NBA Finals Chronicles, Friday June 15

Turns out that the Thunder started off the games even worse than they had started Game 1. They were down 18-2 and dug themselves into a gigantic hole, which they eventually came back from, but the lead was too much for them to ever tie the game or take the lead. It was a coast-to-coast victory for the Heat, who got a major boost from one Mr. Shane Battier. Serge Ibaka enjoys roaming around down low ready to erase someone's attack on the basket with a block. He is not used to closing out on a three-point shooter, allowing for a lot of open looks for Battier.

There seems to be a lot of hate for Russell Westbrook today. Most of this criticism is centered around the fact that Westbrook does not play like a traditional point guard and does not spend a lot of his time setting up for his teammates. My feelings are a bit different, that's just not his game. I do feel however, that he needs to stop jacking up shots for no reason. He is very good at creating his own shot, and can create for teammates when he really needs to, but in the 1st quarter yesterday, he didn't create anything. He repeatedly brought the ball to the frontcourt to simply take a quick jumper early in the shot clock. That is not what he needs to be doing. He started off the game 0-for-7 and that was very costly for his team. He played well afterwards, but his tendency to put up ill-advised shots helped OKC fall into the big 16 point deficit to start off the game.

Chris Bosh was a big factor during this game. His 16 points were nice for Miami to have, but it was his 15 rebounds that really swung this game in the favor of the Heat. After the 5 boards that he grabbed in game 1, his rebounding ability gave the Heat more offensive opportunities, and allowed them, to score on the fastbreak off of defensive rebounds.

Dwyane Wade played much better than he did on Tuesday. His ability to attack the basket gave more opportunities to the perimeter shooter of Miami. He actually looked like Dwyane Wade instead of the bootleg Wade clone that we all saw in Game 1.

That foul at the end of the game, was in fact a foul, but you cannot blame that missed call for the Thunder losing the game. They did it to themselves by falling behind so early, and it's unfortunate that they wasted such a great comeback.