TOUGHNESS OR TALENT?

The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Heat last night 91-77 to force a game seven Monday night in Miami.

Before the game, Pacers head coach told his team, “We are two games away from the NBA finals.”

When most people were calling it a “closeout” game for the Heat (Miami led 3-2) Vogel was seeing the glass half full and showing his team that they were going to win the series.

“We have great respect for their culture; their togetherness; their teamwork; their ability to win the plays at the rim; their ability to win loose ball battles; their ability to just reach that level of greatness. We didn’t play our best basketball tonight and we were able to get a win. We’re going to have to play our best basketball to get a win down there in Game 7.” -Frank Vogel

Pacers power forward David West:

“I wasn’t 100 percent, but I had to play. We’ve come too far for me not to play. I’m not feeling good right now although this win helps. I’m sure I will be better tomorrow and I’ll be ready for Monday.”

I have always liked West not only as a player but he’s a better person too.  I found that out first hand when I worked Xavier’s basketball camp and West was there.  West reminds me of the late Maurice Lucas; the way they play and their presence on the floor and how valuable they are to their team.  West played last night with a fever of a 103 degrees.

Indiana’s Paul George, Roy Hibbert and West have outscored Miami’s LeBron James, D-Wade and Chris Bosh 368-332 in the series.

Tom Kensler of the Denver Post with a great recruiting article on Tad Boyle at Colorado.

“We’re going to recruit good-character kids who know right from wrong,” he said. “They can come from different backgrounds and family situations. That’s OK. But they must have been held accountable and are used to being held accountable.”

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

FRIDAY NIGHT BASKETBALL

Sitting here on a Friday night and wouldn’t you know it, the NBA playoffs are taking a break tonight after the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers Thursday night 90-79 to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.  The series shifts to Indy Saturday night.  There was one play last night that had everyone talking.

Rob Mahoney of SI.com on Chris Anderson and Tyler Hansbrough.  If you watched Game five you saw Anderson and Hansbrough get slapped with double technical fouls.  I’m trying to figure out why the former Tar Heel was assessed a “T.”

Many have naturally used Nazr Mohammed’s ejection-drawing shove of LeBron James in the second round as a point of comparison, though Andersen’s initial hit on Hansbrough may be far worse. (The Bulls’ Mohammed was not suspended in addition to the ejection.) Tom Ziller of SB Nation put it best in saying that Andersen essentially committed two separate flagrant-level plays: The first was an unprovoked hit on a player whom Andersen had been physically challenging all series, and the second was an ejection-level push that only made matters worse.

At the very least, an ejection from Game 5 would have been completely warranted. But I’ll leave the question to you, fair reader: Do Andersen’s Game 5 transgressions warrant a suspension for Game 6?

For the actual game, LeBron James was incredible; especially in the third quarter when he scored 16 of his 30 points.  On the night James had 8 rebounds and dished out 6 assists.  It looked like LBJ was back in Cleveland again carrying his club on his shoulders.  TNT announcers were going crazy while James was going off.  I was surprised they failed to mention his performance against the Detroit Pistons back in the 2007 playoffs where the best player in the game scored 48 points including the last 29 of the Cavaliers 30 points.

I love how people talk like we’ve never seen this type of play by the greatest player in the game.  This cat has been putting up numbers since 2003.

“That’s LeBron showing his greatness and making it look easy,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “What we talked about was doing whatever it takes and competing for each other without leaving anything out there. His engine in that third quarter was incredible. He was tireless, he was making plays on both ends of the court, rebounding, covering so much ground defensively and then making virtually every play for us offensively. It’s really remarkable.”

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

MONDAY’S MEANING OF…

The Miami Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers last night 114-96 to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference Finals. Game three is set for Tuesday night.

The Heat scored 70 points in the first on 62% shooting from the field.

LeBron James led the way with 22 points.  Here’s Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra after the game.

“What we talked about in the locker room was a team win.  We just tried to focus on the task of playing one possession at a time and trying to play those possessions well.  We had a lot of contributions tonight so it was a good step forward, but we know how competitive this series is.  We already have to start putting this behind us and start getting ready for the next challenge, the next battle.”

Notice Coach Spoelstra mentioned “we” a few times?

Here’s Pacers head coach Frankie Vogel:

“Sometimes when you are perfect with your coverages they still find ways to make baskets.  We didn’t have a great defensive night. It wasn’t horrible. You have to credit Miami for playing a great basketball game.”

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

RUNNING WITH THE BULLS

“We love to play for each other.” -Nate Robinson

Music to my ears.

That was Robinson last night after the Bulls beat the Miami Heat 93-86 in game one of the Eastern conference semi-finals.

Playing for each other is part of Playing the Right Way.

How can you not love Jimmy Butler of the Bulls. Love where this guy has come from. Not highly recruited out of high school. Juco guy. Rookie year, last season he played eight minutes per game for Bulls. In the last three playoff games Butler has not come off the floor. He’s played 48, 48 and 48 minutes! ”It’s all about the rest you get in between,” Butler said.

“He’s mentally tough,” Tom Thibodeau said of Butler. “Jimmy (Butler) is going to work every time.”

When you break down the film, Butler guards the best player too. He doesn’t check a non-threat so he can rest on defense.

Lots of credit goes to the Thibodeau. Love what the coach said after the game about Robinson going out to get stitches. “Stitch it up, get a band-aid and get back out there!”

“It starts up with Thibs,” Taj Gibson said.  “Thibs is the guru, he understands the game plan. Then it’s the bigs talking to the guards, understanding what they need to do. Bigs are the second defense, guarding that rim. And it works out. We all talk to each other. Talking is big on this team and we help each other. We cover a lot of our weak points and we show our strong points, that’s the main thing we do.”

More from Thibodeau: ”When you face adversity, you have to be mentally tough.” The Bulls are tough!

TNT’s Steve Kerr, ”They compete every possession. Defense can always keep you in games.”

The Bulls know the Secret and play the right way.

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

NBA – FOUL OR DEFEND

I was beginning to wonder if we would have any more situations in the NBA? I mean we went 12 days without a single late game situation where a team had a choice on whether to defend or foul?

But fear not, last night we had two cases.

The OKC Thunder up three on the Memphis Grizzlies decided to play defense and hope to come up with the stop but Jerryd Bayless had other ideas.

He banged a three with 3.7 to force OT where Memphis won the game.

It must be noted this is the third time OKC has given up a game-tying three relying on their defense.

In Cleveland, the Miami Heat were up three late when they too decided to defend but a three-pointer by CJ Miles was off target. I must say when you have defenders like Shane Battier and LeBron James, why bother fouling?

Updated numbers in the NBA:

95 situations

12 for 12 when teams have fouled.

83 defended

20 have given up a game tying three-point shot.

24% success rate

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore