Just wanted to capture some thoughts I had as I sat through the last four NBA finals game.
Disclosure: I am not a Heat fan. I use to be a Heat fan but that was when Timmy Hardaway, Zo, Eddie Jones, and Harold “Baby Jordan” Miner played for them (see picture below). Then Shaq went to the Heat and the love was all but gone. And then his majesty joined and it became too easy to root against the Heat. This of course puts me in an uncomfortable position with the gf because she’s the world’s biggest Heat fan. More on that later. I rooted for OKC during the finals, not because I like them, but because I dislike Lebron. I’m a hater. That’s fine.
Onto my armchair broadcaster commentary.
My cousin bought the Heat hat for me while I was vacationing in Taiwan. Nice bangs, Tiff.
Shane Battier and the rest of the Miami bench sold their souls to the devil
How else can you explain their other worldly accuracy from the three point line? If Mike Miller and his broken back didn’t make seven out of eight of his threes (or whatever the stat line is), there would be a game six on Saturday. LBJ wouldn’t have this ring without Battier, Miller, Chalmers or Cole stepping up big time. And who knew that Bosh was a three point threat? I am happy for Juwan Howard. He got to play in the final minutes of game six and now he can retire with a ring. So lucky.
Kevin Durant was underutilized
I think KD scored 32 points in game six, but it seemed like he didn’t get any touches for long stretches of the game. So much of OKC’s offense was focused on getting to the basket via one-on-one or one-on-many situations. Durant basically became a spectator when Westbrook or Harden took it to the hole. OKC could have at least incorporated the league’s most dangerous scorer in those situations by using Durant and Westbrook/Harden in pick and rolls. Miami was doubling up on Westbrook off of pick and rolls because someone offensively useless was setting the pick. I doubt the double team would come if Durant set the pick. Shoot the J!
OKC did not adjust its personnel to match Miami
I’m a Scott Brooks fan now that I know he went UCI. But I have to give the coaching edge to Spoelstra because some of the moves Brooks made was puzzling. Why would you have Ibaka and Perkins in the game at the same time? Ibaka is barely there on offense and Perkins is completely useless. With the two of them on the floor, it becomes a 3 on 5 game on offense. Perkins was pretty useless on defense as well. Who is he supposed to guard? Miami didn’t have a low post big that Perkins needed to guard.
And why was Harden guarding Lebron? Lebron just towers over and out muscles Harden in the blocks. I thought Sefalosha did a better job on Lebron, but he’s pretty inept on offense which is why Harden was out there. Harden, however, was a no-show offense in this series, probably because exhausted himself from guarding Lebron.
The NBA needs to do something about the charging/blocking rules
I can’t quite remember the last time I’ve seen a PG like Westbrook or Derek Rose cut to the basket with such quickness and finish with such finesse or power. It’s exciting and which is why I’m tired of seeing players take charges against another player going to the hole. Seeing a sweet move to the basket only to be negated by a charge call is so frustrating. I’m not sure what the Association can do. Make the restricted area larger? Institute a rule for flopping to discourage defenders from sliding in to take a charge? Whatever it is, I’d like to see more rim shattering moves to the rim without Battier getting in the way.
NBA officiating is so arbitrary, especially when your team is losing
There were some horrible calls and no-calls during the finals. Most of them were in favor of my Miami. That’s why they won….. No, I don’t believe the last part, but that’s just the way it feels when things aren’t going your teams way.
Sports can get too real sometimes
We go crazy for sports. We kill. We set cars on fire. We tear things down. We stop talking to each other. It’s like religion and politics. Without going into all the gory details, I’ll just say that a lesson learned from this NBA finals is to separate the game from life, especially when your girlfriend is a fanatic for the opposing team.
I can still smell the Heat
