I haven't seen a team play as pathetically as the Knicks. There's no urgency to score or push the pace. There's just no way they can hang with the Heat in a half court game, and as we've seen, it's extremely hard to get off good shots against them in the half court. Simply walking it up and trying to give it to Melo who shoots with 5 seconds left on the shot clock every possession might not cut it against the Bobcats even. There's no off the ball movement or screens being set. It'd be nice to see some better coaching for once and less ego from Melo. I'd love for them to win the next 2 games to at least make Lebron sweat a little. Just a few weeks ago they were raining down 15 3s a game and runnin' and gunnin' and now they are playing like children.
Looks like Dallas is going to get swept. The heart isn't there like it was last year and their stars are up there in age. Time to rebuild.
LeBron's defensive block on Carmelo was pretty badass, which resulted in a foul. I'm going MIA v ATL/BOS for East Conference Final. And OKC v SA for the West Conference Final.
just like what Mavs did to the 2010 Champs Lakers. defending champs getting swept after winning the championship.
That's because the Heat are just a better team all-around than the Knicks. The spirit is crushed, even after JR Smith's reverse dunk, the team couldn't get enough energy to pull through and retake a lead. Lebron outscored the entire team in the 4th quarter, with lousy defense and uninspired offense like that, the Knicks deserve to be swept.
It's all over for the Mavs .. Well they did good enough qualifying for Playoffs 'cause their regular season form was very erratic. Need to do some good transfers to make up for the flops like Odom.
I chuckled at both. Mavs looked dead out there for the entire series. Sure the Thunder are a generation younger, but it seemed like they didn't even want to win at times.
Just like Dirk said from the start of the series he was not confident at their line up at all. half of the blame goes to this guy.
I think too much focus is put on the Presidents / owners / GMs of teams these days in any league. Michael Jordan, Mark Cuban, Pat Riley, and Jerry Jones are put under constant scrutiny when, in the end, it comes down to the players. These people are often responsible for the line-ups of their teams, but the players are what's important. Those four guys aren't on the court / field playing and the players win the games.
Yeah it's something that has been on the rise lately, and I've been seeing it in football as well. Just like over-blaming coaches as well. Owners/presidents, at much are responsible for investments in players, buying/selling and similar tasks. Coaches are responsable for tactics and they can suggest the players they feel are suited to their playing system. At the end of the day, it's players who win the games, they have to score, they have to defend, they have to be intelligent. Sometimes tactics can fail but the brilliance of an intelligent player and good understanding with the teammates can give that edge that in certain cases, will win games. Before blaming it on the owner, first we have to look at individual performances and then the system (which is responsability of the coach). Now with that said, I DO think letting go of Barea and signing Odom was a mistake. Who came up with that move? I don't know. And as some of the veteran Mavs players are really good, they have to be wise and know how to renew properly their roster, or they will become the AC Milan of Basketball.
Chicago are in deep, deep trouble. They had enough trouble coping without Rose, and if Deng is out, then it could all be over for them this year.
They're also concerned with Joakim Noah. Unfortunately, as it's looking, Chicago won't be advancing. The Sixers have all the momentum and no one to stop them. It will come to me as a surprise of Chicago breaks out of the first round with Rose out. Also, you can't really blame Mark Cuban for everything. At this point, you have to start looking at the players in general and the selfishness. It doesn't make sense for players like Caron Butler and Tyson Chandler to leave after they just won a championship, but they knew their value went up and that other teams would pay. Dallas didn't have the money to keep *all* of those players, and as such lost all of the pieces that made them successful (DeSean Stevenson, J.J. Barea, etc). Either way, Dallas would have lost to OKC. They're too strong, and I think the only teams that could take out OKC out west are the Lakers and the Spurs. The Clippers have a shot because I think they've won against them the past couple of times during the regular season.