NBA Chronicles, Monday June 18

Well, the Miami Heat pulled out a very nice win yesterday. The game seemed to swing in the Heat's favor when Durant got into some foul trouble late in the 3rd quarter, and for some reason Scott Brooks decided to sit down Russell Westbrook at the same time. During this period, the Thunder actually kept the lead that they had already built up, until the two stupid fouls on 3-point shooters that gift-wrapped 6 points for Miami. From that point on, the Heat seemed to take over the game. One of the reasons why this happened, James Harden. He has put in 2 bad games so far in the three games in this series and was very ineffective offensively last night.

The Heat shot 17% on shots outside of 10 feet last night, which shows that they got back to their strength, attacking the basket. If Miami can play like this for the rest for the series, combined with Harden's issues, then the end is very near for OKC.

More on this tomorrow.

Roger Clemens, Who Cares?

Honestly, I have no idea why the government decided to use so much money to try and prove that he and Barry Bonds lied. Guess how many guilty verdicts they got?

Guess!

0 guilty verdicts.

This whole case doesn't matter, no one's opinion about him will ever change, so this whole trial was pointless

But hey, people are talking about it (or how dumb it is).

NBA Finals Chronicles, Sunday June 17

Okay, Game 3 tonight and this is a very important game in this series. Usually, when a series is tied at 1, Game 3 proves to be a very pivotal in determining the winner of the series. I expect the Thunder to take at least one of the game in South Beach, and this will be the one. Unfortunately, they are not making the right move and starting James Harden for some extra offense at the beginning of the game so that they don't get off to such a bad start. Despite this, I feel that OKC will find a way to not fall into an early hole because if they do, they do not have a chance to beat the Heat who were 28-5 at home during the regular season. Scott Brooks may sub in Harden faster than usual if his team gets down by a little bit, but I see all of the right moves being made in this game.

Westbrook will probably make the only adjustment that he needs to, run the offense better. I do not think that he should stop shooting completely, but he needs to play and shoot more in the flow of the offense.

The Thunder shall come away with the win here.

Unless LeBron runs the Kobe System (to dominate)

NBA Finals Chronicles, Saturday June 16

Since there was no game yesterday nor is there a game tonight, I'm going to spend this post criticizing the format of the series. The 2-3-2 system does not work at all. 2-2-1-1-1 is more fair to both teams. With the current situation in this series, being tied 1-1, the road team has the advantage. By taking one game in OKC, Miami has the opportunity to close out the series at home in 5 games. The home team has won the middle 3 games only twice since this format was adopted, but it is expected that the Heat will win 2 out of 3. They are pretty good at home, but it is hard to beat a team 3 times in a row, so they will most likely take 2 games. Now, going into Game 6, the Heat will be leading 3 games to 2, putting an enormous amount of pressure on the Thunder to win 2 games in a row. The point of home court advantage is to reward one team for having a better record, but all the road team needs to do is steal Games 1 or 2, and that changes everything. This format is not helping anyone, and the 2-2-1-1-1 format is a much better way to do things

NBA Finals Chronicles, Friday June 15

Turns out that the Thunder started off the games even worse than they had started Game 1. They were down 18-2 and dug themselves into a gigantic hole, which they eventually came back from, but the lead was too much for them to ever tie the game or take the lead. It was a coast-to-coast victory for the Heat, who got a major boost from one Mr. Shane Battier. Serge Ibaka enjoys roaming around down low ready to erase someone's attack on the basket with a block. He is not used to closing out on a three-point shooter, allowing for a lot of open looks for Battier.

There seems to be a lot of hate for Russell Westbrook today. Most of this criticism is centered around the fact that Westbrook does not play like a traditional point guard and does not spend a lot of his time setting up for his teammates. My feelings are a bit different, that's just not his game. I do feel however, that he needs to stop jacking up shots for no reason. He is very good at creating his own shot, and can create for teammates when he really needs to, but in the 1st quarter yesterday, he didn't create anything. He repeatedly brought the ball to the frontcourt to simply take a quick jumper early in the shot clock. That is not what he needs to be doing. He started off the game 0-for-7 and that was very costly for his team. He played well afterwards, but his tendency to put up ill-advised shots helped OKC fall into the big 16 point deficit to start off the game.

