2013 NBA Finals...Who ya got?

Benevolent One

Benevolent One

Team Owner
Joined
Jan 1, 2007
Messages
13,871
Points
583
Location
NE Ohio
(I know I will get several"who cares about the NBA?" comments as we always do when the NBA is brought up. But, I press on.)

Well, it's that time again. The NBA Finals. This time it's the Miami Heat against the San Antonio Spurs. It's been said all year that the only team that is good enough and has the matchups to beat Miami is San Antonio. It's actually kind of rare in sports that people end up with the matchup we want in the championship games of any sport. I really don't like either team, but I will watch this series with interest. It's not just because it's the finals. I am looking forward to seeing two great teams facing off for the title.

The Spurs create all kinds of matchup problems for the Heat. Miami's biggest weakness has always been the inside. When Chris Bosh (a.k.a. the Ru Paul of NBA big men: Thanks to Shaq for giving him that name) is your best inside player, you don't want to see a team like San Antonio. Tony Parker is quick enough to really break down the Heat's defense. The Heat has only one real advantage, but it's a huge advantage. LeBron James is simply better than anybody else on the planet at this point. I kinda want LeBron to win another title, since he is a hometown guy. But, I really can't stand Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Heat.
 
Miami baby! Spurs have nobody that can shut down Lebron. The other matchups aren't going to matter when they have to focus so much attention on Lebron. Heat in 5.
 
I don't watch the NBA but I'm sending bad vibes to the heat. For no other reason than I'm sick of hearing LeBron James. Never seen him play a single game but still don't like him:D
 
No rooting interest here, but I'll watch anyways.

I see this series going 7 games with each team winning on their home court for the first 6.
Game 7 is up for grabs and could possibly be won by the team with the last possession of the final minute.

I just wish the games weren't so spread out over a couple of weeks or so.
But money talks, and games gotta be shown in prime time, I guess.
 
Game 1 was just about what I expected to see. Parker didn't seem to play up to what I've seen from him lately, but he hit a huge, albeit mostly lucky, shot at the 24 second shot clock buzzer with LeBron draped all over him and about 6 seconds left in the game and the Spurs holding a precarious 2 point lead. I expect this to be a long series, so I'm not sure how much winning Game 1 means, but it beats the hell out of losing Game 1.
 
I used to love the NBA, but I haven't actively followed it since my man Kevin Garnett finally won a championship with Boston in 2008. I began casually watching it again in 2011 after the whole silliness with LeBron and "The Decision" (and by casually, I mean I saw maybe the first few games of the season and then tuned out until the Finals.)

I surprised myself by rooting for the Mavericks, a team I had never liked one bit, because they seemed like more of a true team than Miami, who just looked to me like three superstars and a bunch of random, lesser players trying to jump on the bandwagon and get an easy ring. This seems to be the general approach in the NBA these days, and it's a big reason why I no longer seriously follow it. (The only reason I was okay with it when Boston did it was because I felt like KG had struggled playing his heart out for a bad team/organization long enough and deserved better.)

After skipping last year entirely, I have tuned in for the Finals once again this year. And once again, I am rooting for a team I never liked in the past (but have always respected), the Spurs, because again, the Spurs seem like more of a true team to me than the Heat. Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili have been together for a while now, and at 37, Duncan probably won't be playing too much longer. I wouldn't mind seeing them get one more title before he retires, and if it comes at the Heat's expense, that's even better. We'll see, though. It should be a fun series to watch. :)
 
Mr. Gregory said:
(The only reason I was okay with it when Boston did it was because I felt like KG had struggled playing his heart out for a bad team/organization long enough and deserved better.)
Click to expand...

You mean, like Lebron when he played in Cleveland? :cool:
 
breatheoflife said:
You mean, like Lebron when he played in Cleveland? :cool:
Click to expand...
A fair point, but KG had spent like 12 years in Minnesota and only wanted to leave (and was finally traded) once the incompetent front office had proved time and time again that they had no clue what they were doing, if winning a championship was their ultimate goal. In contrast, LeBron only spent 7 years in Cleveland, and while those teams certainly weren't amazing, at least they made moves to try and put decent players around him. They even had Shaq at one point, though obviously that experiment ultimately failed.
 
What decent moves did they make???? Shaq was already washed up. That was the problem. Dan Gilbert had Lebron, so he didn't try to bring in any other talent. He assumed since Akron was home, Lebron would never leave. 7 yrars whrn you have so much expectations onyour shoulders is a long time. 2009, the Cavs win 61 games, 2010, the Cavs win 19 games. If Lebron had any type of talent around him, they could have won more than 19 games without Lebron.
 
breatheoflife said:
What decent moves did they make???? Shaq was already washed up. That was the problem. Dan Gilbert had Lebron, so he didn't try to bring in any other talent. He assumed since Akron was home, Lebron would never leave. 7 yrars whrn you have so much expectations onyour shoulders is a long time. 2009, the Cavs win 61 games, 2010, the Cavs win 19 games. If Lebron had any type of talent around him, they could have won more than 19 games without Lebron.
Click to expand...
A few names that come to mind are Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, Antawn Jamison, Drew Gooden, Delonte West, Damon Jones, and Donyell Marshall...no, all of those guys weren't All-Star caliber (Williams and Jamison were, and you could probably make a case for Hughes), but they were all capable of being good, solid role players.

That's better than the Wolves did. The most help Garnett ever had was Marbury (when they were both really young), Sprewell, and Cassell, and that didn't last long because Cassell got hurt during the '04 WCF against the Lakers and Sprewell wouldn't re-sign 'cause he couldn't feed his family on $14.6 million a year. The Wolves traded Cassell for Marko Jaric and then pretty much proceeded to slowly gut the team (whoops, I mean, "rebuild") until KG finally got traded.

