don't know why the other one was locked...

Lebron on the podium and I though it was interesting he talked about the mental aspect of trusting himself to hit all these mid-range shots the Spurs were giving him

ESPN:

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The Heat are also the third team in NBA history to win the NBA title without leading the NBA Finals at any point in the series until after Game 7 ('69 Celtics, '78 Bullets).

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LeBron James won his second NBA title and joins Bill Russell and Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to win back-to-back regular-season MVPs and NBA titles.

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The last word on James: He averaged 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists for the series. The only other player to average 25-10-7 in an NBA Finals series was ... James in 2012.

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Shane Battier made six 3-pointers in Game 7, tying the record for most 3-pointers made in any Game 7. Tim Hardaway made six against the Knicks in the 1997 Eastern Conference Semifinals and Joe Johnson made six against the Heat in the first round in 2009.

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Elias noted that Green became the second player to take 12 or more shots in Game 7 of a Finals and make one or fewer. The other, Dennis Johnson (1978 Seattle SuperSonics) went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career after going 0-for-14 from the field in a loss to the Washington Bullets.

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It’s the first time the Spurs lost consecutive games in which all three members of their Big 3 played since last December 12-13.

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Did Simmons get kicked off the set? They already mysteriously cut the feed when he was about to address the Decision.

he's the best player in the NBA. I love it

Curry fans DGAF

Ben Rogers ‏@BenRogers
Magic just told Dwyane Wade he was "the greatest unselfish superstar that has ever played in this game." Magic is now dead to me.

Magic stays making nonsensical declarations. Whenever he opens his mouth, I literally change the channel or press mute. He is the worst.

I'm enjoying the narrative so far of Lebron maturing to the point where he could trust himself to figure out what the Spurs were doing to him taking away his comfort level in the offense. He spoke multiple times of studying the advanced stats and proving to himself that he could hit these mid range shots if that's all that was available. Read a column showing the stats how Lebron has improved that aspect of his game tremendously since 2007.

His game relies heavy on the mental factor, and the ESPN crew ended last night saying that its scary what he's capable now that he's gotten over the hump of winning the first 2 titles and has all this confidence restored.

[This message has been edited by Internetfan02 (edited 6/21/2013 8:30a).]

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Read a column showing the stats how Lebron has improved that aspect of his game tremendously since 2007.

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Kirk Goldsberry wrote a great column earlier this year or last year about how LeBron's game has evolved, scoring wise. Dig it up and you won't be disappointed.

Magic was probably hitting on Dwayne.

by the way, i was completely correct on danny green. At some point those shots weren't going to drop and he'd be absolutely useless. Well, that's what happened with game 6 and 7. Turnover machine and had no idea how to dribble the basketball

In the end Lebron completely silenced all his critics. That jump shot was clutch. Yes he isn't Jordan but he's pretty darn good.

The last two games of this series were great. I felt bad for Duncan when he missed that hook. He's hit that shot a million times.

he missed that shot 10+ times on thursday. He was flustered by birdman and bosh, who finally realized you need to spread your legs wide to guard duncan

Adrian Woj has come full circle on Lebron:

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--back-to-back-champ-lebron-james-helps-elevate-beauty-of-game-with-help-from-gracious-spurs-080537235.html#

MIAMI – The best player on the planet doesn't run and leap onto scorer's tables, fire his fists into the air and declare himself a champion for the ages. For everything LeBron James had once represented to the world about self-indulgence and hubris, his back-to-back championship moment had been a true testament to his transformation, a salute to those San Antonio Spurs responsible for making demands of his talents, bringing out the best out of the MVP, the best out of basketball.

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Whatever the Spurs tried, whatever configurations and contraptions sent his way, James responded with a solution. All over the floor, James made shots in Game 7, crushing blow upon crushing blow to perhaps the final chance these Spurs get to be champions together. The best player comes to break hearts, break spirits, but he never did break the will of these Spurs.

This was an NBA Finals for the ages, a blueprint for a global game on how it's played unselfishly, wisely and with peerless passion and precision. Heat president Pat Riley pushed hard to get himself front-and-center on the championship podium, leaving his two-time titlist coach, Erik Spoelstra, in the backdrop as the commissioner passed old man Riles the trophy. For such a spectacular ego lording over these Heat, the reflection upon his coaches and players resemble far more Popovich than Riley.

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"They pushed us to the limit," James marveled on the podium, and James and these Heat so desperately needed it to happen. For the framing of James' legacy – for the fortifying of these Finals, this league, and this sport – this had been one of the finest fortnights the sport has seen. LeBron James, a forever champion holding the forever franchise back in the final minutes of Game 7, and ultimately holding onto Tim Duncan in the first few moments of a championship celebration.

San Antonio brought out the best of the NBA's MVP, the best of these NBA Finals, the best of basketball. Six years later, they had taught James the hardest lessons on the jagged journey to a championship, to staying power. Here was the finest hour for LeBron James, for the Spurs, and maybe most of all, basketball.

