Thursday, June 6, 2013
Why Lebron James and the Miami Heat will be 2013 NBA Champions.
A clean slate. Back to zero. West vs. East. Big Three vs. Big Three. Miami Heat vs. San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals.
A year ago, I wrote about why the Miami Heat will be the 2012 NBA Champions, and indeed I was right. Now, I am back to give you reasons as to why I think the Miami Heat will win it all against the San Antonio Spurs and become 2013 NBA Champions.
1. Miami's Pick-and-roll defense (and whole defensive scheme in general) - San Antonio's main weapon is the Pick-and-Roll. They do it almost in perfection that they can do it in their sleep, but, Miami has the #1 Pick-and-Roll defense in the league. They can slide and switch as fluidly the Spurs team executes it. They have the proverbial switch that they can turn on whenever they want to. If not defended well, Spur's pick-and-roll opens up a number of possibilities on offense.
2. Miami can sell fouls - Yes, you call it flopping, I call it selling. Have you seen how Tony Parker molested the Grizzlies defense by running through a number of screens before pulling up for an open J, driving for a layup and/or passing to a number of teammates? Yes, run through perfection. The Spurs uses the screen as main weapon since they really can't out-muscle and out-speed all the teams in the NBA, but if you look closely, some of their screens are 'moving', Memphis was just too tough to act out a foul or an illegal screen. Miami can sell illegal screens like a hot girl on a bikini sells burnt hotcakes. It will be a big factor if they can get Duncan and Splitter in foul trouble as that would mean the Spurs will have Diaw as the Center and Blair/Bonner at Power Forward. This time, Miami can go with their main weapon, playing small ball.
3. Defense on Tony Parker - Yes, stopping Tony Parker is one of the main priority and the Heat just has the weapons to stop Tony unlike other teams. Aside from Miami able to sell fouls, they have Mario Chalmers, a big and bruising PG who is deceptively quick that can man up on Tony. Then they also have Norris Cole, a quick guard who can stay on his feet against Tony. Take note, Tony is still an elite PG who can find ways to score, but at least Miami has 2 PGs who can slow him down in stretches.
4. Bosh and DWade's resurrection - Yes the Miami Heat still has the Big Three no matter how lackluster their performance have been in the Eastern Conference Finals. Against the Spurs, Bosh and DWade will not need to worry about match-up discrepancies. Bosh had a problem with Hibbert's size, defense and offense. Wade, hampered by a knee injury, was guarded by a pesky, big and bruising Lance Stephenson. Against the Spurs, Wade will only be guarded by Ginobili/Danny Green where he will match-up better and he can take advantage of. Bosh, will now only have a problem with the craftiness of Splitter and Duncan (and that is not in anyway disrespecting Duncan's D or Splitter's)
5. Lebron James - This match-up is really to hard to call as Spurs have the edge in the Coaching Department and they also have a deeper bench. But where does the best basketball player on the planet play? Lebron and Duncan met in the 2007 Finals, where Lebron's Cavs were swept. 6 years later, they meet again, now Duncan and the whole Spurs team will have to deal with an even better Lebron. Not the jump-shooting athletic freak they met in '07, but a smarter, more efficient player. Who in the Spurs roster will stop/guard Lebron? No one. The closest player who can slow him down is Kawhi Leonard, the long and lanky talented forward from the Spurs. But can he last 48 minutes of banging, chasing and guarding Lebron while not spending 6 fouls? If this was the 2007 version of Lebron, all the Spurs need to do is to force him to shoot jumpers (he shot 36% from the perimeter and 20% from the 3-pt line during the series), but you can't do that in the 2013 version of Lebron.
Also, Lebron has had enough of losing.
So who do you got? I got Heat in 6. :)
A year ago, I wrote about why the Miami Heat will be the 2012 NBA Champions, and indeed I was right. Now, I am back to give you reasons as to why I think the Miami Heat will win it all against the San Antonio Spurs and become 2013 NBA Champions.
1. Miami's Pick-and-roll defense (and whole defensive scheme in general) - San Antonio's main weapon is the Pick-and-Roll. They do it almost in perfection that they can do it in their sleep, but, Miami has the #1 Pick-and-Roll defense in the league. They can slide and switch as fluidly the Spurs team executes it. They have the proverbial switch that they can turn on whenever they want to. If not defended well, Spur's pick-and-roll opens up a number of possibilities on offense.
2. Miami can sell fouls - Yes, you call it flopping, I call it selling. Have you seen how Tony Parker molested the Grizzlies defense by running through a number of screens before pulling up for an open J, driving for a layup and/or passing to a number of teammates? Yes, run through perfection. The Spurs uses the screen as main weapon since they really can't out-muscle and out-speed all the teams in the NBA, but if you look closely, some of their screens are 'moving', Memphis was just too tough to act out a foul or an illegal screen. Miami can sell illegal screens like a hot girl on a bikini sells burnt hotcakes. It will be a big factor if they can get Duncan and Splitter in foul trouble as that would mean the Spurs will have Diaw as the Center and Blair/Bonner at Power Forward. This time, Miami can go with their main weapon, playing small ball.
3. Defense on Tony Parker - Yes, stopping Tony Parker is one of the main priority and the Heat just has the weapons to stop Tony unlike other teams. Aside from Miami able to sell fouls, they have Mario Chalmers, a big and bruising PG who is deceptively quick that can man up on Tony. Then they also have Norris Cole, a quick guard who can stay on his feet against Tony. Take note, Tony is still an elite PG who can find ways to score, but at least Miami has 2 PGs who can slow him down in stretches.
4. Bosh and DWade's resurrection - Yes the Miami Heat still has the Big Three no matter how lackluster their performance have been in the Eastern Conference Finals. Against the Spurs, Bosh and DWade will not need to worry about match-up discrepancies. Bosh had a problem with Hibbert's size, defense and offense. Wade, hampered by a knee injury, was guarded by a pesky, big and bruising Lance Stephenson. Against the Spurs, Wade will only be guarded by Ginobili/Danny Green where he will match-up better and he can take advantage of. Bosh, will now only have a problem with the craftiness of Splitter and Duncan (and that is not in anyway disrespecting Duncan's D or Splitter's)
5. Lebron James - This match-up is really to hard to call as Spurs have the edge in the Coaching Department and they also have a deeper bench. But where does the best basketball player on the planet play? Lebron and Duncan met in the 2007 Finals, where Lebron's Cavs were swept. 6 years later, they meet again, now Duncan and the whole Spurs team will have to deal with an even better Lebron. Not the jump-shooting athletic freak they met in '07, but a smarter, more efficient player. Who in the Spurs roster will stop/guard Lebron? No one. The closest player who can slow him down is Kawhi Leonard, the long and lanky talented forward from the Spurs. But can he last 48 minutes of banging, chasing and guarding Lebron while not spending 6 fouls? If this was the 2007 version of Lebron, all the Spurs need to do is to force him to shoot jumpers (he shot 36% from the perimeter and 20% from the 3-pt line during the series), but you can't do that in the 2013 version of Lebron.
Also, Lebron has had enough of losing.
So who do you got? I got Heat in 6. :)
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