He's either finishing or pulling up for the mid range jumper and not getting hacked or bodied. I'ma leave before this turns into a ref, nba is rigged talk. (oh and if its rigged, we'd be seeing LA and MIA/NYK every year, and this years Finals will go 7 games.) Bye.
Shandel Richardson LeBron James needs just 29 more points this series to join Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan as the only players to score at least 700 in a single postseason.
James Harden or Ibaka better join the Durant and Westbrook show in game 5 or this series doesn't get to OKC. Those two guys are playing like dogs, and the lack of a third scorer is what's killing them. Also, Harden better rediscover his confidence. The sequence where he passed up a wide open 15 footer in the closing minutes was characteristic of a scared player.
I don't expect either guy to do that and I doubt WB can have another stellar game after just wearing himself out. OKC's goose is cooked. They played like a defeated team in the 3rd quarter last night. Expect more of that tomorrow at some point. Only WB's nuclear explosion kept it close (and actually gave them a chance to win).
As a basketball fan, I hope you are wrong, but I'm inclined to agree. Also, what does Nick Collison have to do to get extended minutes from Brooks? He had a great 1st quarter in game 4 and then he sat for a long stretch.
Although teams trailing 1-3 are 0-30, no team under the 2-3-2 format has won all 3 middle home games. This should go back to OKC after tonight. Remember even MJ Bulls didn't close teams out when up 3-1 with game 5 at home (Suns, Sonics, Jazz).
Thunder haven't played their best BBall this series. Tonight is they better show everything they've got.
I won't be surprised if Miami or OKC wins this. One is desperate to win it all and one is just desperate to survive. Good old competitive basketball.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/06/20/miami-heat-lebron-james-nba-finals/index.html?xid=cnnbin 4. This is not about officiating. If I hear one more person complain that officials are deciding this series, I'm going to scream so loud that somebody will give me my own TV show. Sure, Oklahoma City has been on the bad end of some calls. But so has Miami. In Game 4, Nick Collison got away with a blatant goaltend, and one of Kevin Durant's fouls went to a teammate. Miami is leading 3-1 because the Heat have made the plays at crucial times and played smarter. For the series, Miami has been whistled for 77 fouls and Oklahoma City has been whistled for 83. That is an admittedly rudimentary way of analyzing the officiating, but it's better than anecdotal complaints. And by the way, in the regular season, Oklahoma City committed 0.46 more fouls per game than its opponents, while the Heat committed 1.13 fewer. So the 1.5-foul per game disparity is in line with how these teams played all year. Also, in last year's Finals, Miami was called for 10 more fouls than Dallas. Was that a conspiracy because the league loves Mark Cuban so much?
