How we can beat the Heat

[ball teacher]

I havent seen any dialogue about what we could do to win this series, and I know by most accounts we dont seem to have a chance in Hell of winning it, but what should we be planning strategically to try and shock the world?

I think the strategy should be one that is not typical, a strategy that most teams dont take, that strategy is to not let Chalmers, Battier, or Ray Allen beat us, let Lebron be the one to beat us. Why do I say this?

Teams play into the Heats hands, they double and cheat off the shooters which is want Lebron wants. Teams are so afraid of him attacking that they leave his shooters open daring them to shoot and this strategy has only gotten them to the NBA finals 3 year in a row winning twice.

Mike Miller hit 6 or 7 threes in the finals series vs OKC, Battier had 5 or 6 threes in a few series games, Ray Allen hits big 3's, Chalmers, all these guys are only on the floor to shoot wide open shots, shots that Lebron really doesnt even wanna shoot, I say make him shoot, make him work and earn his chip, instead teams fall apart at the thought of facing Lebron and they plan poorly and play right into the Heats hands.

Offensively, Al has to be effective of course, this opens up the shooters who all have to shooting lights out. Hendo has to be physical with Wade who also bullies and intimidates other players. But if Al is effective, then that will open up for the shooters. Neal, Mcbob, CDR, Tolliver, they have to have great shooting, they have to step up since we are a perimeter shooting team.

Kemba is the X factor, he cannot be rattled, he has to be perfect in controlling the rock, not cracking under pressure, facilitating the offense, and more importantly we need him to be hot...all series long. If Kemba is hot and if Mcbob has a great shooting series we will cause these guys trouble because as good a defender Chalmers is, he isnt quick enough to hang with Kemba, but Kemba has to make shots at a high rate.

Mkg cannot let Lebron have easy shots, he cant have a clear look at the court to play point forward with no pressure, he needs to make Lebron work and stay out of foul trouble for whatever amount of time Cliff plays him. And when he gets a rebound, or if we get a break, he needs to run, make plays, let it all out, in the playoffs the men are seperated from the boys and I think MKG will impress.

In a nutshell, you could say we need everyone to be perfect on both ends of the court. But defensively, I would not fall into the Heats hands by letting others beat us. Lebron is the playmaker, he doesnt want to take the big shots, let's see if he can score 50 or 60 points all series against us. Stay on Battier, dont leave Bosh open for the 3 at the top of the key, or Rashard Lewis and Chalmers, shooting three's is what these guys do! If we feed off Kemba's, MKG's and Al's energy and dont punk out we can make this a interesting series.

[mrknowitall215]

The keys to beating the Heat to me is...

...keep the turnover rate very low, because they thrive off transition baskets

...don't fall in love with running the pick-and-roll offense. In fact, don't run it at all unless Greg Oden is on the floor. They are the best team at defending it with their versatile bigs

...don't get caught ball watching on defense when LeBron James has the ball. They are great at making sudden backdoor cuts & slashes to the rim, and LeBron is even better at finding them. Off-ball defense is key

...feed Al Jefferson in the post to test their interior defense. Eventually they will begin to send help via double & triple teams

...and last but not least, defend without fouling. Any Miami shot that is contested will have the referees ready to blow their whistle, so it's important not to get caught reaching in or trying to give subtle bumps. Just keep your hands up

[MasterIchiro]

Hopefully Clifford is as smart as you are but I worry about his rotations that leave Kemba naked. Kemba always has to carry McRoberts and Henderson and MKG. if MKG is going to be on the floor a bunch, Clifford has to play Neal more.

[BeesWax]

Hope they all catch Mono!

[mrknowitall215]

Hopefully Clifford is as smart as you are but I worry about his rotations that leave Kemba naked. Kemba always has to carry McRoberts and Henderson and MKG. if MKG is going to be on the floor a bunch, Clifford has to play Neal more.

You want to see more Neal with MKG, but I want to see more CDR with MKG. It has been our best wing lineup throughout the season by a wide margin. CDR provide the outside shooting while MKG deliver the ability to slash to the rim, and both of them have enough length not to give away a total size advantage

[MasterIchiro]

Hopefully Clifford is as smart as you are but I worry about his rotations that leave Kemba naked. Kemba always has to carry McRoberts and Henderson and MKG. if MKG is going to be on the floor a bunch, Clifford has to play Neal more.

You want to see more Neal with MKG, but I want to see more CDR with MKG. It has been our best wing lineup throughout the season by a wide margin. CDR provide the outside shooting while MKG deliver the ability to slash to the rim, and both of them have enough length not to give away a total size advantage

I'm OK with CDR. I just love Neal for his versatility and he really pulls defenders off other guys and opens the floor because he's so quick and a good ballhandler. Plus he's playoff tested. I like him alot for this series, but we'll see with Clifford if either of us gets our way.

[JDR720]

don't forget the fish sticks

[mrknowitall215]

Hopefully Clifford is as smart as you are but I worry about his rotations that leave Kemba naked. Kemba always has to carry McRoberts and Henderson and MKG. if MKG is going to be on the floor a bunch, Clifford has to play Neal more.

You want to see more Neal with MKG, but I want to see more CDR with MKG. It has been our best wing lineup throughout the season by a wide margin. CDR provide the outside shooting while MKG deliver the ability to slash to the rim, and both of them have enough length not to give away a total size advantage

I'm OK with CDR. I just love Neal for his versatility and he really pulls defenders off other guys and opens the floor because he's so quick and a good ballhandler. Plus he's playoff tested. I like him alot for this series, but we'll see with Clifford if either of us gets our way.

