Spurs have got it now. Respect to see the old big three get it done and McGrady to finally get a ring.

1. Close game.

2. Rout one way.

3. Rout the other way.



Series is far from over, what are you talking about?

It's only just getting started.

Some points:

1. Next two games in San Antonio
2. Spurs only need two to win
3. Lebron has been shut down
4. Wade and Bosh have been terrible all playoffs and I can't see why they would just magically get better now.
5. Spurs win the next one and heat are down 3-1 and we know how many teams have come back from 3-1

Just can't see it happening. Green looks like an all star and the big 3 look like role players. Ship to spurs!

Spurs have got it now. Respect to see the old big three get it done and McGrady to finally get a ring.

The Spurs have shown that they can fall in a heap after a series lead like this - look at last year vs. OKC, who aren't nearly as deep as this Heat team.

It's still wide open. If the Spurs take game 4 I'll be hearing you but until then I say this one's going 6 at least.

The difference between this years spurs team and last years spurs team: Last years spurs team ran into the best SG in the league who was BIGTIME in many of those close OKC wins.

Can it, Ingles. We've heard it before. Remember I said not to repeat yourself.

FFS ingles give it a rest.

I don't think Spurs will fold, however Heat only need 1 of the next 2 to take back home court advantage as well.

Great series so far.

Lebron's demeanor so far is similar to that which he displayed in the 2010 ECF and the 2011 Finals. If he doesn't snap out of it, and the Spurs go on to win, he will remove himself from the "greatest of all time" discussion quite quickly.

You're right about the greatest of all time bit, Situation. It's pretty cut-throat at the top of the mountain, can't afford to mess up.

Thought Jeff Van Gundy comments regarding Erik Spoelstra being a future hall of fame coach are a bit premature. Then again shouldn't be surprising, Jeff goes really quiet whenever his Heat team are getting a beat down.

Patty Mills now averaging 2.5 ppg this Finals series!! good to see him take to the court. Is aron Baynes injured?

Baynes not in the 12.

will go to 7 games

That is the difference between last years spurs team and this one

Shut up, Ingles. No one wants you here when you keep pulling that same shit you always do. Piss off.

lol at how rustled you get

We get rustled because you are a bad person who systematically ruins a good little community of discussion and love for the game. You are like one of those kids who tries to enter a friendship group and hang out with us but no one actually wants you there, but we can't get rid of you. And the reason we don't want you here isn't because we are immature kids who exclude people because it's fun to bully; instead, we are mature people who do not like rodents ruining our fun. We contribute on this site as a hobby and as something to engage us in our spare time. What we don't want is someone coming in with the sole purpose of ruining our fun while not contributing anything of substance. It's very disrespectful. Do you comprehend?

I wrote the reason why this years spurs have made it further than last years spurs and you go on a rant. I provide discussion. You provide a salty bitterness and I really don't know why..

The reason your comment is not discussion-worthy is because you have used it many times on this forum and no one has wanted to/wants to elaborate on it. The people on this forum have metaphorically voted with their feet. AWAY FROM YOUR COMMENTS! Look, it not being a good season for isolation was a worthwhile topic. Anything James Harden,related coming from your username, not so much. Do you actually get it?

I'm hoping the spurs win in 5 but any team with lebron in it is just so dangerous, u can't keep him quite the whole series!
If Parker's hamstring injury turns out to be bad tho the spurs are in trouble as he just runs the show even tho he hasn't been playing great he's just their floor general. Also no way green and Neal are gona score 50 between them in a game again (I hope they do mind you) so they need ginobili to step up as he hasn't been great shooting the ball well all playoffs.
The heat need to figure out how to defend the 3 also so many open looks, dwade in particular is very slow in rotation these days.

Yeah, I think Pop (been the great coach he is) will recognise that today's game was not something to rely on.

Expect a lot of ball to go into Duncan in Game 4.

Also, look for sets to get Manu going.

With that being said, the Heat's rotations were terrible. A lot of Neals and Greens attempts were open.

If they (looking at you Wade) fail to rotate again in Game 4 and the shooters get that open, it's not like they are going to miss anymore than game 3.

The Spurs have a chip on their shoulder:
- Neal: Had to go to Europe, assigned to D-League
- Green: Cut from Cavs. History of going to D-League
- Even players like Parker: Often overlooked when discussing league's best PGs. Not given the attention he deserves.
- Same with Duncan: No doubt sick of hearing all about the Heat all season long.
- Leonard: Hasn't won a thing -- high school nor at SDSU. Gunning for your first ring at young age = most motivated drive
-Splitter: Euro-based player for most of his career. Realises this is virtually his first and last shot at title.
- Look at Joseph even: Wanted to be assigned to the D-League to get better. Will do anything to win.


