The Heat had plenty of holes. Credit to Carlisle for exposing them. Starting Barea looked foolish at the time, but in the end it helped turn the series around.
Nope. The Heat got great performances from their bench in this series and lost every one of those games.
They actually guarded Dirk pretty well. It was his timely buckets that killed them. You can't stop a 7 footer shooting fadeaway jump shots. it was a miracle that LBJ did not blow up on the media this year. The vitriol for somebody that did not say a peep all year, would have made me snap. Yes, he is a professional athlete, which means that he is probably arrogant. If he weren't, he wouldn't be a professional athlete. he needs a "meaness" infusion from Dwyane Wade. Heat will be fine. This was a good start.
Not as good at stat collection as others - how many minutes did others (Kobe, MJ) average compred to LeBron? The thing that I found surprising was that he played so many minutes and still didn't have huge numbers - even with the triple double. Of course, playing that many minutes may help explain WHY he wasn't as effective, too.
The people criticizing LBJ for his response to the "Haters" question last night are just ridiculous. What he said was absolutely true. what was he supposed to say, "Yes, people are right for hating me because of an hour long tv show. I beg their forgiveness" Please. I expect LBJ will get a stron show of support when Spo/riles have their season ending PC's, as he should. The guy is spectacular, a below average series notwithstanding. We will be back, stronger than we were this season. Regardless of what provacateurs like Whitlock say, the "Big 3" concept was a smashing success and would have won a title this season had we simply held on to some late leads. Regardless of what Rick Carlisle says, the victory by the Mavs was not some culture war for the soul of the NBA. The Mavs didn't build crap through the draft outside of Nowitzki. Every single other player they counted on was acquired through trade or free agency.
yes, and the dirty little secret is that the Mavs had a 90 million payroll and the Heat had a 60 million payroll. Yet the Heat was the one that "tried to buy it".
The film shows that he was "thinking" too much and his aggressiveness was off. The series he had was all on him. he had help. it happens. Int he end, LBJ averaged basically 18, 7 and 7 on 48% shooting in the finals. Great for anybody else, not great for him. He needed to be better.
You have to just deal with it......who cares....It reminds me of everytime the Yankees do not win a championship, people come out of nowhere to popshot....overal it is just funny.....
Averaging 3 points in the 4th quarter of the Finals does not make ANYONE great. The only reason the average was that high was because he scored 7 last night in the 4th. That stat is PATHETIC!
I'm fairly certain it was only a few weeks ago that you posted, "Bow before your new gods." It is sports - if you want to be cocky, you have to take some flak when you lose. No one has been cockier than Heat fans, and no one has taken more crap for losing than them.
I guess my question was if you put it in a "per 48 minutes" basis - were his stats even less impressive due to the minutes he played. I thought I saw a stat that over 48 minutes the average NBA player would score 17 pts. As a Heat fan did this make you more or less confident? On one level, the Heat made the Finals, the quick-fix role players that filled out the roster played really well and you have an offseason to upgrade the few that didn't. But on another level - LeBron was a major reason for not winning. Not saying he lost you the championship, but if he plays at his normal level, you're wearing a ring right now. Does this concern you guys going into next year that there is a fundamental flaw, or do you see this series as a fluke?
No flaw. He needs to work on some things. The Heat first ran their weave play in a game vs. Houston in march. They first ran a PLAY 22 games in. They actually used their elbow sets in December. This season all year was a learning process. Building chemistry. The team is good enough to beat the Mavs if they defend like they usually defend. They could have survived LBJ's subpar performance. They were fine while they beat up on Boston and Chicago. The matchups vs. Dallas hurt them,a and they were obvious...Bibby gave them nothing, and THE WARDEN while great as a rotation big , has trouble with 7 footers. he is best while guarding PF's like Amare, Boozer, etc... the Heat have 7 rotation guys as the nucleus. they need to add 2 MORE real pieces (Big guy, and a shoot first PG) and then fill out the bottom of the roster. I would also explore adding a defensive specialist wing player. they will be back, again and again.
I certainly don't think LBJ has some kind of fundamental flaw. That kind of talk is fun for sports radio and message boards but it's not reality. To get to the level LBJ has, you have to be extremely confident and extremely great. He is both those things. He didn't play great this series so he gets branded a choker. When he wins next year he'll be clutch, then if he loses again he'll be a choker. Just like Peyton Manning or A-Rod. Certain guys are just so damn good that nothing short of ultimate success every year is acceptable and even when you achieve that ultimate success you're simply doing what you should be doing, rather than being lauded for accomplishing something great. This is just the mind set of the American sports fan. We really don't like guys who were supposed to great. Even Jordan was the guy who got cut in high school and "willed" himself to greatness. We prefer guys like Jeter, who is really talented but seems scrappy, smaller guys like Wade who play bigger than their size, we prefer Tom Brady, the 6th round skinny guy who made good, etc.
