I am not saying Miami is the superior rebounding team. But Dallas shot inferior to SA and Phx both from the field and the 3 point line--and it is rare that teams advance when this happens. The most central reason why Dallas advanced despite doing a worse job stopping their opponents than their opponents did to them was because of a major rebounding edge. Unfortunately for SA they got nothing from Horry or Nazr--key players in their run last year--and thus they had to play a lot extra small. Now Mia has been one of the best rebouding teams in the regular season and the best in the East in the playoffs, so what I am saying this major, life saving (previous 2 series), edge Dallas has been used to is minimal if not gone. It is the other way around. Dallas has to make up points they are going to lose in half court sets (their set offense versus Miami and visa versa), just like they had to do versus Phx and SA. Dallas is going to need some combinations of major edge in FT%, rebouding and turnovers to make up what they will lose in set offense and set defense efficiency. Rebouding, unlike versus SA (b/c they went small) and Phx (because they ARE small), which was their biggest edge, is now gone. That means Dallas has to make a ton of points up at the line (they do have a big edge in FT%, sure) and turnovers. It will be awefully hard to win 4 games this way. Whether or not they are a great half court execution team or not, no one has keeped Miami from having an efficient offense for 2 years when they have had Wade and Shaq healthy. This includes the two time EC champ Det team built on defense (including last year when they had defensive guru LB--who ackwoledged it is close to impossible to handle Wade and Shaq). Miami is shooting 49% in the playoffs also, and this includes playing against three above average defenses. If Detroit (for the last two years, with LB and Flip), Chicago, and NJN haven't been able to exploit "fundamental flaws" in Miami's offense, I sure don't think Dallas will. If you ask me whether to take my chances with open shots by Walker, Haslem, Posey, Payton and Jason Williams versus hand in their face shots by Dirk, Terry, Howard, Stack, Harris, Griffin, Daniels (who I figure they will try the latter two offensive liabilities on Wade), yes I take the Miami situation. Note, Walker is shooting the most efficiently he has in 4 years, Jason Wiliams in 8 years--his whole career, and Posey is shooting 3s the best in his career, this is not a coicidence. You want to take your chances with them having wide open shots all the power to you Also, Dallas shooters really are not that great except for Dirk, Terry and Howard (why the Suns and Spurs shot better than Dallas), and Miami is not going to leave those three guys open, they don't have to. Dirk is the only Mav Miami will occasionally have to double, and I think Miami can even be selective on when they double him. However unless JH and Diop play out of their minds defensively, the Mavs will consistent have to double Wade as well as Shaq. Since a range of players from Prince to Rip to Hunter to Carter to Jefferson to Gordon to Hinrich couldn't handly Wade 1 on 1, I am skeptical about JH even though I admit his rare combination of quickness and length. If he had Bruce Bowen's reputation (help with calls), his savvy to along with dirty tricks, and his mindset, that would help, but he doesn't. To tell you the truth I am skeptical Bowen can handle Wade, and he is the best shot from a pure defense point of view. Likewise given Duncan averaged over 30 and got pretty much any shot he wanted, not a good sign they have the make-up to make Shaq the least bit uncomfortable either. I think if Dallas can split the 1st two they are in the game and can feel happy. Because then they can try to win 1 of 3 in Miami and bring it back to Dallas where perhaps over a long series Shaq or Wade gets worn down. I agree if Miami loses the 1st two they have a remote chance to win the series, I don't think at all they will lose 2, they may not even lose 1 of the 1st two. IMO home court is overated when you are talking about very good, well rounded, clubs. Dallas won 2 times in SA and two other games were toss ups, SA won once in Dallas and the other two were toss ups. Last year SA and Det each won on their opponents floor. The key thing is wins and loses, not where you win them. If a team gets up two: be it 2-0 or 3-1, it is going to be very hard for the other team to win to win three strait or 4/5 (barring a significant player getting injured or suspended).
