The finals start today with Miami having home court advantage since they had the best record in the NBA during the regular season. San Antonio has had a week of rest after dispatching the Memphis Grizzlies in 4 games whiles the Heat were pushed to the limit in a 7 game series which in my opinion Indiana would have won if not for the funny decision of Frank Vogel to take out Roy Hibbert who in my opinion has been the best rim protector in the post season out of the game in the last two crucial possessions. This gave LBJ the opportunity to not only tie the game but also win it with 0.2 seconds left in regulation. The question now is how will one week of rest affect the Spurs. We saw this same scenario last season when the were well rested, took a two game to zero lead against OKC only to lose four straight. One can make the case that the OKC team of last year was far more healthier than the Heat team in the final now. Wade is suffering from a knee injury that has refused to go away, Bosh is suffering from an ankle sprain that has seem to bother his movement and his ability to create shots off the dribble. Both teams have great players (the big three). San Antonio have Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. Miami have LBJ, Wade and Bosh but every one knows this series hinges on the performance of Parker and LBJ. If the Heat are able to limit the effectivenes of Parker they can win this in 5games. The Spurs love to play high pick and rolls where Duncan or one of the Spurs bigs sets the screen high up the arc and then trail the play for Parker to dump the ball back to for a jump shot if the lane to the basket is blocked. Miami needs to try and take away the pick and roll and make it ineffective. One advantage Miami have is the way they defend the passing lane. They are also very good at defending the pick and roll. For the Spurs to win they need to limit LBJ and take him out of his comfort zones. This will be the job of Leonard who in my opinion has never guarded a player like LBJ in a seven game series. But in the same vane LBJ has never faced a player of LEonards type with a 7.5 inch wing span he is in a great position to defend the King. If the Spurs can limit the production of Wade and Bosh and keep Birdman off the glasses and also force Miami to play a lot of isolation offense then they can win this. For my prediction I will go out on a limb and say Miami in 6.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:57:24 +0000
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