NBA Finals
 

I've (sadly) been a huge Mavs fan since I became interested in bball in 1994..... LET'S GO MAVS

Seriously who could cheer for Lebron James these days anyway?

Anybody who is a fan of basketball? Not an emotional vagina who thinks these players don't have every right to do what they want...

If someone puts in their two weeks to go from a shitty company to a better company, do you have a hate aneurysms too?

I mean it's a great story. Everybody slung mud all over them when they sucked. Spoelstra, a nobody, pulls a sick collection of talent together and makes a winning team when it matters. Let's not forget that Haslem and the bench have played well and it hasn't been just the big 3 that have gotten them to the Finals. It's just awesome basketball and I am more excited about this finals than I have been about the finals since the first Celtics/Lakers (this decade).

I don't hate LeBron. Only reason to dislike him is that he has made it so much less compelling for the fan factor since Florida deserves no sports teams outside of football. I don't have TV though so didn't even bother with the whole decision fiasco.

Florida sports fans are the absolute nut worst. And that's saying something considering you might get stabbed if you piss off the wrong Mexican in LA.

That TV show was absolutely retarded and that celebration pep show was idiotic.

But, past that, you can't be MAD at him for going to play for the Heat. He took slightly less money to play with friends and try to win a championship. Lots of people talk about wanting players to just try and win championships instead of chasing giant dollar signs.

As for the finals, I don't know which would be funnier: To watch LeBron haters go in to meltdown when they win or to see them froth at the mouth going on attack if they lose

That's not exactly saying a whole lot, but I agree with the sentiment. Probably the most I've cared about the NBA Finals since the Barkley Suns vs. Jordan in 92-93 (a personal horrifying tale of childhood sports obsession).

"So the last time you changed your mind was yesterday?

The last time I changed my mind was probably in my dreams. And when I woke up this morning I knew it was the right decision."

*vomit*

Fungus you are way off base; he obviously has the right to do whatever, but he's still an arrogant d-bag... I would much rather support dirk, durant, Dwight, etc

Good game here, both teams playing some great defence

I can only hope that Peja and Mike Bibby somehow get into a fight so neither of them play anymore.

Either one works for me. I, however, will be paying much more attention to the Stanley Cup finals. :thumbsup:

I predicted the Heat would win the championship as soon as the "decision" went down. That kind of talent on the same team is 3/5 of an all star team. The only question was chemistry. But, I hope they get killed by Dirk and the Mavs just for the fact they were out dancing like faggots when the deal got done. Look at us, we are the shit yo. Champions X7. Fuck them.

I can't disagree with you more. Lebron is one of the least arrogant athletes I have ever watched. Granted, we all get exposed to a media prepped version of anybody on TV, but I still think the guy is ridiculously humble. He has no reason to be, he has been viewed as the King since he was 13, and yet all he wants to do is win, play ball, and earn some dough. 95% of humans would be complete divas growing up the way he did. He has mentioned many times (none since The Decision as I think he realizes the backlash it might have at the moment) that he wants to be the first billionaire athlete. I think all the press conf, decision thing, Heat celebration thing was just marketing. Let's not forget The Decision thing also benefited charity...

Sjay, assuming The Decision and the Heat celebration thing didn't happen, and still tell me he is an arrogant d-bag?

If so, what are you watching?

It's the same reason San Diego fans suck: there are just so many ways to fill your weekends that you just can't commit to sports all the time.

See: Pittsburgh/Boston

I also hate that people bring up the argument that he is going to make less if he moved to Florida. No he wouldn't. No personal income tax there. He makes bundles more moving to Florida than any other place besides perhaps NYC with the marketing opportunities.

True enough, though he'll still pay State income taxes for the percentage of his income attributed to games played in States that do have an income tax. each away game is legally time worked in that State.

Comeback kids!!

What a game, what a team.

The Mavs played some incredible defence to get back into it.

Pretty amazing that Barea took the final shot.

Looks like Lebron/Wade's early celebrations in the 4th were hubristic

I'll have to rewatch it, but wow that Mavs won that game. Besides last seven minutes, they seemed terrible with the lone exception of Marion (who is playing way above expectation so far).