Chris Bosh was a big factor during this game. His 16 points were nice for Miami to have, but it was his 15 rebounds that really swung this game in the favor of the Heat. After the 5 boards that he grabbed in game 1, his rebounding ability gave the Heat more offensive opportunities, and allowed them, to score on the fastbreak off of defensive rebounds.

Dwyane Wade played much better than he did on Tuesday. His ability to attack the basket gave more opportunities to the perimeter shooter of Miami. He actually looked like Dwyane Wade instead of the bootleg Wade clone that we all saw in Game 1.

That foul at the end of the game, was in fact a foul, but you cannot blame that missed call for the Thunder losing the game. They did it to themselves by falling behind so early, and it's unfortunate that they wasted such a great comeback.

NBA Finals Chronicles, Thursday June 14

My predictions for tonight's matchup, I say that the Thunder will win, but it will be a closer game than Game 1. The Heat will start strong and will get out to an early lead, but not by much. It will be somewhere around a 3 point game at halftime and then OKC will pull away from there. I do expect more minutes form James Harden and for him top play better, meaning that there will be less Derek Fisher, because Thabo Sefolosha is essential in this series.

NBA Finals Chronicles, Wednesday June 13

Wow, that was a great game last night from the Thunder. The game started off with the momentum in the favor of Miami, with a couple of 3s by Shane Battier. The Heat dominated the first quarter and were up by 7 going into halftime. LeBron James was hitting shots and the team, other than Dwyane Wade (more on that later), looked to be clicking. But, just when you count out OKC, the thunder starts rolling. They were able to erase a 13 point deficit and end the 3rd quarter with a 1 point lead, which they never gave up. The Thunder have now made a comeback victory from at least 13 points down in every series in this postseason. The reason why the Thunder won is because they are younger and deeper than the Miami Heat. The Heat only used 8 players, and 2 of those bench players only played a combined 12 minutes. The Thunder had an 8-man rotation outside of Cook's 3 minutes. The Heat just looked tired and worn out by the end of the game. LeBron had a great game, but he put the team on his back  for so long that he couldn't even help at a certain point. With the Thunder putting Thabo Sefolosha on him in the 4th quarter, he just did not have the strength to get by him with consistency. That's not a knock on James, it's a result of the fact that he does not get much offensive help and he has to expend so much energy defensively. Outside of the fact that the Heat role players did not help him at all in the second half, the other two members of the Big 3 did not play up to their standards. The Heat got a combined 29 points from Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Bosh did not even attempt a single layup during the game, and he spent his time on the floor camping out of the perimeter, which is okay, but he really needs to get down low more. The Heat only had 40 points in the paint while the Thunder had 56, a big difference. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were able to attack the basket effectively, more effectively than the Heat were able to. Nick Collison gave OKC a big boost off the bench with 8 points, 10 rebounds, and infinite energy. He took a lot of Perkins's minutes, which is a trend that I expect to continue during this series. A lot has been made about the Miami Heat's ability to score in transition, but were outscored 24-4 in the transition game. The Thunder's ability to attack the basket and to run the floor effectively spells great doom for the Miami Heat in this series.

Now it's time for the attack on Dwyane Wade. He has not played well at all since the end of the Indiana series. In the first halves of games against Boston, he was consistently ineffective. He eventually ended up with decent numbers, but by hitting very difficult shots in the second half. The Heat need him to start off stronger. By starting off the games slowly, this causes LeBron James to need to shoulder the bulk of the load for the team and get tired by the end of the game. He didn't even play well in the second half yesterday. He ended the game with 19 points on 7 of 19 shooting, which is not at all what the Heat need from him. He wasn't able to create shots for himself, and even the shots that he did hit were tough contested and fading shots.

