I was watching Game 3 with my dad a few nights ago when he made the observation that he thought LeBron James is a better player than Michael Jordan was. It was quite a mouthful from the old man, who has been around long enough to have seen Dolph Schayes play in person, but I had to stop him in his tracks. “Let’s wait and see. Jordan was an assassin. Jordan won six titles. LeBron has won one title, not six. James has
Roy Hibbert has been a dominant force in the paint on both ends of the floor for the Indiana Pacers against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. In fact, it could be strongly argued that he has been the single most important presence for his team: his ability to intimidate or erase shots on a regular basis completely changes how the Heat attack the basket, and no one on Miami’s roster seems to have an answer when he’s on the
This Eastern Conference finals between Indiana and Miami could go down as one of the best in the past decade. It has been filled with drama and great action. With the Pacers tying the series with a home win in Game 4, it has become a best-of-three to decide which team plays San Antonio in the NBA Finals. Below are the five keys for tonight’s Game 5 in Miami, the potential swing game. [Read more…]
The referees for tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals are Danny Crawford, James Capers and Marc Davis. Their assignment is to call two fouls on Roy Hibbert within the first 90 seconds. Just kidding. But let there be no doubt the Miami Heat will do their best to attack the basket and draw fouls on Hibbert tonight as the series shifts back to Miami tied 2-2, because the Heat’s best plan of attack is to neutralize the one player who
The refs gave this game to the Pacers? Why, because LeBron James fouled out for the second time in 128 career playoff games? That’s a convenient excuse. Miami was called for just five more fouls than Indiana and only attempted six fewer free throws in the game. If you look a little deeper, Indiana reversed three key trends in this series and helped the team get an enormous 99-92 win in Tuesday night’s Game 4 to help even the Eastern
Two things we weren’t expecting to see in this postseason: The Miami Heat facing a distinct dose of adversity, and LeBron James fouling out of a game.’ The latter happened late in the fourth quarter of Indiana’s 99-92 victory Tuesday night. It was the first time James was whistled for six fouls in a game since last year’s playoffs. [Read more…]
One year after falling two games short of the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs found redemption in the Western Conference Finals after sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies 4-0 Monday night. Tony Parker, frequently lauded as the league’s most forgotten superstar, scored 37 points in the clinching game, which the Spurs won 93-86. Nobody believes he’s a star, but game-after-game, year-after-year, these Spurs are still riding him into the final days of May. [Read more…]
