11/24 - Miami Heat vs. Cleveland Cavaliers - 7.30 ET - Sun

[RatherUnique]

Feels like ages ago when they used to have that ridiculous statistic. I forgot what it was but it was like "Heat 0-x in games decided by 1 possession" or some **** like that. We used to be so unclutch, now we get it done when it matters most. I love it.

You certainly don't want that record to include teams like Cleveland, on the 2nd night of a back to back without Kyrie Irving. Playing down to the competition isn't encouraging.

I wish the big 3 would challenge themselves to have the luxury of sitting out the entire fourth quarter because they destroyed the opposition in the first 3 quarters.

[carbine23]

Again,the opposite team that makes a tons of threes ! Cavs with 14/31(45.2%).
This team won't learn that 3p>2p .
We have serious issues in th defence and this story that team will turn it around in the PO' doesn't convince me any more!

Lol you haven't seen Miami Heat Basketball then. That's how the HEAT Plays, year in, year out. Get used to it.

[This IsMy House]

Ohh didnt catch it. There's a fine line between dumb and sarcasm on a message board. Sometimes you really can't tell the difference.

Haha ya forgot the green font. Its just hilarious because so many trolls on the GB were saying look how he deferred hes scared of the moment, he isnt clutch, blah blah blah

[DWadeno3]

Feels like ages ago when they used to have that ridiculous statistic. I forgot what it was but it was like "Heat 0-x in games decided by 1 possession" or some **** like that. We used to be so unclutch, now we get it done when it matters most. I love it.

You certainly don't want that record to include teams like Cleveland, on the 2nd night of a back to back without Kyrie Irving. Playing down to the competition isn't encouraging.

I wish the big 3 would challenge themselves to have the luxury of sitting out the entire fourth quarter because they destroyed the opposition in the first 3 quarters.

The simple conclusion to draw from this is how ridiculous the notion of being "clutch" is. If Ray makes the two gamewinners, we're clutch, if he doesn't we are choke-artists. Sure, added chemistry helps, as evidecend by some of our gamewinners last season (especially the Wade-layup against Minnesota), but the fact of the matter is, it only comes down to 4-5 possessions to determine whether a player or a team is "clutch" or not.

We may be clutch now, but you could just as well criticize us for our inability to decide games against lottery teams earlier, as you pointed out. At the end of the day, all that matters is a win, whether you were particularly "clutch" or just flat out dominated the opposition.

[Heat fan06]

Good that we keep winning these close games but not what we need..time to blow teams like this out but hey when you are defending champs it doesn't happen like that

[This IsMy House]

Good that we keep winning these close games but not what we need..time to blow teams like this out but hey when you are defending champs it doesn't happen like that

It would happen if they didnt get so complacent with leads like they did with the Bucks. They need a nice solid blow out win and give LeBron some rest. I dont want him to get burned out.

[RexBoyWonder]

We have to stop kidding ourselves thinking that every team is just in the zone against us. Teams shoot and make a lot of threes against us because our defense has to collapse to stop dribble penetration when guys get beat off the dribble. It starts with keeping guys in front of us.

This.

[DWadeno3]

We have to stop kidding ourselves thinking that every team is just in the zone against us. Teams shoot and make a lot of threes against us because our defense has to collapse to stop dribble penetration when guys get beat off the dribble. It starts with keeping guys in front of us.

This.

This has never been the principle of our defense though. We wanna channel a guy towards the baseline, have a guy in the paint rotate over to trap him down low and force him into a bad pass. The problem is, nobody is really attacking the passing lanes or denying the guy they're guarding, which then leads to an easy pass to an open man. Sometimes, we also overplay the drive dramatically by having three guys attack the ball handler, which then pretty much results in an open three 90% of the time.

[diablerouge]

We have to stop kidding ourselves thinking that every team is just in the zone against us. Teams shoot and make a lot of threes against us because our defense has to collapse to stop dribble penetration when guys get beat off the dribble. It starts with keeping guys in front of us.

This.

This has never been the principle of our defense though. We wanna channel a guy towards the baseline, have a guy in the paint rotate over to trap him down low and force him into a bad pass. The problem is, nobody is really attacking the passing lanes or denying the guy they're guarding, which then leads to an easy pass to an open man. Sometimes, we also overplay the drive dramatically by having three guys attack the ball handler, which then pretty much results in an open three 90% of the time.

