vs. 
Miami Heat (12-7, 4-5 road) vs. OKC Thunder (13-3, 9-0 home)
TV: ABC (Cox 8, HD 705)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 8:00 CT
Thunder lead series tied 1-0
View from the enemy: Heat Index
This game is important. Know why? Because it’s the next game in the NBA Finals.
But in terms of a little extra added on, the Heat certainly don’t want to fall back 0-2 to the Thunder and the Thunder most definitely want to go up 2-0. Obviously, being in an 0-2 hole isn’t impossible to climb out of, but it’s very tough to do. You have to win four of five and the Heat would need to win two of the next three games on their own floor to even bring it back to OKC.
So in terms of juuuuuuuust a little something extra, Game 2 is big.
Can the Heat play better? Where do they adjust? Will LeBron defend Durant? Is Dwyane Wade healthy? Does Chris Bosh start? Questions, questions and more questions.
Here’s what I think we learned in Game 1: If the Thunder play their best, and the Heat play their best, the Thunder are probably about six points better. That’s not to say OKC will win tonight, or the series. But the Heat got mostly an ideal effort in Game 1 and just couldn’t hang with the Thunder juggernaut.
Game 2 will feature some adjustments and some new wrinkles. In the end, it’s about making shots, playing defense, grabbing rebounds and doing your job. The Thunder have been almost mechanical with this stuff at home, but the deeper it goes, the more tense it becomes. Three is closer than four, and that’s the number the Thunder are looking at now.
The Thunder can’t lose at home and expect to win the series. Losing at home means they have to win in Miami. Defend The Peake, defend OKC and take a 2-0 lead to South Beach.
Tip at 8:00 CT. Go Thunder.
Guys, is time for our 7th inning stretch, join the Heatster, come on:
ONE - TWO - THREE !!!!
♫ Take me out to the Heatles
♫ Take me out to the King
♫ Buy the OKC a body bag
♫ I don't care if I get Karma back
♫ Let me root, root root for the Heatles
♫ If they don't win they got robbed *
♫ For we’ll win not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7 and we're never out
♫ Heat are the greatest show on earth
* See 2011 Finals
In all honesty, do you think Brooks is going to do anything better with his rotations or starting line-up?
@thelaughingwiseman He's not going to touch the starting lineup, we all know that. Best we can hope for, is that he subs in quickly with right lineup. We going to spot heat 10 pts every game this series first 5 minutes
Flock this way brothers.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/06/horrific-start-costs-the-thunder-game-2-100-96/#respond
And ThunderChick
Russell Westbrick's career FG percentage:
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Thoughts? .
@Heatster Kinda looks like LeBron;s grill
@Heatster Are those bricks? cause that's very original
@Heatster Tic tac toe?
JH needs to play 40+ . Everyone on heat starting lineup is playing lot of minutes, no reason a 22 yr old can't either. It's going to be hero mode from Russ everytime JH is not in lineup to space the floor. Not really Russ's fault, the offense is too easy to defend with KD/Thabo/Perk/Ibaka lineup.
We are spotting the heat 10 pts every game with this nonsense starting lineup
@neo12 If Brooks doesn't change his starting lineup, then he definitely needs to make some quicker 1st quarter substitutions the minute things start going downhill.
@Zyzz Its frustrating, every game we come with a slow start. That lineup is too easy to defend.
@neo12 Battier is destroying that lineup for sure.
has any ever noticed that durant is a mediocre 3 point shooter off the dribble?
@Lost Ones Every basketball player is....No one is better off the dribble then being set
@ThunderStruck2412 @Lost Ones well occasionally Durant will make them walking up with the shot clock running down..
NO MORAL VICTORIES. THIS WAS A LOSS, FORGET THE MIRACLE COMEBACK.
The series officially starts in Miami.
@C-Wil Problem is Miami now has Home Court Advantage
@CDSpark @C-Wil We won in LA down by 13 in the 4th quarter. We won in Dallas twice. We won in SA to take HC from the Spurs. The Thunder are definitely not afraid to play away from home.
We missed 7 free throws.
This series is over...we win only 1 in Miami and watch lebron win his title on our court. I hope Bobcats will still take Harden for the #2 pick we need to semi blow this team up in order to get over the hump of beating Miami. Maybe some young talent will o the trick
@tygablood Jesus Christ 1-1 on a 4-point loss holy cow people.
@Jooseppi @tygablood I'm shocked by the attitude of most people on here.
@MD4Okc @Zyzz @tygablood Hard to tell with some of these people.
@Zyzz @Jooseppi @tygablood I'm pretty sure Tygablood is being sarcastic
Let me break down game 3 and moving forward for you guys:
The Miami Heat without a shadow of a doubt, will defeat, embarrass, humiliate, damage, destroy, demolish, torture, pound, punk, crush, crumple, pulverize, tear down, break apart, ruin, vanquish, nullify, abolish, put an end to, kill, assassinate, terminate, exterminate and completely annihilate this overrated joke of a team OKC Thunder.
