the dynamic duo
years from now people will look at the nba defensive team from this year and wonder how kobe bryant beat out dwayne wade this year for the first team. in every meaningful statistical defensive category (rebounds, blocks and steals) wade leads bryant in per game averages. but wade plays more minutes you say, sure he gets more stats, neglecting of course the per minute averages for wade are also higher. there is one stat where bryant wins, he's two inches taller.
combining wade's intensity with lebron james, who is another defensive beast, and you have a tandem that can be mentioned in the same breadth as jordan and pippen. they were the dobermans, these guys are the pitbulls. offensively as a team, the miami heat are challenged - too much standing around waiting for the superstars to bail them out - but defensively, they are somethingl to watch. they don't match up well against the mavericks though who have shooters to spread the floor when the heat overcommit. man it's been a good playoffs.
for yesterdays overtime game, when the mavericks came back from a 15 point deficit in the final ~5minutes, the commentators were fixated on the fact that the thunder lost the game when james harden fouled out. up to that point, scott brooks had completely outcoached rick carlisle. most notably the couple of minutes prior to that run, the mavericks went small with a lineup featuring brea, kidd and terry at the same time. brooks did not take the bait and instead kept with his big lineup and killed the mavericks on the glass (10 to 3!) pushing the lead up to 15. when shawn marion finally returned at 5:03, he rebalanced the lineup and they weren't abused anymore on the glass (12 to 10 the rest of the way ). of course, it also took several acts of nowitzki - hereby known as that one legged fade away shot. it was a great game to watch, but you have to feel for the thunder, a young team that will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
and two awesome plays from that game were marion's sick block to end the game, and kidd's grand larceny of westbrook in ot.
combining wade's intensity with lebron james, who is another defensive beast, and you have a tandem that can be mentioned in the same breadth as jordan and pippen. they were the dobermans, these guys are the pitbulls. offensively as a team, the miami heat are challenged - too much standing around waiting for the superstars to bail them out - but defensively, they are somethingl to watch. they don't match up well against the mavericks though who have shooters to spread the floor when the heat overcommit. man it's been a good playoffs.
for yesterdays overtime game, when the mavericks came back from a 15 point deficit in the final ~5minutes, the commentators were fixated on the fact that the thunder lost the game when james harden fouled out. up to that point, scott brooks had completely outcoached rick carlisle. most notably the couple of minutes prior to that run, the mavericks went small with a lineup featuring brea, kidd and terry at the same time. brooks did not take the bait and instead kept with his big lineup and killed the mavericks on the glass (10 to 3!) pushing the lead up to 15. when shawn marion finally returned at 5:03, he rebalanced the lineup and they weren't abused anymore on the glass (12 to 10 the rest of the way ). of course, it also took several acts of nowitzki - hereby known as that one legged fade away shot. it was a great game to watch, but you have to feel for the thunder, a young team that will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
and two awesome plays from that game were marion's sick block to end the game, and kidd's grand larceny of westbrook in ot.