Great games all around tonight. OKC outplayed Miami again tonight. Something is going on with Bosh, dude is sucking badly for a long time now. Still can't rebound for crap. They shot 37% and had no business winning this game, but they did b/c of their good 3pt shooting. Miami needs to start resting LBJ b/c this dude is doing way too much on both ends. LBJ was the ONLY Miami Heat shooting anywhere close to 50% tonight. And Kobe had another great shooting night tonight. If he can shoot 45% consistently, the Lakers are just a different team. Bynum's beastly night was very unexpected b/c he just came off a sore ankle.
If OKC hadn't committed the two dumb flagrant fouls, I think the Heat would have gone quietly just like last week. But they got fired up and laid it all on the line. That said, the fact OKC still played them even until about 2 1/2 minutes to go has to be troubling for the Heat. Aside from LeBron's two easy layups in the 4th quarter (which wouldn't have happened if Ibaka was in for Perkins), OKC almost completely stifled Miami's slashing game. Good 3-point shooting and KD's awful turnovers were the slim difference for the Heat. Bosh doesn't like physicality and there are few PFs more physical than Ibaka. It was hilarious watching Bosh completely fail trying to post him up. WB did pretty well guarding Wade, which shocked me. I don't know if he can do that again. All in all, LeBron closed the sale on MVP. That race is over. The race for who I think will win the championship is now wide-open. No longer is Miami the prohibitive favorite IMO. I guess they still are the most likely, but not by so much. Their home-court winning streak won't mean beans in the playoffs.
The Heat aren't ready for a pumped up Bulls/Thunder series right now. They really need to regain that dominance they had before the all-star break. Bosh is SUCKING right now; I can't emphasize that enough (scoring/rebounding/defending). When the Thunder got out to that 11pt lead, I thought the game was over. The Thunder are like 32-1 when they have a double digit lead prior to this game, which is a ridiculous stat. OKC played well, and they have since the break. Their only weaknesses tonight were turnovers (primarily from KD) and poor shooting from WB (but Miami tends to do well v. scoring PGs). Other than that, OKC played damn well. But I don't think Miami will play this poorly. This was their C-/D+ game from everyone but LBJ and they still won this game. That's what good teams do. They shot 37% and got outrebounded by 8. You lose 90% of the time doing that. The good thing for MIami is everybody is slumping NOW. Bosh/Chalmers/Wade/bench and LBJ prior to these 2 games were ALL in a slump together. Outside of LBJ, the rest are still in slumps. They'll come back out b/c I don't think Bosh and Wade will play this poorly in the playoffs. Some amazing stats from LBJ tonight from ESPN. He basically beat the Thunder by himself. LeBron James scored a game-high 34 points Wednesday against the Thunder and created an additional 24 points off of his assists. James accounted for 59.2 percent of the Heat's points (58 of 98), his highest percentage in any game this season. [+] LeBron James shot 50 percent on Wednesday, while his teammates combined to shoot 33 percent from the field. James had 10 of Miami's 16 assists in the win against the Thunder. [+]
Man, I love your Barkley signature ! Here's another goodie from Sir Charles. When told in an interview that Pippen was unhappy with the number of shots he was getting....Barkley responded 'Hell, he's got all the money and he wants all the shots too".
t_mac1, this could be bias, but I think OKC can come close to repeating their defensive performance tonight against the Heat. They can restrict their scoring at the rim, which is crucial. KD's turnovers were ridiculous and unlikely to repeat. OKC's missing at the rim was another fluke, although WB was clobbered at least 3 times in the 1st quarter with no call. Refs were a joke. On the Heat side, I believe Ibaka/Collison is a poor matchup for Bosh, but obviously he won't shoot 29% for an entire series. Normally, I believe Thabo will have a harder time staying in front of Wade. Thabo can make Kobe look bad, but Wade's quick first step makes him much harder to keep out of the paint. As I see it, when OKC plays a "donut" team with worthless Cs like Joel Anthony and Turiaf, Perkins should be yanked unless he's producing. When he's engaged, Ibaka does everything better on both ends than Perkins when no post defense is needed on the opposing C. LeBron was Superman and carried his team tonight. In a 7-game bloodbath with OKC, I think the Heat could get worn down. I'm now 50/50 on who would win. I'm dead tired and headed to bed.
I doubt it A_3PO. The Heat basically did whatever they wanted offensively v. OKC in OKC, esp. in the first half, but they lost in OKC b/c they couldn't defend or rebound worth a lick. And like I said, the Heat as a team is in a slump (LBJ was a part of it too prior to these 2 games). You really shouldn't expect Wade to shoot like this that often. And while Bosh can't bang with OKC's big men, you really can't expect him to brick WIDE OPEN jumpshots consistently (but he has the past month); but he is one of the better shooting big men in the game. Chalmers has tailed off from his 50% shooting from the first half of the year. The bench can't make 3s to save their lives (but they did tonight). Again, the Heat will take their game up a few notches, while I think the Thunder already are in their playoff mode. Again, LBJ basically was the only player to show up for the Heat offensively tonight. If Wade or Bosh just played their normal games, the Heat would have won more comfortably. KD's 9 turnovers won't happen again, but he's a high turnover this year in general (like 4 a game), and LBJ is one of the best defenders in the L. Overall, I think OKC is the ONLY team that can beat the Heat in a 7 game series. They have the star scorers to match with the Heat, and they have the length/athleticism to stay with the Heat. If they had to play a 7 game series now, it would be 50/50 b/c the Thunder are in playoff mode and the Heat aren't yet. I think homecourt advantage would decide that if they played now. Back to the MVP race: it's VERY VERY nice to see the MVP battle is b/t the 2 best players in the league. Enough of this crap about take him off this team and see how that team does bull.
I seriously think Miami is missing Mike Miller. I thought he brought that consistency with the shooting, which opens up the floor for them. You really can't win in the long run if you're relying on Battier as the 3-point shooter. Norris Cole, besides a few games, have sucked shooting. James Jones is not good enough on other parts of the game to stay on the court.
