Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I know they don't play (much) zone, but if I were Miami, I'd consider trying some zone next game. You are really playing with fire against the Spurs with zone. I can see doing a little of that just to change things, but the best way to attack SA is by doing what the Heat usually do. The Heat were a step slow and the Spurs were playing out of their minds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeWolf990 Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 It is difficult to take people criticizing Lebron's off the ball play considering they don't know what his assignment is off the ball on most plays.Lebron hasnt played without the ball in his hands since he was maybe 8. I dont expect him to be great off theball. Miami's offense is get Lebron the ball and have him make decisions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Miami's offense is get Lebron the ball and have him make decisions. There are worse offenses to run frankly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I know they don't play (much) zone, but if I were Miami, I'd consider trying some zone next game. Or maybe they'll be able to look at the tape and figure out their rotations better. But they just got killed on the switch/double rotate and all game. The only times they made a run was when San Antonio got away from what they were doing and tried more individualism. To me, that game was more worrisome than any other blow out in the playoffs in terms of exposing what the other team does. Miami likes to play that helter skelter defense, and they just killed it. Other times, you see it as well they didn't make enough plays early (or the other team got a lot of plays), and then you just sort of lose control of the game. But I didn't really see that in that game. Agreed. But I still think SA shouldn't have been so successful passing the ball the way they did. A lot of those drive and kicks looked awkward or out of control but the ball found it's way to the SA shooter's hand anyway. There were several points where Kawhi and Manu were very close to traveling and they still got the shot or the pass off anyway. I think a lot of it was Miami just being sluggish and failing to make SA pay for being so aggressive. Miami has to match that kind of energy level somehow. Easier said than done but it's essential. Regarding your last two sentences, I agree. But I also think that big first quarter lead almost knocked Miami out because of how exhausting it is to try and sustain a comeback. And I do think Miami has shown a tendency this season to start slow, get down big early on, and then just sleepwalk through the rest of the game. I saw the same thing happen in the two games that the Wizards won against them during the season. Really big defensive breakdowns against a hot shooting team that eventually lead to a collapse in the energy and effort for the Heat. You are really playing with fire against the Spurs with zone. I can see doing a little of that just to change things, but the best way to attack SA is by doing what the Heat usually do. The Heat were a step slow and the Spurs were playing out of their minds. Yeah I wouldn't play zone against the Spurs. Too much passing and shooting. Miami is just going to have to play harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 (edited) I don't think there is much for Miami to do except play harder on defense and hope the Spurs miss. What does Van Gundy always say? It's a make or miss league. Both these teams are usually going to find a pretty good shot. San Antonio simply decided to make ALL of theirs last night. One thing the Spurs deserve a ton of credit for is their transition D. Miami lives off turnovers and easy buckets the other way. In game one, SA turned the ball over something like 23 times but only gave up 26 points. Usually Miami would be in the high 30s off that. Last night in the fourth there was a sequence where Lebron stole the ball from Diaw in the backcourt and got no points the other way and then one or two possessions later, Kawhi destroyed that breakaway layup from Allen. That's four points that never happened when Miami was trying to keep the lead in single digits. This would probably be a very different serious if Miami had been running and dunking in Game 1 off all those turnovers. The Spurs just don't let them get on a roll like that. Edited June 11, 2014 by Lombardi's_kid_brother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeWolf990 Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 There are worse offenses to run frankly.I dont disagree at all. Its lead to 2 rings and 4 straight final appearances. The point is Lebron has never had to play off the ball, except for year one of the Big 3. That finals against Dallas, dude just stood and watched Wade operate. It was painful to watch. I am just saying Lebron isnt the best off the ball, thats all. One thing the Spurs deserve a ton of credit for is their transition D. Miami lives off turnovers and easy buckets the other way. In game one, SA turned the ball over something like 23 times but only gave up 26 points. Usually Miami would be in the high 30s off that. Last night in the fourth there was a sequence where Lebron stole the ball from Diaw in the backcourt and got no points the other way and then one or two possessions later, Kawhi destroyed that breakaway layup from Allen. That's four points that never happened when Miami was trying to keep the lead in single digits.Green and Leonard are two of the best transition defenders in the NBA. Especially Green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chew Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 somebody get Tim Duncan a shovel.... cuz he dug DEEP in that Miami ass last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Duncan didn't do **** really, lol. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterMP Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Agreed. But I still think SA shouldn't have been so successful passing the ball the way they did. A lot of those drive and kicks looked awkward or out of control but the ball found it's way to the SA shooter's hand anyway. There were several points where Kawhi and Manu were very close to traveling and they still got the shot or the pass off anyway. I think a lot of it was Miami just being sluggish and failing to make SA pay for being so aggressive. Miami has to match that kind of energy level somehow. Easier said than done but it's essential. Regarding your last two sentences, I agree. But I also think that big first quarter lead almost knocked Miami out because of how exhausting it is to try and sustain a comeback. And I do think Miami has shown a tendency this season to start slow, get down big early on, and then just sleepwalk through the rest of the game. I saw the same thing happen in the two games that the Wizards won against them during the season. Really big defensive breakdowns against a hot shooting team that eventually lead to a collapse in the energy and effort for the Heat. Yeah I wouldn't play zone against the Spurs. Too much passing and shooting. Miami is just going to have to play harder. To me, what the Heat do has very similar concepts as a zone. There is a lot of help, move, recover to the shooter. The issue with last night is that they largely seemed to lose who was supposed to recover to who/where. Formally, playing a zone eliminates that issue. Yeah, you can/have to help, but you have to recover to this area right here. I do think the 1st quarter pretty much killed them. Even the first part of the first quarter. It is hard when that sort of thing happens to you, and it is easy to try and over correct, and it have a trickle down affect on offense (you fell like you have to do things to keep- I think Wade and Lebron tried to do too much at times on offense because of what happened on defense). It's odd to think of the Spurs