haven't won in the since 2005 when he arrived...its him. He's just a streaky role-player scorer.

They believe in Barea a lot, but my god he's been terrible at everything. He's very panicky and isn't composed at all. He's not much of a shooter either, so even if dallas slows the game down with him out there he can't really do anything. He played 19 minutes and it was about 10 minutes too long.

Marion missed his token lay-ups and his defense was not good in the first half, but he turned it around in the second half. Kidd was fantastic defensively and was the only guy who could stop Wade during the game. Kidd really should've been given more minutes out there. He's not going to score (Which is a problem with Dallas), but he's been the 2nd or 3rd best player for the mavs in the 3 games.

Dallas is really starting to show their lack of scoring. It's Dirk and a bunch of ifs and maybes. I think they'll get to game 6, but that's all they'll get to. Not enough scoring. Caron Butler could help with that, but he's another if.

Lebron was never into this game at all and he still got 17/9/3. Wade was excellent, but a lot of his first half scoring was just awful decision-making from the mavericks. And Bosh was a disaster out there on both ends of the court. He was really lucky late in the game. He took 3 really long mid-range jumpers that hit but where terribly contested. He misses those 3 shots and he was 4/18 with 12 pts with not exactly great defense.

And I'm not a heat fan and I want Dallas to win, but the refs tried their all to give this game to Dallas.

[Fairview4Life]

Two things people often forget about this team/series:
1.How many teams win a Championship with 4 new starters?

I don't know--how many teams have added the best player in the NBA in his prime via free agency along with one of the best power forwards in the game? How 'bout never. "Chemistry" is the biggest bull in sports.

So it should be easy to throw out exa,ples of teams that added 4 new starters and won a championship if chemistry doesn't matter. We are all waiting.

It's still a stupid way to demand extra kudos for the Heat. He's saying no one has pulled in as much talent as the Heat in one off season. That was the difficult part. Not winning with 4 new starters.

[Indeed]

I really feel for the Mavs, I wanted to see Dirk get a title but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

If they win the next two they have a slight chance, but I don't see that happening anymore.

Same. They are not playing the Mavs style.
Three things they need to be on par with Heats:
1) Bench scoring / 3 point shootings.
2) Reduce turnover. This is hard, because Wade and LeBron are all over the place. Both their wingspan, leaping (rebounding/block shot) and man defense are too good that forces a lot of turnover.
3) Attack Bosh and make him the focal point.

[Gold Chain]

In my entire "career" of watching the Finals, I have never seen so many epic dunks!

You're lucky to see, maybe two, in an entire series, yet we're seeing 4-5 every half.

The pace of the Final is great as well.

There has never been one like this before.

[LLJ]

The Mavs have trouble with athletic teams. It will be hard for them to "jump" on teams with younger legs. Even the OKC series was tough for them--don't be deceived by the fact that they beat OKC in 5--they were down going into the 4th quarter for both games 4 and 5 and only won because of OKC's youth and Dirk brilliance. That happened once against Miami, but Miami's a tougher and more experienced team. They won't let that happen again.

[Bankai]

The Mavs have trouble with athletic teams. It will be hard for them to "jump" on teams with younger legs. Even the OKC series was tough for them--don't be deceived by the fact that they beat OKC in 5--they were down going into the 4th quarter for both games 4 and 5 and only won because of OKC's youth and Dirk brilliance. That happened once against Miami, but Miami's a tougher and more experienced team. They won't let that happen again.

Miami is the more athletic team, but I remember at one huge stretch, Dallas was constantly outrunning them on fast breaks. I just dont think it was much of an issue. The issue imo is that I said this before the Finals but the ECF had so much more better defense than the WCF, they were just another level of half court defense then the western teams. The fact that only Dirk has been consistently getting his shot off, means that the others are getting locked down. The guard play has been bad for the Mavs, they need an answer.

[Dirk_diggler_41]

Two things people often forget about this team/series:
1.How many teams win a Championship with 4 new starters?

I don't know--how many teams have added the best player in the NBA in his prime via free agency along with one of the best power forwards in the game? How 'bout never. "Chemistry" is the biggest bull in sports.

So it should be easy to throw out exa,ples of teams that added 4 new starters and won a championship if chemistry doesn't matter. We are all waiting.

Do your own damn research.

The research, however, would pointless because no other team has added a prime LeBron James and a prime Chris Bosh to their starting lineup that already had a prime Wade.

Imagine if a team replaced all five starters and won the championship? Impressive? Not if the new starters were Paul, Howard, James, Wade, and Nowitzki.

OMG they added four players! Yeah, one of whom happens to arguably be the most talented player in NBA history.