I don't think homecourt is overrated, especially if Dick Bavetta has anything to say about it. Look for the Mavs to double up Miami on FT attempts when they play in Dallas. Also look for Shaq to be in a lot of foul trouble because the invisible center-court sniper shot Dirk through the heart and sent him flying 8 feet in the air.
i actually picked miami to win but i think you are slanting things waaaayyyyyyyyy toward miami to insist their playoff run has been superior. they are 12-5 vs teams that went 154-92 in the eastern conference. dallas is 12-5 vs teams that went 166-80 in the western conference. i don't even see how it can be argued who faced the tougher opponents. you mentioned dallas taking 6 games to beat phoenix as a mark against them, yet it took miami 6 to beat chicago. and chicago is not in the same universe as phoenix when it comes to talent. it's a 54 win team versus a 41 win team. as hot as chicago finished, that's how hot guys like bell, thomas, and diaw got in the playoffs. you talk about dallas struggling to beat the spurs as if this is bad. they were the 63-19 defending nba champions with homecourt advantage. and tim duncan was finally healthy (the fact they got those 63 wins with him hobbled speaks to how good they are). and dallas ended up beating them, with game 7 in san antonio. contrast that to miami against detroit, their best team they beat. you talk of san antonio actually not being that good b/c they struggled with the kings (which is dubious, because even in san antonio's title runs, they let numerous series go 6 games against inferior teams; there was never any real threat sactown would win the series) and then say detroit couldn't be that horrible b/c they beat the cavs and took 2 from the heat. first off, you can't say the heat are good for beating detroit and detroit is good b/c they took 2 from the heat. that's circular logic (or some sort of flaw). detroit struggled far more mightily to take down the cavs, who won 50 in the east to sacramento's 44 in the west, and that's before we consider sacramento's better record with the team they actually brought to the playoffs, the one with artest. i'd say they were nearly equal teams and san antonio wasn't clinging to life against sacramento. and lebron being unstoppable wasn't why detroit barely won. cleveland averaged 77.8 ppg the last 5 games of the series, and even if you take out game 5 it was 82 ppg in games 3-6, and 82 ppg in the 3 wins. it was b/c detroit's offense imploded so amazingly it defies explanation. they averaged 79.2 ppg in the last 5 games of the series. 79.2!!!! that's so bad it might even make jeff van gundy take notice. ok, not really, jeff would just say we need to play better defense, but the point is 79 ppg is atrocious. and cleveland doesn't even play any defense. it's mind-boggling they could score only 79 ppg over a 5 game stretch against that team. detroit went on to score 84.7 ppg against miami, who's D you have been touting. now i won't deny miami plays pretty good D, but holding detroit to 84.7 ppg wasn't exactly tough the way they were playing. if detroit had just had one bad game at the end of the cleveland series, that would be one thing. but detroit imploded for 5 full games and continued it right into the next series. if taking 6 games to beat phoenix is held against dallas, shouldn't taking 6 to beat a detroit team that couldn't shoot straight against the mighty cavs D be held against miami. but new jersey has almost no outside shooting, which plays perfectly into miami's hand. they also have no inside presence, not even a dampier or diop, which also helps miami. their best bet was to run a lot and beat miami. dallas doesn't need that. they play halfcourt just fine. and i don't get this quote: then how did they win 60 games, and beat teams with an average of 55 wins, including the defending champs on the road, on their way to the finals? it can't just be a fluke. you make it sound like miami has been this juggernaut in the playoffs taking down solid to great teams, while dallas has just been getting by, despite the fact they have the same playoff record and dallas has faced teams that had better records (in a better conference) to get that record. and dallas waxed miami in the regular season. i know this isn't the same miami team and it doesn't mean that much, but they beat them by 25 ppg. and while shaq didn't play one game, in the game he did play it was a 36 point blowout. dallas doesn't appear to be completely overmatched. like i said, i'm picking miamibut maybe that's just because i hate them more and i'm used to being disappointed when it comes to the winners of the nba title. if i were completely impartial, and was looking at everything that has happened this year and the rosters, i'd call it pretty even and maybe give dallas the slight edge. either way, i just see no way to say miami has the more impressive resume at the moment.