How many times did they get out in transition the last few games? Their defense was the driving force behind their offense. They were never a good half-court team offensively.
I thought you guys settled for too many jumpshots at times and had a lot of turnovers passing the ball, mainly because they left their feet.
It's simply acceptable. Kind of like how you can still make fun of fat people. When Mark Cuban feels no need to refrain from bashing Miami fans minutes after he has won the title (and seriously dude, that's what you were thinking about?) then it's ok for everybody.
Seriously. The guy *****es and complains for years about conspiracy theories that keep him from winning while his team's annual chokejobs become a thing of legend.... he gets some COUGH..favorable officiating and wins the title. What does he do? MINUTES after the buzzer..he bashes heat fans. Then of course offers glowing remarks about the Heat organization a day later. But really..you win and your first thoughts are about the opposing team's fans?
Probably has something to do with your guys comments. Look at Sections comment above his avatar, look at your comment that you made the other day saying this year would be year 1 of 6 titles, and other comments that are made. Things like that will get you crapped on, especially when you come up short on your prediction despite the astronomical confidence. I don't really get why some Heat fans are playing victim all of a sudden after all season loving the criticism. Had the Heat won the title, you guys wouldn't give a rats *** about other peoples thoughts because you could say your team was better than theirs - but that isn't the case, well at least not better than Dallas.
The guy played himself into a contract. How do you deny him a contract? He closes out Philly..comes up huge in spots versus Boston, then contributes in defending Rose, then has a good Finals. Yep...$$$$$$$ He is a backup next year. A valuable one at that.
My comment under my avatar was directed at the chief haters. Namely the Celtics, Magic, Laker and Bulls fans. It applies.
And I'm sure if any Dallas fans were talking trash, it wouldn't be an issue. The issue is that it appears everyone is now a fan of 29 NBA teams, depending on who the Heat are playing. The only people that should be celebrating today are Mavs fans. They earned it. People who have rooted against Miami purely out of hate are not winners.
Ah, but it could be misconstrued, as you see. Its why some people may feel that way toward Heat fans.
I don't really see why it wouldn't be an issue. If they did the same thing, I'm sure some people would be against them. Actually not some, but a lot. As for your second sentence, why is it an issue now opposed to it not being an issue months ago?
No, but they do hear the Heat fans. There's Heat fans outside of those two sites, obviously, so they wouldn't have to go to those two sites to read the comments. Btw, why cut out the rest of that response? I think its true, is it not?
Because months ago people were still rooting for their teams. Celtics fans were rooting for the Celtics to win, not for the Heat to lose. Their motivation was derived from the desire to win. People celebrating the Heat's loss now are doing so purely out of hate. Personally, I will cheer for my teams until I die, but I would never cheer for anyone to lose.
This..............................This is just foolish.....This is boarderline too much....you dont see this in any other sport, just saying....this is fighting sh*t right here.... http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011/06/13/deshawn-stevensons-t-shirt-hey-lebron-hows-my-dirk-taste/
I don't really think so. People still root for their teams, but they still root against others. It is in all sports; see Miami Dolphins fans rooting against New York Jets. The Jets hatred in you says otherwise.
What a ******. He does so much childish things, like the walking to toward the Heat bench yesterday after hitting the three and they called time out. Was that even necessary? Act like you been there before, IMO.
Except for the last game of the finals they simply weren't getting the calls. I have never seen one team drive to the basket so much more than the other and end up with such large FT shooting deficits. The Heat wins many of their games b/c they get the other team into the penalty. That's where Wade/Lebron get a large portion of their 4th qtr points. The Heat really didn't play much differently in the finals, but it was called differently than it had been during the season and in every other playoff series. The Mavs still committed those fouls but they just weren't called. I believe that if the finals had been called like every other series the Heat could easily have won games 2, 3 and 4. Games 5 and 6 were just lights out shooting by the Mavs (and 6 also had horrid FT shooting by the Heat).
He reminds me of that person who has someone else do the dirty work for him and then brags about it afterwards.
To each their own. I'm not going to even go into that because it will be a wasted argument considering we will never come to an agreement.
