Official 2011-2012 Playoff thread

[exzibit3]

Series is back to even thank goodness. Absolutely crucial victory for Miami and keeping their morale up. Now it's first to 3 in a best of 5 series. Far, far, far, far from over, in fact the series has just begun. Thunder have shown on numerous occasions throughout these playoffs that no lead is save and they can score in bunches in a short span. They showed that in the Lakers series and they showed it in the San Antonio series; just continually overcoming double digits in a matter of minutes. It's nerve wrecking! They've got guys who can zip it up court with a couple of dribbles and score on a layup and they've got Durant, Harden and Westbrook who aren't afraid to shoot treys with a catch and shoot with 18 seconds left on the shot clock.
Thunder only needs to win one game out of 3 to send it back to OKC so these 3 games in Miami isn't a big advantage to Miami. One game at a time...LET'S GO HEATTTT!!!!!!

 

[drob50]

I would have thought 3 Home games for Miami IS a real advantage! Now they only need to hold home court games to win the championship! The pressure is on OKC now to win away!

BTW, did anyone else remember me calling that if Miami want to beat OKC, they need to keep them under 100 points? lol

 

[gemini0928]

Great way to have a weekend. Feeling happy!

 

[exzibit3]

Thunder just needs to steal one victory at Miami and they're playing for at least Game 6 on their home court. It really just depends on how you view it.
Realistically, I'm not convinced that Miami can close the series out at home and neither do I believe they'll drop all 3 games; which still means they have to close it out on the road in a hostile environment either way you look at it. Tough series and it can only get tougher if Westbrook gets going early.

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Iblocka! Gotta see this later

FOUL!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aussiemjfreak]

BULLSH!T!! hahahah He got Ball!! If that was a foul then Lebron, and YOU should be playing Netball! hahahah

I do see where your trying to say he fouled him though.

 

[spurlec]

foul smoul

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

looks like contact on the arm to me

 

[aussiemjfreak]

If that was called it would have almost been the softest call in the first 2 games... Come on man, this is the Finals, not an under 12's game!

 

[Verse1]

While I do agree there was contact im happy with it not being called. I was stunned when watching it, if Ibaka hadn't got any purchase on it he would have been on signboards across the world by half time. It was going to be one viscious dunk!

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Yeah that was a shot blocker getting home court benefit. Surprised Lebron didn't get the call, they (Heat) were probably up big at that point in the game I'll bet

 

[crackberry]

Yeah that was a shot blocker getting home court benefit. Surprised Lebron didn't get the call, they (Heat) were probably up big at that point in the game I'll bet

nah it must have been a clean block since this didn't happen... (@ 0:10)

it actually looked like a clean block on live TV. and even on poetry in motion replay you'd let it go since he got ball first, then lebron's arm went into ibaka's

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Stickin with foul

 

[Verse1]

I was asking where those Zo/Ewing/Mutombo type players had gone and Ibaka is putting his hand up. Love he has no fear going for the block, im hoping Bismack comes on as well over the next couple of seasons

 

[A_Iverson_I]

Wow...... we only have ourselves to blame for continually getting down in the first quarter and then having to come back, but pretty bloody pissed at the lack of calls on that last KD shot followed by the no call when Lebron grabbed WB's wrist on the rebound. Ref's standing RIGHT on the bloody baseline and he misses BOTH!? The whole game just relied on it, but oh, we'll just ignore them both..... what BS that was!!

Looks like it was Westbrook with the last shot not Sefo (nice work NBA TV) my appologies, i should have known it would have been Westbrick who had a crack

Geez Nick...... you're becoming quite the WB hater aren't you!? Maybe you and Jaames should go and have a beer together!?

Anyway, it WASN'T a bad shot..... they were down FOUR with like 7 seconds to go. Pretty sure they had to get a shot up pretty bloody quick if they had any chance of taking the game.

FOUL!!!!!!!!!!

Ummmmmmmm....... no. Ball FIRST, then hand, and MAYBE a SMALL bit of arm.

Yeah, I know, I am more so wondering the reasoning behind it??? Maybe to take away the advantage?? And make it so both need to win away to take a series in 6 or less!

Well, look at it this way, game 6 AND 7 are at the other teams floor, which both could be critical games.

The big three for Miami was the big four tonight, Battier was the game winner. Best game he has had for a while, lets hope he can keep that up for the remainder of the series.

Let's hope he has an unfortunate "accident" before the next game!

 

[lukesicari]

Man if OKC keep getting off to slow starts, might as well give Miami the title now. Can't go down by 15 points in the first half of every game and expect to come back and win, epically against Miami who are the most dangerous teams in the league when LeBron, Wade, Bosh are played great. And Battier hitting. 3's everywhere!! Going down 18-2 at your home court? That's terrible..

And I'm not a fan of the 2-3-2 finals format...should just be 2-2-1-1-1 like all the other series.

 

[Verse1]

Wow...... we only have ourselves to blame for continually getting down in the first quarter and then having to come back, but pretty bloody pissed at the lack of calls on that last KD shot followed by the no call when Lebron grabbed WB's wrist on the rebound. Ref's standing RIGHT on the bloody baseline and he misses BOTH!? The whole game just relied on it, but oh, we'll just ignore them both..... what BS that was!!



Geez Nick...... you're becoming quite the WB hater aren't you!? Maybe you and Jaames should go and have a beer together!?

Anyway, it WASN'T a bad shot..... they were down FOUR with like 7 seconds to go. Pretty sure they had to get a shot up pretty bloody quick if they had any chance of taking the game.

Those comments were made watching the play-by-play, after watching the game it was a reasonable shot. What I did have issue with was his shooting for the sake of it in the first half especially when he was missing everything.
I'm fine with the no call at the end too, there wasn't much in it and Durant had plenty of room and time to put that shot in after the light contract.



A question for everyone, is Harden the new Ginobli? He was flopping all over the place really trying to sell the foul. Lost a bit of respect for the Bearded one after watching that game

 

[ozballer23]

Don't know if he flops more than Manu, but he did flop a fair bit lol

 

[drobfan8]

I'd say he definately flops more than Manu. Manu does it way less because he got that tag and in turn was'nt getting the calls anymore.

Harden is a very smart player, he does lots of sneaky little things on the court. Drawing fouls is one of them.

Makes it tough on the refs, but at the same time, they can be influenced easily by the star players in the League.

 

[A_Iverson_I]

For all you WB haters..

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/45850/dont-blame-westbrook-for-game-2-loss

Key quote being..

This season, including the playoffs, the Thunder have a better record (29-8) and score more points per 100 possessions (109) when Westbrook has more field goal attempts than Durant. When it's the other way around, the Thunder average 106.1 points per 100 possessions and are 27-14.

Judge by usage rate, and the numbers tell you the same thing. When Westbrook's usage is higher, the Thunder score 108.8 per 100 possessions and are 38-11, while those drop to 106.3 and 22-12 when Durant's is higher.

I loved a quote from Scott Brooks the other say what one of the commentators said he said during an interview about all the negativity about WB, and it was......... "He's not their PG, he's my PG".