NBA Finals (Page 3)

I am, but i'm being objective.  Actually if Miami has to loose to someone i couldnt have picked a better team, i like the Mavs a lot.

I dont think Miami is highly favored, i do think they have an advantage, because in basketball anytime that you have 3 of the best 4 players in the series you should be the favorite, but i hardly think it will be an easy series for either team.  On the other hand, most "experts" not fans, are the ones picking miami in 5, 6 games tops, which i think is ridiculous to be that certain.

I don't think Miami sweeps Dallas, so I can't say Miami in 4.  Ideally, I'd guess Miami in 6, but if Dallas' back is to the wall, I don't see them losing Game 6 at home...so, I'll say it's either Miami in 5 or 7.

Would I put money down on this series, oh heck no!!!!!  Anything could happen.  

This is what I don't like about the 2-3-2 format, I think it's tough to beat any team three times in a row, especially late in the playoff,   so I'm hoping the mav's can win one of the first 2, to even it up.

I watched game 6 of the 06 finals again yesterday and I forgot what a great game it was. Dirk was 30/15, but didn't have a lot of help. Miami's older vets looking for their first title played great.  The team had 10 blocks, A. Mourning i think had 5 of them, Ant. Walker hit some big shots at the right time,  G. Payton was playing well, it was still a time game with under a minute to play.  Miami did what I just said above is tough to do, win those middle three in a row, and closed out a tough road win.

I think this has the makings of a great series.  Since Dallas is somewhat like that 06 heat team, one main guy, and lots of older vets that play well at the right time, and with the exception of  O'Neal, A.Mourning, G. Payton, J.williams, A. walker were playing for thier first title.   Also Pat Riley way outcoached Avery ( who I despised so much fireavery.com was my catch phrase) 

In fact Dallas is the type of a team that shouldn't succeed.. only one true top player. Unlike Miami or other recent title teams that have 2-3 top guys

I'm pretty excited to see what happens even if I couldn't get tickets online.. I might wander down and see what the scalpers are charging though.

ETA.. pretty much everything I've read has Miami as the favorite, and they should be really with two of the top five players in the game.   I think it will feed into the Mav's outlook as the underdog which they have been for the entire playoffs

OOPS!  I screwed that up...with a 2-3-2 series, I'm officially going with Heat in 6.  I think Miami will win both at home, then take 1 of 3 in Dallas, then take the series at home in Game 6.

Once again it seemed like the Heat had an extra gear that their opponent couldnt match.  This first game was the one that Dallas needed to get, Miami shot very poorly and the Mavs couldnt take advantage of it.

You could tell that the Mavs hadn't played against a defense like Miami's so far.  Game 2 will be crucial for them.

The extra gear doesnt have to be a blow out...The Mavs went almost 4 minutes wihtout scoring in the last quarter.  The game was pretty much over with 3 minutes left and the lead up to 12, that last 3 pointer by Kidd was meaningless.

The rebounding problems will be present all series long.  When your power forward hangs around the 3 point land most of the time those things will happen.  It is never good when the shooting guard of the opposite team outrebounds the power forward.

Mavs have to find a way to have a decent lead entering the last 5 minutes of the game.  If they are tie with Miami at that point, 9 out of 10 times they will loose.

Dude  You really need to get off the dirk hate-orade and watch the game.   I don't mind since it's pretty obvious you are just being a home team fan. But just because people say something all the time doesn't make it true.  Since dirk is a great shooter everyone assumes that he is outside shooting., or hanging around outside.  Most of his shots are withing 10-12 feet of the basket.  Through the first half of the season he had more points in the paint than  Bosh percentage wise.  just look it up at any of the NBA stat sites that chart this stuff.

  He posts up at the foul line instead of down low so he can use his mobility and shooting ability to his best advantage. If he has a small person on him he shoots over, if it's a big, he drives around him. If anything it's Dallas using being in their zone that hurts them come rebounding time,  last night players were releasing down court a bit earlier than usual which was a double whammy in the zone 

Miami's defense wasn't that great for the majority of the game.  The mavs were getting the shots that they wanted, they just didn't go in. It happens some nights.   there were quite a few passes that just flew out of bounds on them, which had nothing to do with the defense, just careless turnovers that they get in a habit of doing when they are swinging the ball around,

I think it was the 3rd quarter with 6min left that Miami put on a nice run that told me the mavs were not winning that night.  You could just see that they were flat and Miami had the energy. I forgoet who it was that get free for an easy dunk and both Chandler and Dirk were thinking the other was taking the person in the zone, both were about three feet away from him when he scored. 

I thought the calls pretty much sucked both ways,  there were more than a few were I was wondering what did the ref see for both sides.

Dude, what previous comment I have made indicates that I’m “hate-orading” Dirk?  I watched the game, actually I was at the game and what I mentioned it was plain obvious and it has been that way for most of his career, nothing new.  Yes he attacks the rim, more now than ever, but he is mostly a fade away shooter and that’s why his rebounding numbers are low for what they should be for a 7’1 power forward.

And of course, Dallas is getting all the shots they want and they are just missing, the defense has nothing to do with it.  They just shot their lowest percentage of the playoffs and it has nothing to do with the defense.  I think you should pay a little bit more attention to the actual game and not what you want it to be .

