On Thursday the Heat trounced the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-106 to win the NBA Finals 4-1.
LeBron James was selected as NBA Finals MVP, the same year he won the NBA MVP in the regular season. James recorded a triple double (26 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds). James led the Heat in all three of the major statistical categories in game five.
Another reason for Miami’s game five rout was the spectacular three point shooting from Mike Miller.
Miller, who played with a bad back throughout the playoffs, went seven for eight from beyond the arc. In all, Miller had 23 points.
Former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh had 24 points, while Dwyane Wade had 20 points. This is the first time that Bosh and James have won an NBA Championship, while this is Wade’s second.
The Miami Heat are very close to winning their their second NBA title in franchise history.
On Tuesday night in Miami, the Heat got a double double from LeBron James (26 points, 12 assists) in a 104-98 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder to take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers also came up huge for Miami with 25 points each.
The real story from game four is the status of James, who was experiencing cramps late in the contest and had to sit out for some key minutes. When he was on the court however, he was dominant. James delivered a key three pointer to break a 94-94 tie with 2:50 left. The Heat would not relinquish the lead after that.
In other NBA news, the Charlotte Bobcats have hired Mike Dunlap as their head coach. He most recently worked as an assistant coach at St. John’s University and has previous NBA experience as an assistant coach in Denver.
The Miami Heat have tied the NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder at a game apiece.
Thursday night in Oklahoma City, the Heat got off to a fantastic start by outscoring the Thunder 25-8 during the first quarter.
The Thunder had the better second half, outscoring the Heat 55-43, but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Heat won 100-96 to win game two.
A major difference in game two was LeBron James’ excellent shooting from the free throw line. He seemed to struggle from the charity stripe in the Eastern Conference Final against the Boston Celtics, but was a perfect 12 for 12 on Thursday. James also scored 32 points in 42 minutes of action.
Three other Heat players that are playing at a high level are Dwyane Wade who had 24 points, Shane Battier (17 points, including five three pointers), and former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh, who had a double double (16 points, 15 rebounds).
The Miami Heat have advanced to the Eastern Conference Final by beating the Boston Celtics 101-88 on Saturday night in south Florida. The Heat won the best out of seven Eastern Conference Final 4-3 and will play the Oklahoma City Thunder.
LeBron James led the Heat attack with a double double 31 points and 12 rebounds.
James, was solid but the Heat had great performances from Shane Battier and Chris Bosh, who were a combined 7-for-13 from downtown. Dwyane Wade also added 23 points.
The Heat are headed to their second consecutive NBA Finals. They lost last year in six games to the Dallas Mavericks. This is the third time the Heat have qualified for the NBA Finals. They beat the Mavericks 4-2 in the NBA Finals.
The Miami Heat are in the National Basketball Association’s final four for the second consecutive season.
Thursday night in Indiana, the Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers 105-93 to win the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals 4-2. After falling 2-1 earlier in the series, the Heat won three consecutive basketball games.
In game six, Heat all-star shooting guard Dwyane Wade showed up with his best playoff performance in the 2012 postseason. He had 41 points and 10 rebounds, and bounced back nicely after a horrible game three when he only notched five points.
But it was the Heat supporting cast that deserved a significant amount of credit. Mario Chalmers had 15 points and Mike Miller had 12 points. While as a team, the Pacers committed 20 turnovers, and struggled to pass the basketball effectively.
The Heat will now await the winner of the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers to find out who their opponent will be when the Eastern Conference Final starts next week. They will play a seventh and deciding game Saturday.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we look into the Edmonton Oilers parting ways with their head coach (and what needs to change for the Oil to turn things around), we check out the latest NFL bounty news, and we run down the problem with umpires in the MLB.
In the GABBYs: Bikini hockey, Jamaican hockey, Matt Bonner, Coors Field, Ozzie Guillen & Stephen Strasburg. The Punchline this week is Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jason Peters!
There’s no doubt in my mind that Kevin Durant is the best player in the National Basketball Association.
Saturday night in Los Angeles proved it.
Durant made a game winning three point shot with 13.7 seconds left as the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 103-100 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference Final. Durant’s 26-foot shot over Metta World Peace might have just been the most significant shot in his basketball career. The Thunder are now in the driver’s seat as the series shifts back to Oklahoma on Monday.
In other action, the Miami Heat tied the series at 2 with the Indiana Pacers with a 101-93 win today. Sunday, LeBron James had his best game of the playoffs as he knocked down 40 points and 18 rebounds. Another player who played at a high level was Dwyane Wade. The 2006 NBA MVP had 30 points of his own after a silent game three.
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs can close out the Los Angeles Clippers tonight with a win. Yesterday Tony Parker had a double double (23 points, 10 assists) in a 96-86 San Antonio win. The Spurs completely dominated the second half in this one. The Spurs were once down 53-43 at the half, but outscored the Clippers 26-8 in the third quarter.
LeBron James of the Miami Heat has been named the Most Valuable Player of the National Basketball Association.
On Saturday, the announcement was made official.
James was third in scoring with 27.1 points per game, and second in overall points with 1683. My pick was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant meanwhile had 1850 points, almost 200 more points than James.
My other arguments for Durant is that Oklahoma City (47-19) had a better record than Miami (46-20), play in a stronger conference and if you take Durant out of the lineup the Thunder are nothing. If you take James out of Miami’s lineup, they still have Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
In other NBA news, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets 96-87 last night. Pau Gasol led the way with 23 points after playing poorly in game six. The Lakers now play the Thunder in the second round. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers play the Memphis Grizzlies this morning.