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[This message has been edited by InternetFan02 (edited 6/21/2013 10:05a).]

Magic really is a worthless commentator

I had to watch Magic's hands real close when he was interveiwing Lebron to make sure they didn't start to creep underneath the table. You would have thought one of them was about to die the way he was talking about him.

Heat Fans Wake Up to Find Out Team Won Game 7

[This message has been edited by Guitarsoup (edited 6/21/2013 12:39p).]

NBA.com/Stats ‏@nbastats 1m
With the conclusion of the '13 #NBAPlayoffs, Duncan now in 6th place on all-time postseason scoring list (4,614), LeBron in 9th (3,871)

Tim Duncan:
2nd in ORB
3rd in rebounds behind Russell and Wilt (passed Shaq and Kareem this year)
1st in blocks - 40 ahead of Kareem
6th in Points (Kobe has 1000 more, James has 800 less)
8th in PER (James is 3rd after Jordan and Mikan[who shouldn't count])
11th in Defensive Rating (Ben Wallace is 1, Robinson was 6th, Garnett is 15th)
3rd in Win Shares behind only Jordan and Kareem. Bron is 7th and Kobe is 8th.

So Danny Green has a stinker of a game and the Spurs lose the series. So what does he do? That's right, attends the heat celebration party of course! Dammit Green, come on.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2013/06/21/green-draws-ire-for-heat-party-appearance/

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In the end Lebron completely silenced all his critics.

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In a way, it shows just how fickle the game is and how stupid critics are for relying on emotional analysis that's focused on just a handful of plays. Basketball is a game of percentages. Good players make shots at a higher rate and clutch players are ones who continue to make shots at that higher rate (or even elevate it) when the game is on the line. If you have a shooter that hits 45% of his shots during regular minutes and 60% during "clutch" minutes, every talking head would be on his nuts (and rightly so). But the fact is, that guy is still missing almost half his shots when it counts. He's far from a sure thing with the game on the line.

If Kawhi or Leonard make 1 more FT or anyone wearing black grabs that first OReb, everyone would be talking about Lebron's god awful TO with under a min left, his missed point-blank jumper, and his missed 3 pointer. He's suddenly be an unclutch choker, despite the fact that he'd scored nearly 20 on red-hot shooting in the 10 minutes before that. And that would have been stupid criticism. Again, it's a game of percentages and since nobody comes close to 100%, it's just not that smart to focus on a couple plays.

In my mind, game 7 showed us what we already knew. Lebron is a fantastic basketball player who will make a lot of shots. But this idea that he willed his team to victory? No, he just did what he always did. In game 7, that was enough. In game 6, he needed several lucky bounces that were completely out of his control.

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by the way, i was completely correct on danny green. At some point those shots weren't going to drop and he'd be absolutely useless.

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He was a 43% shooter all year. It wasn't reasonable to expect him to continue shooting 65%, but it wasn't reasonable expect him to fall under 10% either. SA could have handled bad games from him (30% shooting or so), but they couldn't handle back-to-back horrific games from him.

[This message has been edited by Deputy Travis Junior (edited 6/21/2013 2:06p).]

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In game 6, he needed several lucky bounces that were completely out of his control

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Actually in game 6, he had to put the team on his back to even give them a chance after being down 10 to start the 4th quarter, which he did. As well as guard Parker offensively and he looked dog tired in the final minutes. You can't look at Lebron's game 6 performance and only look at the turnover and lucky bounces. Heat aren't even worried about bounces if he doesn't do what he did to bring them back.

I agree with you though that the criticism is stupid either way. He's the best player on the planet, likely will finish his career as the best player since Jordan, and all he does is get criticized for it.

I said that too

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If Kawhi or Leonard make 1 more FT or anyone wearing black grabs that first OReb, everyone would be talking about Lebron's god awful TO with under a min left, his missed point-blank jumper, and his missed 3 pointer. He's suddenly be an unclutch choker, despite the fact that he'd scored nearly 20 on red-hot shooting in the 10 minutes before that.

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So my point is actually the same as yours. He's an awesome player who did awesome player things for 10 straight minutes before laws of probability caught up with him (i.e. you can't make 100% of your shots no matter how good you are). And if he'd lost, everyone would have called him a choker for shooting at an insanely high percent for 10 minutes instead of 12.

Despite his 4th quarter heroics, a lot of the bounces at the end really were out of his control. It's just stupid to see the headlines swing based on stuff out of his control. We got "Lebron's redhot 4th quarter leads desperate Heat past Spurs" instead of "Lebron CHOKES with a huge TO at the end" simply because Ginobili and Kawhi missed FTs.

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He was a 43% shooter all year. It wasn't reasonable to expect him to continue shooting 65%, but it wasn't reasonable expect him to fall under 10% either. SA could have handled bad games from him (30% shooting or so), but they couldn't handle back-to-back horrific games from him.