I consider channeling a guy into help defense keeping him in front of you. There was a sequence in the 3rd where I think LeBron channeled Alonzo Gee into Battier for a charge, that's good defense.

There's a MAJOR difference between that and guys just getting blow by, especially towards the middle of the floor. That happens very often and I've never seen a coach trying to give up middle on dribble drives.

[Heat fan06]

Good that we keep winning these close games but not what we need..time to blow teams like this out but hey when you are defending champs it doesn't happen like that

It would happen if they didnt get so complacent with leads like they did with the Bucks. They need a nice solid blow out win and give LeBron some rest. I dont want him to get burned out.

Yep they do like to frustrate us...

[DWadeno3]

I consider channeling a guy into help defense keeping him in front of you. There was a sequence in the 3rd where I think LeBron channeled Alonzo Gee into Battier for a charge, that's good defense.

There's a MAJOR difference between that and guys just getting blow by, especially towards the middle of the floor. That happens very often and I've never seen a coach trying to give up middle on dribble drives.

Well, in that case you're simply complaining about the lack of effort from our players. My point was simply that even if we do have the right energy defensively, it'll look like we allow drives towards the basket when in reality, we're purposely trying to force the ballhandler to dribble into a situation which is gonna cause him to take a bad shot/play a bad pass. Our defensive system is always gonna be vulnerable to three-point shooting, since this is the risk we take to cause more turnovers and pack the paint.

Other teams, who don't even want you to get too close to the zone and force too much help defense on their side, will want their players to just keep their men in front of them.

If you wanna complain about effort, you're gonna be in for a long season. Read my post you quoted and you'll see that this is really the issue at hand. I don't enjoy it either, but this team will coast defensively, no matter how much it pisses us fans off. They know they can turn it on at any time come playoff time and they've won a championship doing so, so there's not much we can do other than accept their occasional droughts throughout games.

I honestly don't see many unconsteted line-drives to the basket, as our help defense in the paint is pretty solid. Most of the points in the paint come from big guys receiving the ball on a pick and roll, then forcing a third guy to help which then leads to a dunk/layup by the open player.

[narmerguy]

I consider channeling a guy into help defense keeping him in front of you. There was a sequence in the 3rd where I think LeBron channeled Alonzo Gee into Battier for a charge, that's good defense.

There's a MAJOR difference between that and guys just getting blow by, especially towards the middle of the floor. That happens very often and I've never seen a coach trying to give up middle on dribble drives.

Well, in that case you're simply complaining about the lack of effort from our players. My point was simply that even if we do have the right energy defensively, it'll look like we allow drives towards the basket when in reality, we're purposely trying to force the ballhandler to dribble into a situation which is gonna cause him to take a bad shot/play a bad pass. Our defensive system is always gonna be vulnerable to three-point shooting, since this is the risk we take to cause more turnovers and pack the paint.

Other teams, who don't even want you to get too close to the zone and force too much help defense on their side, will want their players to just keep their men in front of them.

If you wanna complain about effort, you're gonna be in for a long season. Read my post you quoted and you'll see that this is really the issue at hand. I don't enjoy it either, but this team will coast defensively, no matter how much it pisses us fans off. They think they can turn it on at any time come playoff time and they've won a championship doing so, so there's not much we can do other than accept their occasional droughts throughout games.

I honestly don't see many unconsteted line-drives to the basket, as our help defense in the paint is pretty solid. Most of the points in the paint come from big guys receiving the ball on a pick and roll, then forcing a third guy to help which then leads to a dunk/layup by the open player.

Fixed that for you. There's a lot of past champions that blow off the regular season and decide they'll turn it on when it matters. The Lakers were a great example, everyone in LA land always complained about their approach to regular season games (especially guys like Odom) but at the same time, everyone still felt confident in them because they knew, or thought, they'd just turn it on when it mattered most.

Hubris is a dangerous thing, and deciding you don't have to give effort for the regular season and only have to try in the playoffs is a dangerous approach and certainly not the kind that you see in the champions that have gone on to win multiple titles.

