Game Thread: NBA FINALS!!! SA vs MIA

[bksballer89]

Another thing that goes overlooked is that miami has a better starting lineup matchup wise than last year finals. Lewis spread the floor obviously better than haslem can and he has more size on defense than miller did.

 

[gordontrue]

If you were given the choice, at the beginning of the playoffs of 2 different paths to the Finals:

Mavs, Blazers, Thunder (-Ibaka for 1st 2 games)
Bobcats, Nets, Pacers

Which would you take?

Some people will scoff at this, downplaying the danger of the Nets and the Pacers. That's easy to do in hindsight after the Heat handled them both with relative ease. And some people will overrate the Mavs because they took the Spurs to 7 games.

But if this question was posed at the beginning of the playoffs, I think you'd get a good split of which path people would chose.

 

[bksballer89]

Obviously in round 1 everyone would take Charlotte but rounds 2 and 3 would be split especially when you consider the injury to ibaka & the lack of experience for Portland compared to the experience nets team.

 

[trojanfan12]

I would have taken the Bobcats over the Mavs in round 1 (the Mavs would have been something like a #3 seed in the East), the Blazers over the Nets in round 2 (the experience factor that bks mentioned) and the Pacers in round 3 because they were obviously going to fold as soon as a decent team put pressure on them.

 

[Kold]

Jeez Heat fans...Barkley AND Stephen a smith took Miami.

 

[bksballer89]

Stephen a took miami? Wow that's surprising. He made it seem as if he was taking the spurs all weekend.

 

[RobToxin]

Must must must.

The Spurs must win at home. Period!

They do not want to go to Miami 1-1 and they damn sure don't want to go to Miami down 3-2.

Either scenario and Miami will take the title home.

 

[raptorlife4]

Obviously in round 1 everyone would take Charlotte but rounds 2 and 3 would be split especially when you consider the injury to ibaka & the lack of experience for Portland compared to the experience nets team.

Ibaka missed 2 fucking games stp making that excuse

Anyone who thinks the Heat had an easier route is smoking fucking crack
Blazers,Mavs and Thunder would all be top 3 seeds inthe East

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Stephen a took miami? Wow that's surprising. He made it seem as if he was taking the spurs all weekend.

As long as Skip takes SA I think MIA will be alright.

 

[Shanemansj13]

As long as Skip takes SA I think MIA will be alright.

He will take SA every time

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

Oklahoma City even without Serge Ibaka is still better than Indiana.
Indiana was a mess. They might have been the weakest #1 seed ever that somehow advanced.
The team that played in the ECFinals would not have beaten a single west team.


Dallas went 49-33. They have been to the playoffs 14 out of 15 years.
Charlotte has NEVER WON A PLAYOFF GAME in history.
Miami should know full well how dangerous an overlooked Dallas team is in post-season..


Maybe 54 win Portland is easier than the 44 win New Jersey.
It is a tough argument since Portland won 10 more games in the harder conference, but I can entertain it. But, although NJ had experienced players.....they were not experienced together.


...........


Nobody (and I mean nobody) would rather have played Dallas, Portland, and OKC.


That is just ridiculous homerism at its worst.

 

[bksballer89]

Indy just hit a funk and never got out of it. I bet if you asked people around the as break if indy can beat those teams, I would say that ppl would favor them against 5 of the 8 western conference teams

 

[gordontrue]

Oklahoma City even without Serge Ibaka is still better than Indiana.
Indiana was a mess. They might have been the weakest #1 seed ever that somehow advanced.
The team that played in the ECFinals would not have beaten a single west team.


Dallas went 49-33. They have been to the playoffs 14 out of 15 years.
Charlotte has NEVER WON A PLAYOFF GAME in history.
Miami should know full well how dangerous an overlooked Dallas team is in post-season..


Maybe 54 win Portland is easier than the 44 win New Jersey.
It is a tough argument since Portland won 10 more games in the harder conference, but I can entertain it. But, although NJ had experienced players.....they were not experienced together.


...........


Nobody (and I mean nobody) would rather have played Dallas, Portland, and OKC.


That is just ridiculous homerism at its worst.

In hindsight, it certainly is. But going into the playoffs, I think it would have been a legitimate debate.

Despite their records no one was taking Dallas or Portland very seriously. New Jersey started the season bad but got hot down the stretch (opposite of Portland). Indiana was in full free-fall mode at that point, but still the #1 seed in the East.

I think it depends on what team you're thinking of taking the path. As a heat fan, the Spurs route would've looked appealing. Indiana had always given Miami trouble so to avoid them and the Boston-Reincarnated-Nets in favor of inexperienced Blazers and Not-Fully-Healthy Thunder (who the Heat have played well against recently) would be tempting.

Again, no one (speaking generally, of course) thought much of the Mavs or Blazers until the Mavs took the Spurs to 7 and the Blazers manhandled the Rockets. The other 6 west teams were the ones getting the attention.

 

[bksballer89]

Damn near everyone had the spurs sweeping or beating dallas in 5 when the matchup was set. All of sudden because they took the spurs 7, they're some great team

 

[Shanemansj13]

Oklahoma City even without Serge Ibaka is still better than Indiana.
Indiana was a mess. They might have been the weakest #1 seed ever that somehow advanced.
The team that played in the ECFinals would not have beaten a single west team.


Dallas went 49-33. They have been to the playoffs 14 out of 15 years.
Charlotte has NEVER WON A PLAYOFF GAME in history.
Miami should know full well how dangerous an overlooked Dallas team is in post-season..


Maybe 54 win Portland is easier than the 44 win New Jersey.
It is a tough argument since Portland won 10 more games in the harder conference, but I can entertain it. But, although NJ had experienced players.....they were not experienced together.


...........


Nobody (and I mean nobody) would rather have played Dallas, Portland, and OKC.


That is just ridiculous homerism at its worst.

The difference is defense. SA is the only team in the West that plays some sort of defense. Not saying the east teams will beat them bc they are more defensive minded, but it still gives them a chance.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

I would rather take any east route than any west route to the Finals...unless IND was in January form then I would take any west route...or maybe not.


If MIA is in the West then "January IND" is coming out of the East and you have to play them anyways. But then you also had to at least play either OKC and SA as well as LAC, GSW and other better teams than the rest of the East.

No matter what you take the East where you will only have to play 2 good teams (1 in ECF and 1 in Finals). In the West you are guaranteed to play at least 2 good teams and probably more (even though SA did not play 1 healthy good team).

So now I am back to the SA west route being the best, only because OKC was injured...but then MIA didn't have to face "January IND" either so...


I think we should all just agree that thanks to immaturity and health SA and MIA had the 2 easiest paths to the Finals.

 

[Jims_Doors]

Sucks that there's no game Saturday night. Be nice to have some beers w/o worrying about getting up for work.

 

[Retroram52]

Ought to be a fun finals to watch.

 

[trojanfan12]

Ought to be a fun finals to watch.

If it's even half as good as last year, it will still be great.

 

[RobToxin]

As long as Skip takes SA I think MIA will be alright.

Cot damn Skip Clueless is a Spurs fan?

These are dark days indeed for the San Antonio franchise!