2012 NBA Finals: (2) Heat vs (2) Thunder

[Stress Fracture]

Oh, benji.

[SkyLine03LT]

Shows you what true greatness is. Thunder should probably start exploring trades to try and get some winners on this team. They should definitely offer Durant/Harden/Westbrook/Ibaka/Collison for Kobe. A Kobe/Fisher backcourt is championship proven.

Too bad they traded away Luke Walton already, he contributed those last two finals victories in a big way warming up the seat for Kobe to sit during timeouts. Without him it's -5ppg for Bryant.

[Andrew]

Well when a player blocks a shot, i.e. slaps the ball out of the defender's hands and then touches their hand when the offensive player don't have the control of the ball anymore yeah, that's a clean block. But on that play, as Durant touches the ball Wade still has it strongly in his hands, and only loses it when Kevin's hand slides on the ball and eventually knocks Wade's fingers back causing him to lose the ball- in which case the contact on the hand caused him to lose the ball, not the slap on the ball, which both I and seemingly the refs consider a foul.

I'm not sure about that distinction but on the whole I don't necessarily disagree; I think that the "hand is part of the ball" rule is a sketchy aspect of the game at all levels of play and consistency is lacking in its enforcement. However, given the way it's often called in the NBA and some of the things they've let go in this series, it should've been a non-call.

[shadowgrin]

Choking is so natural to LeBron now that his body willingly responds at the right moment by cramping up.
Worse is that LeBron choked it up to the next level by sitting it out and not playing in final moments. Bird shot down the Pacers despite his aching back. Jordan played despite the bad sushi. Kobe never paid attention to a broken shooting finger and continued to do work. Clearly LeBron is a choker and an asterisk should be placed if he ever wins this championship.



lol at the idiots that wanted to trade Chalmers earlier in the season just because of having Norris Cole.

[Jhiane]

The Heat have more favored calls from the refs

[wilson27]

Choking is so natural to LeBron now that his body willingly responds at the right moment by cramping up.
Worse is that LeBron choked it up to the next level by sitting it out and not playing in final moments. Bird shot down the Pacers despite his aching back. Jordan played despite the bad sushi. Kobe never paid attention to a broken shooting finger and continued to do work. Clearly LeBron is a choker and an asterisk should be placed if he ever wins this championship.



lol at the idiots that wanted to trade Chalmers earlier in the season just because of having Norris Cole.

That ain't the last game, why push lebron too hard if there is still a next game? Only a fool will do that just to have a W. And it's smarter to put him out after having a 5 pt lead in the dying seconds.

How could that last minutes of lebron be a choke? He hit a 3 bomb to give back the lead to heat. I'm not a lebron fan but that last game was his best in all his 4th quarters (exaggerating).

[NovU]

Officiating wasn't at its best again on both ends but there were definite couple calls in first half that went in Heat's way. But in the end, Westbrook came up bit short and Harden wasn't himself throughout the game once again. Tremendous effort though, good job.

I found it funny when Lebron went to the bench in final minute. I thought he could have stayed in the game. Lolz. But benji's right. Chalmers saved his little choking ass.

[Lean]

I hate all the Heat bandwagoners on my Facebook right now. That is all.

[benji]

That ain't the last game, why push lebron too hard if there is still a next game? Only a fool will do that just to have a W. And it's smarter to put him out after having a 5 pt lead in the dying seconds.

How could that last minutes of lebron be a choke? He hit a 3 bomb to give back the lead to heat. I'm not a lebron fan but that last game was his best in all his 4th quarters (exaggerating).

Don't mind shadow, he's just a LeBron hater. He's butthurt over the fact that this will be known as The Cramp Game and be considered one of the greatest games in NBA history.

Also he's mad salty over the fact that LeBron now has a ring, while Durant and Melo continue to have zero.

[john26]

lol at the idiots that wanted to trade Chalmers earlier in the season just because of having Norris Cole.

But....Norris Cole is the Rajon Rondo of the Miami Heat according to (guess who)

[NovU]

Chalmers showed no fear. He was erratic in the first half but definitely showed up in the second half. Norris Cole also stepped up BIG TIME in the early game. That should have motivated Chalmers to get going as Norris Cole did superb job when the Heat were down big. Glad to have these guys step up. But sad to see the haters still hating whether it be on fans or the players.

Overall, this is going down the way I expected despite some classless tools were making fun of it after the first game. Westbrook had his moments of mental let downs as well as Harden, and the Heat were able to take advantage of them. Tremendous heart and poise in three win streak. As for Durant, he's having an exceptional series and the Heat have been given tremendous trouble anywhere he takes a shot. What a sniper.

[shadowgrin]

That ain't the last game, why push lebron too hard if there is still a next game? Only a fool will do that just to have a W. And it's smarter to put him out after having a 5 pt lead in the dying seconds.

How could that last minutes of lebron be a choke? He hit a 3 bomb to give back the lead to heat. I'm not a lebron fan but that last game was his best in all his 4th quarters (exaggerating).

Jordan's flu game was game 5 with still one more game left to play if they won yet he still played up to the closing seconds. Kobe played the rest of the playoffs then with a broken shooting finger instead of sitting out the rest of the season and having surgery.
Not the last game? Smart to rest him? Stop making excuses for that choker LeBron.
After he gave the Heat back the lead with that three he quit and retired to the bench because of fear of choking again so he gave up while he's still ahead. Not the true mark of a champion. A choker indeed.



If the Heat win this one looks like every Heat championship would be pulled off with help from the refs. At least the refs do it quietly this time instead of being as blatant and obvious as they did in 2006.

[wilson27]

What I can say is lebron isn't jordan or kobe. Do you have to compare one person to another to measure their abilities?

[benji]

The only thing that matters is if you're the best and if you win. Otherwise you aren't shit.

[shadowgrin]

lebron isn't jordan or kobe.

Exactly.
That's why his ring deserves an asterisk.
The only way LeBron can be considered great is if he holds up if compared to other great players in history.
Of course you are right in that LeBron is not Kobe and it is ridiculous to compare LeBron to Kobe since there is no way in this reality that LeBron can ever surpass the greatest player in history that is Kobe Bryant.

[Andrew]

What I can say is lebron isn't jordan or kobe. Do you have to compare one person to another to measure their abilities?

You don't have to, but the temptation is there to rate, compare, and put things into a historical perspective. There's got to be a yardstick.

[wilson27]

Maybe this write-up may sum it up.


Who is LeBron James?

Is he Michael Jordan? Or is he Oscar Robertson?

MICHAEL JORDAN

LeBron had 26 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in the Miami Heat’s Game 4 victory Tuesday, plateaus Jordan never reached in an NBA Finals game. LeBron is the first player with those numbers in an NBA Finals game since Larry Bird in 1986.


James
LeBron, who is 27 years old, is now one game from his first NBA championship. Jordan didn’t win his first ring until he was 28 years old. LeBron has now been to three NBA Finals series before the time Jordan reached his first.

LeBron has three regular-season MVP awards. When Jordan was LeBron’s age, he had only one MVP.

LeBron is averaging 30.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game this postseason. Jordan averaged at least 30 points per game in each of his last 12 postseasons, but he never averaged as many as eight rebounds per game in a postseason.

Jordan had 22 double-digit assist games and 21 double-digit rebound games in his postseason career, but he had just two postseason triple-doubles.

LeBron already has seven career postseason triple-doubles and was a rebound shy of his eighth in Game 4.

Jordan was certainly known for his scoring prowess, but he never scored at least 25 points in 14 straight games in a single postseason. LeBron has done that twice, in 2009 and his current streak. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, nobody else in NBA playoff history has done that even once.

OSCAR ROBERTSON

Only twice previously in NBA history has a player averaged at least 30 points, nine rebounds and five assists per game in a postseason. Robertson did it in 1963 for the Cincinnati Royals, and LeBron did it in 2009 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. If he maintains his averages this postseason, LeBron will add his name to that list once again.

At Least 30 PPG, 9 RPG, 5 APG
Single Postseason in NBA History
PPG RPG APG
2012 LeBron James 30.5 9.7 5.3
2009 LeBron James 35.3 9.1 7.3
1963 Oscar Robertson 31.8 13.0 9.0
Robertson was known for his triple-doubles. He’s the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season. But LeBron has the upper hand in the playoffs. Eight career playoff triple-doubles would be one more than Oscar had in his career. And let’s not forget that LeBron has plenty of time to add to that total.

