Nitro

Good win for Miami, although it wasn't a particularly well-played game on either side of the floor (both teams had little spurts of great play mixed with huge droughts that were difficult to watch). Haslem was brilliant, and being that he's their only big man besides Bosh who is athletic and can rebound, he'll be sorely needed all series long. Wade was very good for the first 3 quarters, and LeBron dominated the last few minutes to seal the win. Bibby played surprisingly good defense on Rose and kept him outside the paint, though his shot continues to struggle. Everyone else on the team played poorly and/or quietly, especially Chalmers who had one of the worst 5min of basketball you'll ever see from a PG. For Chicago, their offense was simply awful. As someone mentioned before, Miami's defense, specifically in the 4th quarter was confusing Rose, and made him force a few jumpers that were off by a mile, and their athleticism made things tough for him near the rim. He also didn't help himself by settling for jumpers when he was being defended by Bibby. Noah played well early but fizzled out as the game progressed, and Boozer forgot it was game 2 of the ECF and not a mid-January game against the Kings. Besides Gibson, not a single player had a good game. Still, the fact that they had a chance to run away with it before LeBron went off should be encouraging. As far as game 3 goes, the key will be which team will get hot from 3. The Heat's 3pt shooters (Miller, Jones, Chalmers, Bibby) went a combined 1-7 from downtown in Game 2, and the Bulls' shooters (Deng, Korver, Bogans) went 3-16. I expect Rose to have a bounce-back game and at least increase his efficiency, as well as Bron/Wade to produce like they did in Game 2, with each team's PF's playing a bit better. I also don't expect the Heat to win the rebounding battle or the Bulls to get more FTA's like they did in Game 2. That leads me to which team can get production from beyond the arc. Usually Jones and Chalmers are more confident at home and will take and make more 3's than they have so far in this series, so I expect them to be the X-factors and lead the Heat to a Game 3 win.

I'd put Dirk and Gasol clearly ahead of him, with Randolph being in the same tier as Amare/Bosh/Griffin/Aldridge.

Wade averaged 34PPG on 56% shooting against the Celtics last post-season with Thibodeau, Perkins, Tony Allen and Sheed.

http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance You are wrong...very, very wrong. Much like LA, it takes Heat fans 1/2-1 quarter to fill up the arena, partially because only rich, fair-weather fans can afford the lower bowl seats, and partially because the arena is in a difficult part of the city to get to traffic-wise.

Very, very impressive win by the Heat. In the post-season Wade and LeBron have really turned up the effort on both sides of the ball, and unlike the regular season the Heat are finally getting off to respectable starts with Wade looking to be aggressive from the get-go rather than trying to "feel out" the game. When those two turn it on and put in a complete effort, this team is really something special. I admit it...I was wrong about Joel Anthony getting exposed in the post-season, he's been fantastic. It's still a scary thought to have him defending Shaq and Bynum, but so far he's been incredible for them in terms of energy and defense. I also think Spo should really consider giving Dampier the bulk of Z's minutes....he's been awful so far, and Dampier is at least more physical around the rim and is quicker on his rotations defensively. As for the Celtics, Rondo needs to look to score. Once you get the Heat defense to collapse, they become vulnerable. However, if you get into the paint and the defense knows to play the pass, the penetration becomes ineffective. He HAS to be aggressive for the Celtics to have a chance.

Shaq and Haslem are both out tonight.

Durant, LeBron and Wade also know how to initiate contact and sell the foul, and are all better at getting to the rim now than Kobe is (especially LeBron and Wade). All of them also score more efficiently from the field (hell, LeBron even shot better from 3 this season than Kobe did). When Kobe won his last scoring title he took the EXACT same amount (4.6) 3's per 36min as he did this past season. He had more defensive attention payed to him from 05-08 than he does now, including being contested on 3's, yet he still shot better on those jumpers. When hitting jumpers/fadeaways with a hand in your face is the focal point of your arsenal, getting elevation on those shots is huge...I saw it with T-Mac when he started losing that elevation, and I see it with Kobe now too. Any way you cut it, Kobe is not the same player he was a few years ago, and him losing some of that explosiveness is a major reason why.

I can show you plenty of videos from 2-3 seasons ago that were more impressive than those dunks. Kobe doesn't have that same explosiveness off the dribble, and most of the time he can't finish with contact around the rim like he used to. His decline in athleticism is also apparant in his inability to get the same lift on jumpers, which shows up in him going from a 35-36% 3pt shooter to a 32-33% one despite taking roughly the same amount.

AI was extremely inefficient even with all those FT's...awful example. And I brought up Kevin Martin as an example of how FTA's increase efficiency. If you want more examples of player's who are in Kobe's league, look at Durant, LeBron and Wade. Or, look at Kobe from just a few years ago. Kobe played a solid game yesterday scoring the ball, but he wasn't even as efficient as his season average from the last time he won the scoring title.

