NBA Finals series odds

[slew101]

What about your LeBrick posts? Or does that not count?

Originally Posted by cj

Of course you are. Should I pull up your Spurs posts? You admitted you were uninformed, but hey, don't let that stop you.

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

OKC is very young team and tonight they played like it. I would be shocked if they didn't win a championship sometime. The Heat are a team with its stars in their prime while OKC's stars are just coming into their own.
James in this series has looked like a HS senior playing against a bunch of 7th graders. He seemed a lot bigger and faster than anyone on OKC. There is no doubt that he is the best player in the NBA right now. On to next year.

I agree with all of this except that Westbrook is the fastest basketball player I have ever seen.

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by pktruckdriver

Agree, they are so young, they will be back and be around for a long time.

Patrick

The big 3 are 22, 22 and 23. One commentator said there has never been a team in the History of the NBA with 3 star players this young and this talented in the Finals. This may be a slight exaggeration, but I can't think of one.

[maddog42]

Congrats to the Heat. They were the better team.

[Robert Goren]

Originally Posted by maddog42

I agree with all of this except that Westbrook is the fastest basketball player I have ever seen.

He is very fast and has an amazing ability to get to the basket untouched. He is "off and on" a lot. He should get better with age.

[Robert Goren]

Originally Posted by maddog42

The big 3 are 22, 22 and 23. One commentator said there has never been a team in the History of the NBA with 3 star players this young and this talented in the Finals. This may be a slight exaggeration, but I can't think of one.

I don't think OKC has a big 3. Harden isn't that kind of player yet. He may be one some day, but he has a long way to go before I'd put out there as star player like the other 5 big stars in in the finals.

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

I don't think OKC has a big 3. Harden isn't that kind of player yet. He may be one some day, but he has a long way to go before I'd put out there as star player like the other 5 big stars in in the finals.

He was given the 6th Man Award this year. I think this qualifies him as a "big 3".
Bosh had an inferior year to Harden, but certainly played much better in the playoffs. I really should say a bad finals. Harden played pretty good through most of the playoffs.

[elysiantraveller]

I saw this series as each of the Heats 3 best were better than their OKC counterparts. Plus some of the pieces like Perkins/Ibaka don't really fit in this matchup. Add the fact that the Heat are a much better team defensively than anything in the West and I went with the Heat in 6.

Thunder have absolutely nothing to be upset about, they are in a position to rule the west, and turn this into a fantastic rivalry.

[cj]

Originally Posted by slew101

What about your LeBrick posts? Or does that not count?

I've always said James is the best player in the NBA. I thought Durant was getting there, but he hasn't yet.

Still, James isn't a good shooter. He was, however,.smart enough to stop shooting jumpers.

[PhantomOnTour]

I'm no fan of LeBron, and i was pulling for OKC, but he's such a good player that his time was gonna come sooner or later.
Congrats to him and the Heat.

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by elysiantraveller

I saw this series as each of the Heats 3 best were better than their OKC counterparts. Plus some of the pieces like Perkins/Ibaka don't really fit in this matchup. Add the fact that the Heat are a much better team defensively than anything in the West and I went with the Heat in 6.

Thunder have absolutely nothing to be upset about, they are in a position to rule the west, and turn this into a fantastic rivalry.

James outplayed Durant. Bosh certainly outplayed Harden by a wide margin. Wade got outplayed badly by Westbrook in game 4. I would give Wade a very slight nod because he played better in maybe 2 games, with 2 games being a draw. Very, very close. The 43 points by Westbrook is being talked about as one of the greatest in NBA Finals history. The handfull of players with this type of game are mostly in the HOF.

[Canarsie]

Congrats to the Heat for winning the 2012 championship. This was the last game of an incredible season I'm going to miss basketball a lot. The compressed schedule made for great television almost every night though it was unfair to the players. Maybe there's a medium where they can start the season later but not make it so taxing.

I thought that Durant and Fisher were the only ones who had real intensity for OKC tonight. It was sad to see Durant crying going into the locker room but it shows how bad he wanted it. Thought it was classy of the owner to give his players hugs as they came into the room.

My assessment of Harden doesn't make me too smart right now he has a year to turn it around. If he doesn't it certainly will cost him big bucks but he has the skills to make adjustments.

Westbrook still hasn't convinced me he's a max player one great game doesn't cut it. He would be better served playing the two but Presti is a smarter guy than me. Kidd is close to being done but if they keep Westbrook at the point he would be a great teacher at a cheap price.

Ibaka could take LBJ's lead and train with Olajuwon and develop some moves in the post. If he isn't going to shoot much the opponents defense can roam around with help defense. Bosh was very productive and hardly anyone noticed.

