NBA 2012-13 Season Thread - Crown The Heat!

^ you may be the only idiot calling game 3 of a tied series a "must win" when the Pacers have shown that they can beat the Heat at home. You really are epic levels of stupid if you call the Heat of tonight the same team of this entire season. Haslem going 8/9 and Birdman going 4/4 won this game, not your rather pedestrian 15 from Bosh and 18 from Wade. The Heat played better tonight than they did even during their amazing win streak. I fully expect them to come back down to reality on Tuesday.

Saying you dont overreact to a game 2 loss, then coming and acting like your team just won the title after a game 3 win sure makes a whole lot of sense. You're the #1 seed, act like you're supposed to be up 2-1 you buffoon.

Indiana played far from perfect the first two games. Miami did a good job changing their strategy up game 3 which the Pacers couldn't/didn't effectively counter (namely isolating/posting Lebron and saying fuck Hibbert, we're going to finish in the lane whether he's there or not instead of being afraid of him). Well, that and getting uncharacteristically good shooting from the rest of their team. Pacers played mediocre defense, not making good adjustments. Will be interesting to see what happens game 4; Pacers better have some serious desperation.

The out of character shitty games by Miami are what happens when you go up against a good defense. You would think a "Miami heat fan" (are there any fans which know less about the game) of all people would realize that.

I felt like it was a must win for the Pacers too, as there's no way in hell that I see him winning 3 out of 4 now. And the media did go insane with the Paul George stuff this May. He's good, future multi-all star but it got way out of hand. I know that Gaige/The Heat/Lebron are some of the forums favorite punching bags, but there'ssomevalidity to his post. It's the Pacers that came back down to Earth, I don't expect the Heat to. This is a team that won 43 of 45 games with Lebron playing or some shit

MAXPOWERS_sl said:

^ you may be the only idiot calling game 3 of a tied series a "must win" when the Pacers have shown that they can beat the Heat at home. You really are epic levels of stupid if you call the Heat of tonight the same team of this entire season. Haslem going 8/9 and Birdman going 4/4 won this game, not your rather pedestrian 15 from Bosh and 18 from Wade. The Heat played better tonight than they did even during their amazing win streak. I fully expect them to come back down to reality on Tuesday.

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What?

The Pacers had to win this game. They had all the momentum after the Heat's horrible game 2. They had stolen home court, punched the Heat in the face and imposed their will/style of basketball on the Heat. They needed to keep home court and push Miami even farther onto the edge. Even a 2-1 lead wouldn't mean much after what happened last year but they can't hope to win this series now. Not only did they lose home court they have to win 3 out of 4 games. Miami has lost 4 times in the last 50 games, now you expect Indiana to beat them almost as many times as they've lost since the all-star break in the next week? Not only that but the Heat haven't lost consecutive games infive months.Not happening.

Showing they can beat the Heat at home? Sure, I guess. What they showed was even if the Heat commit way more turnovers than normal and shoot way out of character from outside the arc that they still can't close out quarters, can't hold a lead and rely on late game Heat miscues to escape with a split. A 20 point beatdown is proving you can win on the road - barely beating a team playing completely out of character isn't really showing shit.

Haslem going 8 for 9 was great, but it wasn't like he was shooting 3s. The baseline pick & pop has been his shot his entire career. He has always been good on the boards. That level of play should be expected from Haslem. As for the Birdman he hasn't missed a shotthis entire series.So if anything his night was more of the same, he gets good looks at the basket when they double Wade or LeBron in the paint.

The fact that Bosh/Wade had, in your words, pedestrian outings and Ray and Battier struggled again from long range and the Heat still won by 20 on the road is exactly the shit I'm talking about. The Heat still aren't playing their best or their brand of basketball and yet they decimated the Pacers and almost doubled them up in points in the paint. So you are right, this Heat team isn't exactly the team from the streak yet who shot amazing from outside and scored a ton of fast break points - something they have yet to do in the ECF. I guess if they play as good as they are capable of they'll win by 40?

