Basketball is not my thing at all, so I really have no clue, but I'm trying to understand why the Heat are struggling when they seemed more powerful last year and better at making shots. Can someone explain a little as to what's going on?
LeBron used to be able to get to the basket at will, in past games that I used to see, with his size and strength and skill. He was unstoppable. Battier used to hit those baskets from the outside, and Ray Allen was hitting baskets at will last year.
Now, it seems like not only is the Heat unable to defend the Spurs offense, which I can understand, but they can't score themselves. Why can't we score? Why is OUR offense no longer working?
Lebron is getting hammered when he drives, plays that were fouls in the regular season but the refs have let them play and I think the confidence to drive hard to the lane has been really killed by that as normally they get a foul called. This really has hampered Wade's game. I can't complain though, because this is the Finals and this is the type of basketball I like to see (even if my team is losing). Miami has to adjust. You have to move the ball on offense . . . too much one on one play.
- Why is there so much traffic and no room when LeBron is trying to maneuver in the paint and use his size to make a play? I mean, it seems like a lot of their guys are slimmer, built for speed, not to out muscle anybody. Yet, he can't move, he's trapped, surrounded, pushed down, defenders hanging all over him. Are refs just allowing more contact these days? Is a powerful player like LeBron expected to get more contact so they allow all that molestation? Or are the Spurs just that good at defense?
Spurs are very active on defense. Lebron has gotten to the hole on many occassions but Kawaii Lenard is a solid, physical defender and it can wear on a player like Lebron over the course of a series. Lebron isn't the issue . . . we haven't shot the ball well enough early in the basketball game and the Spurs have been on fire.
- Why is it that if our shooter is triple teamed, we can't just pass the ball to someone who must be wide open?
Outside of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, the rest of the guys have lost their confidence when shooting. Chalmers, Cole, Battier and even Chris Bosh just don't want to take shots unless they are wide open. People talk Big 3, but our team is based around penetration and knocking down 3's. When that is not happening, this team is not at it's best. I've seen the kick outs and guys have shots yet they see a defender coming and they pull it down instead of just taking the shot. You aren't going to get those wide open looks against this team but you play in the NBA because you are able to hit shots that are contested. This team's confidence is just, meh.
- Why are they allowing Chalmers to play when he's incompetent? Do we have no one else on the bench?
They aren't going to bench their starting point guard over the last 4 years for a couple of bad games. They'd rather hope he snaps out of it because they need him to be successful. He finally started knocking down a few shots in the 2nd half and slowly seems to be regaining his confidence.
- Why are we missing all the outside shots? Nothing goes in. Do they just need to practice that for next year, or do we just need better players who can shoot?
Make or Miss league . . . Spurs are shooting it incredibly well
- Are we too old? Are the Spurs younger, is that why they never get tired?
Spurs have a solid 10 man rotation with all 10 guys making contributions, we usually run an 8 man rotation, but when you have Chalmers struggling, and shots aren't falling at the normal above 50% clip we are used to seeing . . . . other guys have to stay in longer, put more work in on offense and defense and yea eventually it wears on you throughout the series. No excuses here, the better team is the Spurs . . . the chance Miami has is their stars being GREAT, and so far that has not been the case.
- Ray Allen, who I think is a great player, seemed to be getting harassed, and that one play where Green flew up at him like superman with his arms up was typical of how aggressive the Spurs were on defense, and so Allen just wisely let him go by and was patient and made the shot. But all that aggression seemed to take Allen off his game, as well as everyone else on our team. What's the counter for that? I mean, there must be an adjustment, just like in football, something to exploit. And if the Spurs can play defense like that, then why aren't doing it? Is our defensive strategy different?
Refs are really letting them play, and it clearly has favored the Spurs. The Heat are used to drawing contact on drives and shots and the refs are seeing the contact and are keeping the whistles in their pocket. I thought this would favor us more, but clearly this has favored the Spurs in this series as they have turned up the aggression and have just been more physical. Miami needs to back off the man defense and try switching into a zone. Problem with zone is, with their shooters they can get up shots so quick that you like to have a guy up on the shooter but atleast with zone maybe we can just be agressive without expending so much energy on defense and you definitely have to hope the Spurs miss a few more shots.
- Everyone on our team was dejected from the first quarter on, and the coach was quiet. Shouldn't the coach or team leaders do more to get everyone motivated, or are they just all shell shocked and worn out from chasing the basketball?
I just think their is a sense of shock amongst the team and the fans. Spurs are the better team and have shown that in games 3 and 4. It can be deflating. The ball movement by the Spurs is something I have NEVER seen live in the NBA. It's pretty special.
- SHOULD we chase the basketball at all? I mean, they're faster and they're constantly passing, there's no way to really do that, why not let them pass to their hearts content and just kind of play man-to-man and blanket a guy and force them to take a shot? Is there a way to do that in basketball?
Spo has been outcoached in this series . . . and that isn't a surprise as Pop is top 5. I am expecting some adjustments for game 5 . . . hell when your back is up against the wall you gotta pull all the cards out. This Spurs team is so robotic when it comes to their scheme that you see how deflating the entire Heat team gets. The Spurs are great passers of the basketball and they know where there man needs to be so it's not like they need a visual to make a pass they can just pass it and the guy will be there. It's really been impressive watching them.
Thanks for the help!
