2012/2013 NBA season thread

[moon]

The Pacers played two games as well as they can.

Will be interesting to see if they can keep this up over the next 5 games.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Miami has no way to stop Roy Hibbert. If he can produce three more 22-10 type games the Pacers are going to the Finals. Miami is gonna struggle to beat either Memphis or San Antonio who also present bad matchups with their size.

[darklord700]

Spoles can coach. Putting LeBron on the post against the smaller Paul George is a great move.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Tony Parker is very good at basketball.

[OILFAN #81]

Spurs sweep Memphis and are off to the NBA finals. Miami up 2-1 in the Eastern finals vs Indiana. Looking like a Heat-Spurs finals.

[killer_carlson]

And the old spurs get a few extra days to rest their bones as well.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Go Spurs! That is all...

[Hockey]

Hate the Spurs. Please Miami win. Or even Indiana if it comes down to it.

[darklord700]

The way the Spurs swept the Grizzlies, I'll be worried if I were a Heat fan (and I am). The Spurs are big inside and their bigs can hit threes. Seeing how the Pacers' bigs score almost willingly against the Heat, the Spurs' bigs are going to do worse damage. And Parker should have been a MVP candidate if not for Lebron's otherworldthy performance this season.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Ugh, really LeBron?

“It’s year one (of the fine protocol), so you’re not just going to go cold turkey,” James said. “Guys have been accustomed to doing it for years, and it’s not even a bad thing. You’re just trying to get the advantage. Any way you can get the advantage over an opponent to help your team win, then so be it.”

I guess we know how DJ Augustine was able to run over LeBron in Game 1....

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I guess we know how DJ Augustine was able to run over LeBron in Game 1....

Ain't nothing but the truth. Guys have be doing it for ages, Fisher, Ginobli, you name it. With many TV replys from multiple angels, flopping has now became more apparent to the viewers. Before that, it was called "selling" the foul to the ref and now it's flopping.

[moon]

Miami had the best record in the NBA, are something like 47-3 in the last 50 games Lebron has played and won the title last year after going to the finals the year before and yet all that seems to get talked about is how much trouble they are going to have stopping team X or how bad team X is going to hurt them inside.

Why does nobody consider how brutal it will be for the old guys on SA to try and keep up with the pace that the Heat can play at both ends of the court? That Kawai Leonard is going to have no chance controlling Lebron and there isn't a single other option on the Spurs to defend him?

I know it is getting ahead of myself talking Spurs-Heat it just always seems odd that many people immediately go to the Heat's weaknesses and don't talk about how the Heat are by far the hardest team to match-up against in the league.

[PeteLFan]

Lol at hardest match up.

[moon]

Originally Posted by PeteLFan

Lol at hardest match up.

If they aren't how come they win as much as they do? If they are an easy match-up how come they won the title last year, won the most games this year and look like the best team in the play-offs so far?

Which team is able to defend Lebron? Which team has shown an ability to deal with their penetration and kick out to Battier, Allen, Chalmers etc. in the corner? Which team has shown an ability to match-up with the pace they can play with at both ends of the court?

[Drake]

Pathetic. This flop should get an 11/10. Knowing Stern is a fan of the Heat, Princess will get off scotch free from this.

[trackercowe]

^ Pretty embarrassing by both LeBron and West.

Did anyone catch the last couple minutes of the game tonight, or by that I mean the last 40? With two possession rulings, a bunch of timeouts, and a few foul shots it took a ridiculous amount of time.

I hate to keep repeating my self, but will they ever do something about this? Does each team really need 65 timeouts each half?

If I were the NHL I would advertise that they're the one league that doesn't allow infinite timeouts in each game. It's bad in the NFL too, but it's a lot less noticeable without the constant freezing of the game for foul shots.

[kmart]

Originally Posted by moon

Miami had the best record in the NBA, are something like 47-3 in the last 50 games Lebron has played and won the title last year after going to the finals the year before and yet all that seems to get talked about is how much trouble they are going to have stopping team X or how bad team X is going to hurt them inside.

Why does nobody consider how brutal it will be for the old guys on SA to try and keep up with the pace that the Heat can play at both ends of the court? That Kawai Leonard is going to have no chance controlling Lebron and there isn't a single other option on the Spurs to defend him?

I know it is getting ahead of myself talking Spurs-Heat it just always seems odd that many people immediately go to the Heat's weaknesses and don't talk about how the Heat are by far the hardest team to match-up against in the league.

The old guys on SA isn't even an argument anymore. They've restocked and re-tooled. They don't rely heavily on the outside game and aren't hesitant to run, especially with Tony Parker.

Heat are by far the most difficult team to match up against, but it doesn't mean that the Spurs don't match up well, I mean Hibbert and West are just dominating the interior of the Heat, whose to say Duncan won't have his way in the interior? He already dominated Zach Randolph in all 4 games and Chris Bosh is soft.

With Wade and Bosh playing terribly, I think SA has a legit shot at the championship.

[moon]

Originally Posted by kmart

The old guys on SA isn't even an argument anymore. They've restocked and re-tooled. They don't rely heavily on the outside game and aren't hesitant to run, especially with Tony Parker.

Heat are by far the most difficult team to match up against, but it doesn't mean that the Spurs don't match up well, I mean Hibbert and West are just dominating the interior of the Heat, whose to say Duncan won't have his way in the interior? He already dominated Zach Randolph in all 4 games and Chris Bosh is soft.

With Wade and Bosh playing terribly, I think SA has a legit shot at the championship.

I think the Spurs could certainly win the series especially if Wade continues his play/is injured.

I guess I say old guys because Duncan, Manu and Parker are still the most important guys on the team and the young guys aren't really that great of players, but certainly not as old as some of the past Spurs team. I think Duncan will have his way on the inside but as mentioned he has done that against every team so not really some weakness that is Heat specific and as mentioned other have scored insider on the Heat all year and they have managed.

I hate the Spurs and hope they get killed in the Finals by either team that gets there but I certainly can see them winning. They have been winning games/series/Championships that I never thought they should have for ~15 years now so I will not count them out this time.

[octothorp]

As much as Stern hated it at the time, it's quite interesting that we may see a finals series between two rosters that never really played one another during the regular season (both teams holding out their stars on the road games).
As always, it'll be about how do they limit James... trying to hold him to mid-20s in points rather than mid-30s. I think we may see a healthy dose of Boris Diaw on James... Diaw has the size to defend James in the post, but obviously not the speed to keep with him on the perimeter, though that's where the Spurs' solid help defense comes in. Vogel has really struggled to find the right balance of defensive elements, but I think Popovich is a much better coach, and having a few extra days to gameplan makes a difference (I would assume SA is spending most of their time planning for Miami).

[OILFAN #81]

3-2 Miami. They aren't going to lose 2 in a row. Spurs-Heat will be close IMO.