The heats issues in this series are pretty much exclusively on defense. Theyve been scoring plenty efficiently, an efg% of 56 percent which is right in line with their regular season which broke a record. It is indeed somewhat inflated by lebrons off the charts 69%, but theyre down in this series because they cant get stops. The spurs are putting up numbers ive never seen. An o rating of 122. An efg% of 61. Shooting 47 percent from downtown on record breaking volume to boot.
miami has never had rim protection defensively and at this point are no longer athletic enough on the perimeter to compensate. This is an old team. The spurs are forcing them to rotate a ton with their ball movement and the defensive rotations are always two steps late leading to open looks. They dont cover the ground they used to and its bleeding great looks all over the place
The spurs are just playing great. Miami cannot catch a break for a defensive lapse because the spurs make them pay every time. Theyve hit plenty of tough contested looks too. They are the better team, but theyre also absolutely playing to their ceiling too. You really cant execute any better. This has been a clinic
Who actually still gives miami a shot? I absolutely dont see it, would love nothing more than to be wrong. If they can somehow win game 5 which I just dont see at all, things suddenly get interesting and pressure builds on the spurs. Miami has been awesome when facing elimination in the past, but theyve never been in this deep a hole vs this good a team
Who actually still gives miami a shot? I absolutely dont see it, would love nothing more than to be wrong. If they can somehow win game 5 which I just dont see at all, things suddenly get interesting and pressure builds on the spurs. Miami has been awesome when facing elimination in the past, but theyve never been in this deep a hole vs this good a team
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Spurs in 5
AnotherGiantsFan : 6/5/2014 9:18 pm : link : reply
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they have the higher A game and they have the best player in the series. The Spurs tend to be a team that looks beautiful when they're on but limited when they're off. 3-1 is a huge hole and I'm not giving Miami a large % chance, but I think they have a 20% chance of coming back from this.
But I did vaguely hear something about lebrons ankle needing treatment after the game. As if the odds werent already real low. Dont know if its a huge deal though
I give miami about a 5 percent chance. If they somehow ever got game 5 id probably bump that to about 30 percent
20% is too high. After two straight drubbings, a Heat win would indicate that they figured out a way to counter what the Spurs are doing since putting Diaw in the starting lineup (whether cause or coincidence, I don't know). As such, that would improve Miami's odds dramatically going forward. But as of now, it appears that the Heat have no answers for stopping this Spurs offense. They have too many guys who can hit wide open shots on the perimeter and so it's not leading to many fast break opportunities or transition basketball where Miami usually thrives.
has been the best player in the series, but I wouldnt even consider giving him a MVP for the series, espercially if the Spurs win in 5. Those two games were just flat out blowouts, at home nonetheless.
I would give it to Leonard right now, with Diaw a close 2nd. Duncan would be probably be around 4th. He has rebounded well (what big doesnt against the Spurs?) but offensively, he has been meh for 3 games now.
You are right that the defense is the bigger problem but their team offensive efficiency is down from 110.9 in the regular season to 106.6 in this series. In any case LeBron can't make up for his team aging and getting outplayed on defense by himself as much as he can on offense. They're going to have to win some shoot outs and I think LeBron is going to have to take more shots for that to happen.
In fairness I didn't realize SA was as good as they were
Defensively during the regular season. They were the 3rd best defense, so it's to be expected that Miami's offense would drop off.
One thing about the heat I don't get is why they can't use Bosh more effectively. He was an elite offensive player in Toronto, and I don't think he was an empty stats kind of guy. Scoring wise he was basically a prime KG level player. With Wade fading, he should be the clear cut #2 guy and putting up 20 PPG. Is it just him playing out of position at center? Does his game not pair well with LeBron's (certainly should fit better than Wade, no?).
San antonio is being led in scoring by tony parker. Led in rebounding by tim duncan. Led in assists by boris diaw. Led in fg% (min 7 attempts per game) by kawhi leonard. Led in steals and threes made by danny green. Led in plus minus ratio by manu ginobili
lebron leads the heat in every categorie listed
chris, you also have to account for the fact that san antonio has better than league average defense, so playing to their regular season o rating against them would require an above ordinary effort. Obviously it is possible for them to play better offensively though, im just saying theyre getting beat defensively
I would have a problem giving him mvp too, letme be clear. Im just saying this is one of the most deserving cases for a guy on a losing team that we have ever seen. This is the 26th finals I recall consciously watching, and I can never recall a player being so definitively the best player on the floor and still winding up on the losing end. Without doing a ton of research and just going off memory, 04 shaq is the only real comparison. And his team lost in 5. Chauncey billups walked off with an mvp but shaq was hands down the best player in that series
I would have a problem giving him mvp too, letme be clear. Im just saying this is one of the most deserving cases for a guy on a losing team that we have ever seen. This is the 26th finals I recall consciously watching, and I can never recall a player being so definitively the best player on the floor and still winding up on the losing end. Without doing a ton of research and just going off memory, 04 shaq is the only real comparison. And his team lost in 5. Chauncey billups walked off with an mvp but shaq was hands down the best player in that series
Shaq in the 94 playoffs was pretty awesome too, but they got swept. Hakeem was clearly the MVP, but he didnt come close to stopping Shaq either.
San antonio is being led in scoring by tony parker. Led in rebounding by tim duncan. Led in assists by boris diaw. Led in fg% (min 7 attempts per game) by kawhi leonard. Led in steals and threes made by danny green. Led in plus minus ratio by manu ginobili
lebron leads the heat in every categorie listed
That is a fantastic summation. Thanks for sharing.
Miami on the brink of elimination. LeBron is one of the greatest elimination game players in history, I wonder if he can pull out another legendary performance at the right time.
But it'll take more than LeBron and the Big 3. The Heat role players have been slaughtered by the Spurs role players in this series, those other Heat players need to step up.
miami has never had rim protection defensively and at this point are no longer athletic enough on the perimeter to compensate. This is an old team. The spurs are forcing them to rotate a ton with their ball movement and the defensive rotations are always two steps late leading to open looks. They dont cover the ground they used to and its bleeding great looks all over the place
AnotherGiantsFan : 6/5/2014 9:18 pm : link : reply
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I give miami about a 5 percent chance. If they somehow ever got game 5 id probably bump that to about 30 percent
I would give it to Leonard right now, with Diaw a close 2nd. Duncan would be probably be around 4th. He has rebounded well (what big doesnt against the Spurs?) but offensively, he has been meh for 3 games now.
One thing about the heat I don't get is why they can't use Bosh more effectively. He was an elite offensive player in Toronto, and I don't think he was an empty stats kind of guy. Scoring wise he was basically a prime KG level player. With Wade fading, he should be the clear cut #2 guy and putting up 20 PPG. Is it just him playing out of position at center? Does his game not pair well with LeBron's (certainly should fit better than Wade, no?).
lebron leads the heat in every categorie listed
chris, you also have to account for the fact that san antonio has better than league average defense, so playing to their regular season o rating against them would require an above ordinary effort. Obviously it is possible for them to play better offensively though, im just saying theyre getting beat defensively
Shaq in the 94 playoffs was pretty awesome too, but they got swept. Hakeem was clearly the MVP, but he didnt come close to stopping Shaq either.
lebron leads the heat in every categorie listed
That is a fantastic summation. Thanks for sharing.
But it'll take more than LeBron and the Big 3. The Heat role players have been slaughtered by the Spurs role players in this series, those other Heat players need to step up.