He was efficient from the field, but overall he wasn't very efficient scoring the ball. FT's are a huge part of efficiency, and it's why guys like Kevin Martin are considered among the most efficient in the league despite shooting 43% from the field. I love the bum ankle excuse...every single year there is something new for you to use as a crutch when someone criticizes Kobe. At this point in his career, he's never going to be 100% healthy, especially come post-season time. Kobe simply did not force the issue going to the rim enough last night, and when he did get into the paint he was careless by holding the ball out, which led to him being stripped on numerous occasions. Sometimes putting your head down and forcing your way to the rim is necessary. Kobe has never been much of a driver or flopper since he became a star, it's just that now he can't finish like he used to, and without lift his jumper has become significantly less efficient (between 32-33% from 3 the last few years, and his FT% has also dropped sharply which hurts his efficiency). And it doesn't matter how a player gets his points, as long as he gets it done. I'd rather have my player get those undeserving FREE throws over spending those shot attempts on 20-25ft jumpers. If it helps you sleep at night to know that Kobe chooses to do the latter, then more power to you, but it's less effective.

Not true. When you don't get to the FT line and take 29 shots to get 34pts, you're not being particularly efficient. I wouldn't qualify it as inefficient necessarily, but he didn't play a very efficient game yesterday. With that said, Kobe is not to blame for that loss...it was the collective, lackadasical effort when they went up big that lost them the game. I do agree with ABL that the Lakers are at their best when Kobe tones down his shot attempts and the team works from the inside-out as that is what separates the Lakers from every team in the league. Kobe simply cannot be relied on to score big on a nightly basis anymore, and they have to remember that.

I spend my money on hookers and Samuel Jackson... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OJl6ATsGFco/TLZtA_9gGII/AAAAAAAAHas/hjwlj6g49Ls/s1600/assdasdasasdasdasdasdsad.jpg

I think Amare would have been the better fit offensively, worse fit defensively. Amare has become as deadly as Bosh with the midrange jumper, but he's also much more aggressive around the rim, which is something the Heat desperately lack from their big men. Defensively, even though Amare is a better shotblocker, Bosh is a much better all-around defender, and fits pretty well within the Heat's defense.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of his ultra fast-paced screaming either. He still has some really sick lines, but it just doesn't sound good on the ears (especially in songs like Despicable where it just kills the song). In terms of his flow and voice, the best he's sounded since around TES is on this song (which is by far my favorite song on Recovery)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tto9o8hTl8I

Team is whack around him? The Nets have a ton of money to spend this offseason, along with having Deron Williams and some solid role players.

Royce outshined Em in that song, and I'm really feeling it overall.

I'm not, I don't think anyone expects them to be any better than a 7th seed next year with this current roster (6th if Orlando trades Howard). It is clear they are a star away from making any real noise in the post-season.

All those NHL teams were before 1985. And what qualifies a dynasty is subjective, and I personally disagree with having to go on a 3-peat to be considered a dynasty.

Since when did a dynasty qualify as having to be a three-peat? Since 1985 only 4 teams, 3 NBA and 1 MLB, have achieved a 3-peat in any of the 3 major sports (including NCAA). I think that definition isn't the best to define a dynasty. Anyway, I do consider the Spurs a dynasty. They won 4 titles in 8 seasons, and 3 titles in 5 seasons. I consider the team that won 3 titles in 5 seasons to be a dynasty because they essentially had the same core and mostly the same team, and that was where they really did dominate...they won at least 57 games all 5 seasons on top of those championships.

The Artest/Belinelli matchup is KILLING the Hornets this series...there is no way you can let Artest shoot over 50% in 4 out of 5 games, or have him be the 3rd leading scorer on the Lakers.

That's my guess, no way were there more than 10,000. It looked like a half-full NBA arena worth of people, so that's where I came up with that number. Being that the Marlins play at a football stadium just made it look soooooooo much worse too.

This. I do still think he has a shitload of talent, and CAN be a Jamal Crawford-type player, but he has to learn to adapt to his new role and get his confidence back. I mean, it's great that he had a solid playoff game and thinks he still has that All-Star level of play, but he's got to get consistent with it.

Management, not Terry. There was only 1 season where the Mavs were expected to win the championship, and that was 2007 when the Warriors beat them (which wasn't all that much of a surprise since the Warriors owned them that entire season). It was embarrassing, but regardless that was the only year where they were expected to make it out of the West. This season is the same story, and people are really overreacting to the Mavs struggling against a team they were EXPECTED to struggle against, especially without their 2nd best player.

Both Wade and Lewis averaged 1.0BPG per 36min for their careers, but Wade has the longevity on Lewis, and Wade's also 3 inches shorter than Lewis which makes his feat more impressive IMO. As for VC, I forgot about how good of a shotblocker was, but again, Wade has the longevity on him. T-Mac was actually the best of the bunch, averaging 1.9BPG back in 99-00, and 1.5BPG the following, but his longevity hurts him too (as well as the fact that he had the natural height of a SF). According to Hoopdata.com, Wade shot 66.6% at the rim this season to Rose's 60.0%, and between 3-9ft Wade shot 50.0% to Rose's 39.7%. Besides the stats, Wade finishes better at the rim because he knows how to finish with contact better, won't make shots more difficult by trying to avoid the contact, and he has freakishly long arms which help him finish easier than Rose, who is only about an inch shorter than him.

Well, you may be right on that one...