Pacers vs. Heat, Eastern semis

uhh, outside of those 2 free throws, he is personally demolishing the pacers. he's averaging 30 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. and not in up and down 115-112 games, but in games where the average score has been 85-82. and he's only had 1.5 TO per game to get all those stats. and in the meantime, the guy he's guarding is averaging 9 points on 25% shooting so far. and even most of that 25% was when lebron wasn't guarding him. if lebron wasn't the best in the world, he'd have been shooting free throws to make it a 6 or 7 point deficit instead of to take the lead.

he should have made the free throws but he could hardly have played the first 95 minutes of the 2 games any better, including doing very well in helping the heat dominate both 4th quarters.

 

seriously?

 

And he's been in a shooting slump since game 1 v. the Knicks. Hasn't shot 50% since (that's a slump to him anyways). I expect a HUGE game from him in game 3. HUGE. I'm calling a 35 point/10 board/7-8 dimes type of game in game 3 from him.

And maybe the team makes TWO 3s in game 3, rather than 1.

 

If the Pacers are worth a dime, Lebron only throws up that kind of stat line if he's unconscious from outside. They should be able to stifle the Heat's fast break and keep LeBron from the rim. After the first two games in Miami, I expect the Pacers' defensive fundamentals vs LeBron and Wade to be better in Indy.

 

came in to post this, repped

lol at sammy stay salty

 

if they aren't going to help off of the role players and allow them any open 3's, how much better can they be? there's only so much that individual defense is going to do against superstars, especially stars who drive like wade and lebron. and even without a lot of help, they've largely forced jumpers in halfcourt sets. you can't face 80+ minutes of wade and lebron without help and not expect some looks at the basket and trips to the line.

and so far it doesn't seem like either of them, but especially wade, have made a shot outside of 15 feet in either game, allowing the pacers to stay in the paint as much as possible. if either one actually makes a jumper or a role player makes a jumper (now that i think about it, how is miami not down 0-2?), their defense might have to make a choice it hasn't had to so far.

 

Well, Lebron is being forced to play a lotta minutes which is hard with his style of play. He exerts more energy defensively than any other superstar I can think off and he played 24 straight 2nd half minutes with the ball mostly in his hands.

 

but it was such a great idea to sign 3 max players and fill it with scrubs....lol at the heat

 

People underrate the Pacers defense.

George has been guarding Wade and LeBron pretty well this series.

Granger is also a solid defender and has been playing well on LeBron.

Again, nothing is coming easy for Wade and LeBron and they are clearly frustrated.

 

He put up 32/15/5 in the first game on 12/26 shooting (not exactly unconscious). And you're talking about Lebron and/or Wade as if they're just pretty good players. They're superstars for a reason. It doesn't matter what defense you throw at them, they still get theirs. That's why you consider just small sample of players as "superstars."

And what "defensive fundamentals" do you expect to be better? In game 2, they gave up wide open shots to role players (and those players missed, 2 straight games of shooting < 10% on 3s), limit the Heat fastbreak points (only 13 points), contained them to 34% shooting in game 2, outrebounded them by 10... So can you tell me how you can improve on holding a team to those stats? The Heat cannot be worse than they were in game 2.

Now that's my only concern. The role players MUST show up. One guy has to score more than 5 points. It's the NBA. What they did in game 2 was a disgrace. And they were OPEN shots. The Heat aren't a great 3pt shooting team, but they were tied for 9th in the league in 3pt shooting.

But they are a whopping 1 for 22 on 3s so far in 2 games. That's not going to get it done. That's why their offense is so poor in the first 2 games. They're not making even a decent clip of their open 3s like they did v. the Knicks.

Like I said, James has been in a shooting slump since game 1 v. the Knicks. And Wade started this poor shooting trend in game 5 v. the Knicks.

 

The Pacers played better defense in game 2 than game 1 and I expect them to improve in games 3 & 4 at home. I believe it CAN get worse for Miami's offense because their roster is so sorry outside of the Big 2.

I also think the fatigue factor for the Big 2 will increase as the series moves on.

IMO, you overestimate the Heat without Bosh. This is the Pacers series to lose now.

 

So you expect them to shoot less than 34%? Shoot worse than 1-16 on 3s? Outrebound more than 10 boards.

Again, tell me how it can get worse than that? It CAN'T get any worse. That's the bottom the Heat hit in game 2 offensively. You can't be worse than those stats I put up.

I'm not overestimating the HEat without Bosh. They're not winning a 'chip without him point blank. The West beats them easily. I'm talking about v. 2 offensively-inept team in the East here.

 

OK, Miami's stats can't get much worse. But, yes, I believe Indy's defense will be better at home while at the same time it's likely the Heat scrubs will hit a couple more open shots. After being so historically bad, they HAVE to.

Unfortunately I'll miss at least the 1st half because of work.

 

This. He is destroying the Pacers offensively and he's shutting down Granger defensively and he's playing the power forward position and not resting at all. The guy has been superman in these first 2 games. No other player in the nba could do what he's done in these first 2 games.

 

He'd be averaging a triple double this series if he teammates could make a shot or two. The king has been nothing short of amazing in this series so far. So what, he missed a few free throws.

 

I agree with this actually so at least you are finally giving Lebron credit for what he's doing out there. This is a first from you.

 

The bench can continue their awful scoring as long as lebron and wade shoot 40% plus then the Heat will be fine.