Honestly, I feel like Boozer leaving for Utah hurt the Cavs (and LeBron's) title hopes the most, because they never really had a strong interior presence after that. Big Zeke (Ilgauskas) was solid but inconsistent, and obviously he was never even close to the level of a Shaq or Duncan.

And by the way, LeBron wasn't the only one that left the Cavs for the 2010-11 season. Shaq, Zeke, and Delonte West left too. Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison suffered various injuries, and then Varejao got hurt and was out for the season. Then they traded Williams for Baron Davis, who barely even played. Who did that leave to do anything? Boobie Gibson? :laugh: Of course that team was doomed to fail.
 
Mr. Gregory said:
A few names that come to mind are Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, Antawn Jamison, Drew Gooden, Delonte West, Damon Jones, and Donyell Marshall...no, all of those guys weren't All-Star caliber (Williams and Jamison were, and you could probably make a case for Hughes), but they were all capable of being good, solid role players.
Click to expand...

They appeared to be good, solid role players because of James (other than Jamison). He made them look better than they were. Theres a reason why none of those guys can stay on a team for a long period of time. If they were solid players, they wouldn't be swapped around every 2 to 3 years.
 
breatheoflife said:
They appeared to be good, solid role players because of James (other than Jamison). He made them look better than they were. Theres a reason why none of those guys can stay on a team for a long period of time. If they were solid players, they wouldn't be swapped around every 2 to 3 years.
Click to expand...
I dunno man, Mo Williams was pretty solid before he went to Cleveland, hence why LeBron was happy to have him on the team. And if I'm not mistaken, Hughes averaged somewhere around 20 ppg in Washington one season. Just looked it up, and yeah, it was the season before he went to Cleveland. Donyell Marshall was streaky stat-wise but he could put up solid numbers. He averaged 16 and 10 boards one year in Toronto, and he tied the record for most threes made in a single game back in '05 (had to look up the year but I remembered watching him do it). Damon Jones was a good three point shooter but I don't recall him playing as well in Cleveland, without Shaq and Wade to open up the floor for him. So, that one I'll give you.

I'm not saying LeBron never made any of those guys better, but come on, it's not like they were all complete and utter scrubs before they played with him.
 
breatheoflife said:
What decent moves did they make???? Shaq was already washed up. That was the problem. Dan Gilbert had Lebron, so he didn't try to bring in any other talent. He assumed since Akron was home, Lebron would never leave. 7 yrars whrn you have so much expectations onyour shoulders is a long time. 2009, the Cavs win 61 games, 2010, the Cavs win 19 games. If Lebron had any type of talent around him, they could have won more than 19 games without Lebron.
Click to expand...
That is such a mischaracterization of what happened. Every year they did the best they could do. Dan Gilbert spent tons of money on the team, including building a $20 million practice facility closer to LeBron's home that was supposed to make the team more attractive to free agents. When they signed Larry Hughes, he was widely considered the best free agent on the market that year. They mortgaged the future several times to bring in guys like Antawn Jamison, all in a desperate attempt to make LeBron happy and get him to stay in Cleveland. It didn't work. They even overpaid for what was left of Shaq because LeBron wanted him. The fact that none of those guys played as well in Cleveland as they did elsewhere isn't a reflection on management. Larry Hughes, as it turns out, had a heart problem. As in, he had none. He even said afterward that winning a championship wasn't all that important to him. Shaq hurt his thumb toward the end of the season and that really hurt that team. There were many reasons why they never won it all while LeBron was in Cleveland, but managemental indifference was far from one of them. In fact, the biggest reason they went in the toilet when he left is because they short circuited the long term success of the team to make LeBron happy and win at least one while he was there so he wouldn't go join his buddies somewhere else. LeBron always held that over their heads and they acted accordingly.
 
San Antonio just spanked the Heat last night in San Antonio to take a 2-1 lead in the series. It was really fun to watch. They basically just dared LeBron and D-Wade to shoot jumpers and they did, and shot them badly.

Tony Parker, however, reinjured his hamstring in the win. That may prove to be critical going forward in the series.
 
Spurs got hacked towards the end of the game, but they lost at the FT line at the end of regulation too.
 
Heat win an unbelievable game six to force a game seven. Spurs played like **** in the fourth and in OT. Miami's going to destroy them on Thursday.
 
Ginobili and Danny Green both took steps back from their game 5 performances. Ginobili has entirely too much experience to not take better care of the ball than he did last night. 8 freaking turnovers (and a crucial missed free throw) in a game where you have a chance to win the title is just unacceptable for a veteran like him.
 
JJTOLEBRON.jpg
 
10

Wow. One of the best 7 game series I have ever seen in any sport, particularly the last two games.
Lol @ the announcing team saying they petitioned the NBA to extend this series to 11 games and were waiting to hear back.

Got's some free beer coming my way after a game 7 bet I made with my uncle. But, really didn't care who won when it came down to it. Just something we do in winner take all games.

..... and what's up with ABC advertising NASCAR on their digital courtside billboard? Don't those people know NBA fans don't like watching guys going round in circles?!

*rolls eyes*
 
So the Heat ended up winning, huh? Meh, I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be. I'm more disappointed with myself for not watching, like, any of this series.

I liked Chris Bosh's little slap down of the frontrunner Heat fans that left game 6 early and couldn't get back into the arena when they heard that the game went into OT. He's the only one of the so-called big three that I can tolerate sometimes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom