NBA Finals 2014: Spurs vs. Heat vol. 2

[shadowgrin]

LeBron was not aggressive, Chris Bosh wasn't a factor at all, and Ray Allen and Wade didn't get enough touches.

It's not like Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs D had nothing to do with it...especially Kawhi...

phpBB [video]

lol at Pop.
That must be Pop's training to Kawhi on guarding LeBron.


Old but good to know Tim Duncan already moved on from his divorce...

phpBB [video]

Still shot: old man checking ass.

[NovU]

Wow. That's quite a change in defensive scheme on LBJ by Pop. LBJ's now guarded tight in contrast to previous games where he was allowed a space to shoot jumpers to discourage his drive game. In result, LBJ had 7 TOs. I wonder if Spo has tricks up his sleeve to bounce back from this awful loss.

Damn. Now I owe my friend two lunch meals. He bet on the Heat for the game 2, and it was my turn to pick first for game 3. And I chose the Heat. No chance.

[Alpha_]

Chalmers should be buried on the bench.

[Kevin]

Bandwagoners should be slaughtered.
Oops.

[Lean]

I wonder if Spo has tricks up his sleeve to bounce back from this awful loss.

I like what Spoelstra said during halftime regarding the Spurs lead: "Cut the lead in half by the end of the third. We can overcome this, we've done this a hundred times before."

Right now I expect LBJ to hulk it out in Game 4.

[Demo21O]

[Jackal]

Kawhi Leonard is a superstar.

This. Been a while since I've had a personal favorite player to watch in the league, not since Shaq got traded to Miami, I think.

And that offense by the Spurs at the 1:12 minute mark in the first quarter. Hot damn.

[YaoKnowWhat_I_Ming]

[NovU]

Bandwagoners should be slaughtered.

Well said. These Spurs nut huggers came out of closet out of nowhere. Annoy the heck outta you for sho.

[Andrew]

I don't know, I think most people are pretty open about their dislike of the Heat and willingness to cheer for whoever they're playing, regardless of whether it's their favourite team or not.

[Sauru]

i just hate how the heat team came together. now they are trying to add melo. its all fucking stupid

[Patr1ck]

Bandwagoners should be slaughtered.

Well said. These Spurs nut huggers came out of closet out of nowhere. Annoy the heck outta you for sho.

No different than the heat fans leaving early from a finals game because the team was losing. Every team that wins has people who turn into temporary fans. Playing the kind of basketball that San Antonio did in game 3 is how you build a fan base, bandwagoner or not.

[Lean]

i just hate how the heat team came together. now they are trying to add melo. its all fucking stupid

Yet they didn't let CP3 join the Lakers.

Bandwagoners should be slaughtered.

Well said.

Well a lot of people jumped ship when LeBron went to the Heat. Do they count too?

[Kevin]

Bandwagoners should be slaughtered.

Well said.

Well a lot of people jumped ship when LeBron went to the Heat. Do they count too?

Yeah, of course

[Lean]

No different than the heat fans leaving early from a finals game because the team was losing.

That was very disappointing to see. Yet they always defend themselves as true Heat fans.

[NovU]

Nobody's trying to add Melo. LoL I think someone hijacked Sauru's account.

I don't know, I think most people are pretty open about their dislike of the Heat and willingness to cheer for whoever they're playing, regardless of whether it's their favourite team or not.

I don't see a Heat bandwagoner in this particular thread anyway so I pretended the person was referring to those that hopped on Spurs bandwagon particularly for this series. I honestly don't see any need for slaughtering neither the bandwagoners and haters though.

[Stress Fracture]

Nobody's trying to add Melo. LoL I think someone hijacked Sauru's account.

Nobody hijacked his account. It is true.

[shadowgrin]

Silly Pat Riley, hasn't he learned from those Lakers teams what happens when you load up on 4-5 star players.

[Kevin]

Jesus Christ, if they add Melo I think Wade or LeBron would opt out of their contracts

[NovU]

Don't put too much stock into news where the media is just exploring all possible scenarios for the most talked team in the NBA. I doubt any of this is seriously going on. Did anyone that matters from the Heat really speak up on this issue? Right. Neither did Melo.

[Alpha_]

Everybody laughed when Stephen A. Smith said that LeBron was going to Miami, too.

Whenever he puts out something like this he usually turns out to be right.

[Andrew]

Unless Melo is willing to accept Greg Oden money, I'd say that's far-fetched speculation. Sure, we saw it happen with the 2004 Lakers, but Payton and Malone were much closer to the end of their careers than Melo is.

[Jackal]

They should get Darko to play the 5.

[NovU]

http://www.boxscoregeeks.com/articles/n ... kawhi-game

I've always pushed the notion that Kawhi Leonard is a franchise changing player. Since he became a Spur, San Antonio has gone 125-39 (76% win percentage or about 63 wins in an 82 game season) in regular season games where he's played 20 minutes or more. For the playoffs, they've gone 37-16 for a 70% win percentage and made the conference finals once and the Finals twice.

As of last night, Kawhi Leonard is the leader in Playoff Win Shares amongst players under 22. He's currently fourth amongst players in their first three seasons behind such unknowns as Dwayne Wade, Manu Ginobili and some dude named Lew Alcindor and he's got a good chance at ending up number 1 after these finals.

Read that card to mean that Kawhi is a top five talent and he's severely overpowered. He's arguably the best defender in the league and the only real knock on him is he's not agressive enough. He does play next to Tony Parker, Manu and Duncan though.

He's not even 23.

The Spurs are at their best when Kawhi Leonard gets his. They go from being a great team to a historically great team.



This series boils down to a simple truth, we are seeing the best basketball player alive (and perhaps the greatest of all time) and the best basketball team in the world (and one of the all time great teams) face off. Lebron can keep any team in any game but the Spurs aren't just any team. Lebron had an insane, pantheon level, game 2 but even with that we are a couple of missed free throws and a Bosh three from Miami being down 3-0.



It's also not an accident that every Miami player not named Lebron James is showing up with negative Points over Par per game in this series. The Spurs are better and deeper than Miami. I truly believe that the Spurs second unit could have made the Eastern Conference Finals. Miami desperately needs someone other than Lebron to show up in particular because Leonard and Green have done as good a job as is possible of containing him and keeping him getting low percentage looks (he's converting them but at that point you just have to shrug).

Updated Prediction: All the models are now back to Spurs in 5.

I would like to be alone please.

[Andrew]

All numbers go out the window if Joey Crawford is officiating Game 4.