Uh oh, Miami. You
just might be in a little deeper than you thought.
You limped into the Finals after having to beat an old,
broken-down Celtics team in seven games.
Meanwhile, after a game one sucker punch by the Spurs, the Thunder
barely lost game two, stepped on the accelerator of their F-16 style offense
and bombarded the Spurs for four straight victories.
Oklahoma City was the favorite coming into this series. They certainly proved why last night. But I don’t think anyone saw them outplaying
the Heat as much as they did in the second half. This Heat team had the number two defense in
the league.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook turned that defense
inside out. The Heat were going left
when they needed to go right. Right when
they needed to go left.
The Thunder’s dynamic duo punished the Heat with an array of
slashes, passes, jumpers, and drives.
When the final buzzer sounded, that one-two punch outscored the entire
Heat team in the second half.
Erik Spoelstra inexplicably changed defenses in the second
half, opting to switch all screens rather than hedge them and allow defenders
to recover. The result? Constant mismatches for Westbrook and Durant. And they made Miami pay.
Boy, did they make them pay.
Sure, particularly in the first half, the Thunder struggled
on defense. But what does it matter if
the Thunder give up 100+ points? They
have more weapons in their arsenal than the United States Army.
The offensive blitzkrieg last night resulted in twenty-one
scores in their final twenty-nine possessions.
No other team in the league can keep up with that kind of output.
The size, speed, and athleticism of this team are
unmatched. And they will go zero to
sixty in the blink of an eye, leaving you so far in the dust that you will
think they’ve vanished.
So be careful Miami.
Because if you aren’t, this series will be over in that same blink.
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