I think Rick Carlisle should get flack though for giving Brian Cardinal any amount of playing time ever.

edit: Is Mike Bibby hurt for the next game because of Brian Cardinal? Brian Cardinal still hurting his own team even when hurting opposing team's players.

Great game, and love when the Finals is 1-1.

The Heat on the other hand have an awful habit of taking a poop when they feel confident they can win a game. Whether it is up big late, or up big early, they just take their foot off the gas. Too bad I don't have money online, because I would take the Heat in 6 if anyone wanted it.

Either way, it's going to be a great finals this year.

I think it was so fitting that not only did Dirk hit the game winner, but he took it to hole (and lefty) after all the slack about Dirk being too soft, and that he can only take jumpers and cant take it to the hoop

I'll bet against you on the following stipulation. Loser has to buy winner's drinks for a night.

Yeah definitely a more exciting series now... Betting markets still have the Heat a small favourite.

Bring on game 3!

Sick game last night. Incredible basketball. The Heat are just too much. Everyone talks about DWade in the 4th quarter, but lets not pass over who drew the double and made a high difficulty pass for the game winner.

Mavs play another strong 4th quarter and we have an even series. What's really interesting is that the mavs seem to scramble like crazy when down, but don't seem as desperate when they hit the front.

Dirk looks pretty sick/exhausted, I'm a bit worried for game 5

Great defence, limiting lebron James to 8 points is amazing

The stats confirm that Dirk is the dominant force of the series. Wade is playing well, but Lebron is really struggling to score.

Combined +/- count while on the court (Miami are +5 for the series)

Dirk: +30 (!!)
Wade: +4
Lebron: -1


4th Quarter statistics
Nowitzki Lebron
FG 12-24 3-12
FT 18-18 3-3
Reb 14 7
Pts 44 9

I had no idea LeBron was actually playing the last two games.

Game 5 - Heywood officially ruled out, no shock if you saw him unable to run at all in game 4. GO MAVS

Pretty drunk....the mavs socked them!

They play great defence, I've never seen Lebron James relegated to jumpshooter/passer.

Terry's lights-out-game-over 3 pointer was out of this world

Amazing display of teamwork > talent

I think we have ourselves a 7 game series here, fellas.

Excited.

I'm waiting for the first reporter to ask him if Rashard Lewis banging his girlfriend bothers him more than Delonte West banging his mother

Sidenote would you support Lebron asking to be traded to Dallas now?

We could use him to spell Dirk in the first three quarters :)

I'd still bet Miami to win 4 of the next 5 NBA championships at everything less than -200. No one in the east is going to compete against them barring some huge free agent moves (extremely unlikely of big contracts moving with lockout coming). This years Bulls is the best they will ever be (aka stick Lebron on D Rose and watch the Bulls score 70 a game), the Magic will not have D. Howard after next year, the Celtics were old last year, and the Knicks still need any semblance of a defense. Every other team in the east is pretty loltastic as far as talent goes. The Heat are going to be the Finals every year for the next six at least.

Dwight Howard is the only man to stop Miami from winning a ton of championships. When, not if, he moves to LA (preferably the Clippers [lol at that]) it will cause some reverberations to the rest of the league. If he moves to the Lakers, expect the Heat to just thump the rest of the league. The Lakers were exposed for being old on the perimeter and that is not going to help any time soon.

Heat and Thunder finals 3 of the next five years with the Heat just nearly sweeping them every time is my expectation.

Really the only chance the rest of the NBA has is the players to win the labor negotiations with the caveat of somehow shared revenues between all organizations with a higher luxury tax threshold.

I disagree. Over the next 5 years I think the over/under for Miami championships is 1.5, nowhere near 4.

I think the Mavs, Lakers, Thunder and Celtics are all capable of beating the Heat over the next couple of seasons.

The fact is Dallas destroyed Miami. The Heat were 1-2 on their own court, and Lebron James was a non-factor in the fourth quarter. The zone defence was just nasty at times.

If that wasn't impressive enough, consider Dallas' records on the road in the playoffs against the Lakers, Thunder and Heat: 6 wins, 1 loss. That record is admirable for a January road swing, let alone against top tier teams in the playoffs.