Having said all of this OKC will probably be making return runs to the finals. The only thing that would stop them is if opponents try to mimic (its a copycat league) the Heat's double teaming even outside the three point line and are successful.


I'm glad for Mike Miller as one with a bad back felt his pain. He now gets to show his grand kids down the road how he contributed to the championship.

It was classy of LBJ to tell Chalmers to cut it out with nine minutes left in the game. When Wade stated he was the leader of the team that was a great way to show it.

[cj]

Originally Posted by Canarsie

Congrats to the Heat for winning the 2012 championship. This was the last game of an incredible season I'm going to miss basketball a lot. The compressed schedule made for great television almost every night though it was unfair to the players. Maybe there's a medium where they can start the season later but not make it so taxing.

I thought that Durant and Fisher were the only ones who had real intensity for OKC tonight. It was sad to see Durant crying going into the locker room but it shows how bad he wanted it. Thought it was classy of the owner to give his players hugs as they came into the room.

My assessment of Harden doesn't make me too smart right now he has a year to turn it around. If he doesn't it certainly will cost him big bucks but he has the skills to make adjustments.

Westbrook still hasn't convinced me he's a max player one great game doesn't cut it. He would be better served playing the two but Presti is a smarter guy than me. Kidd is close to being done but if they keep Westbrook at the point he would be a great teacher at a cheap price.

Ibaka could take LBJ's lead and train with Olajuwon and develop some moves in the post. If he isn't going to shoot much the opponents defense can roam around with help defense. Bosh was very productive and hardly anyone noticed.

Having said all of this OKC will probably be making return runs to the finals. The only thing that would stop them is if opponents try to mimic (its a copycat league) the Heat's double teaming even outside the three point line and are successful.


I'm glad for Mike Miller as one with a bad back felt his pain. He now gets to show his grand kids down the road how he contributed to the championship.

It was classy of LBJ to tell Chalmers to cut it out with nine minutes left in the game. When Wade stated he was the leader of the team that was a great way to show it.

I agree with most of what you say, but not about Westbrook. First off, he didn't take max money, he took a little below. But more importantly, he is a tremendous talent. He is often times the victim of the Thunder lineup. The team has too many guys that are woeful on the offensive end of the floor, and being the point guard, he is the one stuck with the ball.

Teams know they have to deny Durant, and that leaves Thabo, Perkins, Ibaka, Fisher, Collison, and in this case an ineffective Harden as the options. Westbrook knows this, so he can either go faster and try to catch the other team off guard, or watch the shot clock dwindle and have those as his options. No point guard in history is going to rack up assists with that group waiting for passes.

This series showed me one thing. The Thunder need better role players that can shoot the basketball. The Heat role players took a lot of flack, but they made shots and that was the difference in the series. If they didn't Lebron would not have had the numbers he did.

Good teams can stop two players. I'm not giving up on Harden by any stretch. Had he played like he did in prior series, we'd at least have G6 and probably G7. But he didn't, and the Heat were too good defensively to get beaten by two stars and nothing else.

[Canarsie]

Originally Posted by cj

I agree with most of what you say, but not about Westbrook. First off, he didn't take max money, he took a little below. But more importantly, he is a tremendous talent. He is often times the victim of the Thunder lineup. The team has too many guys that are woeful on the offensive end of the floor, and being the point guard, he is the one stuck with the ball.

I never said he wasn't a talent defended him while others were doing the knocking. Just don't believe he's near a max player at the position he plays. If he was at the two it might be a different story.

One thing I believe in is when a player is hot ride him all game. When he is shooting well I really don't care about shot distribution. But there are many days when you are just not "feeling" it and those times it pays to pass the ball and take your chances. He heads to the rim on missed shots and is excellent at it that's a huge positive.

Kidd has already said he would accept the backup role wonder if they are going to make him an offer.

Report: Kendrick Perkins played through torn groin muscle in playoffs


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...le-in-playoffs

[cj]

Originally Posted by Canarsie

I never said he wasn't a talent defended him while others were doing the knocking. Just don't believe he's near a max player at the position he plays. If he was at the two it might be a different story.

One thing I believe in is when a player is hot ride him all game. When he is shooting well I really don't care about shot distribution. But there are many days when you are just not "feeling" it and those times it pays to pass the ball and take your chances. He heads to the rim on missed shots and is excellent at it that's a huge positive.

Kidd has already said he would accept the backup role wonder if they are going to make him an offer.

Report: Kendrick Perkins played through torn groin muscle in playoffs


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...le-in-playoffs

If he were a 2, he'd still need to handle the ball often or it would kill his biggest strength, his speed and athleticism. He can play point guard very well when other guys are making shots. I've seen him do it often.