Miami Heat in NBA Playoffs! Bring it on Mavs (and Heat Haters!)

The FBI says Donaghy is telling the truth, and he passed two FBI lie detector tests in the process. In his book Donaghy points to one playoff game between San Antonio and Phoenix that he and the other officials altered the outcome of in order to extend the series. He also pointedly states the infamous 2002 NBA Western finals games between the Lakers and Kings that everyone knows about, being altered by "company men". Kings fans also point to game 4, when they were up 2-1 already, and took a 24 point lead in the second quarter, only to have the Lakers come back and win. Tim also states there are several players he owes an apology to.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think every game is fixed like pro wrestling, and actually think this kind of officiating exists in all sports to some degree, just as Sniper says above about Hockey. But the NBA has to be the worst, and the league itself has to be the most complicit in all of major sports.
 
It does seem that officiating gets a bit one-sided when the benefiting team is down by double digits. I can recall last series b/w the Heat and the Bulls that Chicago was down by ~12 points and the officiating really seemed to get one-sided in favor for the Bulls. Sure it happens in a lot of games, though I do remember seeing that particular stretch and thinking "man, the Bulls are getting their fair share of calls", and I'm a huge Bull's fan. A lot of people do complain about the Heat though in truth they are an incredibly aggressive team and Wade/LeBron do know how to work the referees.

I really think too the NBA should do something about all the ridiculous flopping that's been happening in the postseason - it really does take away from the game itself. I know it's hard to really judge what is/isn't a flop and I wish the players would kind of have a bit more integrity than that because I don't buy into the advantageous manner that a good flop/call gets.
 
More reason (as if it's needed) to hate David Stern.
I knew it was bad, I guess I just didn't know how bad.

Sniper, I remember that stretch vs the Bulls, it reminds me of last night vs the Mavs.
Did you see last night, when an untouched Nowitzki tripped on his own foot under the basket, and added a little head thrown back, and the Heat (Haslem?) was called for a foul?
WTF was that, a standing, tripping flop???

The Heat is aggressive, I think Eastern Conf ball is played that way- more physical, tough defense.
 
My biggest problem with NBA refs is, as I alluded to earlier, their amazing inconsistency. Something that's not a foul in the 1st quarter may be a foul in the 3rd given the game's circumstances. It seems to be the NBA's odd way of keeping games relatively close in the playoffs (can't really speak much about the regular season) The reffing really can stagnate the flow of the game too - it can seriously take a 12 minute quarter and stretch it out to 35 minutes. Oh well, the NBA refs will (probably) always be terrible
 
OK, enough about the refs (well, until their next bogus calls).

I almost forgot the best stat (not the Mavs out-rebounding the Heat 42-36!?!).

Since 1985, when the NBA adopted the 2-3-2 format, when the teams are tied 1-1, the team that wins game 3, wins the Finals.

11 out of 11 times.
 
That was a great game; the series is turning out to be a classic ...

Props to Miami.

But is it only me that thinks they narrowly escaped with that victory ? Nothing resounding about it.

-

On the Refs .... The NBA has the worst officiating in professional sports. Superstar calls is what kills the game.

Just call the game straight up.

If Dirk fouls, call it, if (insert 12 Man name) fouls, call it.

still, the worst ever was Game 6 LAKERS vs KINGS. Horribly called game and fraudulent to the last.
 
groveChuck said:
That's a flagrant! You're ejected! :furious3:
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Yeah but the NBA needs the controversy to keep ratings up so they just gave me a Flag 1 and a smack on the wrist. Now, had I reversed my comment and said something negative about the refs...then I'd have been hit with a $25k fine and a five game suspension.
 
I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Really good column by the Miami Herald's Dan Le Batard
King-maker Pat Riley tells a story about needing help. Seems that Magic Johnson, ultimate winner, was so short-circuited toward the end of games even with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s assistance that he didn’t want to so much as think. The mental drain of carrying a team against waves of impassioned aggressors, and making all the important decisions, left him fried as the last seconds approached.
Magic wanted to do so little thinking in that weary physical and mental state — “scrambled,” to use Riley’s word — that he eventually asked his coach to please just hold up easy signs to convey every play he wanted run in the last few minutes. Magic Johnson, leader, floor general, champion, wanted to follow executive orders then, finding a modicum of relief in doing what he was told instead of having to create it all himself. It’ll wear you out, making all the decisions from quarter to quarter, game to game, day to day, month to month.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade grew tired of carrying this kind of late-game cross all alone across several dry seasons and postseasons, James so weary that Cleveland still believes he simply quit at the end of his last broken journey there. It is one of the reasons James and Wade came together, to share that burden, as friends, and make the heavy lifting lighter — the sports equivalent of calling a buddy to help you move a couch. Perhaps you’ve noticed that 32-year-old Dirk Nowitzki sits in the middle of the very first quarter to keep him fresh for late and that even 22-year-old Derrick Rose rested many more minutes in the last series than the older LeBron. Maybe it is coincidence that Rose didn’t have the legs for long jumpers late and James did, but this isn’t:
James and Wade do every single interview together, side by side, as symbolic as it is unprecedented, while Rose and Nowitzki are left to endure those postgame questions about not having enough help all alone now. That so many of those questions directed at James and Wade are still about who is the alpha dog/closer is as silly as it is small. They’ve already answered it again and again, in words and in deeds, against Boston and Chicago and now Dallas, by deciding to come together in the first place and by staying together amid all the turbulence since. They both are, OK? They’re both the closer. How many Hall of Famers and MVPs and German gods do you want them to slay before you realize that they don’t care whom you credit with the kill?

It is always interesting how forgetful and short-sighted the dizzying up-and-down of sports can make us, emotion trampling logic. Chris Bosh fixes three horrible games with one timely shot. Wade reinvents/resurrects himself in two games after a playoff series so bad people wondered if he was injured. And now James, after ending all of Boston’s Hall of Famers and Chicago’s MVP with an avalanche of punctuation points, endures a question about shrinking even in the winning news conference after Game 3.
The way they came together invites this kind of scrutiny and criticism; but being together helps rebut it with a scoreboard’s finality. James and Wade saw and felt something we didn’t the past few years — something Rose and Nowitzki see and feel clearly now. When you lose, that spotlight goes very fast from warm to scalding.
It is funny, looking back, that the spotlight is the reason nobody believed they would come together in the first place, back when the idea seemed ridiculous. The money, ball, team and late-game glory simply could not and would not be shared by alpha males, not in a bling league and hip-hop culture soaked in gotta-get-mine. The King would not accept even the occasional appearance of being merely a sidekick. The need to be The Man would trump the desire to be The Teammate, The Friend, The Winner and The Champion.

A new blueprint
But we’ve seen this Heat team take a bat to that construct as it shifts basketball’s paradigm. Any of these three players can win a game or a series. Bosh was as good against Chicago as he has been bad against Dallas. Wade has been as good against Dallas as he was bad against Chicago. And if James had been kept out of the paint the way he has in the first three games of this series at another time in his life, he would be down 3-0.
Once upon a time, if Wade or James or Bosh was ever off, their teams simply lost. Now, Bosh can be sloppy for most of the game, James can score two points in the fourth quarter and the Heat still win a pivotal Finals game on the road. The big 30-point games Wade is being celebrated for now, as people rush to make it his team again? He averaged that in last year’s playoffs … while being extinguished by Boston in five games in the first round.
You want to know why James plays in Miami? You need not watch The Decision television show that wrecked his image. All you need to do is hear Nowitzki and Rose after losing games, the burden solely on them. James didn’t want to carry that cross alone anymore. Soon, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard won’t, either. In a way, Miami has eased the burden on guys like Nowitzki and Rose. Throwing the ball out of bounds in the last 30 seconds and missing the potential game-winner in Game 3? Nobody blames Nowitzki for being a choker in that spot because they know all he is up against. LeBron closes that game that way, and he gets scorched from sea to shining sea.

All about perception
Amid all the anger and noise, the Heat’s story, at the core, is one of remarkable friends and one of remarkable sharing. That’s not how it is seen from the outside, from people rooting for it to collapse like the Heat did in Game2. Charles Barkley says he saw the Heat trying to play hero ball at the end of that game, Wade and James fighting over the Finals MVP trophy, both of them warring to see who could make the crowd leap up with the kill shot. The Heat is a Rorschach inkblot test. People will see whatever they want, depending on their baggage.
But here is all that matters, and the only thing that has mattered since these three decided to come together:
In Game 3, at a tired time that used to scramble even the great Magic Johnson, as Nowitzki scoured the court for some help, any help, Wade tried to go right against a double-team. There was nothing there. So he shared the ball and the burden with James at the top of the key, who was also double-teamed and decided to share the ball and the burden with a wide-open Bosh. Bosh proceeded to make the game-winner.
On the other end, Nowitzki had that burden all to himself the final 4.4 seconds. He was, as time ticked away and Dallas lost, the only Maverick who touched the ball.
Which might be why Nowitzki says that, yeah, if LeBron James had asked him last offseason, he would have considered teaming up with him, too.
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JR, you're right- possibly the most exciting low scoring Finals?

Once back in Miami, I have a fix for the Heat going to sleep in the 4th- a shot of strong Cuban coffee- guaranteed to jolt them awake!

Heat in 6, D-Wade, as the clock expires!* :2vrolijk_08:

* 2006 revisited! (though it'll probably take 7)
 
DIRK.jpg
 
groveChuck said:
Yeah, shame he's the only Mav that's got it...:happy:
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Usually my thoughts, but last night (tues) he was obviously hurtin, and the team pulled through and kept it a tight game. You gotta give Barea some props, wether he's a top scorer or not, he makes stuff happen. Marion's a workhorse when he needs to me also. Stevenson... well... I dunno... he shoots every time he gets the damn ball, often when he should pass it along, but then outta nowhere he hits a few three's and makes me feel different about him.
 
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