The Mavs should be the favourites for next year.

Also, I think the Thunder would have been a good shot to beat Miami this year. They match up really well with Sef against Wade and Durant/Ibaka on James. The Thunder will be a bigger threat with a real coach (Scott Brooks has overseen his team shoot a 3-pointer in the last possession of tied games maybe 10 times this season??).

Actually Scott Brooks did that six times (cause haralabob said that on twitter).

The reason why the Heat will be much improved next year is that they will only improve their roster. Look at their roster. Mario Chalmers (and maybe a healthy Udonis Haslem) is the only one who doesn't completely suck outside of the big 3. Mike Bibby and Ilgauskaus are completely worthless. Mike Miller can't play defense and now he can't make 3s. For fucks sake they had Joel Anthony and Juwan Howard playing significant minutes.

If they stick any warm body in there it will be an improvement.

Lebron still averaged 18 points, 8 boards, 7 assists (roughly) in a series that he was dreadful in. Maybe he has no heart, but if he chokes and puts up 20/10 every game, yikes.

The West is the still the much better conference. Grizzlies, Nuggets and Thunder are all young and bound to improve. Portland is always dangerous, and they are always at like 80% health wise. Lakers may actually show up on defense with a better defensive coach.

The East, well, not so much. Celtics are OLD. No way the Heat get beat by them. Bulls got the #1 seed largely due to how terrible the rest of their division is (Bucks, Pistons, Cavs, Pacers). Bulls do have a good coach though so they could beat them, but Lebron on D. Rose shows how little the Bulls have for a second option offensively. Hawks are likely to only team to improve as their roster is largely young.

Dallas and San Antonio are the only teams that play a zone well in the league so I wouldn't worry too much about zone killing the Heat.

Until his condescending rant after the loss, I really didn't dislike Lebron. Now, that's changed.

The Celtics WILL deny the Heat any championships. Lebron will drive the lane and KG will positions himself so "The King" lands on his foot and blows out his knee(as KG is well known to do).

With Lebron out, the Heat will be good, but not championship material. Oh, wait, Lebron's already proven he's not championship material.

Still want him to blow out his knee, though.

Dirty play >> arrogance

"The fact is Dallas destroyed Miami."

I'm not sure if Dallas destroyed Miami...

They were in every single game and had second half leads in pretty much every game. And, hell, they legitimately should've won the first 4 games. They were a ridiculous collapse away from being up 3-0 AND they had a 9? point lead in the 4th quarter of game 4.

Their half-court offense is absolutely dreadful, especially late in games. Too many extra passes, nobody excited about shooting the ball, and they are left with stupid deep 2 or 3-point shots with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

They need a center that can help with their offensive rebounding, as well as somewhere to feed the ball and score points without relying on dribble/drives and mid-range jumpers.

They also need to get a point guard and work on the LeBron/Wade chemistry off the ball. LeBron played absolutely terrible away from the ball. He just looked completely lost at times with no idea how to find an opening where he could get a shot or drive. And, when that wasn't happening, he was standing in the corner by the 3-point line doing absolutely nothing. He might as well taken a seat in the first row.

And, LeBron needs to work on either a low-post move or a mid-range jumper. If he isn't driving, then he is dying at the 3-point line (deep 2). He needs the Dirk turnaround fade knee up shot...

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I don't see how the Heat can win 4 or anything, but they aren't going to get any worse over the next several years. In fact, there is the real possibility that they get stupidly better.

The Boozer thing in Chicago seems to be a fail of epic proportions considering his playoff showing...There needs to be a second option outside of Rose. I don't believe they currently have that on their roster. People can shutdown Rose and watch Chicago falter. And, even then, Rose can sputter on his own.

The Celtics...no. Just no.

I'm assuming the Magic are going to fail in spectacular fashion as Dwight Howard goes through a Carmelo year.

The Knicks play zero defense and will continue to play zero defense.

So, the Heat can easily be seen in the Eastern conference finals every year. And, given the things they can improve, they can go up against any team from the West.

