Now we’re officially half way through the 2013 NBA season, we have 42 games worth of resumes we can use to decide who will be crowned champions at season’s end. Like I said in last week’s article most hoop fans see Miami and O City in the finals for a rematch of last year’s final, however I neglected to pick a winner between the two.
Every since the 2011 season ended, I’ve been picking the Thunder to win it all. Last season was Lebron James’s time, no excuses (other than the God awful officiating) he paid his dues and got over that hump with the Heat convincingly winning in just 5 games. Don’t know if anyone noticed, but uhhh O City hasn’t beaten Miami since game 1 of last year’s Finals. That’s 6 straight losses.
Thursday night the Miami Heat showed and proved, that for right now they own the O City Thunder. Thursday night’s lost started to look like a beat down in the making, but Kevin Durant’s 40 points, and the rest of the team’s ability to hit free throws kept the game more competitive than the 110-100 score indicates.
No doubt about it no one can hold Durant he had 40 to Lebron’s 39 points. Both men are getting their points with minimum effort, at least that’s how they make it look. However after those two cancel each other out you have to look at the rest of each team’s roster and there’s no doubt that Miami’s team is more potentate.
Dwayne Wade is getting healthier and is still considered to be one of the NBA’s top closers in the game. For O City their 2nd threat comes in the form of one of if not the most explosive athletic point guard to ever play the game in Russell Westbrook. As dynamic as he is and as big as he plays night in and night out, you never know which Russell’s going to show up. The Russell that want to facilitate and make everyone else on the team better, or the Russell who feels like he’s got to put the team on his back and lead them to victory.
That sounds like two good things you want in your point guard except that for Westbrook it normally means he’s forcing things when he doesn’t have to because he does have a Kevin Durant on his team. If you look at Miami they have so many weapons that each guy can depend on the other from the starters to the bench.
Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen, and Mario Chalmers being on the court and spreading the floor out like they do has just opened up the lane for Wade and James to penetrate and dish out if needed all game long. Recently they’ve added Chris Anderson to the frontcourt for more girth and defense. He has complimented the other bigs that Miami has rather it be by his weak side shot blocking ability, or ability to get open dunks when the opposing teams are focused on the other offensive weapons that Miami has on the floor.
O City offensively has no real go to threat in the post. Kendrick Perkins is for defense only, Serge Ibaka can score and score in bunches but he’s not a main staple in what they do offensively, and as good as Nick Collison is he’s just not on the floor enough, and he of all players is feeling the affects of the absence of James Harden who use to set Collison up for easy baskets play after play.
At this time and we know at anytime any team can catch fire and run the table, but right now the way James has been playing over the last few weeks, and with Wade getting healthier day by day I just don’t see them losing 4 games to O City in a series. Not saying it can’t and won’t happen I’m just saying it’s going to be a tall order and I wish I could skip the second half of the season and just go right to the playoffs. Unfortunately we’ll have to be patient and wait but it should be an interesting race for home court going forth especially with the Spurs still doing what they do but we’ll debate that another day, for now time for All Star Weekend.
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