BECKHAM
11-05-2014, 12:38 PM
LeBron James just became the youngest player in NBA history with 4,000 career playoff points, 8th all-time -
http://bestsportsjam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Nba-lebron-james-latest-sports-news-update1.jpg
LeBron James on NBA banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling: 'Commissioner [Adam] Silver, thank you for protecting our beautiful and powerful league!!'
LeBron James, Miami Heat complete 1st-round sweep of Charlotte Bobcats, 109-98
Dave Hyde: Heat pick a bad time to act disinterested
This was a bad loss, in any month of the year, against any team. It's just a worse one for the Heat on Saturday night, because they acted as uninspired in May as they did through large stretches of a restless winter. They played defense like it was optional, ran the offense like they'd just been given it and generally looked like a team that felt the regular season was beneath their interest.
"To sum it up, they out played us - out played us the whole second half," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Game 3's 104-90 loss to Brooklyn.
Maybe that's how this team will be all the way. Maybe they've won so much the last two years they need to feel some footsteps coming on them to play their best game.
Maybe being up 2-0 against Brooklyn entering Saturday was too much of an emotional cushion. But it's one thing to lose a game. It's another not to lose interest in a playoff game midway through this one.
For so much of Saturday night, Spoelstra looked like a parent does when a child doesn't measure up. Not angry. Just disappointed. His offense?
"Thirteen assists isn't going to get it done," he said.
His defense? Brooklyn shot 52.8 percent. It probably isn't going to go 15 of 25 on 3-point shots again.
"But it wasn't just the 3's," Spoelstra said. "They were getting drives, cuts, baskets in transition. They were getting whatever they wanted."
This loss doesn't put the Nets back in the series. It puts them another win in Game 4 on Monday from getting back into it, though. It gave them life and a measure of hope, which is oxygen right now considering how the opening two games looked,
The Heat had never lost a Game 3 in the Big Three era when leading a series 2-0. They'd always put down the hammer on a troubled opponent. That's just another way this spring has a different feel than the others.
In the past three playoffs, the Heat playoff runs had the feel of a crusade. That first year was an attempt to prove The Big Three was right in uniting their superpowers.
The second year's mission was to win the title the first year failed to do. Last year, there was the demand to win successive titles to prove once and for all how this was a worthy champion.
The sky isn't falling because of one Heat loss. The Nets still have to win Game 4 on Monday to make it a series. The Nets won Saturday because of those 15 shots from distance and because reserve center Andray Blatche exposed the Heat's undersized game with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
They also won because LeBron James, who had 16 points after one quarter, finished with 28 points. There will be a lot of talk from the Heat in the next day of being more aggressive on defense and not settling for outside jump shots on offense.
It's a fact the Heat felt the regular season was beneath their interest, that after three years of playing more basketball than anyone they'd strategically treat it as a weigh station to the playoffs.
They have a gear you've seen only in fits and stretches in the playoffs. That sounds like some sort of joke considering they're 5-1, the only team with one loss in the postseason.
Spoelstra, for instance, noted how in Thursday's Game 2 the Heat played similarly to Game 3, except, "We picked up our defense in the fourth quarter and our shots were going down."
The Nets were the big headline last summer when they bought every player in sight and Deron Williams said they could beat the Heat. He wasn't alone. Through two games, they weren't close. Saturday got them in the conversation again.
Maybe that's how the Heat will do it this spring. All we know on Saturday is the Nets won a game to get to the game to get back in this series.
http://bestsportsjam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Nba-lebron-james-latest-sports-news-update1.jpg
LeBron James on NBA banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling: 'Commissioner [Adam] Silver, thank you for protecting our beautiful and powerful league!!'
LeBron James, Miami Heat complete 1st-round sweep of Charlotte Bobcats, 109-98
Dave Hyde: Heat pick a bad time to act disinterested
This was a bad loss, in any month of the year, against any team. It's just a worse one for the Heat on Saturday night, because they acted as uninspired in May as they did through large stretches of a restless winter. They played defense like it was optional, ran the offense like they'd just been given it and generally looked like a team that felt the regular season was beneath their interest.
"To sum it up, they out played us - out played us the whole second half," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Game 3's 104-90 loss to Brooklyn.
Maybe that's how this team will be all the way. Maybe they've won so much the last two years they need to feel some footsteps coming on them to play their best game.
Maybe being up 2-0 against Brooklyn entering Saturday was too much of an emotional cushion. But it's one thing to lose a game. It's another not to lose interest in a playoff game midway through this one.
For so much of Saturday night, Spoelstra looked like a parent does when a child doesn't measure up. Not angry. Just disappointed. His offense?
"Thirteen assists isn't going to get it done," he said.
His defense? Brooklyn shot 52.8 percent. It probably isn't going to go 15 of 25 on 3-point shots again.
"But it wasn't just the 3's," Spoelstra said. "They were getting drives, cuts, baskets in transition. They were getting whatever they wanted."
This loss doesn't put the Nets back in the series. It puts them another win in Game 4 on Monday from getting back into it, though. It gave them life and a measure of hope, which is oxygen right now considering how the opening two games looked,
The Heat had never lost a Game 3 in the Big Three era when leading a series 2-0. They'd always put down the hammer on a troubled opponent. That's just another way this spring has a different feel than the others.
In the past three playoffs, the Heat playoff runs had the feel of a crusade. That first year was an attempt to prove The Big Three was right in uniting their superpowers.
The second year's mission was to win the title the first year failed to do. Last year, there was the demand to win successive titles to prove once and for all how this was a worthy champion.
The sky isn't falling because of one Heat loss. The Nets still have to win Game 4 on Monday to make it a series. The Nets won Saturday because of those 15 shots from distance and because reserve center Andray Blatche exposed the Heat's undersized game with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
They also won because LeBron James, who had 16 points after one quarter, finished with 28 points. There will be a lot of talk from the Heat in the next day of being more aggressive on defense and not settling for outside jump shots on offense.
It's a fact the Heat felt the regular season was beneath their interest, that after three years of playing more basketball than anyone they'd strategically treat it as a weigh station to the playoffs.
They have a gear you've seen only in fits and stretches in the playoffs. That sounds like some sort of joke considering they're 5-1, the only team with one loss in the postseason.
Spoelstra, for instance, noted how in Thursday's Game 2 the Heat played similarly to Game 3, except, "We picked up our defense in the fourth quarter and our shots were going down."
The Nets were the big headline last summer when they bought every player in sight and Deron Williams said they could beat the Heat. He wasn't alone. Through two games, they weren't close. Saturday got them in the conversation again.
Maybe that's how the Heat will do it this spring. All we know on Saturday is the Nets won a game to get to the game to get back in this series.