First Round Playoff Thread

[Badgerlander]

Please tell me that shirt is being sold somewhere.

yep
http://skreened.com/polkpanther/good-effort

this handsome T-shirt, designed and marketed by "PolkPanther" at the online retailer Skreened.com. Simple, plain, perfect.

The coolest thing about the shirt: All profits from its sales will reportedly be donated to the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, so hit Skreened.com if you want to help charity begin at your home, and maybe stick it to that special Heat fan in your life just a bit.

It seems like an especially sound strategy if you're a Boston backer; as the designer notes, "Don't forget Celtics fans, you can order it in green." Mass ordering and wearing of those would be light-years cooler than those Tim Donaghy masks, and it might actually help people. Total win-win, like your name was Giamatti.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball- ... 12228.html

[Newz]

Please tell me that shirt is being sold somewhere.

I'd buy it. That little kid is awesome.

[Bernman]

Wade is averaging 22 ppg at .523 TS for the series. Not up to his usual standards, but he's been far from invisible.

52.3, especially in the playoffs when teams give more effort on the defensive end, is hardly bad.

And Boston has the best defense in the NBA when they care. They finished 2nd in the NBA in D efficiency even though they mailed it in the first half of the season of course to save their legs. I think you can attribute Wade's struggles largely to the Celtics' D. In the Heat's 2 April games against the Celtics, Wade scored 15 points on 19 possessions used, and 20 on 23 used, en route to 2 decisive losses. Wade was a considerably less efficient player than he's even been against the C's in the playoffs. People who said the Heat would dictate this series were ignorant or biased, and now are just trying to save face acting like Wade and the Heat are beating themselves.

[BUCKnation]

I expect Lebron to drop a 50 spot in Boston. This is about Lebron vs Durant

Yeah, kinda hard to do that in 3 quarters.

[emunney]

So if OKC wins tonight, they'll have beaten the three franchises who've combined to win the last THIRTEEN Western Conference Finals.

[LUKE23]

So if OKC wins tonight, they'll have beaten the three franchises who've combined to win the last THIRTEEN Western Conference Finals.

That is flipping insane.

[Ike]

Wade is averaging 22 ppg at .523 TS for the series. Not up to his usual standards, but he's been far from invisible.

Are you sure about that ts%? It seems high seeing as he's only shooting 45% from the field, 30% from 3 and 73% from the line.

[EastSideBucksFan]

[Badgerlander]

http://teamcoco.com/video/nba-playoff-fashion
Conan on NBA Press Conference Fashions, lol

[emunney]

http://teamcoco.com/video/nba-playoff-fashion
Conan on NBA Press Conference Fashions, lol

Awesome.

[Bernman]

Wade is averaging 22 ppg at .523 TS for the series. Not up to his usual standards, but he's been far from invisible.

Are you sure about that ts%? It seems high seeing as he's only shooting 45% from the field, 30% from 3 and 73% from the line.

That doesn't seem particularly high to yield from those numbers (BTW, it's 46 from the field, and 77 from the line). Any 3's made are going to raise your ts% from your fg%, and same with free throws unless your percentage in that dept is lower than your fg %. The higher volume of free throws the better, unless you're Shaq, thus hack a Shaq.

[Newz]

In addition... 22 PPG on a 52.3% TS% for Wade is awful. Not because it'd be awful for most players, but because he's Dwyane Wade and he needs to be better than that if the Heat hope to win.

It's like saying Michael Jordan was playing well if he was putting up like 19/6/6 on a 52% TS%. Is that good for most players? Sure. But he's not a normal player, he's Michael **** Jordan.

[LUKE23]

Yes, but you can't expect regular season production in the playoffs. Defense is better.

[europa]

Once again I'll point out that Wade wasn't awful in the fourth quarter last night. He was 5-for-9 shooting (5-for-8 when the outcome was in doubt), 4-of-4 at the line with two assists. He also made some clutch plays late as I referred to earlier. When the game was on the line in Game 5, Wade showed up for the Heat, no doubt about that.

[Newz]

Yes, but you can't expect regular season production in the playoffs. Defense is better.

Wade's career TS% in the playoffs is 56.5%...

Can I expect him to do that? Or is Wade for some reason immune to criticism? Especially when he has been junk defensively as well.

[europa]

Chris Tomasson ‏@christomasson
If Heat loses Game 6, LeBron officially becomes 1st 3-time MVP without title ring Wilt/Moses both won 1st titles in seasons they got 3rd MVP

[LUKE23]

Boston is a damn good defensive team. I'm not saying he's played great, but he's been far from awful. And none of this really touches the primary point here, which is LeBron kind of shying away from offensive takeover responsibilities late in games. LeBron is the toughest guy on Earth to stop, not Wade. Why is he going 9 minutes between points in the 4th quarter of a close game in a 2-2 series? For a player of his talent, it's honestly inexcusable.

[europa]

I'm not saying he's played great, but he's been far from awful.

Wade sure as hell wasn't awful in the fourth quarter last night. Hard to find much fault, if any, with how he played and his approach on the court when the outcome was in doubt.

[Newz]

Boston is a damn good defensive team. I'm not saying he's played great, but he's been far from awful. And none of this really touches the primary point here, which is LeBron kind of shying away from offensive takeover responsibilities late in games. LeBron is the toughest guy on Earth to stop, not Wade. Why is he going 9 minutes between points in the 4th quarter of a close game in a 2-2 series? For a player of his talent, it's honestly inexcusable.

I'm not saying LeBron is without his faults. I feel like he should take over later in games more than he does. He has shown he has the ability to do so in the past in both the regular and post season.

I'm saying if the Heat lose this series it's on Wade. He's a top 5 player and he's not playing like it. LeBron is the MVP and he's playing like the MVP. Bosh being out a majority of the series also has something to do with it... as does the overall subpar play of the cast (they have been terrible from three).

Wade has also been abysmal defensively, which is being overlooked since you seem to want to focus on PPG/TS%.

To me, when people try to blame LeBron for his team losing while he's putting up 30/9/6 on 57% TS%... when the other "top 5 player" is putting up Monta Ellis like numbers, it shows that they have an agenda. That's not saying you can't point out obvious things LeBron lacks (such as not scoring very much in the fourth quarter of game 5)... but he's the best player on their team, he's played like it and he's overall done his part.

[europa]

Regarding Wade's defense: Wade's not always defending Rondo but NBA.com posted a stat today which said that when Wade is on the court Rondo's shooting 25% from the floor. So it's certainly not all bad defensively for the Heat when Wade is on the court.

I'm not sure how the entirety of the Heat losing the series (if they do) is on Wade when in Game 5 Wade played as well as he did in the fourth quarter. He was a stud for the Heat with the game and perhaps the series on the line. I'm not sure why that continues to be ignored in this discussion.