Day 25 – Heat Check.

May 13th, 2011, Author: Ash

A couple of days ago, the Thunder and Grizzlies played a mesmerising triple-OT game that overshadowed the Clash Of The Titans that was occurring between Miami and Boston in the East.

Well, the Heat saw fit to remind everyone of their presence today by wrapping up their series 4-1 with a 97-87 win over the Celtics, while Memphis and OKC played a rather scrappy game dominated by the Thunder, which they eventually won fairly easily (99-72) as the Grizz were clearly spent, physically and emotionally, from Game 5.

More discussion after today’s points.

3 Points – LeBron James. Believe me, it was incredibly difficult to decide between Wade and LeBron for today’s honours. In the end, even though D-Wade had better stats, I gave LeBron the honours for his role closing the game with two clutch 3s.

Last post, I wrote about how talented Bron is – as if we didn’t all know that already. Of course, the great knock on him is that he’s so far never shown that he can be a closer. Today he was, and Wade deferred to him in the clutch. Can he do this against Chicago in the ECF (come on, it’s a matter of time)? Let’s see.

2 Points – Dwyane Wade. Like I said. Although LeBron closed the game, Wade set the platform for him to do so with a double-double (34 points and 10 rebounds), with 5 assists and 4 steals on top of that.

Every day, I change my mind as to whether Miami can win the title with just LeBron and Wade firing – as much as it seems impossible, let’s not forget that they are possibly the two best players in the NBA at this moment. I don’t want to write off the Heat yet even if Chris Bosh continues to only perform when he feels like it. (Of course, if the Bulls beat them in Game 1 then I’ll probably be singing a different tune).

1 Point – Daequan Cook. Basically, the Thunder won this game because Memphis were completely drained. They couldn’t buy a basket on offense. When OKC started running away with it, Scott Brooks pulled Durant and Westbrook and gave all his bench guys some PT (even Nate Robinson and Royal Ivey got on the court). Daequan Cook made the most of his opportunity with 18 points in 18 minutes, including going 4-5 from 3pt land. A nice story for the grandkids.

“So Pop, what was your best moment in the NBA?”
“Well sonny, I’d have to say it was the time I made 18 points in a playoff game. It was May 2011 or somesuch…”

Now, onto discussion. And boy, is there plenty of stuff to talk about. Especially regarding the Celtics.

I’m sure Joel has a different opinion – but as far as I can see, they’re done. This season was their last chance. Unfortunately, Danny Ainge completely screwed it up with the Perkins trade. Yes he was probably leaving anyway – but when you’re built to win now, you take that risk. Especially with a championship window closing fast.

KG and Ray both have one year each left on their contracts, so Ainge will probably bring them back for one last run next year, and try shaking up the rest of the squad – I don’t see him making too much of an effort to re-sign any of his free agents (except possibly Krstic, given the C’s sudden lack of big man depth with Shaq probably retiring or begging Miami to take him back for another year). Unfortunately, rebuilding on the fly rarely works.

On the Thunder/Grizz series, I don’t see Memphis coming back. They’ve shown an incredible level of fight these playoffs – but you could see it in their faces today that Game 4 had really gotten to them. They’ve completely over-achieved just making it this far already. If they can somehow win at home in Game 6…well, let’s just say that I’ll be telling my grandkids about this playoff series.

The Thunder have been good without really dominating so far these playoffs. If they want to beat the Mavs in the WCF – the one team with probably more desperation and desire than anyone else right now – they’re gonna have to find that extra gear and reel in Westbrook a bit better.

On a different note…how fucking great are this year’s playoffs? There hasn’t been one dud series. Not one. I don’t think I’ve ever said that about the playoffs before. But even the first round gave us a massive 1v8 upset, a 2v7 game where I don’t think anyone realises just how close the Hornets really came to tipping the Lakers, and two late seeds in the East (Indiana and Philly) who fought the whole way, got knocked out with no disgrace at all and gave their fans hope for the future. And I haven’t even touched on Mavs-Blazers, Mavs-Lakers, Hawks-Magic (better than anyone realised), even Celtics-Knicks (a sweep, true, but two brilliant games by Melo in the mix). I don’t remember ever enjoying the playoffs more.

Say it with me…

NBA Action. It’s FAAAANtastic!

I’m just gonna close with some buzz from my Warriors (everyone else is free to leave now).

With Keith Smart having been given a bus ticket at the end of the season, we’ve so far been linked to former Cavs coach Mike Brown and Mavs assistant/former Timberwolves HC Dwane Casey. While my wishlist is, in order:

- luring Jerry Sloan out of retirement
- Jeff Van Gundy

I’d be pretty happy with Casey. He’s been around, he has experience and he knows how to coach defense which is what we really need right now. Don’t want Brown – while he’s a great defensive coach, the Cavs offense when he was there was “give the ball to LeBron and get out of the way.” We don’t have a LeBron, but we have a Monta who thinks he’s a LeBron (as much as I love Monta, even I know it’s the truth). I’ve already had one season with that offense that just ended, along with our star-in-the-making young point guard being shut out. I don’t need it again.

Anyway, that’s me for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with coverage of what I predict will be the last game in the Bulls/Hawks series. Peace out.