Of course, all of this is subject to the new CBA and, personally, I'd love to see a harder cap that would render all of the above talk pointless as several teams would need to figure out how to completely revamp their roster (including the Heat....bye bye Bosh)

Sorry but this line of reasoning is absurd.

Miami "should" have won because they were up in the 4th?

By that logic, Dallas should have blown out Miami in the first 3 quarters because they were able to crush Miami in the 4th quarters.

It's a 48 minute game, and you can't mix and match the parts that are favourable to your team.

Dallas' strong 4th quarter displays reflected (in order of importance):

1. Dirk's clutch play
2. Carlisle out-coached Spo severely with better lineups, resting his players, Dallas' zone etc.
3. Well-timed defensive surges
4. Willingness to take tough shots


Dallas crushed Miami in this series in every way except for premature celebration

I'm not sure how you can say they crushed Miami in every way when it was one of the closest finals in a decade in regards to scores.

Miami played very well and was in every single game only to have LeBron/the whole team struggle in the 4th quarter.

In no way, shape, or form is that the definition of crushing them or destroying them or any other word that defines a massive victory.

Yes, the Mavs crushed them in the 4th quarter of, pretty much, every game. And, the biggest win was 10 points in the final game.

There were 3 games decided by 2/3 points. That's not crushing someone.

Sports do tend to lead to results oriented thinking.

In sports, the only thing that counts are results.

I posted this on my facebook, but for those of u who arent FB friends with me.... awesome Lebron/MJ commercial, never more fitting than after the finals

In life the only thing that counts is results. Only the wise are even aware of the conundrum this presents when gauging the accuracy of quality.

Agreed, but if your point is that the results of this NBA finals is not indicative of the Heat's potential for future championships, all I can do is point to Lebron's failures in past playoffs as well.

More than that, nobody on his team looked like they wanted the ball in the 4th quarter of game six. His response was not to take control, but to throw up wild 3-pointers. Not the way a winner plays.

His talents make a big difference in the regular season, but in the playoffs, will > skill, and he has yet to show he has that will. Doesn't mean he'll never get it. But as of now, he has been tested several times and found wanting.

Like the Sedin twins in the Stanley cup, regular season success and skill doesn't translate into a championship if the other guys are willing to smack you in the mouth (figuratively in basketball, literally in hockey), and dare you to respond.

With Lebron and the heat, we'll see.

If the Heat win game six, Dirk would still have the reputation of choking in big games.

Dirk in '06 vs. the Spurs was pretty clutch. In 06 vs. the Heat, not clutch.

In '07 vs. the Warriors, not clutch. In 11 vs. the heat, clutch (but really only because he won).

Clutchness in sports is so vastly overrated and forgotten how poorly people were when people win. Lebron has been vastly so clutch in just about every series excluding the NBA finals and the year he figured out that he didn't want to stay in Ohio. Yes, Lebron hasn't done well in the Finals. These are supposed to be the best two teams in the finals, so not really all that surprising (and the Spurs were so much better than a one man team the first time around).

But somehow Dirk now has a ring and he'll forever be remembered as Mr. 4th quarter as opposed to the choker that he was before. If D. Wade makes the 2nd free throws in the 4th game, perhaps Lebron will now forever be remembered as the best of all time, and perhaps Dirk will be this era's Charles Barkley. But his free throw rimmed out and now all these experts are waying in how much Lebron sucks and how much Dirk is a god.

The greatness of a person in sports is so heavily weighted by some minute percentage point it is ridiculous.

It doesn't make any sense to offer alternative realities where things only go one way.

How can you say the above without also saying, "If Dallas won in 2006, Dirk would be known as an all-time big game player"?

Also, when you say "if the Heat win game six" you are entering a complete world of fantasy. In the 4th quarter the Heat were never even close. They really struggled to score, and often took low percentage shots to avoid a shot clock violation. It's not as if they lost because of a bad call or a single shot at the buzzer. They were simply outclassed.

Sidenote:

I think individual games are vastly overrated for how good a player is. Six games really is not a good barometer of how good a person is. But the spotlight is on so that is the way it works.

Sweet finals Dirk is the man

But he should not sing. :eek: