NBA Finals and Coach D'antoni Wrap-up From 2012

This is a blog post about the NBA Finals and Coach D'antoni.. Only it's from 2012..  SO it's just a tad out of date.  There are bunches of little random thigns that I kind of wanted to expound upon further, but for most part I didn't actually bother to.

Lebron is in his 9^th season, but he still won his first title a year earlier than Michael Jordan.  Comparing Lebron and MJ by their respective age, when at 29, I would say that Lebron is the better player. 

If you say Larry Bird, you think Magic Johnson.  Magic and Bird are irrevocably linked.  Well I think that Lebron and Durant could get close to that level over the next few years.

Wrap-up of the playoffs 2012 (predictions)

Hopefully the Heat won't be able to
cross off the "not two" part this year.

The last three predictions that I never wrapped up from last season are as follows..  

I said OKC in 6 over SA, it took them 5.  B+

I said Miami over the Bulls in 6 over the Bulls, but the Heat actually won in 7 over the Celtics.  C- (I get a partial pass since Rose was injured)

Finally, I said OKC in 7 over the Heat, but the Heat pulled out the series in 5.  

And call me stubborn, but I still think that the Thunder were the better team last season (and this season).  And overall should have won the series around 60% of the time.  B for predicting the correct Finals teams and the team that should have won..

Overall grade for the 2012 NBA playoffs, B-.

No team from the Western Conference not named, the Lakers, Spurs, or Mavs, had won the NBA title since 1998.  And coincidently, OKC had to go though the Mavs, Lakers, and the Spurs to reach the Finals.

Hack a tiago was fun to watch.

Lebron in game 4 was amazing.

I would say also that we learned that it’s LeBron then Bosh then D-Wade on the most important to Miami’s success on the floor.

Lebron doesn’t play well angry.  

The next couple paragraphs are about game two (I think), when I decided to do a bit of a play-by-play with some of my thoughts.

6 man team in game 1 for Miami was way too small. (they fixed that in games 2-5)  Fouls on KD are baloney.  Almost all of D-Wades’ buckets were from transition.  Fisher is owned on D# but for some reason is actually shooting very well.  Collison was about the only Thunder player that could stop Lebron.  He (Collison) was offering some great help defense, and every time Lebron drove on Sefo, Collison was there to deter Lebron into a bad shot.   Why is Harden not at PG?  OKC is learning to be hungrier, improved, and more experienced.  Refs have something against KD??  Put KD on D-Wade and Westbrook on Lebron (still wish they would do this).  Sefo always misses short shots???  Lebron hopstep is insane.  A little zone??  Close short to drivers!  More bench.  Fisher has played in 43 Finals games.  When Fisher played his 1^st NBA game, James Harden was 7 years old.

Spoelstra nice 6^th man with 30 seconds to go.  Sorry for the low quality, but I didn't really see a better quality video of it in my quick perusing.  

88-85 1:00 minute to go, James waits till 11 seconds on the shot clock then drives and fires a very off balance long 2.  It clanks (of course) and West gets the rebound.  Westbrook probes and passes out of a corner 3, then gets the ball back and shoots an open 3 with 33 seconds to go.  Battier the rebound, Lebron dribbles near midcourt and Harden guards him trying to draw the offensive foul (While Coach Brooks and Westbrook were yelling at him to stop).  

Lebron just misses the first free throw and nets the second.  89-85 with 16 seconds to go.  After a TO, OKC has a fairly basic box set (at the lane), and Durant runs a rub off screen off of Westbrook and Perkins and Durant happen to be running AWAY from the ball.  Sefo and West miscommunicate and Sefo throws it away.  D-Wade ices the game.  91-85 with 13 seconds left.  Another TO, to set up another box set.  Durant at the top left corner of the lane (away from the ball) Harden comes over to set a very lame screen on him, and Durant just stands and watches.  Westbrook is forced to get the ball and chucks a three.  It also clanks, and Lebron snatches the rebound and dribbles out the clock. 

After 5 games, it was proven that the Finals were fixed.  Just kidding.

You don’t go to a pep rally to say maybe, so why should the media blame Lebron.  (Colin Cowherd paraphrase)

First you're a team, then a winner, then a contender, and finally something special.  

We weren’t losing, we were learning how to win.  Ringless king is no more.  Would have been nice to have Maynor for the Finals. (Hmm... so much for that)  Dominated on boards.  Wade kept scoring off of CUTS.  

I can live with everyone but Bosh (If he’s open) and Lebron beating us.  Does Durant ever put his hand up?  Sure he's 7 feet tall, but that doesn't mean you can't become over 9 ft with your wingspan..  Durant likes to attack D-Wade.  Thunder not sprinting back.  Awesome matchups.  Always close out short.  Lebron shut down KD in the 4^th.  Three other NBA active coaches with rings. 

This next bit was written write after D'antoni was chosen to be HC for the Lakers, even though they had the option to hire Phil Jackson again.

Coach D'antoni 

So the Lakers had the choice between Phil Jackson and Mike D’antoni: A choice between probably the best NBA coach of all time with an insanely hefty regular season record .704 and a coach with a .533 season record: A choice between LeBron James and Anderson Varajeo.  And yet somehow the Lakers didn’t go with the guy who has won 11 NBA championships, (which is unreal) they went with the guy who hasn’t even won a Conference Finals series.

How is a 38-year-old Steve Nash, a 35-year-old Kobe Bryant, and a somewhat slow D-Howard supposed to run up the court in an up-tempo offense?  How is a coach that has never really taught defense supposed to suddenly start teaching defense? (Though the Lakers have actually looked decent against the Spurs early on)

If I was the coach of LAL, while I wouldn’t want to walk the ball up the court, I definitely wouldn’t want to sprint up the court either, considering their pieces.  My main offense would just be a 3 point extended pick and roll with Pau Gasol and Steve Nash, while Kobe Bryant is spotting up near one corner or cutting to the hoop, D-Howard is posting up, and I guess Ron Artest or whoever is staying near one side of the top-of-the-key. 

Sadly for them, the Lakers did not take my advice, and instead decided to have Kobe (while he was uninjured obviously) dominate the ball, while everyone else just tried to get his..  Not nearly as effective.  

When I was watching the Lakers last Sunday I would say that the plurality leader in usage was a Nash-Howard pick and roll.  While I don't dislike it a ton normally.. (Since they have other worse choices in their playbook) Nash currently has no turn-the-corner speed these days (understandably), so the offense is very ineffective.  

Right now the offense generally consists of a decentish (though generally half-hearted at the same time) screen by Howard, followed by Nash going around Howard seeing Duncan (or whomever) four or so feet ahead, so he just releases an open 18 foot jumper..

Nash does have good form, but it's not quite as good when he's injured.. And I also never want (effectively) anyone (with the possible exception of someone like Stephen Curry if he's really hot) taking 18 foot jumpers.  Even if they are uncontested, long jumpers are (somewhat obviously) very, very, poor efficiency shots.  

Well, I am finally done with my 2012 NBA recap in 2013..  Thanks for reading.