This is the worst part of the game for the Heat. The Beard, aka James Harden. He was non-existent last night, meaning that the Thunder beat the Heat by 11 points, without a good game from Harden. He only played 22 minutes and scored just 5 points. A lot more will be expected from him for the rest of the series, and he most likely will deliver. This is a bad sign for Miami, because a better James Harden means more points on the board for OKC, and that doesn't help the Heat's cause at all.

NBA Finals Chronicles, Tuesday June 12

Here comes the prediction train. I addressed yesterday how good this series will be and here is what will happen. It is well known that the strength of the best players on the Heat, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, is  driving to the basket. Against the Boston Celtics, they could get to the hoop very easily because the Celtics lack a great shot blocker in the middle. Stiemsma and Garnett are no slouches, but Serge Ibaka is the best shot blocker in the NBA. The inside pressure of the Thunder bigs will force the Heat away from the paint, taking away one of the things that they do best. This, is why Chris Bosh is such a major key to this series. Being a jump-shooting forward, his shots will keep Ibaka on the perimeter, and he can't live up to the Iblocka nickname. Obviously Bosh is not going to hit three 3-pointers like in Game 7 against Boston, but the Heat need him not only to hit shots, but to be used as a decoy to keep Ibaka out of the painted area. Notice the fact that I have yet to mention Kendrick Perkins. This is because Perkins is such an offensive liability, that Scott Brooks will be better off using him very sporadically. With Perk on the floor, the Thunder will be playing 4-on-5 offensively, which against the Miami Heat is not something that any team wants to do. The Heat put too many points on the board to play shorthanded in the halfcourt offense. In place of Perkins, there may be a lot of Nick Collison during this series, and sometimes he may switch positions with Ibaka to keep Serge in the paint. Another line-up tweak that the Thunder can make, is to go small, with Durant playing the 4 and Ibaka playing the 5. This is yet another way to keep Ibaka in the paint, mainly because the centers of Miami are not offensive threats at all. Defensively, OKC may use a lot of Sefolosha on James when they go small, which should be very often. Do not expect to see 48 minutes of head-to-head Durant on James because that will not happen. On the other side however, because LeBron is an All-World defender, he will guard Durant for the majority of the series. Westbrook and Harden will both have pretty good defenders on them, but it looks like Westbrook can wear out Chalmers after a while, and take over later in the game. No matter what the situation is, smart play from Westbrook will give the Thunder a much better chance at winning. If he does not try to take over all by himself, which is something that he tried to do against San Antonio, and passes in the right spots, then he will be a big factor in the favor of the Thunder.
A part of this series that should not be understated, is the home-court advantage of the former Seattle Supersonics. The crowd at the Chesapeake Energy Arena is very electric. They give a true advantage to their team, unlike the often quiet Miami Heat fans. The fact that role players tend to play better at home seems to swing this series in the favor of the Thunder. Obviously at some point this series, there will be a LeBron takeover game in which he cannot be stopped. The Heat will win that game, but other than that, the Thunder are a better team collectively. The 2-3-2 format is an advantage to the Thunder because it is very rare for the home team to sweep the middle 3 games. It is because of this that I say, drum roll please:

Oklahoma City Thunder Win In 6 Games

NBA Finals Chronicles, Monday June 11

I'm back and I'm waiting. I'm basically foaming at the mouth waiting for this series to start. It should be a completely incredible series filled with jump-out-of-your-seat dunks and other super athletic plays, Kendrick Perkins complaining, the Heat complaining, Perkins having a stare-down with either LeBron or Wade, and overall great basketball and entertainment. My predictions for the series will come tomorrow, but I just wanted to get out there that I can't wait for this series. I'm so excited

Break

I'm going to take a break from this blog until the Summer due to time constraints. I'll be back in full strength after Finals