Can we merge these two threads? I will be in Miami next week till Sunday evening so I am praying that the Heat sweep cuz I got a feeling Miami can throw one hell of a championship party!!!
Let me clarify, my position is not so much that Miami's competition has been that much better collectively (though I think it is equal for how those teams were playing), but IMO Miami has been much more impressive. Particularly as you look later in the playoffs. And IMO you have to focus on later, because Miami is in a bit of a unique situation in that they kind of low-balled a lot this year to try to get in peak health and form in the playoffs (also why the reg season games mean nothing), and it looks like they have achieved it since game 4 versus Chi. Miami just went 8 and 3 versus Det and NJ, very potent teams. Miami statistically has been dominant, scoring efficiently and holding down opponents' efficiency pretty well. In fact they have won 10 of 13, and as each series went on they kicked it up a gear and dominated even more. Dallas over the last 10 games is 5-5, their best stretch against reasonable playoff competition is 8-5. They also have had significant defecits or were even in most all of the games through 3rd quarters, the only game they really only controlled throughout was Game 2 versus SA. Overall they are shooting worse than their opponents, but mostly made up for it on the boards. The board edge they lived off versus SA and Phx is all but gone. IMO beating Detroit 4-2 and the way they beat them, is certainly more impressive than beating SA 4-3 with 3 of Dallas wins being toss ups and where SA actually shot a higher %. Det was by far the best team this year, the two time defending EC champs, and Miami not just beat but handled them. I simply brought up the 2 Sac losses by SA because folks were discrediting Det simply because they lost the middle 3 game of their Cleve series--if you are going to knock Det for not playing great before their knockout series you have to do the same with SA. Nobody has handled Det in 3 years on both ends of the court the way Miami did, that is a fact. Dallas certainly didn't beat SA by taking out there scorers or even SA's offense, Dallas had to hold on for dear life once SA went back to controlled, half-court, basketball. Dallas is an excellent team. But IMO it was basically was a toss up of who advanced when they played SA. Also, where as Miami has a big edge in efficiency differential (offensive versus defensive), Dallas was actually on the negative side versus Phx and SA and had to make it up other ways (ORBs, FT taken and %, TOs). So in terms of efficiency in the playoffs the Heat have the #3 offense (hair behind SA and LAC) and the #1 defense, the Mavs the #6 offense and #12 defense. So maybe the Heat are not a juggernaut, but they have the best combination of O/D going in this year's playoffs and Dallas must make up for that in lots of other ways (tempo, TOs, FTs, ORBs). I don't see Miami falling into a tempo trap and they will win the half court battles.
Is there a better shot-blocking guard in the league than Wade? There is no player I enjoy watching more than this kid, what a terrific player! Miami is very, very efficient, that's one thing I believe they have an advantage over Dallas at. Dallas has better shooters, but Miami is the most efficient team in the league on BOTH ends of the floor.
Agreed. I had goosebumps all over watching those great moments/plays in NBA history...man I miss those guys! But, I have no doubt that we're on the verge of another great era of NBA basketball, you can't go wrong with talents like Wade, Lebron, Kobe, AI, Yao, Amare, T-Mac, Bosh, Duncan, among others. EDIT: a GREAT quarter by the Heat! Damn they're efficient!
i wasn watching basketball and durin timeout break, i switched channel and found something in Auckland, New Zealand, about dinosaur alive..is that real? http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...663988507207571
^your dinosaur link isnt working looks like the refs are keeping the mavs in it by giving them all the calls and giving the heat none, especially d wade how about that shaq? the mavs thought they were a physical team, yeah right....those shaq elbows to dirk and stackhouse were simply beautiful especially the one on stackhouse, which drew blood...simply beautiful
i have no idea how the mavericks have the lead right now. dirk is playing like crap, wade is playing well, shaq is playing well, griffin is blowing layups, dirk is throwing outlet passes right to toine for 3's. jason terry is saving them right now. hopefully the game looks more like this than the heat being on fire the whole game.
ahh......i cant post the address http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid= 4074663988507207571 http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/?t=723