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Wouldn't the dramatic falloff in Green's production late in the series be partially attributed to Parker's injury? I didn't watch the Spurs much this year but seems like guys like Green, Bonner, and others rely on Parker's lane penetration and kickouts for spot up 3's. Parker had none of his normal explosion to the lane allowing the Miami D to play tighter on the 3 point guys.

It is a crazy game of bounces to an extent. You could also now argue that without .4, the stupid Manu foul, and 2 good FT shooters missing FT's that Duncan would be now 2nd only to Jordan in most NBA rankings because he would have 6 rings and 5 Finals MVP's in all likelihood.

That's just the game though and luck plays a factor. It won't always bounce your way. This was as close of a Finals as there has been in a long time though and truly could have gone either way. Congrats to Miami though for making the plays they needed to to close it.

Whether it was defense or injury, Parker couldn't get in the lane. Between that and the Heat daring Green to make a layup by closing out hard, they took away Green's three and he couldn't figure out how to make a shot inside the arc. That's not a new thing, like Parker said, the amazing thing is that it took so long for the Heat to figure it out.

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It is a crazy game of bounces to an extent. You could also now argue that without .4, the stupid Manu foul, and 2 good FT shooters missing FT's that Duncan would be now 2nd only to Jordan in most NBA rankings because he would have 6 rings and 5 Finals MVP's in all likelihood.

That's just the game though and luck plays a factor. It won't always bounce your way. This was as close of a Finals as there has been in a long time though and truly could have gone either way. Congrats to Miami though for making the plays they needed to to close it.

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and with the same logic - change a few plays and Dirk could easily have 4 rings, which would have taken away 2 of Duncan's rings.

2003 - Kerr hits a couple lucky 3s
2006 - Wade's phantom game 5 foul
2007 - Golden Sate makes the playoffs by 1 game, and they were the only team all season that showed they could beat the Mavs

What-if scenarios are fun!

No way the Mavs win in 03 without Dirk.

Kerr hits a couple lucky threes? He is the all time leader in 3FG%. And Dirk wasn't even playing anymore.


Nice try. Dirk had his shot in 06. It wasn't an unlucky bounce here or there. Dirk put up a 2-14 in a crucial game 4, then followed it with an 8-19 and 0-4 in game 5.

And the Spurs had plenty of time to recover after the Manu fouls but Duncan choked it away in OT. And the manu foul occurred with like 20 seconds left so the Mavs would have had 2-3 more possessions to tie.

And Fisher's shot was in what game 4 of round 2? Only the Leonard free throws really apply to a true what-if scenario.

Tell me that story about how the Mavs would have won the 03 championship if Kerr didn't 'get lucky' on a couple shots.

That's terrible, even for you.

Kerr had barely played all season. Was it just a brilliant strategy to leave him completely buried on the bench and save him for that one point in the series when they needed someone to start hitting shots? Or was it more that they got lucky that he hit those shots as they prepped for game 7? If Kerr was automatic from 3 then he would have played more. He was buried on the bench for a reason. Or was it that the the 03 Spurs bench was so good and so deep that they didn't need Kerr. Tell me about how Kerr hitting those shots was all part of the strategy all along.

Kerr didn't play the last 4 minutes of the game and the Spurs had a single-digit lead.


In any event, it is beyond ridiculous to say the Mavs would have won a title without their best player if Kerr didn't hit his wide open threes.

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If Kerr was automatic from 3 then he would have played more. He was buried on the bench for a reason.

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That reason is that he was a defensive liability and was a PG that was the 4th best ball handler on the team. He hit 40% of his threes that year and had had numerous clutch performances in the playoffs before. It isn't like he was some scrub that sucked.

Dallas was down 3-1 with Dirk against SA. And now you are playing revisionist historian and saying Dallas was going to win the championship that year without Dirk.

Muy thinks that is dumb.

Kerr must have gotten lucky defensively, forcing Mike Finley and Steve Nash into shooting 8-24 on the night.

Kerr was on that Spurs' team for one reason, to shoot 3's. When Dallas crowded the lane all the Spurs needed was to get someone to knock down wide open 3's and that was what Kerr did. Most of those shots he didn't have anyone close to him. It's like saying the Spurs were "lucky" to have Neal and Green rain 3's in Game 3.

It's true that the Spurs would have had to continue to win in '04 but they had all the momentum and the superior matchups. That .04 shot right after Duncan had drained a 3 to seemingly put the game away just killed them emotionally. If they start the clock the moment Fisher touches the ball it was also moot.

In '06 it is true that SA had the ball with a chance to win. Manu missed an easy bucket there as well at the end of regulation. The point was that was MANU and not Duncan that blew it and it easily could have (and 9/10 would have) gone the Spurs way. Thus the bounce of the ball.

I still like the logic of the Mavs losing in the first round 4-2 but saying they would have won the Title. Now that one is fun.

I really dont think we could have beaten Detroit in 04.