Lebron Has To Do It All

Hey All,

Last night was game 1 of the NBA finals, with the Heat playing the OKC Thunder. It was a back and forth game from the start of this game, but once again the burden of the game fell again on the shoulders of Lebron James.


LeBron James found himself doing all of the work again in Game 1 of the 2012 NBA Finals.

When you only play six guys real minutes, they need to be able to play. That's the dilemma facing the Miami Heat as they assess a 105-94 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the 2012 NBA Finals at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

As advertised, Oklahoma City showed on Tuesday night that it is a deep, talented and versatile team, one capable of going big or small, capable of getting good looks in transition or in the halfcourt, capable of playing steadily from behind or with a lead.

"That's what they do," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "They keep coming. They're relentless. They beat us at their game."

In NBA Finals history, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the series 47 times and lose the series 18 times. For a half, Miami was well-positioned to steal a crucial road win. The key was Heat forward Shane Battier, who scored 14 of his postseason high 17 points in the first half, including three first quarter 3-pointers.
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"We moved the ball and Shane was the recipient," Heat forward LeBron James, who finished with a team-high 30 points, said. "He knocked down a lot of shots and he helped us to spread the floor. He's a big part of our unit and when he knocks down shots we're a very, very good team."

It wasn't just Battier. The Heat passed the ball around the perimeter with great pace and purpose, finding open shooters and hitting six of their 10 three point attempts. In the first half, the Heat registered 14 assists on 22 field goals and got 34 of their 54 points from players not named LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

That all added up to a solid 7-point halftime lead. Unfortunately, hopes were dashed as quickly as they were raised. In the second half, just six of Miami's 14 field goals were assisted and the James/Wade duo combined for 29 of Miami's 40 points. The previously precise ball movement disappeared and the hot perimeter shooting disappeared in turn, as the Heat shot just 2-for-9 from deep in the second half.

"We didn't attack as much in the second half," Spoelstra admitted.

The Thunder simply dominated the game's late stretches, with All-Star forward Kevin Durant scoring 17 fourth quarter points by himself (on 10 shots) as the Heat managed just 21 as a team (on 17 shots). Durant finished with a game-high 36 points and easily carried the day with the game on the line.

One major factor late: Oklahoma City went eight players deep in its rotation while Miami played just six players for more than 10 minutes. Thunder center Nick Collison was big, making energy plays but also finishing offensive possesions at the rim on his way to eight points and 10 rebounds. Derek Fisher and James Harden were bit players but both were competent, more than can be said for their little-used Miami counterparts. Their combined presence and energy made it that much easier for Durant to find his open looks and to dissect Miami's weary defense at will.

Spoelstra and James both agreed after the game that perhaps the Heat would need to use more of its reserves if it was going to be able to keep up with the Thunder.

"We know we have to have more [bench] production for sure," he said. "We're going to have to have more guys in there to give me and [Dwyane] Wade a rest. And Shane [Battier]. Shane played a lot of minutes. But [coach Erik Spoelstra] will figure that out. We'll be more conscious about it, just trying to get a minute or two here or there so we can finish strong."

Spoelstra, in turn, was oblique regarding his rotation, insinuating that perhaps someone was not available to him, either due to injury or some other explanation.

"Because of the circumstances, I had to shorten the rotation, but I'll probably make that change and find out who will be available in the next game," he said.

Later, when pressed on what "circumstances" meant, Spoelstra dodged: "The next game I'll be able to go a little deeper. Again, in this first game we were trying to keep [the rotation] tight. But I think we'll have a day of rest, guys will be ready to go on Thursday."

Whether they have mysterious reinforcements available or not doesn't matter all that much. The Heat can talk about increasing their bench production all they want but it's never been there for them on a consistent basis during the playoffs. Cracks started to show when Chris Bosh went down with an injury against the Indiana Pacers and they nearly proved fatal against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat simply lack talented big bodies that would be useful in match-up situations and their perimeter reserves don't defend all that well and haven't shot the ball reliably enough to make up for those deficiencies.

In the two previous series, Miami's stars emerged to carry the day. That will be their burden again in this one. The role players can do more but they can't do enough here. James plays A+ basketball, Wade (who finished with just 19 points) gets back to playing like a real superstar and Bosh becomes a major X-factor like he was against the Celtics in Game 7, or the tight-knit, focused and confident Thunder goes home as champions.

"Well, this one is behind us now," Spoelstra said in opening his post-game comments.

Sure, one loss is now in the past. But the depth and consistency questions remain firmly in the present and short-term future. It's not too much to say even after just one game that they loom as Miami's potential downfall.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.

Durant Flops?

