NBA Playoffs Thread

the third option? How the hell do you figure that? Bosh should have fouled him as soon as Dirk put it on the floor since they had one to give.

 

Piece of cake.

 

To me, Haslem should have been the man on Dirk and Anthony should have been the other big in the game, on Chandler.

Haslem rotated over as he should have, but Chandler hip checked him off course. Last night, I might have commented that it was a dirty play, but looking at the replay today, Chandler has the right to start positioning himself for a rebound there. Nothing wrong with what he did. But Haslem did get over to help, just not good enough.

 

Brian, my take is this: One of the cardinal rules in sports is don't let the other team's best player beat you. If you leave Jason Terry open for a 3 and he makes it, more power to him, but you absolutely, positively don't let Dirk Nowitzki beat single coverage for a nearly-uncontested layup.

In fairness, I didn't see a wide view of Miami's defense, so I didn't get a good look at what happened to Haslem, and I'm guessing LeBron didn't either. Nevertheless, in that situation, if I'm LeBron, I'm a lot more worried about Dirk than I am about Jason Terry.

 

If Riley was Heat coach last night, The Heat would not have lost that game. Last 5 minutes had to drive him crazy.

 

So, did Terry do the right thing by letting Mario Chalmers get open to tie the game? He did so to help Kidd contain Wade. Dirk cursed him out for it. Should Dirk have been saying "nice play, Jason?"

Look, the Mavs have two primary threats in Dirk and Terry. They chose to take Terry out with Lebron, meaning the rest of the team could concentrate defending Dirk directly or giving help. Of the five players on the floor, the one who should be the least relied on to help on that play is the one guarding Terry. If you wanted Lebron to help, then don't have him guarding Terry.

 

Just a historical note. Since the Finals went to the 2-3-2 format in 1985, this is the 12th time the opponents split the first two games. On the 11 previous occasions, including last year, the team that won Game Three won the series 11 times.
Yeah, it's a small sample size. But 1.000 is a statistically significant percentage as far as I'm concerned.

 

Of those, how many Game 3s were won by the road team?

 

I'd have to look it up, but since most of the series have been won by the team with the home court advantage, I'd say a good number. Last year for sure, the year the Lakers beat the Sixers, the first three Michael Jordan titles, the 1985 and 1988 Lakers. That's seven at least, and I think the '94 Rockets, too.

 

Scratch the '85 Lakers from that list. Had that backwards. Sorry.

 

Brian - comparing the decision to double wade and leave chalmers open and the last play is idiotic because wade didn't have the ball and wasbt driving to the hoop to win the game.

It is not a close comparison.

Situations - particularly at the end of a game - sometimes dictate that players make plays.

If you are telling me you think a 23 footer is more dangerous than a two-footer than you are clueless.

James needed to help there and force Terry to beat them

 

I actually think Spolestra is not a bad coach (he's done pretty well this year despite coaching guys who don't want to work very hard, cry after regular season losses, and were telling their posse members he should be fired after 20 games), but that game was not his finest hour. Even coming out of timeouts, they looked like shit during the fourth quarter. Like they had no plan.

Putting Bosh on Dirk wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't horrible. He should be athletic enough to guard him inside and outside. Haslem, I think, would have had a tougher time guarding Dirk if they ran a screen and pop for him to shoot a 3-pointer. What was idiotic was not clobbering him as soon as he began his move to the hoop (which they should have known would be left, since he loves to go left.) It would have forced Dallas to reset, and then they'd have had even less time to get him the ball to Dirk and isolate him on the left side. I don't think you can blame LeBron too much for not coming down hard at Dirk. He should have done it, obviously, but mainly what he needed to do was foul. Swipe down hard at the ball, and if you get all arm, so what? If Dirk somehow gets the ball off to Terry and he drills a wide open 3-pointer, I think he gets ripped just as much, and people probably say "But Haslem was going to help Bosh, so LeBron needed to stay on his man!" Well, Haslem couldn't get there. It was a pretty lay-up. Dirk just made a great play. They're dumb for not recognizing his tendency to go left, but that probably sums up this team well. Guys who are such good athletes they don't really care about studying film or picking up tendencies, at least not enough so they remember it when it counts. Or remembering that you should foul when you have a foul to give.

Almost as foolish, though, was having no plan after a make. I know it's chaos when a guy makes a game-winning lay-up and you have no time outs, but the Heat still had time for a much better shot. Wade basically shot a running 30-footer with 1.5 seconds left on the clock, begging to get a bailout foul. He definitely could have taken another dribble, squared up, and launched a regular three at the buzzer. LeBron also has one of the best arms in the league. How about run a quick double screen for Wade, have LeBron fling it 60 feet, and maybe get Wade a much better shot? It just seemed like they hadn't planned at all for the possibility of a made basket.

I don't know that I buy the whole "We got motivated by the celebration LeBron and Wade did after Wade's 3-pointer." (Although I did love Wade's absurd explanation that it wasn't a celebration because there was no champagne or parade.) But I do think the Heat were lazy all fourth quarter. Instead of driving to the hoop, they wanted to hit one 3-pointer and snuff out Dallas for good, then go pop some bottles somewhere. Coming out of one of those time outs, Spolestra should have demanded LeBron just freight train his way to the basket, and you know there would have been a call, even if LeBron initiated contact. Instead they decided to dribble around and jack up 3s.

I'm not buying Dallas just yet. But they're going to be tough in their own building.