Heat Choke

I could probably rattle off a few thousand words on the last 6 minutes of last night's NBA finals game, but I won't subject you to that. Instead lets go deep, deep into the abyss that is the Miami Heat's last defensive possession. I mean waaaaaaay down. Have a look for yourself. Fullscreen this puppy! Or for better quality view here: YouTube!




Notice anything fishy?
I sure do.Let's go through everything wrong with this possession and assign blame. Please don't feel bad for the Miami Heat or their fans. They kind of deserve the no-holds barred treatment I'm about to deliver after the Dwyane Wade/LeBron James 4th quarter shadow-boxing lovefest. Those two still seem to think they can act like WWF stars and nobody will think anything of it. I'm not even one of those "respect the game" fuddy-duddies that gets mad when someone throws down a humongous tomahawk on a fast-break in a 12 point game. Wade and the Bron can just be really irritating.

In a very particular order, here are the Heat's 4 best defensive options to put on Dirk.

1. Joel Anthony- Has proved himself as one of the three best defensive big men in the 2011 playoffs along with Tyson Chandler and Nick Collison. You will notice he is on the bench for this play. We had better find out he had an inoperable sports hernia or this is totally inexcusable on Spoelstra's part.
   
2. LeBron- Just absolutely undressed the NBA MVP defensively in the Bulls series. He is guarding Jason Terry in the corner.
   
3. Udonis Haslem- The only man man enough to stop Dirk in the 2006 finals. Has certainly slowed down a couple of steps, but is still a capable defender. He is on Tyson Chandler.
4. Chris Bosh- Widely regarded as somewhere between a mediocre and poor defender for his entire career , Bosh draws the assignment of his life and firmly entrenches himself in the matador D hall of fame.

Blame-O-Meter: Erik Spoelstra 35% for playing the wrong 5 guys and the wrong matchups. Chris Bosh 15% for being a genuinely bad defender, but really he should never have been in this position.

Now watch the play above again and watch only Haslem. When Dirk starts to make his move Haslem runs over as if to double. Dirk spins and Haslem stops and checks back toward Chandler. It is already too late. As the primary help defender on this play Haslem failed, he needed to go hard at Dirk and force the ball out of his hands, making Chandler D-Wade's responsibility. Bottom line, Haslem does something to contest Dirk, just far too little.

Blame-O-Meter: Udonis Haslem 10%

All right, repeat the above exercise and watch only Lebron. Looks kind of like me in my rec league on Thursday night huh? Could you have any less urgency? His neck moves more than his feet. In his defense, Jason Terry is not the guy you want to leave wide open, but Dirk is going to make that running lefty layup about 85% of the time. A sorry display from King James.

Blame O-Meter: LeBron James 20%

As you watch those beautiful 10 seconds again, this time watch only D-Wade. Note to Dwyane: you are on Shawn Marion. If Shawn Marion puts up a three pointer you probably just won the game and the Finals. Maybe standing flat-footed at the edge of the paint is a bit of an underreaction to the threat Dirk represents. Keep in mind, when Dirk first puts the ball on the floor there are 7 seconds on the shot clock. 7 Seconds!!!!!!!!! Sure Haslem should be running to double Dirk at that instant, but if he won't why not Wade? If Wade doubles one of three things is almost certain to happen.

1. Dirk picks up his dribble and shoots a contested fadeaway.
   
2. Dirk passes to Marion who drives to the hoop looking to make a weird Marion floater/hook shot forcing either Haslem to switch and Wade to recover to Chandler, or Wade to get back and contest Marion's shot.
3. Dirk passes to Marion, who has no desire to shoot a deciding shot in the NBA Finals and kicks it back out to Jason Kidd.

These are good outcomes. The split second after Haslem shuffled back towards Chandler, Wade should have flown to Dirk. Instead he hesitates long enough for both Haslem and Chandler to stumble past him. Sidenote: If Dirk misses the layup Chandler is almost certainly dunking it in, or at least getting the rebound as Wade gets beaten to the spot. If you are not going to double, at least have the courtesy to box out Haslem's man when he eventually does. That part is really unacceptable.

Blame-O-Meter: D-Wade 15%

Now watch Chalmers. Mario!!!!!!!!!! You are the Greatest Alaskan to ever play in the NBA. Why are you not doubling Dirk as soon as he touches the ball? When Dirk receives the ball Jason Kidd is halfway between the 3 point arc and half court.

If Chalmers doubles and Dirk sends it back to Kidd, Chalmers should have plenty of time to recover. There, you just wasted 3 seconds and made Dirk less dangerous, repeat thrice and watch the Mavs huck up a prayer. Even if for some reason he can't recover the Heat are in good shape. Kidd is either going to take a long, open, off the dribble jumper (not going to happen), or attack the basket. Kidd attacking the basket actually plays into Miami's hand as you now have a mini 3 on 2 featuring Dallas' 3 least dangerous offensive players. Haslem and Wade are not going to let 38-year old Jason Kidd score at the rim, and Kidd is reluctant to shoot off the dribble so this scenario probably plays out with Kidd kicking to Marion in the corner or sending it way back out to Dirk. Not too shabby

Blame-O-Meter: Super Mario: 5%

Finally, please note Dwyane Wade's flawless flopping technique on the buzzer beater. Ginobili would be proud. He jumps cleanly between Dirk and Marion, an impressive athletic feet in and of itself, only to be sniped out of the air a split second before landing. Truly breathtaking. If this was 2006....3 free throws.

What do you think? Am I too harsh on someone? Not harsh enough?