Recent history has shown that when you have the chance to acquire proven winners at the highest level, you don’t hesitate over minor details. The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Pau Gasol for pocket change, a few picks and the draft rights to Marc Gasol. They may prefer to have the younger brother if you ask now, but netting Gasol won them two championships. The Boston Celtics gave up just about all the moving parts they could muster to acquire Kevin Garnett. The
Let’s forget about the adjectives, the cliches and the hyperbole. Tuesday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals was the best Finals game in a really, really long time for many reasons. Clutch shots, transcendental performances, controversial calls and decisions and several signature moments all factored heavily into Miami’s 103-100 overtime win over San Antonio to force Thursday night’s Game 7. Here are several things we can take away from this unbelievable basketball night. [Read more…]
MIAMI — For basketball fans, Tuesday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals was nothing short of breathtaking. It was everything one could possibly want in a game: A championship and legacies on the line, elite performances by two living legends, a seesaw battle, an epic shot by the best shooter in history to tie the game with 5.2 seconds left, and an overtime session to sort it all out. For the Miami Heat, the performance thoroughly reinforced to everyone their will
While the NBA Finals series between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat has been close, nearly all of the games had not. Until Game 6, which became one of the memorable games in NBA Finals history. [Read more…]
Gregg Popovich MIAMI — As chants of “Let’s Go Heat!” rained throughout the corridors of AmericanAirlines Arena, Armando, holding the hand of his female companion, led her through a sea of fellow Miami Heat fans. Euphoric. Shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers united by a white hot love for their Heat, they were packed as tightly into the arena’s Northwest stairwell as a bag of cotton balls. “Wow. Wow. Wow,” he said. “I can’t believe what I just saw.” What he saw was
LeBron James is struggling in the playoffs, and that means everyone is talking about his demise. When the King struggles – which he rarely does – it is always major news. Usually, his struggles stem from the inability of his teammates to step up and make plays. In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, however, that actually wasn’t the case. For once, LeBron didn’t have a whole lot to blame for his poor performance other than himself, and that’s exactly what
The San Antonio Spurs might be in trouble. On the surface, things appear to be OK. The Spurs have executed their defensive game plan, which is to turn LeBron James into a passer. They have prevented the Miami Heat from turning either game into an extended relay race. And most important, they secured a split of the first two games as the road team, which is practically mandatory in the 2-3-2 format of the NBA Finals. Beneath the surface, however, the Spurs
Even before a preposterous third and fourth quarter run, the Miami Heat had already gotten back into a great position in its NBA Finals series against the San Antonio Spurs. Through the changes and adjustments made by the Heat during the first three quarters of Game 2, they had already erased the bad mistakes and trends that ended up haunting them in Game 1. Sure, the result was a 103-84 blowout win for Miami over San Antonio, but margin of victory