NBA Finals Thread - Oklahoma City Thunder V Miami Heat

insanity50

Lads (Paul you in particular) I'd appreciate if you left the LeBron hatred at the door tonight. It's a big game for me and the lads and if victory does bestow us it will have been well earned.

The King has earned his crust this post-season and anyone who begrduges him a jeweled stud to wear on his pinky to match his crown needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror.

Have a half litre of the captain and diet coke ready, have a meat feast from dominoes in the oven ready to be reheated, and am sitting down now to watch The Last of The Mohicans before 2am.

Tonight, Boys will Become Men, and we become Champions.

I look forward to enjoying it with you all. It has been a pleasure serving alongside you all here this post season, and though we've had our differences at times (me having rubbed one or two of you the wrong way) I hope that can all be left aside tonight and we can enjoy watching history in the making.

To the victor, the spoils.

GoldFour4

Gonna be staying up for this one. I think Miami will win and I think it will be worth staying up just to see LeBrons face when the final buzzer sounds. For all of his career he's been ridiculed because he doesn't have a ring. He'll have one after this season. I think he deserves it quite frankly. People can harp on about the decision for years and call LeBron an asshole. It can't be ignored that the decision was really a fundraiser for the boys and girls club of america. Not really a selfish thing when you think about it !

Tonight could be the start of a long era of dominance for Miami, they're going to be able to get better role players each year. I'd put them as odds on favorite to land Steve Nash if Nash decides to leave Phoenix (which I think he will). Thats a big improvement on Mike Bibby and Mario Chalmers !

They mightn't get 6 or 7 championships like they originally planned but I don't think 4 or 5 is out of reach.

By the way, a lot of my posts may come across as a Heat fan. I'm not, I'm a Phoenix fan (Washingtons my eastern team). I just really love watching LeBron play. Theres something about it, you know he's going to have an influence on every possession. Durant is the scoring champ but he really doesn't do an awful lot more then shoot incredibly well really. That's a valuable asset but I'd rather see a few less points and a few more assists and boards.

Recognition Scene

Paully D wrote: »

On another note the officiating was the worst I've seen over a series in a long, long time. Just not good enough for the highest level of basketball. Disappointing.

Nah, the first couple of games in the Celtics series were far worse, almost enough to make you think it was rigged.

Would at least like to see this go back to OKC. October's a long way away, and NFL doesn't start for another couple of months... I'm going to be bored sh*tless with nothing but baseball on!

GoldFour4

Recognition Scene wrote: »

Nah, the first couple of games in the Celtics series were far worse, almost enough to make you think it was rigged.

Would at least like to see this go back to OKC. October's a long way away, and NFL doesn't start for another couple of months... I'm going to be bored sh*tless with nothing but baseball on!

Come on man, theres loads ! NBA draft this day next week Then training camp will be starting up in NFL. Along with loads of trade talk around the NBA, there's also lots of swing free agents whose landing spots could affect the way the league works in a few years. Once July is over the NFL preseason will begin and Baseball will be heading into the playoff push. There's also our own GAA of course If that's not enough then maybe go on a holiday :P

Paully D

Shaq on Chris Bosh:

“Some guys come into the league without a ton of props, so there’s not a whole lot of pressure on them. Then they sign a big deal and all of a sudden they’re thrown into the spotlight. Chris Bosh is like that. He’s getting all this attention, so he starts believing he’s really good. C’mon now. We know better. He’s a player who can put up some numbers, but he’s not an elite player. He was in Toronto eight years and they were never a factor, never a playoff team. Don’t get with those other two guys and start pounding your chest. I ain’t buying it, and I’m not the only one.”

From last year:

After Shaquille O'Neal scored 45 against Toronto on Friday, Raptors star Chris Bosh said O'Neal had benefited from officials ignoring his three-second lane violations.

"I heard what Chris Bosh said, and that's strong words coming from the RuPaul of big men," O'Neal said. "I'm going to do the same thing (in their next meeting) I did before - make him quit. Make 'em quit and complain. It's what I do."

:pac:

GoldFour4

Battier wide open again, thats just not good enough defense

GoldFour4

too good, like a freight train. When he wants to get to the hoop he's rarely going to be denied.

Carcharodon

Just back from Poland so this is the first game I have been able to watch, sounds like LeBron has been very good, was playing exceptional before I left so even if he is a bit of a dick he still deserves it.

spiralism

Tonight will go one of two ways:

i. the classic closeout in the finals - blowout and showing off abound
ii. OKC play it close and take it back to theirs

Gonna tune in midway through the second and see where this goes. Only way Miami win is big though, the jitters will be in now and i can see them slipping up in a tight game with so much on the line for them. OKC have nothing to lose

padraig_f

Why is Perkins on the floor?

