I caught the last 10 minutes (the OT and the last 5 of the 4th) and I know someone mentioned it but I too was surprised the Bulls didn’t attack Bosh down the stretch. He was playing with five fouls so it would have been a win-win either way going hard against him in the paint. You could tell Rose wasn’t going to make those jumpers against LBJ, he’s not that kind of player. He should have been a facilitator at the end of the game looking for Deng, Brewer or Boozer for them to score.
On the other end full credit, again, goes to LeBron James. He’s got that aggressive mentality on lock these playoffs and you can tell he’s playing with a real sense of confidence. A large part of it can be attributed to the Heat’s success this post-season but I think more than that it’s LeBron not feeling that absolute pressure.
Instead he’s got two guys and a hard working supporting cast that he can rely to make plays when the Heat need them. No player can find success team-wise long term being the only guy the team relies on (stress on only).
Other than that, assuming a Heat-Mavs finals materialises, I can’t think of two hungrier teams filled with hungrier players than these two. It’s going to be a ruthless match-up and a joy to watch.
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]scj119 wrote:
James is so good on D against Rose, he could be the worst offensive player on the floor and still deserve playing time.[/quote]
The thing he’s doing is sagging far enough that if Rose does get by, he’s in the teeth of the D. Rose needs to realize that he’s not gonna get a good shot if he keeps dancing around and settling for contested step backs. The guy supposedly spent all off-season working on his jumper. Knock a few down with James sagging, force him to step up and respect it and now you can use your speed to get by him. That shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. GODDAMNIT.[/quote]
I know, the problem is that while his J did improve, it’s still not really above average. He was 8-for-27 tonight. The 2nd half of the season his J was significantly worse than in the 1st half.
LBJ is just tailor-made to guard him. What I can’t understand is why they didn’t either a) post up Boozer on Bosh, or b) run PnRs/Pick-and-pops with whoever Bosh was guarding EVERY TIME DOWN THE FLOOR at the end of the game. Bosh had 5 fouls for quite some time at the end of the game. I would have attacked in him regulation and then gone at him every time in OT.
Also, Korver randomly turning into a worse shooter than Joakim Noah has really hurt.[/quote]
I agree that his J isn’t as good as advertised, and I personally think he settles way too often for jumpers. But, in this case if he’s so intent on putting a shot up he needs to just raise up instead of settling for contested step backs while being defended by a guy almost a half foot taller. He hits a couple and he forces James to step up, and that opens up the lane. Or he could’ve just gone inside to Boozer like we all know he should’ve and we wouldn’t have to talk about his boneheaded decision making or the Bulls being down 3-1.
Man, some of those drives to the bucket and dunks that D. Rose made were just fucking unreal. I love seeing that shit regardless of what team the player is on.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
So guys what are your Mavs-Heat predictions?[/quote]
Whoever gets home court wins. I don’t see either team losing at home.
I’m not sure who would get it. How does it work again, just reg. season record?
EDIT:
Anyone keeping an eye on ODDS?
I wanted to know what the odds were of Lakers getting SWEPT before the first game of that series. Now, I want to know the odds of Bulls coming back and winning the series against MIA (I know, won’t happen, but I want the numbers).
Just curious…
Chillain, that’s badass. What was the atmosphere there like?
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Enjoyed this block:
We’ll agree it made up for the embarrassing missed dunk? 
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Whoever gets home court wins. I don’t see either team losing at home.
[/quote]
The Heat get it. Better record. 58-24 vs. Dallas 57-25 .
I predict the Heat beat the Mavs in 7.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Chillain, that’s badass. What was the atmosphere there like? [/quote]
x2. Also, were you chanting “Barkley Sucks!”? lol
[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Enjoyed this block:
We’ll agree it made up for the embarrassing missed dunk?
[/quote]
His OT performance made up for his poor play in regulation.
I honestly think the Mavs will end up like all those good teams that never won a championship in the 90’s because of the Bulls dynasty.
At this point no one is going to take down Miami. How can anyone pick the Mavs at this point? The Heat took out (or at least are about to take out) two championship calibre teams.
The Mavs on the other hand swept a dysfunctional Lakers team (they lost 2 games to the West-less Hornets FFS) and handily beat a good OKC team.
