it's hard to say a team got fucked when they were only in the game for two minutes... but that was a foul.

6/14/2012 11:52:12 PM

6/14/2012 11:52:14 PM

Woot woot...good game.

6/14/2012 11:59:25 PM

Goddamn LBJ is clutch as fuck.

6/15/2012 12:02:28 AM

Wade steps up and Bosh was a monster on the boards. No Miller...good job Spolestra.

6/15/2012 12:04:20 AM

Eat it haters

6/15/2012 1:37:48 AM

Not the quality I was expecting from face, but at least I can now go to bed.

6/15/2012 1:40:06 AM

I don't understand why all the heat fans are boasting. OKC played like crap for 40 minutes and then the heat needed a lucky three and three huge no calls at the end to hold them off

lebron charged harden before the bosh dunk (according to the same charge being called on harden)

lebron had a forearm pushing durant on the last shot

lebron fouled the shit out of westbrook

6/15/2012 7:00:04 AM

The officiating was poor both ways. Durant clearly had a charge for his sixth foul. Also, if it was LeBron who missed that last shot everyone would be saying he should have went through the contact.

6/15/2012 7:16:41 AM

That's pretty much why I'm not even listening to the "it should have been a foul", because it could easily be argued that Durant shouldn't have been in the game at that point. But more importantly, reverse the situation, and Durant gives LBJ a touch on that final shot, and he misses, and everyone is happy and bashing LBJ for "not being clutch".

LBJ was more clutch than Durant for one game. Don't worry OKC fans, you're still the favorite and can definitely play better. Sorry anti-LBJ fans, nothing you can really criticize about him last night, maybe next game!

6/15/2012 7:31:31 AM

Maybe Durant shouldve been fouled out but maybe Battier shouldve been fouled out instead from all his incessant flopping.

Thunder played like garbage for 40 minutes and still almost won, they just need to come out to a mild start on Sunday instead of an absolute zero start.

Props to LeBron for hitting clutch free throws last night though to seal the win.. It almost made me forget he only made one field goal in the 4th.

6/15/2012 8:08:41 AM

Durant was pretty clutch I'd say. He hit that three after the steal which was the clutchest most awkward shot of the game. He missed what 2 shots int he second half? I'd say he was super clutch. It took a foul to stop him. O and battier was set early off to the side a bit and was clearly sliding in to get the contact so that was an obvious block.

LBJ was clutch on the one shot but he also missed about 5 other shots where he dribbled out the clock and took a bad shot. Thats how OKC got back in the game.

Battier's offense has been phenomenal. OKC are in trouble if he continues to be the 5th best scorer in the series. Perfect timing considering Chalmers has fallen off a cliff

[Edited on June 15, 2012 at 8:27 AM. Reason : shutdown by fisher]

6/15/2012 8:19:34 AM

Quote :

"lebron charged harden before the bosh dunk (according to the same charge being called on harden)"

That wouldn't have even been a charge. It would have been a push-off...but it wasn't because Harden flopped.

Quote :

"He hit that three after the steal which was the clutchest most awkward shot of the game."

How is a wide open three an awkward shot?

And the Heat didn't play their best game either. Wade and James had good, above average games. Bosh had a great rebounding game, but didn't do too much on the offensive end except get wide open dunks from Wade/James penetration.

Battier stepped up, but Chalmers was horrible and they got NOTHING from their bench. The Heat got the types of games they should get out of their big three...but nobody erupted for 40+ and nobody "took over."

This is the status quo for what this series should be like. When Bosh and Wade are playing up to par, these are two very evenly matched teams.

6/15/2012 8:38:54 AM

The hate on Russel Westbrook is ridiculous. It's not his fault Durant doesn't demand the ball and just sits there in the corner waiting for the ball. Harden and Westbrook are the creators on that team...not Durant. If Brooks wants to change the game plan, then that's on him. But you can't call his performance "pathetic." 27, 8, and 7 with only two TOs. That's a great line. And in the 4th quarter with the and-one on the fast break and the put-back dunk. He was one of the main reasons they were in that game.