Who's with me?
@Heatster Again, how are they going to do all that? I'd really like to know what makes a Heat fan think that. Is it the fact the Battier is going to keep starting and making it rain? Is it that they are going to the paint more and force more fouls? Harder Defense!? What? What is it that makes the Heat so damn better? please eleaborate. You went through a whole list of words, but that's all they are words, no meaning. I bet you were sweating bullets those last seconds. I bet you knew that was going to be a foul on durant. I bet you chuckled a little when you realized they didn't call it. You need to have a convo, not just say one thing and then back out and make another comment.
@Heatster thanks for your lessons for a non-english
@shiki Anytime
@Heatster my last teacher teach me "spank" and i will give it to you
@Heatster Oh wait guys, this is a real live HEAT TROLL. I thought those didn't exist!
@MD4Okc I only post facts
@Heatster @MD4Okc the thunder played about the worst game possible, and you couldn't put them away...none of your words up there fit this game...
@Heatster @MD4Okc yea obviously.
I've played Skyrim and seen Frost Trolls, but I've never seen a Heat Troll before.
@Heatster @MD4Okc I was unaware you could present things that have yet to happen as "facts"...I think you might want to grab that dictionary
@Heatster I'd debate with you if you didn't across as such an absurd, ludicrous, pompous, uneducated homer
@Heatster Wrong board. and put down the thesaurus next time. I just skimmed until the end.
@Heatster before we start arguing you have to agree to come back after ever game...no point in arguing with someone that only shows up after they win
Peace Fam, chkng Tigers score for today and laying it down!
Don't know what happened but I think the server died when Durant hit that 3, then died again when he didn't get the call that could have tied the game.
Look, we didn't deserve to win that game, that would have been the biggest collapse in NBA Finals history if Miami lost so don't give me that shit. They beat us, plain and simple. Now we have to show up and play big boy basketball if we're going to have ANY semblance of a chance to win this series. Now is not the time to be disrespecting Miami and that's exactly what the Thunder have done all series long. They thought just because they were at home that they'd smoke the Heat on their way to being up 2-0. No. This is the real deal now, this is the freaking championship. Everybody needs to show up and play, our role players did squat in this game. We will need them more than ever in Miami. And for the love of god, STOP GOING DOWN 15 POINTS IN THE FIRST QUARTER. This team looks so badly coached and unprepared when they do that.
After throwing a 10 year old temper tantrum, I've definitely calmed down quite a bit. This loss feels like the world is crashing down. But just think about. We open the game down 18-4, KD plays the entire game with foul trouble, Brooks makes questionable substitutions, Shane Battier hits a hail mary 3 off the glass, and Lebron gets away with murder on the final possession, and we still almost came back. Miami played the best they possibly could have, and the Thunder terrible, and they still almost lost.
KD and the boys will bounce back from this. They've proven it time and time again.
And I forgot the 7 missed free throws and the botched goaltending call.
The Thunder play about as horrible a half as they could have played. Westbrook couldn't buy a basket for a while. Durant was in foul trouble. Wade and Bosh played about at what their ceiling is for this series. Perkins played 20 minutes. The team missed 7 free throws. Shane Battier shot 5-7 from 3 point range....And yet the Thunder had a chance to tie or win at the end of the game, and only lost by 4.
I'd rather they'd have won. Obviously. But I'm not the least bit destroyed by that loss.
First quarter shot charts:
http://i.imgur.com/PgBYC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SZVlQ.jpg
Anybody? No. K, let's stick to the narrative.
I dont know why KD always play his best in 4th quarter,but it is not a good habit.
do your best from the beginning.
@shiki Not when he's in foul trouble! And not when you always have to play more aggresive because your down by 15
i know it sound a little off.. but i truly felt like the game was not going to fall in our favor the moment KD missed his very first shot, the wide open 3 from the top of the key.. when the kid is on he just doesn't blow a shot like that, and from there Miami opened up the 18-2 first quarter lead that we never recovered from.. i wonder if he drains that early 3 pointer and gets his feet under him, if this thing is even close.. sometimes that is all it takes
Sources: Miami Heat's new nickname to be "Thunder's Daddy"
Thoughts?
@Heatster you should have introduced yourself before the series
@Heatster Cause they submit in the beginning and rebel in the end!
@Heatster Also, can you talk about the game though. I don't care about the gloating, but talk basketball though. Like what did the Heat do better than the Thunder? What were the Thunder doing, or not doing? Just make it much more comfortable for us to be here. Don't be a troll, we welcome all basketball minds! So please share your opinion
@Heatster Thunder's daddy? That nickname doesn't really flow off the tongue well.
@Eggs_Benedict @Heatster What about Thundaddy?
See you even need Thunder fans to come up with better nicknames..
@Heatster Ehh, when the series is over. it's 1-1. See you in MIA
@Heatster When you win the series, let me know
@Heatster I'm sure you were saying the same stuff after being up 1-0 and 2-1 to Dallas last year