Thankfully they don't care what any of us think so either they'll figure it out or they won't, we have no control either way.

[DWadeno3]

Fixed that for you. There's a lot of past champions that blow off the regular season and decide they'll turn it on when it matters. The Lakers were a great example, everyone in LA land always complained about their approach to regular season games (especially guys like Odom) but at the same time, everyone still felt confident in them because they knew, or thought, they'd just turn it on when it mattered most.

Hubris is a dangerous thing, and deciding you don't have to give effort for the regular season and only have to try in the playoffs is a dangerous approach and certainly not the kind that you see in the champions that have gone on to win multiple titles.

Thankfully they don't care what any of us think so either they'll figure it out or they won't, we have no control either way.

I agree and that's not what I meant. The championship is just the proof to them that this is possible. I wish we'd have a slightly different approach to the regular season, but as you said, there's no point in letting it frustrate us. All we can do is turn the TV/computer off.

[Slot Machine]

There's really not even one specific thing you can blame. The defense just looks very bad for a variety of reasons. For example, a couple of the specific mistakes I noticed yesterday:
-Wade cheating too far off a 3 point shooter(believe this also happened when he fouled a 3 point shooter)
-LeBron switched onto a PF and missed the rotation in the paint which led to a wide open layup
-Bosh missing rotations or being a step late
-Ray getting either caught up in screens or going too far under them

Numerous other examples too, the main problem is effort though. Wade can cheat off as far as he is, thing is he has to full out sprint to close out. The rotations will be learned or are just mental mistakes. Ray isn't fighting through screens hard enough.

That's why I'm not overly concerned yet, because the majority of these mistakes come from a lack of effort or lack of practice, which will be fixed.

[King_John]

Feels like ages ago when they used to have that ridiculous statistic. I forgot what it was but it was like "Heat 0-x in games decided by 1 possession" or some **** like that. We used to be so unclutch, now we get it done when it matters most. I love it.

You certainly don't want that record to include teams like Cleveland, on the 2nd night of a back to back without Kyrie Irving. Playing down to the competition isn't encouraging.

I wish the big 3 would challenge themselves to have the luxury of sitting out the entire fourth quarter because they destroyed the opposition in the first 3 quarters.

The simple conclusion to draw from this is how ridiculous the notion of being "clutch" is. If Ray makes the two gamewinners, we're clutch, if he doesn't we are choke-artists. Sure, added chemistry helps, as evidecend by some of our gamewinners last season (especially the Wade-layup against Minnesota), but the fact of the matter is, it only comes down to 4-5 possessions to determine whether a player or a team is "clutch" or not.

We may be clutch now, but you could just as well criticize us for our inability to decide games against lottery teams earlier, as you pointed out. At the end of the day, all that matters is a win, whether you were particularly "clutch" or just flat out dominated the opposition.

Well thats the point of being clutch or not lol

[DWadeno3]

The simple conclusion to draw from this is how ridiculous the notion of being "clutch" is. If Ray makes the two gamewinners, we're clutch, if he doesn't we are choke-artists. Sure, added chemistry helps, as evidecend by some of our gamewinners last season (especially the Wade-layup against Minnesota), but the fact of the matter is, it only comes down to 4-5 possessions to determine whether a player or a team is "clutch" or not.

We may be clutch now, but you could just as well criticize us for our inability to decide games against lottery teams earlier, as you pointed out. At the end of the day, all that matters is a win, whether you were particularly "clutch" or just flat out dominated the opposition.

Well thats the point of being clutch or not lol

Nice reading comprehension fail, as the sentence you quoted was an explanation to the previous one. I don't actually believe in the terminology "clutch" because it comes down to a few shots. You'll always make some and miss some. Just because you happened to make more one year and less the other doesn't determine how well you perform at a certain point in a game. I laughed my ass off last year when Kobe shot 3/21, I think, against the Hornets but hit a three towards the end of the game. "He has an off night, but he's still clutch". Well guess what, if you keep shooting, you're bound to make a shot at some point. It's not a special quality.

What is a special quality, however, is to make the right play at the right time. That's what basketball is all about.

[420]

You can't expect championship-caliber defense in November.