NBA FINALS

The moment everyone has been waiting for. And only one team will be immortalized. I’m so damn excited.

Homegirl did her thing with the National Anthem too. Good start to a series we’ve all been waiting a while to see

I thought Durant lost all his talent to that short white kid. I smell bs

 It’s SMALL BALL time people!

Looks like we have our first mismatch of the series in Ibaka vs. Battier. Shane is a good 3-point shooter and not inept on D like Matt Bonner in OKC vs. SAS. It seems to me like Ibaka looks pretty uncomfortable closing out on him on the perimeter. He likes to stay in the paint and block shots. This could be an advantage for MIA, helping them space the floor and open up driving lanes.

Also KD is pretty hot, making 2 treys already. Lebron had better attack KD’s relatively thin frame and play physical D if he doesn’t want him to go off.

Westbrick is killing them right now.

KD is off to a very good start.

This is not the Lebron from the last two games of the Celtics series…

 Crowed seems to be a little anxious and quiet so far.  

a little heat-friendly officiating so far…

I’ve heard enough of it, and both these teams have benefitted because of it.

On a side note, Heat are shooting a tremendous amount of jumpshots. I’m surprised they are going in. Then again, the Celtics defense was much harder on the Heat.

 I thought the opposite.  Thunder have been fouling on defense and not getting called.  It will even up as the game goes on though.  Not every call will go to Thunder, just like the Heat won’t keep holding the big advantage in making open shots and free throws.  Excellent start for Heat, out-executing Thunder and causing the Thunder some problems with their trapping.  Denying the ball from Durant well in the half court.  Durant had the hot shooting start, but he hasn’t been as involved as the Thunder would like, I’m sure.

 Right on cue Durant has that dunk.  

come on two calls with haslem going opposite and a "hand screen" by lebron resulting to a momentum three..just by remembering a few

Need to stop. He’s not passing like last years finals, but its looking like he doesn’t want to drive it in. 

The officials have done well the the only bad call was the offensive foul on Westbrook. Replays showed Westbrook in the air as Haslem was sliding over. Other wise it’s been entertaining.

is it me, or did that have FLY by…

 I like how LeBron had an excellent 1st half despite not getting his jump shot to fall.  That bodes well for Miami’s chances to win.  He is showing why he is the best player in the world.

wade is AWFUL

Not a huge fan of those kind of fouls. You get in front of a player trying to run back on offense and suddenly stop.  It’s not a basketball play whatsoever and there is nothing the other player can do about it.

Man the refs took that quarter over. Miami’s D was pretty bad to be fair though.

TOL I couldn’t agree more. It’s a ridiculous foul

 Miami is struggling with OKC’s length on defense.  This is compounded by them not moving the ball like they did in the 1st quarter, when they built their lead.  

The Heat also need to start getting stops so they can get out in transition if they want to win.  They clearly aren’t going to beat the Thunder if their offense devolves into a series of isos for Wade and LeBron without any prior ball movement or defensive switching forced.

Wade has got to have the record for superstar with the highest number of $hitty games

Kevin Durant is going OFF!!!!!!!!

I thought defense wins championships, and the Heat are easily the best defensive team the Thunder have met this season. But I’ll be damned if there is anyone that can stop Durant from scoring. 

Kevin Durant 11 4th quarter points…

LeBron James 2 4th quarter points…

Oops make that 13.

Lmao at the fool who said Durant could be held to 40% shooting.

who said that defense, they probably expected Lebron to be on him more than Battier. Durant gets the switch he wants so easily and the Heat don’t even flinch. Thunder are completely out playing them. 

Here’s why I think Durant is the best player in the world *despite* the fact I know LeBron can do some things better.

He’s an amazing shooter from everywhere and LeBron is probably just slightly above average… And that’s the difference.

Like Kobe would say… "It’s just that simple."

Russell Westbrook and Scotty Brooks are the MVPs of this game though.

Brooks made some serious adjustments because Ibaka and Perkins trying to defend Battier just wasn’t working.

But Westbrook has played his ass off. The flaws he has are obvious sometimes, but man… You have to love his aggressive attitude. He just won’t quit or back down.

Lebron has that puppy dog look again…not the look he was giving in Game 6 of the ECF…

Lebron is not built for fourth quarters

It’s impossible to win if you can’t get stops. Which Miami hasn’t in about 8 minutes.

 I keep getting hated on for saying this on the site. Durant is better than Lebron. And the best player in the NBA. 

 The haters will come out for LeBron, but Y2G is exactly right.  The Heat needed stops both to give themselves a chance and to get out in transition.  They just aren’t as a good a halfcourt offensive team as OKC by a wide margin.