6/15/2012 9:21:17 AM

I'm a fan of Westbrook. Love his energy. And I wish I could jump like him.

6/15/2012 9:59:58 AM

Westbrook is a small size of LBJ.

[Edited on June 15, 2012 at 10:10 AM. Reason : make it clear]

6/15/2012 10:09:00 AM

He just has to stop shooting so much , all those bricks killed them last night.

They've got harden and durant who are highly efficient scorers. They don't need Westbrook shooting them out of the game

6/15/2012 10:46:24 AM

face, how do you think Harden will do once he goes into free agency and lands with another team where he is the #1 option, and is guarded by the opposing team's best perimeter defender, as opposed to currently when he's usually guarded by the opposing team's 3rd best perimeter defender?

6/15/2012 10:48:54 AM

Takeaway from the game last night... I'm pretty sure Spider-Man's secret identity is Kevin Durant. Still working it out.

6/15/2012 10:49:26 AM

I predict MIA can win at least 2 home court games for the following 3. Last night is a typical game for this series. Big 3 performed normally. KD was in foul trouble for lack of final experience. Thunder still has much to learn from HEAT.

[Edited on June 15, 2012 at 10:52 AM. Reason : grammar]

6/15/2012 10:51:28 AM

Miami also not settling for jump shots last night.

They won the following categories: rebounding, points in the paint, and fast break points. That will win you the game every time.

6/15/2012 10:52:43 AM

The first 2 were because Bosh was coming back. The third was because DW was coming back.

6/15/2012 10:54:05 AM

hopefully the series doesn't leave south beach

6/15/2012 11:09:39 AM

?

6/15/2012 11:17:41 AM

The next 3 games are in Miami.

6/15/2012 11:25:55 AM

aka hopefully the heat close it out in miami

6/15/2012 11:26:05 AM

oh damn, didn't realize that. I thought the first 4 games were split between the teams.

6/15/2012 11:35:27 AM

i prefer the 2-2-1-1-1 format

6/15/2012 11:36:03 AM

The players will be very tired. OKC and MIA are acrossing half of US.

6/15/2012 11:41:37 AM

Quote :

"BATH SALT BENDERS"

6/15/2012 11:45:35 AM

?

6/15/2012 11:47:09 AM

i'll let Slave Famous take that one

6/15/2012 11:56:10 AM

I think I get u after googling.

6/15/2012 12:08:56 PM

I think Miami takes two of three and goes back to okc up 3-2 needing to steal one of two on the road.

But its not out of the question that Miami takes all three if they keep playing this well.

6/15/2012 12:32:29 PM

As I said, MIA's only weakness is the coach. He's not famous and still young. Sometimes players especially big 3 don't listen to him. If he can establish leadership through winning and make his team feel confident about his command, then they will get work done. Batieer and Chalmers played pretty well this two games.

6/15/2012 12:46:50 PM

if OKC can just bring more help defense on Lebron and force him to be a jump shooter, they could win the title in Miami

6/15/2012 12:49:34 PM

That's where Lebron's passing and court vision come in to play. You can't double team him on the perimeter. He'll just pass it to cutting Wade/Bosh or swing it to a wide open Chalmers/Battier.

Obviously you have to collapse on him in the paint, but its too dangerous double team him on the perimeter.

6/15/2012 12:56:19 PM

the amount of hate that lebron james gets for "not being clutch" is REALLY overstated. i think almost everyone understands that if the heat lose this (which they will) it's not his fault.

6/15/2012 1:19:35 PM

People still have visions in mind treating him as KB.

6/15/2012 1:24:26 PM

I'd be shocked if the thunder won all three in Miami. Pretty much every formula out there has Miami ranked as the better team, but okc a slight edge in the series due to homecourt advantage.

Now that they just blew homecourt Miami should obviously be slight favorites to win it all. I'd set fair value around -150. Vegas has it at even money for both teams right now. I think there is clear value on the Heatles at the moment.