Hey All,

NBA players have been faking calls and "flopping" for years now. No one really seems to care a whole lot about it. The only time people will care, is if a player says he doesn't do that sort of thing, and then gets caught doing it in a big game. Kevin Durant flops, but says he doesn't.

Despite Durant's plea for a call in Game 3, officials declined to whistle a foul on the Spurs. (Getty Images)
SAN ANTONIO -- When Kevin Durant is doing it, you know there's a problem. And Durant is definitely doing it, flopping like a fish out of water, craving the oxygen that is a bogus call from a fooled referee.

Durant is doing it because that's what NBA players do nowadays. They flop. It's like soccer in sneakers -- and don't you sit there, NBA fans, and act like this is OK. It's not, and you know it's not, and the excuse that "everyone does it" only works in places where people are too lazy to think for themselves. So think for yourself and answer the question:

Is flopping an acceptable form of competition? When a Duke basketball player flops, do you like it? No way. It's embarrassing, beneath the sport, any sport, but in particular it's beneath a sport as testosterone-driven as the NBA, where players stare each other down at the slightest provocation, as if this sport here, this game of basketball we're playing? It's no game, cuz. This is life, and if you look at me the wrong way, it's on.

Acting hard and tough, and then flopping or flailing for a phantom foul call from a referee, is ludicrous when done by the same person. Either you're one or the other. Be hard like Rambo, or be a pretty boy like Robert Pattinson. But don't be both.

But that's where Kevin Durant has gone -- to the same place where Dwyane Wade and LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and the best NBA players today have gone. They've gone to places reserved for pretty-boy actors and ridiculous soccer players. They've gone floppy.

These aren't charging fouls, either. I'm not talking about standing still as an enormous human being barrels down on you, and then falling as that enormous human being draws close, hoping (yes) to draw a foul but also hoping to get out of the way before getting crushed. Those look bad, but those make a little bit of sense. The assumption is, you're about to get crushed. Better to start falling early so as to not get hurt too badly.

But the flopping that NBA players do today? Flailing their arms, kicking out their legs, diving to the floor? Guys aren't doing that as they play defense. They're doing it on offense, after shots, sometimes during a shot.

Durant did it Thursday night in Game 3, dribbling on the baseline before pulling up from 14 feet for a jumper. Spurs defender Stephen Jackson was contesting the shot, as he's allowed to do. He was close, as he's allowed to be. Durant didn't like it, or was scared by it, or something, because he kicked his feet in Jackson's direction, as if to draw contact, and then after releasing the shot he threw both arms out wide as if he were a puppet and someone (Jackson?) was pulling the strings. And then for good measure he slid to the floor as the shot slipped through the net.

The referees weren't fooled, but Thunder fans were. They screamed and they booed, and they filed it away -- Remember that time KD was crushed, and no call was made? -- for future reference as proof the officials, maybe even the NBA as a whole, was out to get them.

Flopping is dangerous, see. It plays to the weakest part of the population, the largest part, the part that wants so desperately to believe there's a conspiracy against our side, whoever our side is. The NBA is rife with conspiracy theorists, with media members like Bill Simmons taking to Twitter to rile up Celtics fans with theories that the NBA ignored Dwyane Wade's foul on Rajon Rondo late in Game 2, just like the NBA didn't call nearly enough fouls on Wade and LeBron during the game, because the NBA wants the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. That's the sort of nonsense that has people honestly believing the NBA doctored the recent draft lottery to give New Orleans the No. 1 pick. People believe this stuff because they're told to believe it. And people do as they're told.

NBA referees? They do as they're told more than anyone I've ever seen. They didn't fall for Durant's theatrics, which was shocking given that an NBA star who wants a foul called will usually get the foul called. Kobe Bryant has padded his scoring total for years with phantom fouls that become real free throws, by dribbling into traffic for impossible shots and then, as he recognizes the impossibility of the shot, flailing his arms and groaning loudly as if he were hit by a 2-by-4. Referees are human, and they see Kobe acting distressed, and they assume there's something to it. And there is.

Kobe's a faker.

But they're all fakers. Dwyane Wade is the worst flopper I've seen this side of a South American soccer match. Watch him rise for a contested shot. If the defender reaches for the ball, Wade parachutes on the shot -- doesn't even try to make it -- and instead throws out both arms and both legs, as if he's Mr. Potato Head and he's falling to pieces. It's hilarious until the whistle blows, and then it's pathetic. But somehow Wade goes to the foul line with his head held high, as if he's earned it.

NBA commissioner David Stern was right a few weeks back when he said flopping was a major problem in the NBA, noting "it's only designed to fool the referee" and then lamenting that the league "should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies."

He's right, and you know he's right. Everyone does it? That doesn't mean everyone's right. It means everyone's wrong.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.