Quick preface. The last post was just in my drafts, so I didn't have to do anything but quickly edit it. So it's not often that I will actually post twice in a day, but here is a blog which is actually on time and relevant.
My suggestions for the Heat to implement in game 7.
Lebron James is one of the few players on the NBA All Defensive First-Team who isn't on the First-Team as part of a facade. I'm not necessarily saying that any of the First or Second Team Defenders are poor defenders, (though in the case of a player like Kobe Bryant, I am certainly willing to say it.. It's kind of a joke that he has made [this was just my quick count, so I could have miscounted] 12 of the last 14 all defensive teams either on the first or second team. He hasn't always been as bad a defender as he was the last two years, but still, I don't know if he has ever been a top ten defender in the NBA. And he most definitely has not been a top 10 defender 12 of the last 14 years.) I'm just saying that a large portion of being in the top two tiers is just based on the player's name ID and relevance, as opposed to the player's actual ability and performance in defending other players for that given year.
I got side-tracked a little there with what my main point is... Anyways.. Lebron James is a great defender, and while I haven't had the chances to watch too much of the Heat and Pacers games so I don't know if Lebron guarding West is in the 60th percentile or the 90th percentile, but I do know that I do not understand why Lebron James is guarding David WEST. David West.
Lebron James, apparently, isn't (mainly) being put on Hibbert, or Paul George, he's not even being put on George Hill to create havoc, heck, he's not even being put on Stephenson so that James can rest and be more productive on the offensive end. It does not make any sense.
I'll go ahead and go through each player individually.
LBJ on Roy Hibbert makes some sense to me because, A. The Heat effectively have no players who would actually matchup with Hibbert better than Lebron James does, other than possibly Bosh. B. Lebron is vaugly superhuman, so I don't think that guarding Hibbert would tire him as much as it would a normal player. However, I still think it would tire him more than guarding any of the other Pacer's players, except for David West and possibly George Hill.
Lebron on Lance Stephenson.. Well, I actually already stated my main reason for it being better for Lebron to guard Stephenson as opposed to West. The reason is less effort exerted on the defensive end, so Lebron could have more energy for the offensive end.
James on George Hill would not really provide Lebron with more rest, but it would create massive havoc for the other team. If the Pacer's floor general is out of commission then the Pacers offense would have some major problems.
Lebron on David West seems a bit dense to me because, (and I could be wrong) West is usually a physical, Memphis-type Grizzly Grinder (Ha, I just thought that phrase up, I'm totally using a slight variation of that in my Spurs-Griz series recap). He shoots about an average % for a PF, though that is actually kind of decent for the Pacers. He shoots a couple more shots a game as opposed to an average PF, but that certainly is not a great reason to place Lebron on him. Overall, it makes no sense as to why LBJ is on David WEST.
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| I just got bumped!! Who bumped me?? Oh, I see Hansbrough, he's a scrappy player, it must have been him. I know, I'll deck Tyler Hansbrough on National TV, I'm certain no one will see me do it either. |
Finally, the last matchup analysis, Lebron on Paul George. George stuffs the stat sheet in just about every statistic Lebron does. George is kind of like a mini-Lebron (I don't mean that as an insult, obviously), except that George also has turnovers. (Lebron James puts up an insane EFG net of shooting about 10% better than the player he is guarding, while P George puts up an extremely impressive net of about 6%.) It just makes sense to me to have Lebron shutdown George. I have a lot more respect for Coach Spoelstra than most people have for him, but this decision (of his I'm assuming) for Lebron to guard West is not exactly the best idea in the world. And I would hope that he has learned from his mistake, and will not have Lebron be West's primary defender in game 7.
Why is there so much 'strong like' for Indy? Is it just the 'hate' the country has for the Heat, or what? Like quite a few things I've been talking about in this blog, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Why did Chris Andersen deck Hansbrough? Of course the dude does look like the above image, and he does other various crazy type things, so yeah, the things which he does on the court probably shouldn't make a lot of sense anyways.
Paul George just had two games, one after the other, consecutively, in a row, (I'm guessing you get the point) in which he shot a decent percentage, that will not be happening in game 7.
My preference is to have Lebron guard P George 70% of the time, Hibbert 15% of the time and then 15% on any random Pacer due to switches, or if a player is hot and the like.
I will be quite interested in watching and (and to my limited extent) dissecting the game tomorrow night. It should be interesting to see the matchups in general and, in particular, who Lebron will be guarding.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment. (Haha, like anyone's going to do that.) God bless.
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