#focus#mustwin#playoffs#drama? : 2013 NBA playoffs

it's a weird list of bad/average teams, it's almost like the heat lose whenever they decide to check out mentally but turn it up against rivals + good teams

if chandlers neck gets unstuck + kmart keeps it up

the heat sort of lazed their way through the first half of the season and havent really lost to anyone since

they could actually be on the verge of a classic season like maybe people are talking about but you do have to count the whole season and their first half was nothing to write home abt

the only team to beat the heat in a 7 game series were the mavs and they had zero inside scoring

― J0rdan S., Friday, April 26, 2013 1:43 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dirk was in the high post a ton in that series fwiw, lot of inside out play

actually sort of feel like peak dirk was the perfect (only?) heat slayer because he's one guy that they actually couldn't guard

durant and melo and whoever are all really good scorers but if they stick lebron on them and lebron really tries to D up it becomes an issue

but dirk is too big for lebron and bosh couldn't guard him

yup

zbo + marc on a slightly better team could give the heat bigtime problems imho

how does chandler factor in, being another link between that mavs team + knicks who have done well

it occurs to me that melo's game is kind of... very similar to dirk's nowadays. lots of jumpers, 3's, w/ more of a game around the basket

zbo + marc on a slightly better team could give the heat bigtime problems imho

― lag∞n, Friday, April 26, 2013 2:18 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean that's obv a really good foundation for a team to beat the heat but ultimately they just don't have enough shooting

they'd need a few fluke games where they shot like 40% from three

the knicks have totally copied the mavs' blueprint, i think they'll take 2 from the heat in the east finals

yah, jr is kinda that JET guy off the bench

i seem to have watched the knicks play more than any other team play this year, could have chosen a worse team to watch i guess

ultimately like i said the problem is that when lebron D's up on melo he literally can barely hit rim with his jumpers

also their shooters aren't quite as good as the mavs' especially because they can't really play novak against the heat

chandler is a tough guard for the heat i think but his repertoire being limited to pick n roll dives (which is is amazing at) minimizes the totally # of plays he can realistically be involved in

Marc Stein ‏@ESPNSteinLine 4m
Hiring of Tim Leiweke to run Raps & Leafs gives Toronto's basketball team major player with LA ties who can make pitch Phil will listen to

11 rihn]gs to canada???

(as team pres)

chandler's d was pretty huge in the 11 finals iirc but if he's not 100% healthy it sort of gets mitigated

also the heat's evolved offense prob minimizes the impact one rim protector can have

Not having a healthy Chandler at the rim makes it tough to take the Knicks seriously. Happy to see Martin looking good for now; hope it keeps up.

btw literally anyone can make the finals in the west now which is kinda fun (except the lakers)

(and the warriors sans lee {rip :(})

i guess we won't really know the blueprint of a team that can beat this current heat team until we see a team actually do it for a 7 game series

im thinking it will be the spurs out of the west which will be super interesting vs heat- probably timmy's last real shot, maybe manu's too, the lebron redemption tour continues as he gets a crack at the team that slapped him around on his first trip to the finals

i guess we won't really know the blueprint of a team that can beat this current heat team until we see a team actually do it for a 7 game series

― 乒乓, Friday, April 26, 2013 2:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dallas beat them iirc

you don't rc, don't you remember dirk had a cold and they lost in six games?

that was 2 season ago xp

so they have to lose every year in order for us to have the lastest infos, k

shaq era lakers would prob take them like 25 games in a row, celtics championship team im thinking couldve taken them no prob too

well they've retooled

they have a lot of the same dudes, all the same important dudes

i was just thinking earlier that titles-era shaq is the one guy who would have really punched a hole in the current heat style

twin towers robinson-duncan era spurs would be a real interesting matchup too

shaq punched holes in a lot of people, he was so beasty

yah the core is the same but the offense has changed, bron has improved, theres more cohesion etc., is what i have gathered from all the bron-is-having-a-historic-season articles

duncan era spurs would be a tough guard for the heat for sure

i thought this era of the spurs could son the heat but that doesn't look to be the case anymore

the heat are better now for sure, but its doesnt mean that the loss to dallas doesnt tell us anything, and that dallas team was p historically weak for a champ fwiw xp

spurs now just dont have that extra gear seems like

the story w/ the spurs is that they never have that extra gear for the playoffs innit

the dallas series is def instructive but the big problem w/ analyzing that series is lebron then vs lebron now

spurs now just dont have that extra gear seems like

― lag∞n, Friday, April 26, 2013 2:43 PM (21 seconds ago) Bookmark

i'm biting this from zach lowe but he thinks that at some point in the west finals last year OKC just realized they were way too athletic for the spurs and then just blew them out of the building

feel like the same dynamic would apply for the heat

agree

theyre too old

the dallas series is def instructive but the big problem w/ analyzing that series is lebron then vs lebron now

― J0rdan S., Friday, April 26, 2013 2:44 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

id be v curious to see what the grizz could do v bron just being super scrappy and physical, push him out of his new fav spots, also some of his improvement has to be just a hot streak over the 2nd half of the season, got to think well see some reversion to the mean, tho obvs the way hes remade his game is vv impressive and borderline unprecedented

did c's and lakers get swept yet

Vucevic had 50 rebounds in 2 games vs. the heat but Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph shouldn't be a problem

the celtics will win 2nite i predict, and can still win the series, the knicks are not good, its all a sham

keep the faith

yeah i keep forgetting that the nba changed its rules so that the team that gets the most rebounds is the winner