[JT]

i posted this over at ISH too if anybody goes there. here is my hypothesis:

the heat lost, and wade shot terrible (4-19) and only dished 4 assists. this is obvious to the layman. some will chalk it up to their 12 game winning streak, must've relaxed and let down.

but its not that at all, to put it bluntly, they got shut down as a team. the heat were averaging 102 points a game, and then barely break the 80 mark? to beat them, just slow the game down by getting back on defense, seeing as how wade is mainly a fastbreak scorer and assistman.

jeff van gundy realizes, that to beat a shaq-led team, you let shaq score all the points he wants, and focus defensive attention on the explosive guard (in this case, dwayne wade).

this is how the lakers didn't win the title the past two years, first year they lost to the spurs despite shaq/kobe combining for 60 points a game in the regular season, pop focused his defensive schemes on kobe, playup on the roleplayers, and they lost.

second year, last year, they lost to the pistons in the finals, despite shaq averaging 27 points a game on fantastic percentages.

to get to the core of my argument, what i'm saying is that the blueprint is there to win and has been proven in order to limit a shaq-led team. all you have to do is handcuff the explosive creating guard, and therefore you in turn are handcuffing guys like udonis haslem, eddie jones, and basically everybody else except for shaquille.

detroit and san antonio both have good enough defensive teams and coaches to get the job done, and i believe they will.

 

[SeaNet]

The key to defending the old Lakers teams was to be able to single cover Kobe and Shaq. SA, and then Detroit were the best equipped teams to do this. Those guys may very well put up good numbers, but by single covering Shaq (ideally you would have 24 fouls to do this w/) you negate his greatest advantage which is his ability to draw a double team and therefore create space for his teammates to operate in. Kobe also has the ability to force a double team and open up space for his teammates. The same thing that applied to Shaq and Kobe applies to Shaq and Wade. That's the way to go about it, but even if you can do that, Miami is still a load. It will be interesting to see what Detroit can do against them. They've got the bodies and fouls to expend on Shaq, but do they have someone that can stay in front of Wade?

Good post Sherako.

 

[TheRoc5]

spurs rox and mybe suns can do well against heat in the finals not sure anyone else

 

[FreeMason Jr.]

spurs rox pistons and mybe suns can do well against heat in the finals not sure anyone else

pistons can't play heat in the finals...

 

[MiamiWade]

to get to the core of my argument, what i'm saying is that the blueprint is there to win and has been proven in order to limit a shaq-led team. all you have to do is handcuff the explosive creating guard, and therefore you in turn are handcuffing guys like udonis haslem, eddie jones, and basically everybody else except for shaquille.

detroit and san antonio both have good enough defensive teams and coaches to get the job done, and i believe they will.

The blueprint is to provide single coverage to SHAQ. this game mutombo had an excellent game gaurding shaq and that in effect had perimeter players like Eddie, Damon locked up. They could not get open cas their guy was not double teaming shaq.

The other thing of importance is Miami definitely need Haslem and Laettner in the lineup to be effective. They are highly effective with the mid range jump shot .

 

[reHEATed]

And Houston wouldnt have gotten 20 sumthing offensive boards if Haslem was in the lineup

 

[Pioneer10]

Frankly Miami played as bad a game as it did all year and they were still in the game. What finally did them in was the careless ball handling. There was an absolute ton of turnovers from the Heat that were shall we say "unforced errors"

 

[Debt Collector]

its an interesting theory, and i fully expect detroit to employ the same strategy when they meet the heat in the playoffs, but i wouldnt chalk that up as to the reason the heat lost. turnovers and second chance points killed them. half of it was the rockets playing great interior defense and cleaning up the boards, half of it was the heat hidden weakness getting exposed - they are a below average rebounding team, and dont have a true ballhandler in their starting five except for wade, who is much better off of the ball.

 

[PartisanRanger]

Don't forget that Haslem was out of the lineup, and he provides a lot of the Heat's rebounding.

 

[Hakeem]

Good post by the guy who started the thread. I thought the same thing about Spurs vs Rockets in the 1995 WCF. The Spurs should've just let Hakeem get what he wanted for the whole series and guarded all the other guys so they wouldn't hit all those threes.

