As I called. Be bold. Play NO centers whatsoever. go small. play our game. We got to our game for the first time this series. Controlled the entire game.
Oh yeah..how could I forget? [video=youtube;iGfcrPH376A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfcrPH376A[/video]
I gotta hand it to Dwane Casey, I thought he was making a mistake playing such slow pace in Toronto the first two games. Seemed like it allowed us to steal that first game up in Toronto, whereas if they'd played faster then they could have gotten DeRozan and Lowry going better and those two could have buried us. But seeing what happened when we finally sped up the pace successfully, he's been doing the right thing. But it's hard to force a slow pace defensively when Miami basically puts five guards on the floor. Or at least five players that would not look out of place playing guard. I don't see how they can keep control of the pace with the lineups we played. They just have to try and use the pace to their advantage in front of the home crowd, bury some three pointers, rebound with Biyombo a hell of a lot better than they did tonight, and then give Winslow and McRoberts whatever the hell they want in terms of outside shooting.
That was great. Defended homecourt, they ain't ending our season at the AAA. Like CK said though I have a bit of that "what could've been" feeling. Could have made some of these tweaks earlier and maybe last night would've been a closeout opportunity. It's crazy that we played three just three forwards (Winslow, Deng, McBob) and yet Biyombo had 4pts, 1FG, 1ORB. He's a springy veteran who's a legit rotation big, and he couldn't make his presence felt all that much. That Winslow-Deng frontline was eye-opening on defense; Justise guarded 1-5 as Spo had him on Biyombo most of the game and then Lowry down the stretch before he picked up that garbage 5th foul. I thought TJ quietly played really nice minutes for us, energy and quick feet to get to the right place at the right time. JRich with the exciting highlight plays. McBob gives up more defensively, but the way he battled on the boards made up for it. Huge boost from the 3 bench players. If the young guys can play like that on the road, I like our chances...that's a big if though. But yeah that was all about Goran. Incredible performance. Gotta bring that aggression north of the border now. Frankly, he would average 35 a game if he got the foul calls that Lowry gets.
You would think Demar Derozan's focus would be to go straight home, get ready for an elimination game.. Kid is flying to California for USC's graduation today and then headed to Toronto... hope he gets jet lagged. Then again Dwayne Casey said they came to Miami thinking they would close out the series, they didn't think they would play a Game 7.
The refs haven't been great all series but this was nothing like that Kings/Lakers series, that series was fixed by crooked refs. This series is just ugly basketball and the refs I don't think know what to do about it lol.
Grizzlies received permission to interview David Fizzdale for head coaching job. Per Barry Jackson the interview will take place after the series, win or lose
I couldnt be prouder of this team, Win or Lose Sunday. The grit and fight that theyve shown, playing from behind, out of position. Gotta give some credit to Spo. The only question is how big the Wade statue gonna be when they put it up in front of the AAA, id save some space for Udonis' right next to it as well. I'd love to see a victory Sunday, just to make it to the Final Four of the NBA Playoffs two seasons after LeBron skips town, without Bosh the majority of the last two seasons mind you, and without our Supernova center in this series is a hell of an accomplishment. Add in TWO ROOKIES getting extremely valuable minutes in crunch time, I trust in Pat to rebuild and retool this thing and put us right into Title contention soon enough, no comic sans letters or ridiculous predictions necessary.
Why? You want the coach of a team or the players on a team to head into a game thinking they're probably going to lose?
Well I hope our team goes into game seven thinking they will win. So I can't fault Toronto for thinking the same about coming here to clinch.
No team in history has ever come back from two 3-2 deficits in one postseason. Ok guys. You have my permission to burn the boats. We will walk to Cleveland afterwards.
I dont care if cleveland sweeps us, i just want to make it to the ecf.. Cleveland without Lebron went to the lottery each season and won it twice.. Miami without Lebron being one round away from the nba finals after just one season sounds good to me, and only getting better
Winning game 7 gives Pat Riley a stronger case pitching to FAs going into the off season. He can sell Spo as a top coach taking a beat up team to the final 4. I think a win solidifies the Heat's position.
I saw a stat somewhere today that if Miami wins tomorrow, Wade and UD will have been to 7 Conference Finals in their 13 year careers. How many players spend over half their career in the Conference Finals?
Cleveland is a joke. Ty Lue says LeBron is finally getting help for the first time in his career. 97-215 was their record while he was in Miami. Complete dumpster fire of an organization there. They had the #1 pick 3 out of the 4 years he was away. 2 years later and Miami is in the brink of the Conference Finals. We dont need no #1 pick.
So Larry Bird fired Frank Vogel, an actual asset at HC that his team's star player loved, just to turn around and promote Nate McMillan. I do not understand that AT ALL. I guess they can kiss Paul George goodbye, hopefully hw goes out West and we can forget about Indiana being anything more than mediocre for the forseeable future. Cleveland's division gets even easier wow...
Larry Bird has gone senile.. Over the past four years ive learned to hate the Pacers but now i even feel sorry for them.
Just a baffling move really. I wouldve rather taken a shot at Fizdale or Ewing instead of McMillan. Maybe even throw the kitchen sink at Mark Jackson? I mean he played for Bird at Indiana right?? I cant believe Jeff Van Gundy isnt as attractive as Luke Walton, or whoever the stiff is that is getting the job with the Knicks.
Jeff Van Gundy is retired.. lol the guy loves his cush job at ESPN/ABC and he gets paid plenty to do it.
I've seen JVG's name floated around for interviews this offseason. I dont think he'd take an interview with a team if he was retired. Maybe he wants the same kind of power that his brother got in Detroit?
I feel really good about this one. Not that it means anything. We really need to do what we did last game and shut down from their third scoring option on. Lowry can go off as long as we make him EARN his points. We need either Dragic or Johnson to have a game like Dragic did in game 6 and that seems like the tough part but both guys are pros and one should be able to have a strong game. If both do...watch out.
There are several keys for us, but I think the most important one is Dragic. Short of some monster game by someone who hits 6 or so 3s for us (or something similar), I don't think we win if Dragic has a bad game.
Gameday, let's go baby. Pretty hyped for this one, kinda fun going into someone's house to try knocking em out do or die. Let's hope the 3-ball is falling, that could decide it.
I basically agree. I threw in Johnson because IMO he is the one other guy it isn't unfathomable could have a strong scoring game. Richardson could hit those three's you're talking about but it would have to come off a good game by Dragic/Wade/Johnson attacking the rim. I don't see the three's without the type of game we are already talking about needing.
I actually don't feel all that confident. IMO Miami is the better team (given the current injury status of each roster), but only marginally so. I'd say Miami is about 5 points better. But the officiating has been lopsided against the Heat for most of the series. (I thought the last game was the most equally officiated despite some bad calls in Miami's favor early on it balanced out later as Toronto was kept in it at the foul line). If the officiating goes back to being as lopsided as it was in the other games then Miami is likely to lose.
