After two exciting games in the NBA Finals, basketball fans worldwide are drooling. Will it finally be the year that Lebron James and Chris Bosh will win their first NBA championship rings? Or is the time ripe for the Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook show to take the stage? And where is Dwyane Wade in all this? Ditto for James Harden?
At the end of the day, this series will be seen as a Lebron vs KD battle, like it or not. Both recognized as their team’s superstars, they’re out to prove that they are their team’s saviours. Durant started his career with the OKC franchise when it was still in Seattle and is on a slow-but-sure pace to reach the top. And after a couple of Western Conference playoffs losses, they’re finally in the finals. The big question is if he’s on course for a championship. On the other hand, Lebron is playing for his second team after “failing” to bring his hometown team Cleveland to the promise land. The irony is that both find themselves in very familiar situations with the way their careers kicked off. Coming off the draft, both were expected lead their teams to a championship. Lebron wasn’t able to do it on his first tour of duty with the Cavs and all eyes are closely wondering if he’ll bring the same “jinx” to Miami. As they say, the player that can win championships for his team is always the better player.
When Oklahoma took Game 1, 105-94, in a come from behind manner, Durant scorched the Heat with 36 points while Westbrook added 27 in an amazing display of unstoppable offense. The big story here was how Miami started out hot, took command of the game, only to lose control and be overrun by the OKC offensive onslaught. James had a team-high 30 points for Miami, but was hopeless when OKC simply took over in the second half. The weird aspect about Miami is that they actually had a more balanced attack with four other players scoring in double digits in Game 1: Wade (19), Battier (17), Chalmers (15) and Bosh (10). For OKC’s part, only one player in Serge Ibaka scored at least 10 points. Game 1 proved that the go to guys would decide the game after all.
Game 2 was just like Game 1 but with a twist. Miami stormed to the lead quickly and maintained comfortable leads until the end of the fourth quarter when Durant went ballistic again. Down by 17 at one point of the game, Durant drained a trey to cut the lead to 98-96 with 37 seconds left in the game. This capped a torrid rally that had OKC fans up on their feet and cheering for their Thunder to score another come-from-behind win. But I guess this kind of fairy tale stories don’t happen twice in a row. OKC had to take the painful loss and will have to regroup as a three-game swing is up next in Miami. Lebron led Miami anew with 32 points while the Durant-Westbrook show went 32+27. Wade stepped up with 24 while Battier added 17 for the second game in a row. James Harden also woke up with 21 points after scoring only five in Game 1.
So far, the remarkable surprise of the series has been Shane Battier’s outside shooting from three-point land. He was averaging only 4.8 points a game in the regular season but has now scored 17 points each in Games 1 and 2. His outside shooting has opened up the driving lane for Lebron and Wade and has made the OKC defense think twice about sagging when he’s free. Doing the expected for their respective sides are Wade and Westbrook who have done their share of scoring and providing leadership behind their respective stars. Aside from their support roles in scoring, both also lead their teams in assists. Wade hasn’t had a big offensive game so far with James taking over, but when the scene shifts to Miami, D-Wade will surely have a break-out game. A slight OKC edge could be in the “bigs” game where Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka have outplayed their counterparts in terms of defense, rebounding and providing the much-needed screens or serving as decoys for Durant and Westbrook.
Coaching has also been a see-saw. Scott Brooks did great wonders in making adjustments when OKC had to play catch-up ball, but he can’t afford another big Miami start when the games are played in Miami. OKC has to match Miami’s intensity from the get-go. Eric Spoelstra is one lucky coach after nearly losing a second straight game in the same fashion. This shows how our kababayan is being outcoached. He didn’t make any adjustments (or didn’t seem like it) when OKC seized control of both games 1 and 2.
Will it be the same script in Games 3, 4 and 5? We can expect a grind it out finals for the rest of the way where the stars will shine and role players will contribute heavily. Can Durant and Westbrook maintain their torrid shooting? Will Lebron choke? When will Wade explode? Enjoy the show!
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Time-out: Happy birthday to Bebot Licuanan! >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.