With the Finals format I’m going to predict 6, but if this were the normal format I would’ve chosen 5.
Also lets not forget the Mavs needed a 17-2 run in the last 5min and insane performance from Dirk to go up 3-1.
No one in the big 3 even had a standout game last night and they still won.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
At this point no one is going to take down Miami. How can anyone pick the Mavs at this point? The Heat took out (or at least are about to take out) two championship calibre teams.
[/quote]
Mavs can (and will) win it this year.
“How can anyone pick the Mavs at this point?”
Easy. Chicagos offense sucks. They missed wide open shot after wide open shot last night. They should have/could have easily won that game and went back home tied 2-2 while regaining homecourt advantage. Instead they missed two chances to win it at the end of regulation and that now makes the Heat some unstoppable force? lol
Dallas won’t miss a ton of wide open shots like Chicago has done. I don’t, in any way, see the Heat winning it all as a foregone conclusion. People just get way to fixated on one game.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Also lets not forget the Mavs needed a 17-2 run in the last 5min and insane performance from Dirk to go up 3-1.
[/quote]
Also let’s not forget the Heat needed the league MVP to settle for and miss two jump shots at the end of regulation to go up 3-1
It works the same way.
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
At this point no one is going to take down Miami. How can anyone pick the Mavs at this point? The Heat took out (or at least are about to take out) two championship calibre teams.
[/quote]
Mavs can (and will) win it this year.
“How can anyone pick the Mavs at this point?”
Easy. Chicagos offense sucks. They missed wide open shot after wide open shot last night. They should have/could have easily won that game and went back home tied 2-2 while regaining homecourt advantage. Instead they missed two chances to win it at the end of regulation and that now makes the Heat some unstoppable force? lol
Dallas won’t miss a ton of wide open shots like Chicago has done. I don’t, in any way, see the Heat winning it all as a foregone conclusion. People just get way to fixated on one game. [/quote]
You’re not giving enough credit to the Heat’s defense. They shutdown Chicago’s best player consecutive games and played clutch defense down the stretch. The Bulls had two chances to win at the end of regulation but the Heat forced them to take bad shots in both those plays.
Sure Chicago’s offense isn’t great (far from sucking), but Dallas’s defense isn’t great either.
A big reason Dallas was able to go on that 17-2 run was because James Harden fouled out and they were able to then throw everything they had at Durant. Dallas won’t be able to do that against the Heat and I predict the Big 3 will trample their defense.
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Also lets not forget the Mavs needed a 17-2 run in the last 5min and insane performance from Dirk to go up 3-1.
[/quote]
Also let’s not forget the Heat needed the league MVP to settle for and miss two jump shots at the end of regulation to go up 3-1
It works the same way. [/quote]
Bullshit.
Derrick Rose couldn’t get around Lebron and HAD NO CHOICE but to take those shots.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
The Bulls had two chances to win at the end of regulation but the Heat forced them to take bad shots in both those plays.[/quote]
Bad shots? Those two step back jumpers were bad shots? he had a great look on the first one… He should have gone to the basket on one of those but he had a great look on the first and the second wasnt bad either.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Also lets not forget the Mavs needed a 17-2 run in the last 5min and insane performance from Dirk to go up 3-1.
[/quote]
Also let’s not forget the Heat needed the league MVP to settle for and miss two jump shots at the end of regulation to go up 3-1
It works the same way. [/quote]
Bullshit.
Derrick Rose couldn’t get around Lebron and HAD NO CHOICE but to take those shots.[/quote]
hahaha how is what I said “Bullshit”?? What I said was completely true.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
No one in the big 3 even had a standout game last night and they still won.[/quote]
LBJ scored more than a third of their points points last night. How is that not a standout game?
Mike brown lakers new coach
Idk raj the mavs are going to be a much tougher match up for the heat. They have numerous options on the offensive side of the ball and dirk has a much more well rounded game than rose (wont be able to make him disappear). Hard to tell until you see the match ups first hand though. I think it will be a good series, ill say heat in 7
lol people(media) hate lebron and the heat so much they will literally do/say anything to not give them credit.