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

Exactly.

LeBron played more minutes than Duncan, Parker and Manu.

What's done is done, but the league needs to make some kind of announcement as to what they're planning moving forward. Rod Thorn simply saying "we anticipate no problems" isn't good enough.

The AC either needs to be demonstrably working by Saturday or the game needs to be moved.

 

You do realize that we dictated the tempo of the entire game until Lebron left, on the road, and our ball movement was killing the Spurs. I mean if Allen hits just half of the wide open threes he usually buries the game isn't even close in the 4th.

 

Weird how the malfunctions seem to perfectly fit into the Spurs rotations, while completely destroying Miami's.

 

Shhhh don't feed the anti-heat trolls stats, it just makes them spew bile.

 

Well, Joe Goodman did claim that the AC was on in the hallway after the game........

 

Its almost as embarrassing as Rick Carlisle coming out and saying he spoke to different NBA coaches during the Finals about defensive strategy. Crowdsourcing FTW.

 

I'm not saying this is a conspiracy, but I think people are only writing it off because in the era we live in when your viewpoint is questioned the cool thing to do Is throw out the term "conspiracy theorist" to mock those with differing views on events.

There are stories all throughout sports history of teams doing things to gain a competitive advantage. I don't pretend to know what happened but I do know it looks highly suspicious.

 

If they did it intentionally, then my hats off to the Spurs. It was a great move that helped them win. It isn't their responsibility to ensure the playing field is even, it is the league. Ultimately the NBA can't tolerate occurrences such as this.

 

How could they possibly know LeBron would cramp up by turning off the AC?

Everyone seems pretty confident in saying the Heat were winning until the cramps - so obviously the heat on the court wasn't hurting them much. The Spurs uncharacteristically had 23 turnovers - so there's probably a much stronger argument the AC was hurting their game more than the Heat.

 

Wow. Conspiracy theories? Cry much?

There were no snipers in the rafters. No dirty fouls. No cheating. They were all hot and sweaty. They all played ball. Lebron went out for, what, 5 mins at the end of the game?, and the Heat went down.

Those are the facts.

Quit with the crying because the only thing it really says is the rest of Miami is crap. The Heat themselves aren't crying about it. Their fans shouldn't either.

And personally, I don't believe that. Miami have a solid team, they just didn't perform up to standard or pull together when Lebron went down. What they are now remembering is that you can't just flash against the Spurs. They're too consistent. You have to maintain the fight the whole 48 minutes or they'll come back on you. Miami will learn and rebound. That's what the Heat do. The challenge is for them outperform the Spurs for that whole 48 minutes for a series. They've done it before.

 

The Spurs were turning it over because they can't handle our swarming defense. IMO I feel highly confident about winning this series, more than I did before the game. So no excuses, more just saying the entire scenario was BS and shouldn't have happened.

Its not a stretch to say turning the air off will hurt the team who relies on their starters playing more minutes, regardless of the cramps.

 

That's convenient, though, right? That all of the bad stuff that happened to the Spurs was because Miami is awesome and all the bad stuff that happened to Miami is because of the AC? The Spurs never had move than 18 TOs in last year's Finals and averaged way less than that. Suddenly they had 23 and it's because of the Heat's swarming defense?

I'm not even saying the broken AC caused those turnovers. Just pointing out both sides could easily claim the AC hurt their team. It's ok for something crappy and random to happen without having to assign blame.

 

Yeah, the Heat didn't perform at a championship level when the greatest player ever went down. Thanks for the insight.

 

The "play through the cramps" talk is driving me ****ing nuts as well. For one, he did try to play through it, until he was completely debilitated. Even playing through what he did, I guarantee you it was excruciating. In the military in the field, it happens a lot down range and it's no joke.

Bottom line to me is that last night exposed San Antonio's depth vs our depth. The temps in the building obviously sucked last night, but at the same time LeBron was on the court as much if not more than all of the Spurs starters, and thats without the last 6/7 minutes of the game... he was on pace to push 40 minutes... can his body handle that moving forward through 6 more games? Specifically if the officiating lets everybody play a more physical game like last night (which I like FWIW)... I'm not as optimistic moving forward as everyone else. We dominated defensively with turnovers and it was still a close game and I don't know if that will continue.

The only question I have about the situation last night, at what point did the AC go out? Did both teams have the same time to prepare and over hydrate/IV? Just curious.

 

It went out very early on the game out of nowhere after working for who knows how many years straight

Also as stated some have said the air was on in the hallways after the game, and as another person stated if it was an electrical problem how is the AC the only thing impacted and why isn't there some sort of backup.