Compare that with the Miami Heat:

I know they have the drive to win. But is the entire team mentally fatigued from having so much recent success -- 66 wins, 27 (?) game win streak, 37-4 at home, reigning champs, winning game 7 over Indiana.


It's almost as if, Miami have achieved success so much lately and so often, that they have forgotten about the one and only thing that should matter - the Championship.

Sometimes, when a team has such frequent success, they get to a point when they almost expect it to just happen. "Go through the motions" (That sums up how I saw the game today)

Ingles, why haven't you replied to my previous comment, dude? I was talking to you. You come in and ruin threads with your 'facts', then don't own up to what you're saying by bailing when you can't think of a smart-ass reply when people call you out. It baffles me how you haven't been blocked from the site already. If a moderator is reading this, I'd really like to know why he hasn't been blocked yet.

Statsheet Stuffer, your reaction is kinda ruining this thread, just ignore him, you're feeding him by losing your shit any time he posts anything.

Billo, have you seen how many other threads have been ruined by his shit? I did actually say before that the best way to react to his shit was not to reply to him. Others kept going though, so why haven't you told them off too? My hope was that trying to reason with him would make him realise that he's talking shit because I wasn't quite sure if he knew. But I realise he's just here to stir shit and not contribute. I guess I'll email he/those who run the site.

Alright, game 3. We were already talking about game 3 in my thread below before this thread was even created btw.

Anyway, expanded discussion on game 3. I like Van Gundy's comment in either game 1 or 2 about the 2-3-2 format. I had thought of this issue a season or so ago. He noted that because of easy and quick means of travel, going from the west to east coasts doesn't take as much time as it used to. As home court is such an advantage, it could be assumed that the home team will win all games. Therefore, it will be 3-2 after five games heading back to the top team's home with two games to go. This means the onus is on the home team because it's a 'win it go home' scenario, so go speak. And I don't like it. I think, by being the best team for 82 games, the home team has earned the right to have the best situation in the finals. So they should keep with the playoff format of 2-2-1-1-1 in my opinion.

I actually really like the 2-3-2 format.
It means that the team with the best record gets some advantage (by having 4 home games) but not as much advantage as throughout the rest of the playoffs.

I believe that the advantage should be less because they are playing the winner of the other conference who's record might not have been as good but they did also play a completely different schedule to get their record.

I really like the extra dimension it adds to the series also.

Prefer 2-2-1-1-1 myself.

I prefer 2-2-1-1-1 as well.

I read a couple of stats somewhere (think it was in an ESPN or Grantland article) that I found interesting...

1) The team that wins Game 3 has won 12 of the last 13 NBA Finals series - the exception was the 2011 Heat vs. Dallas

2) The last team to sweep all 3 home games in the middle of the 2-3-2 format was the 2004 Detroit Pistons (also the first team to do that sweep and close out a series with it)

I still don't think this series is over, but given the variety of looks that Pop has been throwing at Lebron, the hot shooting of the Spurs role players, and the fact that Manu/Duncan haven't really got it going this series I think it is going to be incredibly tough for Miami to snatch Game 4 and right the ship.

But anything can happen in basketball!

'dude' statsheet stuffer you get so angry over a bit of discussion. Do you really think this spurs team is better than last years team? Last years team was on a 20 game win streak before they ran into the almighty force of Harden/Durant/Westbrook who won 4 straight games to knock them out of the playoffs. They're lucky that OKC foolishly traded away Harden and that Westbrook was injured in this years playoffs or they could have been facing another year without reaching the finals.

What do you have against Harden, Harden hater?

Ingles, you know my opinion on this year's spurs. We talked about it on another thread. I said that the thunder would beat the spurs if Westbrook were healthy. And you tell others to get their facts straight, you're a trainwreck, mate.

I challenge you to find even one bad thing I've said about Harden in the history of this username. I don't dislike him at all, I dislike you being a jerk. And when you are a jerk, you are talking about Harden. Why do you go from being normal on ozhoops to being silly on this site?

I don't visit ozhoops too much in the offseason and only use it during the nbl season for dreamteam, some game threads, and for news about signings/injuries etc. This forum has a wider array of topics and often has better and quicker discussion but I don't see how me stating that the difference between this years spurs vs last years was the difference in the opposition gets you so riled up.

Um, he didn't ask you which site you preferred.

Yeah, I'm not after your internet usage habits. How can you not know why? I have told you on numerous occasions in the past couple weeks why 'the difference between this years spurs vs last years was the difference in the opposition'.

Whatever, Ingles.

The Spurs three point shooting has started where it left off in game 3. Crazy good!