being on fire because it wasn't like they were shooting bad shots or even abnormal shots. They were 7/10 from 3 pt. in the first half (the Heat were at 50%) I believe. That's good, but it wasn't like the one game last year where Green was hitting thing 3 ft. behind the line with a man his face. Green was on fire. They had a high shooting percentage, but they were getting a lot of good looks close to the basket and wide open high percentage 3's. If you just look at the shots, they were getting shots that the Spurs are going to make at a high rate. You've chalked it up to the Spurs being on fire in terms of their passing/catching (and I do think there were plays where people were close to travelling, but I'm not sure how many of those calls you are going to get in an NBA finals game even if they do happen.). It is a different idea. Like, I said maybe they will look at the tape and figure their rotations. Maybe they were just slow. But if I were a Heat fan, I'd be more worried after that game then I would have been after any of the blowouts that happened in the last round as a team that got blown out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrypticVillain Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Man, I don't know why Pops didn't start Diaw the first two games. He did it against the Thunder and it worked with Ibaka, I would thought he would do it again against Miami. So, I think the last twelve times Miami lost in the playoffs, they won the next game. And the Spurs had a double digit win in Game 1 and lost by 2 in game 2... If the above patterns continue, the Heat should beat the Spurs by 4 points tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Man the Spurs are so superbly coached. How sweet is it to know exactly where everyone is going to be on offense and know that your teammates are going to make the right plays and get where they need to go? I'm Patty Mills and I drive as hard as I can against a good defense that's going to make it very hard to keep my dribble and I KNOW my guy will be there without seeing him when I fling the ball back out to the perimeter as I'm losing my balance. And he'll probably make it if he catches and shoots. It must be nice to play for a team like that. Must be nice to be a Spurs fan and get to watch them every other night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Skip Bayless has turned every sports discussion into how a team "lost" a game rather than how a team "won" the game. The Spurs made the Heat look like a D-league team in the first half last night. It was a performance we should be praising. Instead, we're deciding that Lebron is mentally weak beacuse he did not will his team to shoot 80 percent in the first half. Yep, this is prevalent throughout sports now and it's annoying. Did the Redskins win the NFC East in 2012 or did the Cowboys lose it? More people nationally would point to Romo's 4th quarter TD that helped extend a 3-point lead into a 10-point lead rather than the remarkably clutch, 200-yard game turned in by our rookie RB to build that late lead our defense protected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiCkSoULjA Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Duncan didn't do **** really, lol. I know right, what the hell was youngchew watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chew Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 LOL. meant to say "Spurs," and was looking for a funny Duncan gif at the time. total brain fart (frequent for the Chewster). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveakl Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Thoughts on Miami going after Carmelo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chew Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Thoughts on Miami going after Carmelo? Disgusting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Thoughts on Miami going after Carmelo? Bad for the NBA. I may not even watch the finals if Melo, Lebron, Bosh, and Wade are on one team. If it's not competitive, it's garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergasun Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Not to sound like a hater, but there is an article I was reading about how Ginobioi, Duncan, and Parker all took less than the max to stay together. Yet it made everyone upset when the Heat players did it. On the flip side being in LA its easy to see how Kobe's cap number is a detriment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma There Goes That Man Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 ^^^ well the Spurs were all drafted together and built their chemistry, bond and success together before deciding to take less to stay together. They had also won a championship if I'm not mistaken. People hated the Heat because Lebron couldn't win in Cleveland, Bosh was irrelevant in Toronto and Wade was on a 20 win team, so they are perceived as taking the easy way out by joining forces. That's the difference with SA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chew Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) Not to sound like a hater, but there is an article I was reading about how Ginobioi, Duncan, and Parker all took less than the max to stay together. Yet it made everyone upset when the Heat players did it. All drafted by SA and spent their entire careers there Edited June 12, 2014 by Chew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma There Goes That Man Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Stephen A Smith who, for all his faults, seems to have good basketball sources, said IF Lebron finishes the last year of his contract instead of opting out and leaving and Melo does the same, there is a 95% chance they will team up the following year, could be NY or Miami. It makes sense for both. Lebron isn't dumb. He sees Wade all the time, he knows Father Time is nipping at his heels. Bron has to get to 6 rings period and Melo gives him another brilliant scorer in his prime. Melo wouldn't know what to so with himself with all the open jumpers he'd see with Lebron on the court. If they figure out a way to get him in Miami, game over. I think the Lakers have a legit chance at Melo tho because Kobe and Melo are buds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Miami can't afford Melo. Not without losing Wade (not going to happen) or Bosh (maybe). LeBron isn't leaving Miami either. Melo is much, much likelier to try and get to Chicago, Houston, or Dallas. I'd like to see him in Dallas personally, but Chicago makes a lot of sense for him too. But I think Melo might still stay in New York. It's not necessarily about basketball with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 For Miami to keep the big three and offer Melo a max contract, they'd have to get Wade and Bosh to opt out and take enormous paycuts. Basically cut their money in half, or more. Melo is still 100% a max player. Bosh is close. Wade isn't, but he's also not an 8-10 million per player either. There is no way Bosh and Wade will opt out of 20+ million dollars over the next two seasons this offseason. I doubt any of the big three exercise their ETO. Wade probably picks up his option next summer because a paycut will be coming after that. LeBron and Bosh might opt out just to sign another big long term deal with Miami--presumably their final big long term contracts. Unless Melo is willing to sign with Miami for the full MLE, he's not going there. They won't have anywhere close to the cap space they'd need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveakl Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=11068709 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Do Itch Big Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I would love to see LeBron, Melo, Wade, and Bosh on the same team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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