Am I a Heat fan, dam right I am, I go to as many games as I can and have suffered through some tough seasons, but I’m pretty objective analyzing the games of which I’m a big fan.  As I have mentioned before, I like Dallas and I love the way Dirk plays.  I normally root for them when the Heat is not in contention; unfortunately they are playing the Heat this series.

Both teams shot poorly, but to say Miami's defense was not that great is off base.   Another S. Florida native and Heat fan here, but come on, they were distrupting majority of the plays for Dirk.   He will score regardless, but he had an otherwise quiet night.  I was concerned when Miami started to play Dallas' game behind three point line, but they shot better than expected.   Dallas is a great 3 point team and I think Miami made a commitment to shutting down inside game and in the 2nd half they started to put more preasure on the perimeter.   The point is that Miami simply has better 2-way players IMHO.   There is skill all over the court, but I am much more excited seeing Terry guard Wade or Kidd on anybody.  Joel Anthony was being abused by Dirk so glad they switched the defense on him.  Haslem did an outstanding job.  

Overall, great game and had me biting nails till about 3 minutes to go.   Looking forward to game 2 and seeing if Wade continues to improve out of his slump.   Seemed to be back to old form. 

I'm not saying the Heat played bad defense,, never have.  I'm saying the mavs were missing wide open shots that had nothing to do with the defense.. Did the heat make some good defensive plays, of course, does that mean they 'locked them down the whole game" like people are implying, not a chance..   In fact I was kind of amazed that Bosh blocked JJ berea.. not that I don't think he can.. but that little guy has been driving team nuts and someone finally said, lets try to block the 5"10 guys shot for once.

 With the whole shooting percentage logic going on,, think of this.  Both teams shot under 40% for the game,,  Does that mean that the Mavs played great defense and took Miami out of the game. Heck no.  The first quarter either set or tied a record for lowest combined points in the shot clock era.  It wasnt' due to great defense by either team.

From around 3 min left of the 3rd quarter on Miami was the better team, and they should have won. 

Great come back by the Mavs, awesome win.....The Heat had them on the side of the cliff and didn't push them, they took advantage of that and punched the Heat in the face.

Miami got complacent with the lead and started to take bad shots and play lazy defense and they paid for it, i left the Arena still not believing what had just happened......Congratulations to Mavs fans, now i just hate to wait until Sunday.

 I"m just jealous you got seats.    Since Miami clearly won the highlight reel dunk contest, those were some awesome ones, it would have been great to be in the crowd.. I hope you had good seats

The last 4-5 minutes of the first half I thought miami played incredible defense, the mavs were moving the ball well and the heat rotated well. forcing a couple of shot clock violations.  My only hope at that time was that Miami would get tired either phyisally or mentally and the "D" would break down sometime.  Little did I know that the mavs were going to employ their dreaded Dunk Denfense, where the other team gets to throw down as many highlight reel dunks as possible, only to get tired late in the game.. Brilliant coaching on that call

What really amazed me and this is a compliment was when the mavs were playing some great "D" also, how LeBron could get seperation and nail an outside jumper, there were a couple of good camera angles where he had the ball with the shot clock going under 5 seconds and he created a tough shot and nailed it. It's nice to be the best player possible

What the announcers were talking about most of the game was that while Miami was getting those shots it was still a one or two Possesion  game most of the time

So while they even commented it felt like a 20 point lead at the time it was one a 4 or 5 point lead, that the mavs just kept hanging on

argh formatting issues,   I hope the rest of the games are this good, and the Mavs win of course

Yeah I had pretty good seats, halfway lower level, and yeah they put a highlight reel for a while there.

The game had its swings.  The first half I felt like Miami was lucky to be that close, Dallas was shooting great and going to the free throw line often.  With 3 min to go in the first half Dallas had shot 14 FT to Miami 2.  Then the heat closed the first half in a run and evened things out.

Second half Miami made their run, but when they got the lead they started to settle for horrible shots and not attack the basket plus Dallas also contributed to that with some good defense.  On the other hand, Miamis defense when down the toilet, that last possession was too easy for Dirk, specially when Miami had a foul to give.

This series just got extremely interesting, if Miami would have won I would have said that the series was over.  Now Miami is forced to win 2 in Dallas if they want to come back with the series lead and not be forced to sweep at home.  No matter the outcome of these series both teams will look back at this  game as a key moment.

The Mavs should've been credited with assists on all those Miami dunks in the beginning of the 4th quarter.  They were giving it to Miami on a platter.  If they take care of the ball, the rest of this series will be good... but if not, I don't think they'll pull off another comeback like this one.

totally agree, the old adage of it's not a series till a team loses a home game has happened.

I just don't see any team beating the heat three straight games, so I relieved the mavs got a split on the first two games. Mostly I just dispise the 2-3-2 format,  ( unless of course the mav's win three at home, which like I've stated I don't see the heat losing three in a row)

I think whomever can just win two in a row will win the series.  or else it will be heat in 7, with both teams going the lose one, make adjustments then win one, other team makes adjustments routine ....

a suite... Sweet.... Free drink on you

congrats