Unless they mean a problem in the electric wiring but that is even more odd

 

I still think the best explanation is that this was all caused by The Devil of Thursday

 

Also to clear up my point before wasn't OMG CONSPIRACY. My point was that we can never know because the nature of a conspiracy is to...wait for it....keep it hidden and fool people. It could have been an accident, it could have been intentional. However its foolish to pretend we know one way or another

 

Guys that miss 31 games don't make All-NBA teams. See Russell Westbrook.

Goran Dragic got robbed. Even you have to admit that.

BTW..Harden also got 2 votes for all-NBA Defense...

 

Be kinda fun to do an all-NBA OFfense team.

 

Ohhhh here they gooo....this is gonna be good.....I love bait articles like this....

I wanna see LBJ turn straight villain A-Rod and go ham now....unfair article right here....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/unfair...-his-standing-among-greats-065906652-nba.html

He should break out the fangs mouthpiece and the black mask again...

 

So the Heat forced a BOATLOAD of Turnovers.....AND their defense isn't what it used to be....

All in one post. LOL

 

Per Darren Rovell: AC at arena still not working.

MOVE THE GAME

 

Terrible observation.

That "Bench" that you say cost them...had Diaw who was +30 and Ginobli who was +22.

By Daryl Morey's system...the Spurs Bench was +47 for the game.

If anything..the Spurs bench is what won them the game.

 

Will say this for the cramps.....

It possibly cost the Heat the game.

I remarked to a friend of mine that Spo had coached a helluva game and had a TO advantage on Pop...

the cramps started..and we blew that TO advantage and intentionally fouled once to break our flow.

The team essentially quit when the game became a cluster****.

Spurs outplayed the Heat..we move on...Game 2. Haslem has to play. He just has to. He has been a GREAT..not good..BUT GREAT post defender for his entire career. He must be used.

 

Usually when something embarrassing or negative happens to Lebron....something embarrassing happens to his opponent next game. Silver lining.

 

Yeah that is total BS. If they can't get their AC running the game shouldn't be played in their arena. If I was a fan at the game I'd have asked for my ticket to be refunded.

 

Now Spurs are saying the electrical problem has been solved but no word if AC is on yet or not.

They need to demonstrate that it's working

 

And that it will remain working. It should be run for a few hours.

Any word on why this electric problem only impacted the AC and nothing else?

 

and BTW..just the facts....

The Heat had a 80% Win Probability when Lebron left with cramps.

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/wpNBA.php

 

Apparently the AC runs off its own power supply. My question....why is there no backup power supply? Is that normal?

 

It got too hot...

 

Spurs released a statement saying the AC is fully functional and will continue to be monitored.

They have a concert tonight, then a WNBA game tomorrow, so presumably the thing will be constantly running through the game on Sunday.

If it's fine for these other events and goes out again on Sunday then we will know that it is intentional.

 

I wish they would say what this problem was exactly. What changed between the last time the AC was used? Did something blow during the game? Lack of maintenance?

I dont think it was intentional, I just don't think it should be ruled out until the Spurs give a more detailed version of what happened to the NBA and the fans.

 

At the end of the day intentional or not, nothing hurt the Spurs as much as Lebron sitting out most of the 4th quarter.

 

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/06/06/statement-regarding-ac/

Referred to simply as an "electrical failure"

 

The Spurs were sloppy as hell with the ball last night. Lots of unforced errors.

Regardless, the Heat's defense turned them over that many times...5 more than any game of last year's series...and they still gave up 110 points? That's a bad sign. The Spurs shot a high percentage in the paint and a high percentage from the arc. So yes...the D is not what it was last year.

 

the final number of points does not matter. The Defense was good enough to win for 45 minutes. They ended the game on a 13-0 spurt on 5-5 shooting. That padded the number. A key figure was missing on the Heat's perimeter. Perfectly reasonable to think He might have made a difference.

It's irrelevant.

 

Arguing basketball with Section is like arguing ice with eskimos, pasta with italians, and so forth.

 

I guess they 'padded the number' for an entire quarter? LOL. Are you forgetting that the Spurs were torching that 4th Q defense before those last 5 shots to the tune of 9-11? The Heat were giving up great looks in the paint and from the arc. With LeBron in the game in the 4th, the Spurs were like 5-5 and drew a few fouls. They didn't miss a shot even before the cramps. The Spurs were flowing.

Wade was guarding Danny Green last night...not LeBron. Green was cold for three quarters and Wade started leaving him to fill the paint instead. Or he just got lazy chasing him off the line. And the Spurs sharpshooter, who was a wreck for three quarters, started hitting the shots he usually does. It was bad defense by Wade and a slow chase by Ray Allen. Green keeping at and hitting his shots turned the tide.

But anyways...when the other team turns it over an uncharacteristic 23 times...you gotta win that game. This defense got worked in the fourth quarter.