Collison was great off the bench today.  He came up with so many hustle rebounds and put himself in good spots to get easy buckets.

How do you defend Kevin Durant? Like what is the scouting report? Playing him physical just doesn’t work as well anymore.

I guess the second thing would be to try to make him put the ball on the floor, but his ball handling has improved big time.

I just don’t know if there’s an answer for him. Just imagine when he adds a real post game. He’ll be Dirk Nowitzki with athleticism and handles.

One thing I will say, is I actually expected a blow out by the Thunder. But this game is convincing. Thunder out played the Heat. Whats more, is I notice the Thunder fight you for all four quarters. 

Lebron has that puppy dog look again…not the look he was giving in Game 6 of the ECF…

love it

 It is one game, it isn’t the series. Relax and calm down.

 Lebron can’t win when it counts never has been able to.  He can dominate the first three quarters but fails to in the fourth

IF not for nerves and the Heat shooting lights out in the first half, this probably would’ve been a blowout.

But if we’ve learned one thing this playoffs, it’s to not rush to anything after the first or second game.

 Wade is playing like Mo Williams throughout the playoffs.

hopefully someone throws big bucks at harden/ibaka over the next couple years to break this team up.

 Can’t wait till Thursday.  KD went beast mode.

Westbrook just may be the quickest penetrator in basketball. Not even Derrick Rose was getting into the teeth of the Heat’s defense like this. Westbrook was making that hedge look stupid and was just splitting it with ease in the 2nd half.

Thunder 24 fast break points… Heat just 4.

 So is Lebron still the best player in the NBA if he can’t win a ring ?

I forget the people names that said yes he is, while I was debating KD is a better player, and the best in the NBA.

 Somebody got outcoached and it wasn’t Scotty Brooks…

in the first half but luckily some thunder clouds rolled in later.

 KD will always bring it in every game, and he won’t buckle. I can’t say the same for Lebron.

 Very poor second half by Miami.  In the first half, it looked like Miami had found a little bit of an answer to all the Durant pin downs, but that changed in the second half.  I suppose OKC has been getting Durant the ball waaaay more in the 2nd half throughout the postseason, though, so I should have expected it.  

Miami just didn’t attack the basket hard or play with confidence in the second half.  LeBron respected Sefolosha a bit too much.  Several times on the secondary break LeBron had a chance to attack the rim with little help defense, but instead posted up far from the basket or swung the ball to a covered player.  Wade did better, but still, Miami settled too often in the 2nd half for jump shots late in the shot clock.  The Heat NEED to attack early in the shot clock or else the Thunder’s shot blockers will control the game.

I must admit, I was taken aback by how well the Thunder perimeter defenders played.  The Thunder did an outstanding job keeping ball handlers in front of them and didn’t gamble too often in the 2nd half.  They got steals and played aggressive, but not in a careless manner at all.  They didn’t reach in on dribblers too much. 

I think Miami got a little complacent after hitting all those jumpers early in the game.  Until it was already too late, Wade seemed to willing to settle for jumpers and LeBron passed out to the perimeter too often.  Bosh also needs to be more aggressive moving towards the hole, but I must credit the Thunder for really shutting down the Heat’s passing lanes into the post and towards Bosh as the roll man.  

Interesting to see the Thunder really relying on Durant and Westbrook.  Gone were all those Harden pick and rolls we saw in the Spurs series.  In the 1st half, the Heat really prevented Harden from turning the corner with their traps and they never had to pay for it as the Thunder bigs didn’t do much scoring and Harden was unable to pass quickly.  The Thunder didn’t go back to it much in the 2nd half, but I wonder what will happen the rest of the series.  They will need to diversify their offense to a certain extent, although talent does win out in the end.  Maybe Ibaka should slip the picks and the Thunder could run Durant or Westbrook to the elbow to take the pass from Harden and get it to Ibaka down low if Harden can’t pass it straight to Ibaka.  The Heat do rotate fast, though.  

Wow, Durant and Westbrook put on a show!

Westbrook started off terribly (Perhaps nerves) but took over the game along with Durant!  

Wade needs to stop playing like a scared school girl and be the help that LeBron needed.  Taking contested jump-shot after contested jump-shot isn’t going to get it done Dwyane, especially when your jump-shot hasn’t been dropping the last two years.

It’s scary to think that if the Thunder keep Harden and Ibaka, they’ll be title-contenders for the next 8-12 years.

That many yrs would be unreal but it could happen and all they’d need would be a Center and they’ll be in the WCF every year almost.

Wade, Bosh and other need to play well or else Miami won’t win.  Miami’s spacing was weak and they didn’t adjust really.