 

[visionary432]

this was a five star post by the creator of the thread; wade is much easier to contain than shaq simply looking at skillsets but stan the man will always want to have wade controlling the ball; simply this is a formula for disaster so the pistons are going to win it all

 

[Junior21]

i posted this over at ISH too if anybody goes there. here is my hypothesis:

the heat lost, and wade shot terrible (4-19) and only dished 4 assists. this is obvious to the layman. some will chalk it up to their 12 game winning streak, must've relaxed and let down.

but its not that at all, to put it bluntly, they got shut down as a team. the heat were averaging 102 points a game, and then barely break the 80 mark? to beat them, just slow the game down by getting back on defense, seeing as how wade is mainly a fastbreak scorer and assistman.

jeff van gundy realizes, that to beat a shaq-led team, you let shaq score all the points he wants, and focus defensive attention on the explosive guard (in this case, dwayne wade).

this is how the lakers didn't win the title the past two years, first year they lost to the spurs despite shaq/kobe combining for 60 points a game in the regular season, pop focused his defensive schemes on kobe, playup on the roleplayers, and they lost.

second year, last year, they lost to the pistons in the finals, despite shaq averaging 27 points a game on fantastic percentages.

to get to the core of my argument, what i'm saying is that the blueprint is there to win and has been proven in order to limit a shaq-led team. all you have to do is handcuff the explosive creating guard, and therefore you in turn are handcuffing guys like udonis haslem, eddie jones, and basically everybody else except for shaquille.

detroit and san antonio both have good enough defensive teams and coaches to get the job done, and i believe they will.

Thsi HEAT team is much better defensively than any of the Laker teams. thats a huge difference why i think Miami can beat detroit this year.

 

[f22egl]

I don't think the the theory may apply because Wade may make better decisions with the ball than Kobe did. Detroit did double team Kobe in the finals but in most cases, Kobe usually forced a bad shot or turned over the ball. I think the Pistons will not be able to use Prince as a primary defender to slow down wade so I'm wondering if Hamilton or Billups will step up. Finally, the Heat have a better perimeter shooting with Damon and Eddie and even Laettner and Haslem hit open jump shots. I'm not sure but that's just my opinion as a Piston/heat series would be up for grabs.

 

[tempe85]

i posted this over at ISH too if anybody goes there. here is my hypothesis:

the heat lost, and wade shot terrible (4-19) and only dished 4 assists. this is obvious to the layman. some will chalk it up to their 12 game winning streak, must've relaxed and let down.

but its not that at all, to put it bluntly, they got shut down as a team. the heat were averaging 102 points a game, and then barely break the 80 mark? to beat them, just slow the game down by getting back on defense, seeing as how wade is mainly a fastbreak scorer and assistman.

jeff van gundy realizes, that to beat a shaq-led team, you let shaq score all the points he wants, and focus defensive attention on the explosive guard (in this case, dwayne wade).

this is how the lakers didn't win the title the past two years, first year they lost to the spurs despite shaq/kobe combining for 60 points a game in the regular season, pop focused his defensive schemes on kobe, playup on the roleplayers, and they lost.

second year, last year, they lost to the pistons in the finals, despite shaq averaging 27 points a game on fantastic percentages.

to get to the core of my argument, what i'm saying is that the blueprint is there to win and has been proven in order to limit a shaq-led team. all you have to do is handcuff the explosive creating guard, and therefore you in turn are handcuffing guys like udonis haslem, eddie jones, and basically everybody else except for shaquille.

detroit and san antonio both have good enough defensive teams and coaches to get the job done, and i believe they will.

Just as a side note.. if this is true then it's probably why it's so hard to stop the Suns. Do you just let Stoudemire score all the points he wants (ALA Shaq) and then focus on Nash (leaving Johnson, Marion, and Richardson to do what they please)? Or do you focus on Marion leaving Nash, Richardson, and Johnson open? Or how about Johnson leaving Marion, Nash, and Richardson open? Or Richardson leaving Marion, Nash, and Johnson open?

This is where teams might get in a dilemma.

 

[f22egl]

Guess what? Stoudemire is not shaq!

 

[CrazyBalla]

There is a small problem with trying to stop a guard like Wade. He does not rely on jump shots. If only Kobe could try more of going to the basket, pistons would have had a problem defending him too.

The game against Rockets, Heat played bad as a team, not taking anything away from houstons defense. Heat have some good perimeter shooters when the ball is pushed back out after penetration. In this particular game, they also did not play upto potential.

 

[Crossword]

Guess what? Stoudemire is not shaq!

And Haslem isn't Marion, Wade isn't Nash, DJones isn't Johnson, and EJones isn't QRich. What's your point?