NBA News 2012: Champs! James' triple-double lifts Heat to title

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - JANUARY 30: Forward LeBron James #6 talks with Dwyane Wade #3 and Chris Bosh #1 of the Miami Heat during play against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Ford Center on January 30, 2011 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Best player in the game. Best team in the league.

LeBron James has found it all since taking his talents to South Beach two summers ago.

Add NBA champion to the list.

''Happiest day of my life,'' he said.

James had 26 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists, leading the Heat in a 121-106 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night to win the NBA Finals in five games.

All that was left was a celebration nine years in the making.

''It means everything,'' James said moments after the win, moments before being named the playoffs MVP to go along with his regular-season award. ''I made a difficult decision to leave Cleveland but I understood what my future was about ... I knew we had a bright future (in Miami). This is a dream come true for me. This is definitely when it pays off.''

James left the game along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for good with 3:01 remaining for a round of hugs and the start for a celebration he's been waiting for since arriving in the NBA out of high school as the No. 1 pick of the 2003 draft. James hopped up and down in the final minutes, shared a long hug with opponent Kevin Durant, and then smiled as he watched the confetti rain down from the rafters.

''It's about damn time. It's about damn time,'' James said.

The Heat took control in the second quarter, briefly lost it and blew the game open again in the third behind their role players, James content to pass to wide-open 3-point shooters while the Thunder focused all their attention on him.

The disappointment of losing to Dallas in six games a year ago vanished in a blowout of the demoralized Thunder, who got 32 points and 11 rebounds from Durant.

Bosh and Wade, the other members of the Big Three who sat alongside James as he promised titles at his Miami welcoming party two summers ago, both had strong games. Bosh, who broke down in tears as the Heat left their own court after losing Game 6 last year, finished with 24 points and Wade scored 20. The Heat also got a huge boost from Mike Miller, who made seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points.

That all made it easier for James, the most heavily scrutinized player in the league since his departure from Cleveland, when he announced he was ''taking his talents to South Beach'' on a TV special called ''The Decision'' that was criticized everywhere from talk shows and water coolers straight to the commissioner's office. James has said he wishes he handled things differently, but few who watched the Cavaliers fail to assemble championship talent around him could have argued with his desire to depart.

He found in Miami a team where he never had to do it alone, though he reminded everyone during this sensational postseason run that he still could when necessary. He got support whenever he needed it in this series, from Shane Battier's 17 points in Game 2 to Mario Chalmers' 25 in Game 4.

In the clincher it was Miller, banged-up from so many injuries that he limped from the bench to scorer's table when he checked in. He made his fourth 3-pointer of the half right before James' fast-break basket capped a 15-2 run that extended Miami's lead to 53-36 with 4:42 remaining in the first half.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/heat-lead-thunder-59-49-022516449--nba.html;_ylt=AjDmeCADhZg.eSL3Sk6c3405nYcB

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NBA News 2012: On Dwyane Wade’s new secondary role and the Heat structure

Dwyane Wade (Photo credit: Keith Allison)
When the Miami Heat superfriends joined powers in the summer of 2010 and created an otherworldly behemoth of a basketball team (or so we thought), the general assumption was that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade would be co-leaders. As one of the five best players in the league, Wade had earned the right to be the alpha for the team he'd played for the whole career. Much of the criticism levied at LeBron to begin with, apart from that he picked his team in one of the worst ways possible, was that he didn't want to be the clear-cut best player on his team. With Wade, there was to be some question as to who would take on the lead role.

For one season, the Heat struggled to answer that issue, as LeBron and Wade deferred to each other too often and had difficulty working together at times. Now, however, the hierarchy is fairly set. LeBron, who's playing about as well an all-around game as a human being could possibly play in the NBA Finals, is quite clearly the organizer of the Heat, giving each other player in the lineup a role and structure. But in that structure, it's a little unclear how to process the ideal use of Dwyane Wade.

It's not controversial to say that Wade has had an up-and-down playoffs, putting in a few great performances but generally struggling to break opponents down off the dribble and lacking the explosiveness of his past seasons. He's still successful, but he's a different kind of player in this postseason. Though he won't admit it, it's hard to imagine that his knee is in terrific shape. Wade's stats are pretty good — 22.8 points per game on 46.6 percent shooting in the playoffs — but he's not the same player.

But the fact that he's limited has also helped give him a clearer role. Wade is still Wade, in that he's at his best as a versatile scorer. Yet not being able to take over games in the same way as he has in the past has made him pick his spots, which in turn has allowed LeBron to take on a more set role as alpha and provided greater opportunities for players like Chris Bosh, Shane Battier, and Mario Chalmers. Instead of just having more high-end talent, the Heat have structure. In turn, that's made them a more dangerous and confident force.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/dwyane-wade-secondary-role-heat-structure-223500342--nba.html;_ylt=AvoE4ukmEkUZVU.mD4z9nPC8vLYF

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NBA News 2010: Redefining the Heat’s end game

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Until the balls started bouncing this season, the expectation was the Heat’s crunch-time, closing lineup would feature Chris Bosh at center, Udonis Haslem at power forward, with Mike Miller, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade at the perimeter spots.

For now, figure on dual closing lineups, ones that feature Bosh, Wade, James and Miller (once he’s all the way back) with either a defensive component at center, such as Joel Anthony, or a defensive component at point guard, such as Mario Chalmers.

