****The Official 2013-14 NBA Thread****

Awful effort on defense, for some reason they completely ignored Bosh on offense and didn't move the ball, Chalmers continues to absolutely kill the Heat, and they (mostly LeBron) burnt themselves out with that run in the 3rd quarter.

This is what is so frustrating about this team. They are so good they should be handing it to teams on a regular basis, but yet they have so many of these games where they just come out flat to start the game off. There's really no excuse for it.

 

Same place we were in last Finals, no need to panic unless there's a Game 4 collapse.

 

That's cool, but last season was last season and we had home court advantage. still we need to come back
With a vengeance in game 4.

 

What are the %'s on teams down 2-1 coming back and winning the series?

 

With or without the cramp factor?

 

Even if we had played average defense in the first half I don't think it would have made a huge difference.

SA was just in a zone. It was incredible. They couldn't shoot that percentage again shooting against air.

Heat has a big problem at point as neither Chalmers or Cole is offering anything. I think Rio gets another shot to start but he will have a quick hook and I might try Douglas as well, who will at least compete on defense. I think Battier needs to get back in the rotation as well, particularly with Splitter now seeing limited minutes. Battier can guard Diaw.

 

In the first quarter they scored 41 points while hitting only 4 jump shots. Translation: bad turnovers and bad defense in the paint. They weren't exactly raining jump shots from everywhere. Leonard made three threes on Lebron, who for some reason let him have the time and space to get those shots off. Spurs got in a flow when Miami's interior defense allowed them to score and move so easily.

 

Hey Fin-O sorry if I was a jackass, I just got a bit mad you think we don't appreciate Bron. We wouldn't be this far without him, he tried to force some things and in gonna call him on it like any player. However he's earned the right to play badly down the stretch one game.

Anyway its a beautiful but hot day in South Florida and I'm pumped for game four tomorrow. Lets get this done!

 

Playing poor defense creates too much space and thus a high percentage of shooting for the spurs. The entire team was sluggish and slow in their rotations. No hustle at all.

Chalmers and Pat Mills will both be free agents in the off season. I prefer Mills at this stage.

 

I want to know if Chalmers is hiding an injury.

If so...it might be smart to play Bron at the point. Play small with the rest of the lineup. Or heck...play Wade at the PG position. Hes done it with fantastic results in the past. Run that 1-3 PnR with Lebron and Wade. Profit.

 

Defensive effort was atrocious in the first half.

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I don't think Chalmers is injured. Wade said it's psychological with him. He's going against one of the best PGs in the League whose backup also happens to be pretty quick, scrappy, and a tough cover. But yea...Spo is in a real tough spot because of how bad the PGs are being outplayed.

I don't know how wise it is to demand LeBron or Wade to do most of the ball-handling in addition to everything that's already on their shoulders. They're great players, but it's just a lot to ask. I say stick with Chalmers Game 4 because he has a much better chance of getting on track while he's on his home court.

If he were to bench Chalmers who do you start? Cole? Allen? Bird?

 

Even beyond that, the Spurs were just scorching hot.

Just forget about it. Throw out the tape. The Heat know what they need to do and what intensity they need to bring.

 

I would stick with Chalmers for now but have a short leash. It's not like Cole is an obviously better option at this point.

Play Douglas some spot minutes if necessary.

 

I think Wade has been nothing short of spectacular with the ball in his hands this series. Problem is we aren't feeding him. Manu absolutely can't guard him and he needs more touches when that is the matchup. Maybe not starting Wade at PG you are right but I'd like to see a lineup of

Wade - Allen - Lebron - Lewis - Bosh more often. You can play through the post with Lebron offensively or as I said run that 1/3 pick and roll if you'd like while stretching the defense with our shooters.

 

Bosh needs more touches. We made him invisible last night.

 

That's probably true, but the Heat played pretty well offensively, aside from the turnovers.

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Yes, that game last night was quite the lemon party.

 

The bright side to the Heat winning in 7 is that Thursday night partying is much better than Tuesday night.

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Bad news is Tony Brothers might rotate back around for Game 7.

Probably get Joey Crawford tomorrow.

 

No matter what happens in this series I believe we can win it in the end. I won't think otherwise until that final buzzer sounds. No disrespect to the Spurs at all but this team has come through every time their back was to the wall

 

That's true. We play our best when things look bleakest. Wouldn't be shocked if we hold the spurs to around 90 tomorrow night.

Just get it done. However you have to do it.

 

I think fans are way more nervous than the team. I mean Wade and Bron were laughing together in their interview last night. They know they can do this if they play the way they need to. Just can't come out flat again. If we lose I want it to be because both teams played their best game and we lost. Not because we are sluggish and half assing our defense.

 

Notice I didn't make a prediction on last night's game. I will for game 4...Heat win Comfortably.

Tony Brothers has me shook. Don't think for a second that officiating didn't have a HUGE hand in ballooning what would have been a 10 point halftime deficit into 21.