6/15/2012 1:32:21 PM

And I couldn't disagree more with spoelstra being a problem. The weak link in this series is Brooks.


Spoelstra did have the entire world scratching their heads with his decision to play Norris Cole (literally one of the worst players in the nba) for 13 minutes last night. I can't be positive but he may be the worst player to ever log more than 10 minutes in nba finals history. Seriously, he'd be the 4th string pg on the Bobcats.

But look at the flip side. Brooks played Derek fisher 25(!!!) Minutes last night?! That's only 5 less than ibaka, 11 less than harden, and 15 less than durant! It's truly unfathomable at this point. Fisher was his usual unproductive and disastrous self. The team has three good guards. Fisher is barely even worth a roster spot and somehow he's getting huge minutes while superstars eat the bench all game.

On top of that Perkins continues to play a lot of minutes despite being completely ineffective. For his next trick brooks will ask durant to play the third quarter left handed in game 3. Why isn't brooks getting more attention for his sabotage of this series?

6/15/2012 1:44:25 PM

He let Fisher play because he wanted to use his final experience to control the rhythm of the team. Without Fisher, this team is too young.
Perkins can increase the size of player on the court.

[Edited on June 15, 2012 at 2:17 PM. Reason : add another note]

6/15/2012 1:50:41 PM

Fisher's +- ended up being rthe highest on the team for those who value it ( i don't)

I am shocked by the lack of defense from the OKC. Miami has struggled to score points all playoffs and OKC has been the weakest defense they've played thus far. It has just been layups aftter layups. They really do need to play more Thabo but the idea is that if chalmers isn't doing shit you might as well put fisher on him so you can have fisher taking the open threes from the corner instead of Thabo.

OKC will keep scoring but if Miami doesn't have someone like Miller Battier chalmers or haslem put up battier type numbers then they are done. Battier isn't just scoring either. He's making almost all of his shots. They need to start guarding him. Lebron and Wade are going to get theirs regardless. That is why OKC is in trouble. Miami has won a game and haven't even used the game lebron goes nuts in to win no matter what yet.

6/15/2012 8:22:16 PM

Miami played balls to the wall last night and still only won by 2 points. They'll probably take one game in South Beach, but that's it.

6/15/2012 8:30:41 PM

Perkins is really good at pretending to fight for position down low while actually clearing a path for Harden / Westbrook to drive to the hoop. He's a lead blocker, essentially.

I really hope the NBA cracks down on that bullshit soon.

6/15/2012 9:34:40 PM

+/- has been widely discredited by statisticians. Way too much noise in the data and uncontrolled variables. Data doesn't hold from season to season with hardly any correlation. Durant had one of the worst +/- in the league a few years ago.

Fisher sucks. I'd rather win with players than lose with leaders.

6/16/2012 9:56:04 AM

wonder if the NBA would ever consider getting rid of charging...it would force people to actually play defense instead of flop...if somebody drives to the rim and there is contact, it could either be a blocking foul or a no call...would really help out gameflow

also i wouldn't mind allowing hand checking again

of course maybe neither would need to be changed if the refs in general let basketball players play basketball instead of making it a whistle fest

6/16/2012 10:02:22 AM

no you cant not jsut throw yourself at the basket and wipe everyone else out of the way. you cant make it into a football game where the heaviest man wins. you basically need to do away with defensive three seconds so that defenders can be in position and not always have to just be sliding in. then it would be obvious. the arc inside the paint is already enough to keep people from just taking charges. the game needs more strategy not more dunks.

6/16/2012 3:32:05 PM

seems like every game played nowadays has 7 or 8 charges called

how many charges were called in an average game in the 80s or 90s? one?

call it if its blatant, like a 6'10" big barreling over a small point guard, but don't consistently reward guys Hansbrough and Battier's size for stepping in the path of a guard who has already started jumping.

6/16/2012 4:00:07 PM

you missed my point. if they legalized defense. the guys would already be there and you could call sliding in a block everytime. with the 3 second rule, they basically have to start sliding in too late to make it an obvious charge.

6/16/2012 5:24:39 PM