NBA Playoffs - WCF, ECF, & Finals

Guru and I, as it turns out, will be both at the Spurs-Thunder game today, although cheering for opposite sides. PS sorry Guru, section 209 was the best I can do, there were only a couple of dozen unsold seats in the whole arena by the time I bought them.

I've got Oklahoma City winning this one, but my random odds-based guesser (which actually outperformed my own personal picks this season lol, including the exact result of the Thunder-Spurs series being a 2-0 SA lead followed by 4 straight OKC wins) just had Miami doing the exact same thing back to the Thunder - losing 2 games in OKC, then winning 3 in Miami, and taking game 6 on the road in 2OT to take the series.

I got OKC in 7 but a Miami win would not shock me, with Bosh healthy they match up better than the Spurs did.

I do not like the 2-3-2 format in the Finals. If the rest of the playoffs is 2-2-1-1-1, why change it? Less travel I guess? While the four games at home IS an advantage, having the middle three games at home is huge and can swing momentum in a big way.

Gut feeling right now is that the Thunder take it in 6, but at any point if Bosh gets fully back to form and Wade can eke out some good shooting, the Heat have the potential to go juggernaut. I doubt it happens though.

And Westbrook - I love your game, but PLEASE stop having the tough guy mentality any time someone bumps you or you think they're "in your face."

Final point - FOR THE LOVE OF ZEUS, PLEASE STOP WITH THE MOTHERFUCKING FAKE GLASSES, FELLAS.

The series should be an all out war. My gut says Thunder in 6 but I can easily see it going 7. OKC OKC OKC!

Go Thunder! I am saying OKC in 6!

Lots of overblown "fix" complaints coming in because of one call tonight. I'm not buying it. Yes, it was the wrong call. However, to actually see the hack you had to be on the baseline and towards the sideline - not where the ref was. From the angle I saw it live it looked like Durant was just trying too hard to draw contact. So, bad call, but just one of those tough things the ref missed b/c that happens sometimes. If the refs wanted Miami to win, they had an easy opportunity to call Durant for his 6th foul on a very close charge/nocall/block deal between him and Battier. Miami won game 2 because they played better than the Thunder did, it's really that simple.

I think a media personality, say Jim Rome, should ask Stern about the league being fixed. I think that'd make for an interesting interview.

It wasn't about the NBA as a whole, but it was about the lottery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi2kH4U7E8A

Rome's whole "The public wants to know" shtick ... not buying it. Rome knew the public wouldn't get any useful information out of the question. He was just trying to get a rise out of Stern. I'm not a fan of David Stern but Rome was just being a jackass asking such a stupid question - it deserved a stupid answer.

Exactly. His "I'm just doing my job" line was BS.

To be fair, Rome came on yesterday and responded to a bunch of anti-Stern emails by basically saying "Cut the man some slack. I've done tons of great interviews with him in the past. He probably was just in a bad mood. We all have bad days, let's just get over it."

In the meantime, OKC's gonna be feeling the pressure tonight. A 3-1 deficit isn't insurmountable with the final 2 at home, but the Thunder are looking like the Team That Hasn't Been To The Finals Before right now and they've got to get past that mentally with this type of pressure on them. For example, they'd theoretically be ahead 3-0 if they shot their regular season average on free throws each game. I know you can't say that for sure because the differing scores would change what the players did near the end, but I think it still makes the point well.

And even given that the team with overall home field advantage is more often a superior team, it's still surprising to me that the middle 3 games in the Finals (since it went to 2-3-2) have been swept by the road team more often than the home team. Partially for that reason, I just don't see Miami taking this series in 5. OKC's most likely taking this one back home, but probably with their backs against the wall.

Wow. Remember the line in Blazing Saddles where Sherriff Bart says "I am so good. And they are so DUMB!" Well, both parts of that line apply to Russell Westbrook. He is so good. And he is so dumb. He's a freak athlete, he kept OKC in the game all night long, but he simply doesn't understand the game of basketball very well.

Also, Harden has only had one good game this series and he was completely inept tonight. Why can't he have done this against San Antonio instead? :(

Well this is turning out really lame. I seriously doubt it even goes back to OKC. I will refuse to watch as Lebron wins a title, and I am glad I don't have cable to see ESPN jizz all over him.

Wow, I did not foresee a total blowout. The final score is pretty deceiving since Miami was up by 27 at one point early in the 4th.