The shame is that either might not be good enough to play closing minutes for a championship contender.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_basketball_heat/2010/12/redefining-the-heats-end-game.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+sports/MiamiHeatweblog+(Miami+Heat+|+Sun-Sentinel+Blogs)

NBA News 2010: Los Angeles Lakers: Arguments For and Against Three-Peat in 2011 NBA Finals

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SATIRE — LakerFan: Thanks for reading, I bleed gold and purple and I'm going to tell you why LA is destined to lift title No. 17 next summer, and why the Hater is completely off his rocker.

LakerHater: Hello, fellow haters, I, for one, would like to see anybody but LA win next year, but I have plenty of reasons to think the 2010 Lakers' title team will be their last and there will be no dynasty. These are my reasons why.

Lakerfan: Well, first of all, as every Laker fan knows, Phil Jackson has won 11 titles and if he wins again this year it will be his fourth three-peat. Every title he has is part of a trio. He's never won two without winning a third, so that makes the Lakers a lock to win next year.

LakerHater: Well, not exactly. This year, Jackson has advanced to the finals for three straight years for the fourth time in his career. In the past, he won all three. But, this time he made it three straight years (2008, 2009, and 2010) and won two. For this team to three-peat, he'd need to get to the finals FOUR straight years, which Jackson has never done. In fact, the last time a team advanced to the finals four straight years was...oh, the Lakers in 1985.

Lakerfan: Well, that's not true. The Thunder still have no experience and the Trailblazers are NEVER healthy, so I fail to see how they are a threat. Plus, the Lakers added defensive ace Matt Barnes, center Theo Ratliff, and point guard Steve Blake. I'd hardly call that staying pat.

LakerHater: Matt is a decent defender, but he can't hit the broad side of a Barnes. He averaged five ppg on 37 percent shooting against the Celtics in the playoffs and the Magic management was more than happy to get rid of him. Steve Blake averages seven points and five assists a game, and he'll need to since the man he guards will drive around him like he's a driving school cone. The only thing Ratliff can guard at his age is his social security.

Lakerfan: That was a cheap shot. Ratliff is a career 2.2 bpg man with playoff experience in the finals in 2001. He will be a great addition for this team.

LakerHater: Ratliff played 28 games last year for the Bobcats. When Dwight Howard was killing them in the playoffs, he averaged an eye-popping two points and no blocks. Hey, give me $825,000 and I would've given you two points a game.

Lakerfan: But you have to admit, with him, Odom, Gasol, and Bynum, we have a formidable frontline and that is why we will win next year. Odom, Bynum, Gasol, and Ratliff are the highest scoring quartet of bigs in the league, my friend. They combine to average 44.1 ppg, five bpg, and 32.6 rpg. No frontcourt in the league is that dominant and as we know, titles are won in the froncourt.

Lakersfan: The Heat!!!??? Yeah right. They are going to have a hard enough time competing against each other for shots. Kobe can't wait to light up that faux title contender. When he beats a team with Wade, LeBron, and Bosh, there should be no further discussion on who is the best player of this era.

LakerHater: You're wrong, my friend. They will be the team to take down LA in the finals. It's going to be a nightmare to guard this club. Maybe that's why Lakers fans are hoping that their chemistry doesn't work, or they get injured, or their egos get in the way, because you know that the only one that can beat Miami is Miami.

Lakersfan: Our guys are tested. We know how to win against that overrated team. Watch how we shut them down on Christmas Day. They have LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, but their point guard is a joke and they have no center. I think LA's bigs will be frothing at the mouth to play these guys. Barnes can handle Wade, Artest will take LeBron, and Pau has Bosh. Nothing to worry about.

LakersHater: Firstly, their point guard situation is not that bad. Remember when Rajon Rondo was paired with the big three in Boston. Everybody doubted that he would be able to develop his game enough to win a title with the Celtics and his numbers were similar then to those of Mario Chalmers' now. Last season, Chalmers averaged 10.8 points and 2.6 assists, plus his defense was pretty solid. Before playing with the big three, Rondo averaged 6.4 points and 5.2 assists. So it's not like Rondo came in as a can't miss point guard. Playing with the big three will help Chalmers' game automatically.

LakerHater: Barnes "held" Wade to only 26.5 ppg in the season series, while Artest "limited" LeBron to only 33. How did Bosh do against Gasol during the season series? He averaged 20 ppg and seven rpg, while Pau averaged 19.5 ppg and nine rpg. So their numbers were even, even when Bosh was his team's primary offensive threat. What happens now that he's the third option? Also, I like Joel Anthony as the Heat's starting big man. Sure he's undersized, but he had the league's highest blocks-per-minutes played average in the league.

LakerHater: Well, once he gets a chance to play, he comes through. When he played against Howard last season in a win at Orlando he scored six points and had three blocks while holding Howard to 12 points and no blocks. I would call that success in the post.

Lakersfan: The point is: LA will be too motivated not to win next year. Kobe wants to tie MJ in titles won and solidify his legacy as the greatest Laker ever, Jackson wants to surpass Bill Russell in titles won, and the West looks completely unable to challenge their run.

LakerHater: I don't doubt that.

Lakerfan: Let's just agree that they MUST be the favorites until the rest of the league proves capable of beating them in a series, not just a regular season game, but 4 of 7 times in the Spring. Agreed?

LakerHater: (shrugs): Agreed.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/445163-three-feat-why-the-la-lakers-will-wont-win-the-2011-nba-title

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