I also never acted like they won the title, I just said they should have no problem making their 3rd straight Finals.

foddon_sl said:

The out of character shitty games by Miami are what happens when you go up against a good defense.

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Good defense or not Ray Allen and Battier going like 2-15 from 3P is an outlier.

The Pacers defense is built upon giving up the low percentage 2pt shot. You state that the Heat are not shooting well from the arc and attribute none of it to the fact that Indiana had the best defensive 3pt percentage this year. The Pacers got away from pounding the ball inside in the second half and that is why, besides the Heat "role players" playing above and beyond their norms, is why we saw a 20pt loss. The Heat played well tonight I dont take anything away from them, but to say that Indiana has played "near perfect ball" shows your lack of knowledge about anything outside of Miami.

Heat late game miscues? The biggest miscue of this series is the fact that the best big man in this series was not on the floor for the final 2seconds of game 1.

MAXPOWERS_sl said:

besides the Heat "role players" playing above and beyond their norms

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Who? Haslem? Fine, but he went 5/6 last year against the Pacers in game 4 and sparked the tide turning in the series then too. Besides, like I said, UD should consistently make that shot, it's his shot.

Birdman had 9 points on 4/4 shooting. He is like 15/15 in this series with only one missed FT I believe. More of the same, definitely not beyond his norm.

Battier had 7 points on 1-4 from the arc. Not a good game for him at all. 40%+ from 3 on the season, especially the corner 3s which he has been missing this series.

Cole had 5 points, 1-5 from the floor (1-2 from 3). Shitty game for him, and a shitty series so far - especially after how he played against the Bulls. He made 9 straight 3s in that series at one point.

Ray Allen had 6 points, 2-6 (2-4 from 3). Pretty good, but he is normally in the double digits off the bench.

So where is all this above and beyond bullshit? Just Haslem? Shouldn't make up for thepedestriangames from Wade and Bosh - especially on a relatively quiet night from LeBron.

The fact remains that the Heat can play way better basketball.

MAXPOWERS_sl said:

to say that Indiana has played "near perfect ball" shows your lack of knowledge about anything outside of Miami.

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Um, lol, they were getting like 30/10 from Hibbert and George exploded for almost 30 not to mention West. Hibbert like tripled his playoff averages in the first two games against the Heat. They also held the Heat in the 30s in the first halves and were forcing the Heat into like 15+ turnovers a game. Maybe not perfect, but exactly what they wanted and a lot better offensive production from Hibbert/George than they're used to getting.

MAXPOWERS_sl said:

Heat late game miscues?

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Ya, I'd call two turnovers in the final minute of a one possession game by the MVP pretty big miscues.

Simple basketball concepts are above your grasp. You make me wish abortion were retroactive.

MAXPOWERS_sl said:

You make me wish abortion were retroactive.

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Awww, thank you sweetie <3

I have a stat question: do the steals from one team count as turnovers from the other?

Szlia_sl said:

I have a stat question: do the steals from one team count as turnovers from the other?

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Yes

Wow Spurs swept the Grizzlies. Nobody called that.

Yeah, I was expecting a 4-2 run. Glad the Spurs are in the finals though.

Hooray Spurs.

I guess the refs want this to go 7. This reffing has been bullshit already lol.

Why do refs ever give Heat players the benefit of the doubt on calls. So dumb how much flopping that team does.

Everyone flops. Besides I don't think the Heat got fined for flopping this season but other teams have. Also the Clippers are the king of flopping.

http://www.cbssports.com/general/blo...ys-for-the-win

You saw the flop, right? Wade was under the basket, near the baseline, nowhere to go. Well, there was one place to go -- out of bounds. With Pacers big man Ian Mahinmi nearby, Wade threw himself out of bounds. He wanted the call, the foul, the ball. He got none of it.

I want a fine.

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Need some real Mippo up in here. I'm a give it a shot. Mippo Mippo Mippo!

Stephenson has flopped twice for the Pacers already. Everyone does it, as I said.