First 45-15-5 in a playoff game since Wilt Chamberlain in 1964 apparently.
Nba 2011-2012
- Thread starter ha_rooney
- Start date
Sportcenter guy says that LBJ has the highest ever PPG avg. in playoff elimination games in the history of the NBA...surely that cant be true if he is a choker ?
LeBron 
Full beast mode last night, carried his side. He'll need to repeat that in Game 7.
As much as I'd like to see the Heat get dumped out, the possibility of Durant v LeBron in the finals is mouth watering.
He has answered a lot of his critics in the playoffs this year but imo questions still remain about LeBron & Miami's clutch play. I read a stat the other day which said they're 0-10 in playoff games when they have the chance to tie or win it with under 24 secs to play since the big-3 were formed - that's a terrible stat.
It's great winning games by a large margin but they have to prove they can win the close games and hit the big shots when it matters most.
He has answered a lot of his critics in the playoffs this year but imo questions still remain about LeBron & Miami's clutch play. I read a stat the other day which said they're 0-10 in playoff games when they have the chance to tie or win it with under 24 secs to play since the big-3 were formed - that's a terrible stat.
It's great winning games by a large margin but they have to prove they can win the close games and hit the big shots when it matters most.
Careful, or you will have Danny in here posting youtube clips of Heat players making winning shots in regular season games.
Good god. I couldn't watch the game, I just peeked every 10 minutes or so to see if the Celtics had made any sort of comeback. They did make one run, but it was short lived.
LeBron is more like an NFL running back, or maybe more accurately a linebacker, than a basketball player in his build.
Yahoo basketball has had a picture of Berbatov in red against Everton instead of the team's logo in their playoff bracket when I last checked 3 days ago. They finally put their actual logo in the bracket now that they're sitting in the finals bracket waiting for an opponent.
Terrible website, but their box scores are narrow, most others are so wide to read them you can't have anything else up on your screen.
Terrible website, but their box scores are narrow, most others are so wide to read them you can't have anything else up on your screen.
I don't mind Yahoo Basketball simply because they do a halfway decent job of just delivering content without a lot of fluff. Every time I go to ESPN I have to stop autoplaying videos and all that other nonsense.
Yes, auto-play videos are the bane of the internet.
I started going to Yahoo for NBA after nearly every story I read elsewhere seemed to break on Yahoo. I just meant the site was terrible from a web design perspective.
I started going to Yahoo for NBA after nearly every story I read elsewhere seemed to break on Yahoo. I just meant the site was terrible from a web design perspective.
Shit. I was hoping Celtics would win. Now I support the Heat because I hate the Thunder. Lets go LeBron. Hope he gets a ring this time around.
Bear in mind this is my first post in this thread, but I gather Miami Heat won and are through to the finals final. What I want to know is. are Oklahoma actually good and why have I never heard of their team?
Oklahoma whipped Dallas, Lakers, and the Spurs, enroute to this finals. They're a legit contender.
You've never heard of them, because they used to be the Seattle Supersonics. The Thunder are very good...and them making the final from the Western conference was an easy pick(so the path wasn't easy), most pundits picked them in the pre-season to get to the Finals.
That certainly sounds impressive. Are they new or have they been around for ages yet unbeknownst to newbs like me for ages?
Unbeknownst, that's a quer word.
Unbeknownst, that's a quer word.
Oh shit, ignore my last post. A couple of years ago, when my friends were into NBA I decided the Supersonics were my team. With Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. Wtf happened? How does a Seattle team get moved to Oklahoma?
New owners buy and move it. That simple. It is one of the things I don't understand about the US sports model, but then again, it is their model. If the people like it, so be it.
Easy....in the US, cities pay for the stadiums teams use...the city of Seattle wouldn't/couldn't come up with a plan that was good enough for the owners, so they sold the team to a group from Oklahoma. Who then pretended like they wanted to pay in Seattle and after a couple of seasons of fake negotations, simply took the team and moved it to Oklahoma in 2008/09.
So do the fans from before (presumably they were predominantly from Seattle) still take an interest or did the 'club' (franchise?) have to start afresh in Oklahoma?
