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Spurs, Heat defined by stability at the top (The Associated Press)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:11 +0000

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Front offices across the NBA seem to be panicking a bit these days. Job security has long been an oxymoron for coaches in this league, but even by that what-have-you-done-for-me-lately standard, this offseason has been a particularly volatile one.
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Dwyane Wade’s scoring impact is historically crucial to this year’s Miami Heat team (Ball Don’t Lie)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:09 +0000

We’ve been down this path before. Dwyane Wade’s All-Star-level play is crucially important to the Miami Heat. When he cuts and slashes with ease like he did in Thursday’s 32-point outing in Game 4, scoring in the lane and disrupting the passing lanes on defense, Miami is just about unbeatable. When he misses on runners, bricks his jumpers, and looks a step-slow on the other end of the court? The Heat are quite vulnerable. This has been obvious to any set of eyes during the last two postseasons.
Thanks to Chris Herring of the Wall St. Journal , though, we now have a qualification of how much Dwyane’s regular season-typical 20 points per game help the Heat out. Wade, who turned into “Flash” in Thursday’s Game 4 despite a nagging knee injury , may just be the biggest X-factor in NBA playoffs history.
From Herring :
The Heat have won 42 of the 46 games this season in which Wade scored 20 points or more.
According to Stats LLC, only four players in the past 25 seasons have logged better winning percentages in such scenarios: Chicago’s Scottie Pippen (1996), Detroit’s Joe Dumars (1989 and 1990), San Antonio’s Tony Parker (2003) and Boston’s Robert Parish (1986). Each of those men won NBA titles in those years.
Context is crucial, and telling in this instance.
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Down 3-2 in the NBA Finals, Heat glad to go home (Yahoo! Sports)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:07 +0000

The Heat will try to become the fourth NBA team to win Games 6 and 7 of the Finals at home.
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Heat perplexed at inability to catch fire in Finals (Reuters)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:07 +0000

By Frank Pingue SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – The top-seeded Miami Heat were at a loss to explain their stunning inability to win consecutive games for nearly a month, a sequence they must break if they are to repeat as NBA champions. Inconsistent play and stiff competition have baffled the Heat, who have surprisingly alternated wins and losses over the last 12 playoff games. “If I knew the answer we would have won two games in a row. I don’t know. …
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Danny Green sets NBA Finals record for most three-pointers in a series (Video) (Ball Don’t Lie)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:07 +0000

The NBA Finals is often decided by one or two huge performances from role players, but San Antonio Spurs wing Danny Green’s shooting against the Miami Heat is unprecedented. With 9:39 remaining in the third quarter of Game 5 , Green knocked down his 23rd three-pointer of the series, breaking Ray Allen’s record for the most threes in an NBA Finals.
Green ranked seventh in the league this regular season with a 42.9 percent mark from beyond the arc. His shooting in the NBA Finals has been considerably better. Through the first four games of the series, he had made 19-of-28 long-range shots (69.8 percent). At the time of his record-breaking shot, Green had somehow done even better in Game 5, hitting four of his first five three-point attempts. That means Green converted on 23 of his first 33 tries — just better than two-thirds — to get the record.
Allen, the most prolific three-point shooter in NBA history and now Green’s opponent as a member of the Heat, set the previous mark of 22 threes in six games in 2008 as a member of the Boston Celtics against the Los Angeles Lakers. Allen needed 42 attempts for his record, which underscores just how amazing Green has been this series.
Directly after Green set the record, Allen expressed his dismay at losing the record. After the jump, check out a screengrab of Allen’s face (via @ jose3030 ):
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Heat-Spurs NBA Finals Game 5: 7 big questions (Ball Don’t Lie)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:07 +0000

In a purely literal sense, Game 5 of the 2013 NBA Finals isn’t a must-win , no matter what any member of the San Antonio Spurs or Miami Heat tries to tell you — with the series tied at two games apiece, whichever team drops Sunday night’s contest will still have two shots at staying alive and hoisting the O’Brien once the series shifts back to South Beach. On the other hand, though, as NBA.com’s John Schuhmann noted , of the 10 times the Finals have been tied 2-2 since 1985, the team that won Game 5 has won the series seven times. On balance, then, it would seem like a better thing to win Game 5 than to lose it; that much is not in question.
But there’s an awful lot of stuff that is in question as we head into the matchup between LeBron James’ Heat and Tony Parker’s Spurs. Here are seven running through my head as I wait for tip:
1. Can Parker play full speed for the full game?
After suffering a grade 1 strain of his right hamstring in the second half of San Antonio’s Game 3 win , Spurs fans were concerned that Parker would be unable to hit the gas in Game 4. The All-Star point guard promptly allayed those concerns, hitting four of his first five shots to score eight points with two assists and a steal in the first six minutes of Thursday’s contest.
He looked great throughout the first two quarters of Game 4, seeming comfortable and confident, getting to his preferred spots on the floor and showcasing the absurd shotmaking …

… and draw-and-dish playmaking …
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Dwyane Wade’s scoring impact is historically crucial to this year’s Miami Heat team (Ball Don’t Lie)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:07 +0000

Down 3-2 in the NBA Finals, Heat glad to go home (Yahoo! Sports)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:06 +0000

The Heat will try to become the fourth NBA team to win Games 6 and 7 of the Finals at home.
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Green’s 3-point prowess propels Spurs (The SportsXchange)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:06 +0000

SAN ANTONIO — The NBA Finals are usually reserved for the biggest stars of the game. It’s where legends make their name.
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Nerlens Noel meets with Wizards and talks draft, hair style (NBC Sports)

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:06 +0000

WASHINGTON — When it comes to Nerlens Noel, the simplest pre-NBA draft storylines involve the following: the distinctive hair, his injured knee and – based on planned team meetings – whether the University of Kentucky center will be selected one, two or three. Noel’s high-fade flattop, inspired by Will Smith’s iconic 1990′s look, won’t influence…
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