Finals So Far
> First things first, the non-call on LeBron James against Kevin Durant with nine seconds left and Oklahoma City down two did not decide the game. The Thunder lost this game because they fell behind by double-digits early for the third straight home game and it finally bit them.
> In Game 2 Miami was able to shore up three statistical categories that killed them in Game 1. The Heat out rebounded OKC 40-36 (Thunder 43-35 in G1), outscored them in the paint 48-32 (56-40 OKC in G1) and barely lost the fast break point battle 10-11 (Thunder 24-4 in G1).
> I thought from the start last night that referees Tom Washington, Dan Crawford and Tony Brothers wanted to put their stamp on the game, and they did. Miami ended up with 21 fouls compared to 22 for OKC. Not a huge difference at all but it’s very rare for the home side to have more fouls in any NBA contest much less a Finals game (Thunder 16, Heat 19 in G1 for comparison).
> Through two games Shane Battier has been on fire. He hadn’t scored double-digits in consecutive games all season and hadn’t hit nine 3-pointers over a two-game span in more than five years. Battier is shooting an amazing 70.6% from the field and 69.2% from three so far. Considering that his regular season numbers were 38.7% and 33.9% respectively I don’t think he’ll be able to keep it up since regression to the mean catches up to everyone eventually.
> Memo to Kendrick Perkins: If you don’t have a post move that you can execute with Battier on your back two-feet from the basket you’ve got some work to do this summer.
> Over the course of his career I don’t think I’ve ever seen LeBron have his shot blocked as many times as I have in these past two games.
> In G2 Russell Westbrook needed 26 shots to score 27 points and James Harden only 11 to score 21.
> Bold prediction: Durant goes for 40+ points in Game 3.
> Does anyone else see the irony in Seattle building a new arena to steal some other city’s team when they can’t stop bitching about the same thing happening to them four years ago?
> In Game 2 Miami was able to shore up three statistical categories that killed them in Game 1. The Heat out rebounded OKC 40-36 (Thunder 43-35 in G1), outscored them in the paint 48-32 (56-40 OKC in G1) and barely lost the fast break point battle 10-11 (Thunder 24-4 in G1).
> I thought from the start last night that referees Tom Washington, Dan Crawford and Tony Brothers wanted to put their stamp on the game, and they did. Miami ended up with 21 fouls compared to 22 for OKC. Not a huge difference at all but it’s very rare for the home side to have more fouls in any NBA contest much less a Finals game (Thunder 16, Heat 19 in G1 for comparison).
> Through two games Shane Battier has been on fire. He hadn’t scored double-digits in consecutive games all season and hadn’t hit nine 3-pointers over a two-game span in more than five years. Battier is shooting an amazing 70.6% from the field and 69.2% from three so far. Considering that his regular season numbers were 38.7% and 33.9% respectively I don’t think he’ll be able to keep it up since regression to the mean catches up to everyone eventually.
> Memo to Kendrick Perkins: If you don’t have a post move that you can execute with Battier on your back two-feet from the basket you’ve got some work to do this summer.
> Over the course of his career I don’t think I’ve ever seen LeBron have his shot blocked as many times as I have in these past two games.
> In G2 Russell Westbrook needed 26 shots to score 27 points and James Harden only 11 to score 21.
> Bold prediction: Durant goes for 40+ points in Game 3.
> Does anyone else see the irony in Seattle building a new arena to steal some other city’s team when they can’t stop bitching about the same thing happening to them four years ago?
posted by D$ at 9:17 AM
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