Well you have those that still love the team obviously...but it's basically a fresh start. The City of Seattle and the fans there obviously didn't take too kindly to being ditched in this manner, and are still pretty bitter about it.
Typical reaction in Seattle to the Thunder making the Finals
Well I imagine an NBA Championship would garner some new fans alright.
Jesus, I'm just glad that sort of thing doesn't happen in football (yet?). Imagine if Manchester Untited was moved to London by the owners
Not sure how familiar you are with things...but Oklahoma has no professional sports teams, and the state is basically infatuated with College football...and the rivalry with Texas.
Basketball is very much a transplanted thing, and I doubt the majority of the state gives a feck about the Thunder, or ever TRULY will. But they've been pretty enthusiastic about the team so far(in a shiny new toy sort of way)
Not at all to answer that question, but surely there must be interest in this 'Oklahoma' team being in the NBA Championship (Is that even what it's called?) and if there isn't what the feck was the point in moving the team. If people don't jump on the bandwagon now they probably never will.
When New Orleans was near destroyed by Katrina, and the Hornet's stadium half ruined, they moved to OKC for a year or two and had a fantastic turnout with lots of enthusiasm. OKC would never have been considered for a team without that experience, it was a real surprise to most that it worked so well.
There didn't seem to be an obvious choice of where to take the Sonics, so the success with the Hornets in OKC was a huge advantage. Also, perhaps nearly as important, the 'Chesapeake Energy Center' where OKC play was already there and built, and so there was no issue with having to get the city to approve funds.
College football is king in Oklahoma and always will be, but the Thunder have a very good fanbase there, they sold out every single game in their 18,203 seater stadium this season. They drew a crowd of 6,000 more outside the stadium watching game 3 against the Spurs on a giant screen on the side of the stadium, a practice that was discontinued after some inbred jackass shot a gun while in the crowd.
But that's Oklahoma for you, it's population has to be one of the poorest per capita in America, it's full of red clay earth that almost nothing grows in, it's a giant desert, that's why much of it was given to Indian tribes when they were relocated. Though there's also plenty of perfectly wonderful people there too of course, like some of my family!
There didn't seem to be an obvious choice of where to take the Sonics, so the success with the Hornets in OKC was a huge advantage. Also, perhaps nearly as important, the 'Chesapeake Energy Center' where OKC play was already there and built, and so there was no issue with having to get the city to approve funds.
College football is king in Oklahoma and always will be, but the Thunder have a very good fanbase there, they sold out every single game in their 18,203 seater stadium this season. They drew a crowd of 6,000 more outside the stadium watching game 3 against the Spurs on a giant screen on the side of the stadium, a practice that was discontinued after some inbred jackass shot a gun while in the crowd.
But that's Oklahoma for you, it's population has to be one of the poorest per capita in America, it's full of red clay earth that almost nothing grows in, it's a giant desert, that's why much of it was given to Indian tribes when they were relocated. Though there's also plenty of perfectly wonderful people there too of course, like some of my family!
I still call them Seattle.
And didn't get a new arena in Oklahoma either, however, it was much newer than the arena they used in Seattle. The owner was from Oklahoma and promised the league, city and Sonics fans he would not relocate the club. He lied.
It was a bullshit sham and the NBA allowed a city of great fans get dicked over by greed. I know Cuban was against the move (for obvious reasons) and I believe a handful of other owners were too.
Anyhow, this is OKC's finals to lose IMO. Ibaka will frustrate Bosh and in the likes of Harden and Westbrook, OKC have two playmakers that can cancel out Wade. Meanwhile, this will go down as Durant vs James.
OKC in six. If the ancient Celtics can force seven games I'm quite confident the Thunder can finish business with a younger, deeper and far more energetic squad.
For the good of the sport the Thunder must win.
OKC in six. If the ancient Celtics can force seven games I'm quite confident the Thunder can finish business with a younger, deeper and far more energetic squad.
For the good of the sport the Thunder must win.
Only Mark Cuban and Paul Allen voted against it. The rest voted for it.
Sacramento's potential relocation to Anaheim has more opposition because the other owners see the Maloofs as idiots and it sets a precedence for crowding in large markets. If this was a big billionaire looking to move the team to Kansas City they wouldn't bat an eye.