The only upset on paper in the first round was Philadelphia’s series win over Chicago. But I saw that coming as soon as Jalen Rose tore his ACL in game one.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame – lots of overtime and lots of fighting to kick off the NHL playoffs, the Oilers win the draft lottery & discuss the future of their coach, the Maple Leafs apologize and a number of top players head to the World Championships. Also – the head of the MLB players union talks steroids and the Hall of Fame.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Thierry Henry, the NFL, Lamar Odom, Lingerie Football and Dwyane Wade. The Punchline this week involves Augusta and an attempted cup of sand!
If the NBA were to read its horoscope for this month, it would probably look a little something like this:
“Much of your focus this month will be on personal possessions and whether or not they’ll still be around come the fall. Dependability and stability are key aspects when some planet lines up with some star, or something. Also: something about emotions.”
The league kicked off the lockout litigation recently by taking the players to court over certain aspects of the negotiations so far, which says to me that this thing is far from being resolved at this time and we are in for a long battle. As time passes too, we’re seeing more players becoming resigned to the fact that they should probably start looking for somewhere else to play!
The biggest mover and shaker so far has easily been Turkish club Besiktas, where the GM has been working away to build his own little temporary Miami Heat situation. They signed NJ Nets point guard Deron Williams, they’re working on getting OKC Thunder forward Kevin Durant into the mix and the Kobe Bryant rumors are still out there too, though not everyone is happy about that idea.
Then there’s Carlos Boozer, who says he “definitely” plans on playing overseas if there’s a lockout, there’s Dwyane Wade, who says he loves the game too much to not play this year, and then there’s Ron Artest…(After the jump: Is Tiger buckling under the pressure? Plus – a wonder strike from Paddy McCourt!)(more…)
I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but the Dallas Mavericks are on top of the basketball world at the moment after stunning the mighty Miami Heat in six games this week.
It was sweet redemption for Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, who were both there when the Heat came from behind to beat the Mavs in 2006, and it was a long time coming for Jason Kidd who finally got his hands on the trophy after 17 seasons in the league. So, now they all have more rings than LeBron James right?
Well…they now have one more championship than he does, but not necessarily more rings. That is, if Mavs owner Mark Cuban gets his way!
Cuban said after the win on the weekend that he might not get rings for his players because they are so old school, and that he felt like it was time to take things to another level, whatever that means. That’s not sitting well with the players though, and ESPN says they’ve all had a chance to try and talk Cuban out of whatever crazy thing he’s thinking of doing! (more…)
One of the most underrated athletes in Canadian sports history will be going for his tenth grand slam title in tennis tomorrow.
Toronto’s Daniel Nestor hasn’t won a singles’ grand slam title, but has won multiple times in men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Let’s not forget as well a Gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia with Sebastien Lareau.
Nestor and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, the second seeds in the men’s doubles competition at the French Open, will be taking on the unseeded pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina. Cabal and Schwank cannot be taken lightly however as they recently defeated Mike and Bob Bryan, the number one seeds in the world, in the semi-finals.
The match can be seen on TSN at approximately 9am Mountain time tomorrow morning, following the women’s singles final.
Only two teams remain in the NBA as the battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy gets underway tonight between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks.
Some of the key players from the 2006 championship series remain, but Dwyane Wade is of course now joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosh, and the Mavs are a completely different side, minus Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry who still remain from that year’s runner-up.
The big question for me coming into this year’s final is who will be more dominant – Dirk or LeBron?
One thing I love about watching Nowitzki play the game is that he is dangerous from just about anywhere on the floor and he’s one of those players who seems to be able to find the basket from wherever he decides to shoot from. It’s not always the prettiest thing to watch, but he has been clutch so far in these playoffs.
LeBron James, on the other hand, has really stepped his game up in the past few weeks and is definitely playing like a guy who wants a championship more than anything else in the world. He doesn’t think he’s better than Michael Jordan at this point in his career, despite what others say, but a dominant performance in this series would be a good start! (After the jump: More on the NBA Finals!) (more…)
Tomorrow night in Miami, the Miami Heat will host the Dallas Mavericks in Game One of the NBA Finals.
I’m thinking I should just stick to predicting hockey. I’m a remarkable 12-2 in predicting series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and only 7-7 in the NBA Playoffs. That said, I’ll give a shot in analyzing the NBA Finals, with a prediction at the end.
The Heat knocked off the Chicago Bulls in five, and the Mavericks knocked out the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games as well.
The Mavericks were able to display a significant amount of poise and experience in knocking out the Thunder. Dirk Nowitzki, looking for his first NBA Title, went on an offensive scoring string that was truly amazing. In any of the five games the Mavericks played, the least number of points Nowitzki scored was 18.
The Mavericks are also getting strong defense from Tyson Chandler, who is averaging 9.3 rebounds per game. He will have his work cut out for him big time however in an attempt to stop one of the Heat’s big three– Dwyane Wade, LeBron James or Chris Bosh. My guess it will probably be James because I expect Bosh will be used to regularly block Nowitzki.
No Basketball Association
I’m not entirely sure how they did it, but the Dallas Mavericks are on top of the basketball world at the moment after stunning the mighty Miami Heat in six games this week.
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