A 34 point deficit is what the Heat faced in their game 3 loss. Twitter verse went wild along with any sports talk show. The Heat big 3 were nonexistent, Lebron shooting 7-21 for the night, D-Wade 7-15 and Chris Bosh shooting 4-10. The two other starters, Haslem and Chalmers totaled 0 points on a 0-6 night shooting, oh and the bench? totaled 15 points, the Heat simply did not show up. But who did? Gary Neal and Danny Green, totaling 51 points between the two of them shooting 13-19 behind the arc combined. When the Spurs' role players are on like that, and the Heat are as inept as they were, a 34 point victory makes sense.
The Heat had an insurmountable amount of questions to answer, and Thursday night they did just that.
First coming into the game, were Danny Green and Gary Neal going to put on like they did previously? Answer- No. Gary Neal only hit 3 three-pointers the entire night, 1 in the first quarter, 1 in the second and his last in the fourth. Given he did shoot 3-4 and he is not a player that forces shots (besides that 28 footer in the 4th over Lebron). He has shown he can be a bigger role in the offense, but for now he cannot handle it, especially in the big lights. As for Danny Green, he shot 3-5 from behind the arc, hitting one in the first half and two in the second. Both surmounted to become, non-factors. It seemed in the beginning that they would get hot behind the arc and get the home crowd into the game, but the Heat quickly kept them quiet and controlled the tempo of the game.
Tim Duncan had a good game, shooting 6-10, making 8 FTs, totaling 20 points, but totaled only 5 rebounds on a night that the Heat controlled the boards.
Manu Ginobli finished with 5 points.
As for the Big 3 of Miami?
Leet's start with Chris Bosh. 20 points, 8-14 shooting, 13 rebounds with 11 of those coming defensively. Every excuse for him in the Semis were that Hibbert and West out body him, he will be fine in the Finals. It took him 4 games to become fine, but hey, better late than never right?
Move on to Dwayne Wade. 32 points, yes there was a flash of the '06 Dwayne Wade, better known as Flash. Wade shot 14-25 with 6 rebounds and 6 steals, one of those leading to his momentum shifting Euro-step dunk over Gary Neal. Dwayne Wade was playing no better than Bosh throughout the series, but he proved to be one of the league's elite veterans. Moments like this is why you have D-Wade on your team. To face a 2-1 deficit in the finals, being beaten by 34 points the night before, and turning around to have one of his best postseason career games. Coming in his 128th postseason career game that is.
How about the King, Lebron James. LBJ shot 15-25 totaling 33 points, and having an influence in the paint unlike game 3. Who post game on acknowledged his teammates. Lebron stated about D-Wade showing up big time, "No matter what your resume is, to have a game like this lets you know that you're still one bad... you know the next two words". \
Two of the Big 3 answered the question if they are still the big 3. When they play like this, yes.
Don't expect Manu to have another quiet night, and Parker did fill out the stat sheet with 9 assists, but just like how we say this trophy won't be easy for the Heat, it won't be easy for the Spurs. There is a reason we are calling both teams the two best teams in the league.
Remember this number for Wade's performance tonight, when the Flash has put up 20 or more points, the Heat have won 29 straight games.
No comments:
Post a Comment