Miami Heat all set for going all the way to NBA finals - NBA Feature
The way Miami Heat emerged out of the playoffs 2nd round that was riddled with bloody flagrant fouls, suspensions and injuries, one thing became evident that they are going all the way to NBA finals.
One cannot undermine the degree of toughness and resilience that was tossed by Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals. Indy took the game to another level that was peppered with harsh talk and physicality. Apparently, earlier in the
round it did help them. As Chris Bosh missed most of the action due to abdominal strain and at one point Pacers managed a 2-1 lead.
However that was it, the maimed Big Three transformed into Big Two and LeBron James along with Dwyane Wade took charge of the things and ploughed their way through the next 3 games. The turning point in the series was the transformation
of James from sharpshooter to facilitator. James and Wade came up with a baseball style game, James started to turn over the ball and loft the lob pass to streaking Wade. Vis-à-vis on certain occasions Wade did the same to James.
Moreover every one wearing Heat jersey justified their role, on one night it would be Shane Battier scoring in double-figures and on the other Mario Chalmers would erect an impervious defence.
Heat made it sure that Pacers taste their own medicine.
Pacers forwards had been targeting James and Wade with flagrant fouls. Especially Tyler Hansbrough was more like a hit man stalking Wade throughout the semi-finals. In the 2nd last game Udonis Haslem took care of him,
with a huge blow on the face, that was ostensibly an attempted block. But the message was sent and consequently Haslem was ejected from the last game by officials.
In a nutshell Miami outhustled Pacers and headed into the finals to meet Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers. Both teams are tied at 3 apiece and the 7th game on Saturday will decide who gets to challenge Heat in the finals.
Interestingly either of these teams doesn’t pose a credible threat for Heat. Miami enjoys an upper hand of 4-0 against Philly in the regular season. They had badly failed to deter Big Three and as a result Heat won by an average
of 13.3 points per game in the regular season.
Moreover out of those 4 games Heat had to play without Dwyane in 2, and yet they managed to shoot 50.2% from the field. On the contrary Miami retained Sixers to just 42.7%.
The most bewildering aspect about Heat Big Three is that, when ever one of the players goes down the performance of other 2 manifolds. LeBron didn’t succumb to any nagging injuries throughout the season but Wade and Chris have
been missing the action on and off. That allowed the other 2 with more room and freedom of shots.
Sixers have their roster loaded with young and explosive youth and they have the depth. But they lack the talent and explosiveness of Heat and they don’t have a single superstar who can be counted in par with James, Wade and Bosh.
Given the facts Heat success in the finals is guaranteed.
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