Robertson won one NBA championship in his career, and that wasn’t until he was 32 years old. Like LeBron, Oscar didn’t win a ring with his original team. He was traded from the Royals to the Milwaukee Bucks after spending 10 seasons in Cincinnati and finally won one alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And Oscar finished his career with just one MVP award.

LeBRON JAMES

LeBron is the first player in NBA history with at least 650 points, 200 rebounds and 100 assists in a single postseason.

Now, he’s one win from his first NBA championship.

Perhaps LeBron isn’t MJ or Oscar or anyone else.

Maybe he’s just LeBron James.



Excuse Kobe

[SoF'nAwesome]

Epic post wilson

He is just "LeBron James".

But then again, I don't think that will stop the automated pricks like benji

[benji]

What? I'm not the hater, shadowgrin is. I'm defending LeBron's greatness. The guy has a ring.

It's Durant who's a loser that you can't rely on to win.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Meh.....I must of confused you with a guy I had a convo with on the celtics thread

shadowgrin thinks Kobe is the greatest player in the history.....well, that's pretty much it. That alone says no need to start a conversation with him. He is still in that phase

EDIT: My 100th post lmfao

[Andrew]

LeBron, who is 27 years old, is now one game from his first NBA championship. Jordan didn’t win his first ring until he was 28 years old. LeBron has now been to three NBA Finals series before the time Jordan reached his first.

LeBron has three regular-season MVP awards. When Jordan was LeBron’s age, he had only one MVP.

LeBron also entered the league at 18, while Jordan was 21 (similar to a lot of his peers), giving LeBron a head start on achieving certain milestones by a certain age. We could just as easily point out that Jordan has an NCAA championship (hitting the gamewinning shot for it, no less), a John Wooden award, an Oscar Robertson award, a Naismith College Player of the Year award, the Adolph Rupp Trophy and was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 1982 and ACC Player of the Year in 1984, honours that LeBron doesn't have. In taking different routes to the pros, that stuff kind of cancels each other out.

Given that, we could just as easily note that LeBron James is in his ninth NBA season, by which point Michael Jordan had three champions in three consecutive years, seven scoring titles, three MVPs, one Defensive Player of the Year, numerous All-NBA selections and several noteworthy statistical feats of his own, which we can arbitrarily assign importance to as far as measuring his all-time ranking or "greatness".

[koberulz]

Why the shot clock needs to be reset to 5 seconds on a jump ball is beyond me.

If that were a foul on Durant, they'd have called it on Durant. Westbrook didn't touch him. In any event, the hand is part of the ball (applying only to parts of the hand that are, at the time of the contact, touching the ball).

[benji]

Why the shot clock needs to be reset to 5 seconds on a jump ball is beyond me.

Because what's the point of a jump ball if the instant a team gets control of it the shot clock runs out and they lose possession?

[NovU]

Lolz. Lechoke is one win away yet still people start comparing him to MJ. LeBawn didn't grab a single rebound in the fourth quarter and decided to sit out in the final minute instead he opted to nurse his legs which actually looked fine untill the next timeout and then he was fine again when the game continued on. I was actually surprised to see him choking even from the bench. Hand that finals MVP to the real Batman already now if the Heat close the series successfully.

And yeah koberulz. Officiating was just non sense. It was as if they were afraid to give a foul to Durant, avoiding blames of putting him on bench perhaps? And there was a non call on Harden's fastbreak where he really deserved a clear path foul calls. It was as if the referees didn't want the game to get out of hand as the Thunder were up big at that moment. One of those case where it seemed as if the referees wanted this game to be a close one. The officiating just has been inconsistent. We fortunately got the better end of it though. But OKC fans deserve to feel upset.

[Andrew]

You mean that blown dunk by Harden? Yeah, Wade probably could've been called for the foul on that play but Harden really should've finished that all the same. If Harden knocked down some of the very good looks he got in Game 4, the Thunder could've and (likely would've) won the game.