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

coddida said:
I think it's a bit humorous to label Jordan as a shooter as if that's ALL he was... Magic must be jealous 'cause he was just a passer.
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My bad, coddida. I was mixing up Magic's and Scottie Pippen's comments on the Heat and LeBron.

Pippen said Jordan is
"probably the greatest scorer to play the game," James "may be the greatest player to ever play the game."
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Scorer, not shooter. And yes, great in rebounds (6.2) and assists (5.3)
I'm not expecting anyone (LeBron, Kobe or anybody else) to top Jordan.

Magic said,
“They’re going to have their run. This is their time now,” Magic said Tuesday. “I said all along, once they win one, they’re going to win two or three, probably in a row.” Four wouldn’t surprise him either.
“The potential is there because you have two of the best players and then the other guy is one of the top 10,” he said. "Back in the day, Boston and the Lakers — we set the way. We had our run. Chicago, Detroit and Houston had their run. Miami is going to have their run."
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LeBron was driving the lane pretty well in all the earlier series. Why he isn't against the Mavs, I'm not sure.
And while Jordan got air like nobody else, Wade (until now) has used an uncanny ability to change direction and thread a path through three defenders in the paint, then dunk, layup, whatever. But he seems to have lost a step...
But hey, at least there's some excitement and passion here!!! :grin:
 
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We're seeing a classic in the making, fellahs!!!

Even Mavs fans should be rooting for a Game 7 just for the sheer entertainment/excitement factor!!! :happy:
 
Maximize your (free) entertainment dollar! :thumbsup:

Win or lose, I'm going to go through serious NBA Postseason withdrawal...
 
Marlon Ladd said:
I feel what you're saying, Grove, but that triple double is BS. He's a 6'8, 265 pound point guard playing 40+ minutes. Getting assists and rebounds is not that difficult a feat, especially if you're the most athletic guy on the court.

These games come down to the 4th quarter. When the Mavs need a bucket really bad, the team depends on it's superstar. That's Dirk. He's been unstoppable in the 4th. The Heat had an ailing D Wade and so it was LeBron's responsibility to close out the game. You have to outplay the other team's superstar down the stretch or you will not win.

LeBron is a superstar and he is supposed to be the best player on the "planet." I don't think he has the heart or killer instinct to be that guy. Now, if we're talking about the best player in the league, wouldn't you expect for that person's statistics to be at least better than what he did in the regular season or at least better than the other players on his own team??

Great players go above and beyond. D Wade is playing well, Dirk is having the series of his life and the best player, LeBron, is. . .well, struggling to say the least.

Now, talking about Mike being a shooter and LeBron being a more complete player is not accurate at all. They play different positions. The thing about Mike was that he did whatever it took for his team to win. You can't take away the fact that he scored alot of points and dismiss it. In the finals, you need to score.


Dirk is not a big rebounder or an assist guy. He should average more rebounds and blocks (I agree), but he is carrying his team on his back and doing what they need him to do. When they have a lull and can't score, they go to him and what does he do? He scores and gives his team a lift and boost in confidence that gives them the faith and belief to be able close out the game.

Think of it in terms of war. You have two sides about to fight. Your leader goes out first and gets knocked on his a**. Now, does that give you confidence that you're going to win the war or does it make you feel like maybe you guys aren't ready? Now switch that around. Your leader and best fighter goes out and beats their best fighter's a**. How much confidence does that give your side? Alot, I'd say.

Hey, maybe this is too much pressure for him. So, let's start small and see if he can work his way up. We can start by seeing if he can just get his regular season average - in one game.

Oh, in addition to him having a sucky offensive game, his defense also sucked. J Terry went off on him. How embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for him.

Sorry, but I've been telling my brother about LeBron's lack of killer instinct for years and now that I'm pulling for a team that he's on, it's come back to bite me in the arse full circle! LOL!!
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Agreed 100 %
 
Hey, I'd take Jordan over LeBron, too- I may be a Heat fan, but I'm not a fool (no, the two words are not interchangeable!:grin:).

A great read from the Miami Herald's Dan Le Batard (a very good writer):
When you are this famous and infamous, when millions upon millions of eyes seem to inspect your every twitch, and millions and millions of voices judge and mock and dissect and psychoanalyze your every word, is it possible to feel all alone? LeBron James had to feel that way Thursday night in this, The Biggest Game Of His Life Until The Next One, surrounded by screaming and spotlights and spectacle and somehow all by himself at the epicenter of it.

Questioned loudly by even the legends of basketball. Torched by the all-you-can-Heat national media and the cruel Twitter/Facebook mutation it has birthed. Rooted against by most of America. And doubted now even by a bandwagon Miami, the only city that loves him (conditionally) but doesn’t quite have enough proof to trust him just yet. And then, with all that as preamble, the Dallas Mavericks shoot an unholy 66 percent in the first half and James’ friend, ally and the guy who kind of got him into this wonderful mess, Dwyane Wade, limps to the locker room with trainers in tow.

You have two choices there, and only two. You can be buried beneath all that, or you can soar above it. James made his way to the basket, a seven-footer extraterrestrial shuffling in front of him, bringing all that Dallas noise and a referee’s whistle with him, and in that one subjective moment, as the ball went in the basket and that seven-footer went flying and James looked for the call, basketball’s judge pointed the other way. Offensive foul. There goes the tie, the lead, the game and the series cushion – all the other way, in the echo of a whistle. The questions? The doubt? Those won’t be going anywhere for the moment. It happened in a split second, what may or may not have been an offensive foul, happened in less time than it took you to get this far in this sentence. So fickle, this game. So cruel. So fun. Unless you are at the epicenter of it - feeling all alone with your talent, which is substantive, but also with your burden, which is just as large.
James has to be so tired. So very tired. The reporters covering this team are exhausted. And they’re just writing the stories, not enduring them. The mental drain of this is seismic, the emotion unrelenting for 11 months now, and James is being asked to log more playoff minutes than anyone ever. He didn’t sit at all in the second half, again, so add the physical drain to the mental one. That has to be crushing, no matter how many sculpted cartoon muscles he has. If you are wondering why he doesn’t have the legs for jumpers late suddenly, or why old Jason Terry can scoot around him, or why Miami’s excellent defense keeps crumbling in the fourth quarter, 11 months’ worth of this without a rest from it might be one of your theories.

A DIFFERENT SERIES
Against Boston and Chicago, James and his friends could take the point guard away and short-circuit the entire offense. But Miami has been a step late as a more-versatile Dallas calmly swings the ball around the perimeter. Dallas absorbed Miami’s best punch Thursday, against a rabid Wade, who emerged from the locker room to grab the lead in a dramatic way that had to be haunting. It got so silent here that you could almost hear Mavericks fans remembering how Wade ended the last Dallas season to get this far, in this same building, back in 2006 – in the quietest Dallas you’ve never heard.

But the Mavericks have a whole lot of ring-less veterans who want a championship, too. And they hit the Heat late with what felt like an avalanche, closing a close game with 17 of the last 21 points and burying both Wade’s limping heroics and a James stat line that was just that one whistled play and its accompanying free throw from 20-10-10.

James had a four-point lead with four minutes left, and his first playoff triple-double in a Heat uniform. But then everything fell apart, and now Miami’s season is suddenly one loss from burial. Dallas 112, Miami 103 – the Heat unable to hold that four-point lead late lead even though all five of Miami’s blueprint players were on the floor trying to protect it.

Why? Missed LeBron jumper. Then a LeBron offensive foul. Then a missed three, making it 0 for 4 from out there. Then LeBron was beaten to the basket after his offensive foul by Jason Terry, who passed out to Jason Kidd for a wide-open three from which Dallas would never again look back – a possible one-point lead turning into a five-point deficit in less time than it took you to get this far in this paragraph.

EFFICIENT STATS
James had as many rebounds as anyone on the floor (10). He had more assists than anyone on the floor (10). He made more shots (eight) than anyone in a Miami uniform. But everything fell apart for him at the end, as Dallas swayed with screaming and the loudspeakers blared the haunting music from Requiem For A Dream. All those far-away jumpers he made to punch Boston and Chicago in the face? They are nowhere to be found late, when he needs his legs. He had two points in the fourth quarter. Those three shots fall with the free throw, and he has 10. So fickle. So cruel. So fun. Unless you are alone with it.

James is closer to his goal than ever before … but also uncomfortably far away. Miami is still in a good position, hard as it is to see with clarity from here. Down 3-2 in the series, yes, but coming home for soothing. Great teams, champions, win Game 6 and 7 at home. It has happened three of seven times the champ has come home trailing 3-2, including just last year. But now there is no margin for error. None. And one hot night by this great-shooting Dallas team, which made an absurd 13 of 19 threes against a great Miami defense Thursday, ends your season and begins another avalanche of criticism all over again. This is as vulnerable as Miami has felt all postseason. It has only trailed only one other time – and that was at the safest time to trail, down 1-0 on the road. So, scary as it may have felt to Heat fans, it hasn’t really been scary. Now it is your-house-is-haunted-and-the-furniture-is-moving-by-itself-and-there’s-blood-dripping-from-the-walls scary.
We having fun yet?

FOR BETTER OR WORSE
For 11 wearying months, James seems to have hijacked this sport. It began with a TV show that had a two-month lead-in, and it hasn’t relented since. It has been more than half a century since basketball had three straight Finals games decided by three points or fewer, but what’s the story after Dirk Nowitzki throws away one game late? LeBron. What’s the story after Wade misses a game-tying free throw and botches a game-tying inbound while sick Dirk wheezes his way to late victory? LeBron. He has always wanted to be a global icon, but this particular path, from hero to pro-wrestling villain by accident, doesn’t have much in the way of precedent.
An interesting thing happened here this week, though, when a reporter asked a disrespectful question about James shrinking after a win. A few people seem to have found something they like even less than James at that moment – namely, the media. And so Charles Barkley, as vocal a critic as the Heat has had all season, asked Thursday for everyone to please back off of LeBron. And here’s what TNT’S Steve Kerr said, too:
“He’s got more pressure on him than anybody in the history of sports. It is bizarre and unfortunate. I feel so sorry for him.”
Sure. Makes sense in the loudest, craziest season in the history of South Florida and one of the most unusual you’ll ever see in any sport at any time. Is that really the next step in this journey? LeBron James? Kind of sympathetic? Really?
It would appear that this story isn’t quite over yet.
No, now is when it starts getting good.
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Tomorrow, it starts getting good. Really good! :thumbsup:
 
Waiting for game time is just killing me.
Fortunately I have a shoot for a couple of hours...hopefully I'll remember to WB, record, etc...
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Anyone ready for an, um... intense game??? :evil:
 
Should be a good game.

Totally off-topic...where are you in San Diego, JR? My family and I are moving to Carlsbad in about a month. Would love to connect with other DVXers after we settle in.
 
I get the feeling that Dallas has to work S-0 hard to maintain a lead and keep up with the Heat.

The heat go down by double digits and seem to come back so effortlessly.

....and Dirk is off to a slow start; thankfully Terry is stepping up.
 
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