I think Neal will get plenty of minutes for his offensive repertoire. He's already been receiving a good share of Henderson's time if you ask me. The problem herein lies that MKG is usually the one getting shafted as CDR & Henderson close out games together even though they haven't necessarily been a good match

MKG is one of Charlotte's best rebounders, and if Miami has a weakness, it's 'rebounding'. Hopefully Clifford doesn't allow the Heat the opportunity to suffice that weakness by playing less superior rebounders during key moments. The last thing the Bobcats want to do is give the Heat second chance opportunities or lose the battle of getting to loose balls, and those intangibles are MKG's specialty

[Liver_Pooty]

Let MKG play LeBron 1 on 1. Lebron went 8-10 from 3 when he scored 61. Thats not going to happen. Im way more worried about Bosh

[JDR720]

Honestly im mostly worried with one (or more) of their role players going off, if its just the "big 3" scoring 20-25 apiece we can handle it if their role players are scoring 20-25 we got problems

[mrknowitall215]

Honestly im mostly worried with one (or more) of their role players going off, if its just the "big 3" scoring 20-25 a piece we can handle it if their role players are scoring 20-25 we got problems

You're correct that we don't want Miami's role players having big games, but I have to disagree about allowing the 'Big 3' to score 20-25 points a piece. Charlotte has to negate at least one of the 'Big 3' each game, and that's entirely possible. I find it wise to force the ball into their role players hands and make become the playmakers. I always find the Heat at their worst when Mario Chalmers and/or Ray Allen get forced into making decisions with the ball

[HornetJail]

Yeah I'm more worried about the smaller 14 rather than the Big 1.

Lebron can score 40 a night if he wants to, but if we can keep Wade, Bosh, Allen, and Chalmers in check long enough, we can put ourselves into this series. Lebron's going to be Lebron even if the All-Defensive 1st team is quintuple-teaming him. What we can't have is a repeat of the Magic series, where we actually managed to limit Howard, but in the process, allowed every other player on their team to make it rain all over us.

[Liver_Pooty]

Um this guy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvdJoT18nAs[/youtube]

I was in the stands when this occurred.

It still makes me sick to this day

[ball teacher]

It seems like you guys see it pretty much how I see this, which is don't let the role players be the guys to hurt us. These role players for the Heat have done nothing but hit big shot after big shot for 3 years but teams still allow these guys to shoot uncontested shots, that kills me.

I'd rather lose by Lebron going off for 40 plus points every night than by Battier or somebody hitting 6 open 3's against us. I think we have the defensive intensity to make these guys work for every shot. And this reminds me...

I want to see more Biz if Mcbob isn't scoring, I think Biz will be our best rim protector, I think he will not be afraid to challenge Lebron and Wade when they attack the rim, and they will attack since neither of them are perimeter shooters. Most teams are very afraid of Lebron and Wade and they let these guys do whatever they want around the rim, Biz wont have any of that. It may not happen, but I wanna see Biz and Jefferson playing together! Mcbob is not gonna rebound or deter or block any shots inside, and we know Jefferson provides little defense too, so Biz and Zeller need to play big, play mean and probably play often.

[fatlever]

not helping lebron and staying home on the shooters is exactly what i expect from clifford. if we can get lebron taking 3s and long 2s at the expense of driving to the rim or finding others for open shots, then we have done our job. if lebron goes insane and hits every jumper he makes, then you top your hat and say "well done" - just like when he went for 61.

[DY_nasty]

i just want a competitive game two and a win at home

maybe see the young guys step up and show something new

i'd like to see kemba not completely drown on the perimeter as well

but a series win? do you guys hear yourselves? why would you set yourselves up for heartache like that?

[catch20two]

but a series win? do you guys hear yourselves? why would you set yourselves up for heartache like that?

There's only one way to cheer for your team and that is to cheer for them to win. I know it's highly unlikely but I know it's not impossible. If a series of fortunate events happen like Lebron go into a shell, Wade get re-injured, and Bosh's jumper desert him at the right times anything can happen. Every dog has it's day and the Heat haven't been looking so hot to end the season.

[catch20two]

Hibbert's PnR defense is just as bad as Jefferson's. I hope Clifford and them watch tape on how the Pacers hid Hibbert off the PnR against the Heat so we can do the same with Jefferson to stay competitive defensively.

[DY_nasty]

but a series win? do you guys hear yourselves? why would you set yourselves up for heartache like that?

There's only one way to cheer for your team and that is to cheer for them to win. I know it's highly unlikely but I know it's not impossible. If a series of fortunate events happen like Lebron go into a shell, Wade get re-injured, and Bosh's jumper desert him at the right times anything can happen. Every dog has it's day and the Heat haven't been looking so hot to end the season.

We ain't at that point and that really only applies to college ball.

I mean - why not cheer for guys to get better? for our situation to get better? i'm not actively rooting for us to lose by any means but the things that I look forward to seeing from our team are realistic and achievable. Zeller making Bosh/Haslem/Andersen work on the defensive end. MKG making it a point to get his in transition more. Henderson (lol) stepping up as a consistent stop-gap scorer. Kemba being more assertive and not letting McBob run point for him. Cliff becoming more flexible. These are things that might not happen, but we'd all love to see. They're realistic and between now and next season, they're going to need to happen anyways. I want to see our guys play hard and not mentally fold like DeRozan did today.

There's more to this than Win=good/lose=bad. We're not sitting in OKC's situation - so why pretend that we are? If we win TWO games I'll pop bottles on trade st. I'm not gonna be pissed if we get swept and start with the "i wish ______ was dead" like some people do.

[JDR720]

This playoff series is just icing on the cake, we have had a great season, the vast majority of Cat' fans didn't think we'd be .500 let alone the 7th seed in the Playoffs