But why should they even be down 10 at halftime to begin with? here's how:

A) Spurs shot 7-9 on long contested two's in the first half. (Set a record for FG% BTW)
B) Heat had 6 "Perfect" Def. Poss., and got called for 1 phantom foul, and then allowed 4-5 shooting on those possessions, including 2 Three's.
C) No Ball Pressure.
D) When they had Ball Pressure, they got picked off too easily with angle picks.
E) Bosh had 12 touches, shot 4-4. Guy had one of the most efficient games of his career based on touches. WTF?
F) ALL of our ball handlers (Bron, Wade, Rio, Norris, Ray) were turnover machines.
G) Tony Brothers.... Tony Brothered.
H) Rashard Lewis was great Offensively...but without ball pressure...he gets picked off to easily on D and gets iso'd....bad news for us when that happens.
I) Lebron James was going waaaaaaay too early on his High P&R's and left his screeners hung out to dry.
J) They played passively, and without any urgency in the first half, meaning they didn't execute their defense, which calls for maximum effort.
K) Mario Chalmers is going for Finals MVP. But for the wrong team.
L) No Ball Pressure led to easy perimeter passes that cycle our defense, and leads to open shots when ONE rotation gets blown.
M) Just a poor effort at execution on the Spurs Side P&R's, where we had been stellar in Games 1 and 2. (To the point where Pop abandoned it)
N) We chased the lead by using 7 second offense and kinda ran out of gas a little. SO that's what trying to come back from a 25 point deficit does?
O) The Heat lose to every single playoff team in the NBA with their defensive disposition in the first half.

Other than that...they were great.

 

Anytime you find yourself in the penalty with 9 minutes left in the quarter, you automatically know the game is being officiated by Tony Brothers.

 

They got a hell of a lot of baskets, percentage-wise. How do you defend everything going in?

 

You don't think that those easy buckets early gave them the confidence to nail thr contestes looks? When you hit a few you just get that confidence. At any level.


I mean damn...even pick up games. When I get a few easy shots early I start draining threes in faces. Tough defense early on just sets a tone. We didn't do it. It just gets in your head.

 

I don't get how people are just shrugging this off. I haven't lost a bit of confidence, but I also had HEAT in 6, because I didn't have much faith in them winning Game 7 in SA, but it's starting to look like that's what it will come down to. We all agree that tomorrow is a must win, no? Otherwise we are looking at 3 straight elimination games.

Bosh needs touches, period.

 

Smh at the refs excuse. It's always something with Heat fans. As usual, there were iffy calls both ways.

The Spurs shot 32 FTs to Miami's 24. Not hard to see why: the Spurs are bigger, made a concerted effort to go to Duncan while Miami ignored Bosh, and Green-Leonard-Diaw were way more were aggressive driving the lane than they were in the first two games. They were killing Miami in the paint. In the first Q Spurs took only 5 jump shots to Miami's 10, and had one turnover to Miami's three. Playing that way is going to get you to the line.

But oh wait, Miami shot 11 FTs in the 3rd quarter alone when they made their run, so...yea, must be the refs' fault they lost by so many. Geeze. If LeBron had actually been attacking in the second half the FT count would've been close to even.

 

First off noone said the refs were the reason we lost, just that they sucked.

Second off we were driving and not gettinh calls in the 4th so I don't get your point.

 

The first 4 minutes IMO the refs were awful. After that, the Spurs were playing excellent basketball and wouldn't miss anything in the first half.

I just don't understand how the refs were so inconsistent in what they were letting go. Sometimes you could be physical and other times you couldn't breathe on them. The first two games had consistent officiating at least IIRC.

Regardless, LeBron and Wade were turnover machines and Chalmers was terrible. Cole was better but it didn't take much to out-do Chalmers.

Allen, Cole, and Chalmers were a combined 6/22 (27.3%) while the rest of the team was 26/40 (65%).

 

This is pretty much exactly what I said earlier and sonehow it was made into us crying about the refs.

Refs didn't make SA shoot lights out, but I thought they were awful at the start and finish, then hust highly inconsistent in the mifdle.

I mean either let both teams play ohysical or don't....but don't flip flop.

 

Biggest issue with refs was ticky tack fouls both stopping our runs and getting us into the penalty early in seemingly every quarter.

 

I've actually wondered whether the NBA should consider assigning the same ref crew for the entirety of a playoff series.

That way both the players and refs become familiar with the flow of the games and how they are being called.

 

uh...

 

They impact and affect the game too much. Could you imagine getting Tony Brothers for an entire series? Would be a serious disadvantage.

 

I suppose. But at least the series would have a rhythm and you could adjust, rather than having the way the game is called whipsaw from game to game.

Just something I've thought about.

 

You just took three quotes out of context.

The first was when we were down by 7 or 10 and a string of bad calls DID happen that effectively cost us a CHANCE. Not the same as saying its the reason we lost.

The next two were about the AC in game one soooo. Nice try.