With all the harsh criticism on LeBron, while promoting Wade to God-Mode, people quickly forgot how poorly Wade played in the conference finals. Without LeBron getting it done at both ends in ECF, they wouldn't have been here. Certainly, some of you guys wouldn't even have got the chance to argue how this is Wade's team. That's just the luxury Heat has - their big guns CAN have off-nights, as long as they are not all off, which is very unlikely. It also comes down to match-ups. Stevenson did his best job he could to defend LeBron, while nobody could guard Wade. Yes, Wade played way more aggressively, and he's more concentrated. Still, the match-up favors him and he doesn't need to worry about the defensive end. He could lurking around to try with steals and blocks. Give Dirk credit. He played big in the fourth quarter with high fever. Is there anyone saying he's soft or unclutch anymore?
Anything is possible and you have to play the game, but predicting the Heat to win game 6 in a blowout if they lose game 5 is totally illogical. But to each his own. If the Mavs win Thursday, the last thing in the world that would happen in game 6 is a Heat blowout. If you are saying David Stern would cause it, whatever.
I agree 100% and have been promoting that view all series long. Clearly the regular season and first three rounds showed who was the best player on this team, and even in the first three games of the Finals it's not like LeBron was playing badly-- he was just deferring to the hot hand. But tonight it's like he wasn't even trying. Something fishy is going on, either an injury or team chemistry problem. The latter is unfathomable at this stage of the season, but who knows...
appaerently the key to this series is for dwyane wade to not shoot 13-20. in both losses, he has shot exactly 13-20. when he smartly went 12-21 in game 3 they were able to win. he's having a 2006 ECF like performance in terms of shooting. 47-80 so far in 4 games, 58.8%. it's like there only so much mojo in the miami heat world and only one of lebron or wade is allowed to have it. lebron stole it all against chicago and wade has stolen it all against dallas. it would be nice it they both actually played well in a game for once. maybe even in say, game 5. how about that guys? you wanna not embarrass yourselves by not losing this series by blowing big 4th quarter leads like it's nothing. probably not. it was only his first finals when he was 21, but kobe did have 2 single digit scoring games against the pacers, including a ghastly 4-20 shooting performance. amazingly, lebron is still shooting better in these finals than all but one of kobe's 7 finals appearances (the gimme sweep against the nets).
Yeah, but that speaks more about how ****ty Kobe is in the Finals than about anything LeBron is doing well.
Skip & the smaller live-stu will now use this as an excuse to hate on LeBron. Jay will ask them if 8 points lends credibility to that CBS reporter's question about "shrinking" in the big moments, & only the big live-stu will have LeBron's back!
Tyson Chandler was huge with his control of the boards. Him and Dirk gobbling up the boards. Dirk channeling his inner MJ--who'd ever forget MJ's epic playoff win when he played with a fever? Just shows all this talk about Lebron better than MJ is just rubbish.
The replay to me looked like he was still in the Mavs court when he tipped the ball and eventually got possession while in the back court. I wish I could find a replay of it to make sure.
I am mildly surprised that Dwyane held his tongue. But, of course, he's in front of the press and next to his BFF as usual. I think he'll go off behind closed doors. John Hollinger: [sarcasm]Guess DeShawn Stevenson was right. LeBron is overrated.[/sarcasm]
I don't understand the point of the question. Perkins went down in the first quarter and the Celts gave up shortly thereafter. Game was over in the 1st half. What does that have to do with anything?
Who would you put your hard-earned money on to close this series? You're kidding yourself if you say the Mavs.