(answer: because Scott Brooks is an idiot)

padraig_f

I hope OKC don't go down without a fight. They need to hang in there, Miami shooting 57% from 3 after the first quarter, that can't continue (you'd think).

Paully D

That offensive foul call on Durant is an embarrassment.

EDIT - Any chance of Durant getting a call in his favour at all?

Regular Al

Awful calls on D Wade. Conspiracy theorists can relax.

Top Dog

If Miami seal it tonight then I'll give 50% credit to LeBron for carrying the Heat to the title, and 50% credit to Westbrook for handing it to them by being one of the most selfish point guards I've seen in some time! :mad:

Paully D

Can't watch the rest of the game unfortunately but well, it looks like that's that. Miami up by 19 midway through the 3rd and I'd be amazed if they didn't close it out now.

In a complete reverse of what I actually thought would happen in this series, Miami's role players really stepped up whereas only Durant and Westbrook performed for the Thunder. For example Battier scored 17 in games 1 and 2, Chalmers scored 25 in game 4, and Miller as I write this has 12 in game 5. Huge contributions.

Seems like a year (or possibly two) too early for OKC. As Michael Jordan said ''I've failed over and over again in my life, and that's why I succeed'' which was true of Lebron James (at least for this season) and hopefully Durant and co realise that.

The west is a tough conference but I think OKC will do well in it for many years to come, so there's no doubt in my mind that they'll get their chance to win a finals soon again, whilst Miami don't really have a challenger at all in the very weak east with a Derrick Rose-less Bulls so I have a feeling we'll see the same match up in next years finals.

Fair play to Miami. They have a completely loaded team and are expected to win anyway and rightly so, but they played really well on the biggest stage and deserved to win it this year.

Anyway, it was an interesting, if somewhat predictable season considering this time last year we were wondering if we'd get to see any basketball during the 2011-2012 season at all.

Roll on 2012-2013!

* Disclaimer - if the Thunder someone pull off a comeback the above applies until Miami inevitably win this series * :pac:

insanity50

there will be tears if Miami win! can feel myself welling up already!

Recognition Scene

Getting embarrassing now, every possible thing falling Miami's way

GoldFour4

love the referee giving spoelstra a pat on the chest as he ran by :P

Jesus christ Mike Miller is on fire, delighted for the guy, was a great player in Washington

Jimmy Iovine

Mike Miller is having a laugh. 3 pointers in an NBA final shouldn't be that easy.

PizzamanIRL

Anyone else see the ref patting Spoelstra when he ran past him? Dont like that kinda stuff...Probabaly only pre-congratulating him

Mike Miller on fire with the 3s

PizzamanIRL

BOOM triple double, great way to finish off.

kev250

Anyone know how many points LeBron has got?

PizzamanIRL

kev250 wrote: »

Anyone know how many points LeBron has got?

24

Nuri Sahin

Wow. That's how you close out a series. Congrats LeBron and Miami.

insanity50

in tears.
cant believe we did it.
have the whole house woken up with the celebrations haha!!

spiralism

For all the ref blaming, Miami were clearly the better team and finished it off in style. Lebron singlehandedly willed them to this, he was probably the clearest Finals MVP in any i've watched, absolutely phenomenal by him throughout the finals and the entire playoffs for that matter.

First triple crown winner since Duncan in 03 and a triple double in the decider. I would have to say fair ****s to him.

padraig_f

Congrats to Miami, it's never easy to win an NBA championship, anyone that does deserves it.

I criticised Lebron for celebrating before he'd earned it, but he's earned it now. Been brilliant this playoffs, offense, defense, assists, played 45 mins a night and I can't remember a bad game. Wade wasn't at his best, Bosh missed games, and Lebron really carried the team through it all.

I thought it was going to be the end of the world if the Heat won a championship, but I'm taking it better than I thought. And I think there's a reason for it: what I've disliked about the team has been the hype, but when someone earns something, you have to take your hat off to them.

SoulGuy

Well earned. I thought I'd be pretty "meh" about this group winning a ring since they formed the team in the way that they did, but they won it in a way that I respect. They scrapped their asses off.

Props to LeBron for finally putting it all together, especially between the ears.

€100 says that this isn't the last time these two teams meet in the Finals in the next 5 years.

Paully D

Yeah I agree with Padraig and Soul Guy re: the Heat winning and LeBron.

I'd also be very surprised if they didn't meet again in the finals next year, barring injury.

leggo

If anyone is interested, I did an NBA Finals special of my sports podcast last night during game 5 with my co-host (a devoted Miami Heat fan). We wanted to recap the series so far, review it and also capture what it's like for sports fans having the craic during a massively important game like this. I reckon you guys might appreciate it anyway:

http://peopleareidiots.podbean.com/2012/06/22/nba-finals-special/