The greater New York area only has two teams, the Knicks and Nets, seems silly to put a 3rd team in LA before NYC has a 3rd team, what with NYC being a much larger city.
NYC has a market size of 7.4 million, if 3 teams split that market they would have 2.5 million each. Of course it wouldn't split up that neatly, but there are a lot of extra people there to tap into as fans, which is what location is all about.
LA's market is about 5.6 million, even split 3 ways 1.9 million is a fair size market, if they could get a share.
But a relocated Sacramento could have Tampa's 1.8 million market all to itself, or try to go for Seattle's 1.8 million. St. Louis has a market of 1.2 million and no team either, neither do Baltimore nor San Diego with their 1.1 million person markets.
Maybe this is wrong thinking, but having a city all to yourself seems better to me than trying to get a piece of an LA market that is already very loyal to the Lakers and finally finding interest in the Clippers. But look at how long it took the Clippers to be accepted in LA, the Kings would be a distant 3rd.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/09/10/nielsen-local-television-market-universe-estimates/5037/
NYC has a market size of 7.4 million, if 3 teams split that market they would have 2.5 million each. Of course it wouldn't split up that neatly, but there are a lot of extra people there to tap into as fans, which is what location is all about.
LA's market is about 5.6 million, even split 3 ways 1.9 million is a fair size market, if they could get a share.
But a relocated Sacramento could have Tampa's 1.8 million market all to itself, or try to go for Seattle's 1.8 million. St. Louis has a market of 1.2 million and no team either, neither do Baltimore nor San Diego with their 1.1 million person markets.
Maybe this is wrong thinking, but having a city all to yourself seems better to me than trying to get a piece of an LA market that is already very loyal to the Lakers and finally finding interest in the Clippers. But look at how long it took the Clippers to be accepted in LA, the Kings would be a distant 3rd.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/09/10/nielsen-local-television-market-universe-estimates/5037/
I figure the ultimate allure for the Maloofs would be Las Vegas but Stern wouldn't let that move happen despite being a near perfect relocation.
The Clippers shouldn't be in LA.
Both KC and St Louis had teams in the past and failed though I don't know the exact reasons. St Louis has a top class arena at the moment.
Other cities could be Seattle, Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Tampa.
The Clippers shouldn't be in LA.
Both KC and St Louis had teams in the past and failed though I don't know the exact reasons. St Louis has a top class arena at the moment.
Other cities could be Seattle, Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Tampa.
Both OKC and the Heat are very similar in their playing style. Both quick teams, don't really have a great big man so can't use the post game effectively. Both run the fast break very well. Its Durant vs LeBron - the two best players in the league and I hope LeBron comes out on top.
The Maloofs only own 2% of The Palms now. The whole Vegas thing with them is more about perception than anything else. The only major assets they have left are the Kings and about $300 million in Wells Fargo stock.
The only reason Anaheim was viable is because Henry Samueli would have given them a loan for the hefty relocation fee the NBA was going to stick them with.
Heat up 29-22 after first quarter. They made five or six 3-point shots and shot around 60% while the Thunder played quite erratic and didn't shoot well. Not worried so far - Miami won't keep shooting above 70% from beyond the arc and the Thunder will find a rhythm soon enough. I also figure Brooks will make some key adjustments. They need to defend the open perimeter man better.
So the final is already a quarter through the first game with Miami leading 29-24.
Who's watching?
Who's watching?
Miami up 54-47 despite OKC playing like shit the first half. Miami still shooting well from the perimeter while OKC has missed many outside shots including all but one or two 3-point shots. Setting up for an explosive second half.
Just peeking at the score myself, not really watching.
OKC up 74-73 after three quarters. Great run from the Thunder to take their first lead of the game.
So, is Westbrook the best point guard in the NBA yet?
They're apparently using the 2-3-2 format for this series. Meaning 2 games in OKC, 3 in Miami and then 2 in OKC if needed. Meaning if Miami can win one the first two they can take it back to Miami where OKC will have to win to see their home court again this season.
I much prefer the 2-2-1-1-1.
I much prefer the 2-2-1-1-1.