So the brooms go back in the closet. Am I disappointed as a fan? Yes. Will we win game 5 in Miami? Yes. Am I more disappointed as a student of the game? YESSS.
Unlike some
"experts" I won't take the easy way out and use terms like "clutch" and "heart" etc. to make emotional claims about things that can be explained by simple basketball knowledge. It's easy for Skip and Jon Barry to say Lebron is not clutch, or that the Heat are complacent. It's harder to explain what the team could have done in those situations (in their current skill sets) that could've changed the outcome. The simple answers like "Be more clutch" or "have some heart" don't offer any solutions. So the following few things are issues that I noticed while watching the game that I think the Coaching staff AND the players should focus on.
Starting Off On A Bad Note
I have to fault Spoelstra and Co. for lack of foresight with their starting lineups. Watching the Heat this year, it seems that Spo starts Illgauskas to get his engine going early before things pick up. That is understandable. Certainly, up 3-0 in a series the staff is thinking, we can afford a slight lull at the center position early until Big Z can get warm.
However, it only makes sense strategy-wise to start Joel Anthony in this series. While Big Z is a better matchup for the Bigs in Boston, Orlando and Chicago, Philly presents a smaller, more athletic front-court who is tougher for Z to match. In an elimination game, where adrenaline is up high, those young big men are going to put up hustle and effort that Big Z won't match early. In a playoff series you can't afford to let the other team's front-court set the tone, which is what they did in Game 4.
Joel Anthony provides the athleticism at the 5 and the hustle that can combat the Sixers' youth at that position while still being able to bang alongside a VERY soft Chris Bosh. The same can be said for the staff deciding to start Mike Bibby at the point over a younger, more athletic Mario Chalmers who is also a much better defender, or simply letting Lebron and Wade handle PG duties initially.
Shrinking The Bench
There are many good things about being a
Pat Riley coaching disciple. However one key approach that Spoelstra obviously learned from Sir Riles hurt the Heat in Game 4 as it has since the beginning of the regular season. This is the 8 man rotation. Spoelstra will usually only bring three or four off the bench and all others might as well stay at home.
The Heat have 4 healthy centers. There's no use in paying the other two (Magloire and Dampier) if you're not going to play them. In a 48 minute game, depending on match-ups/strategy, those four big men regardless of their age can give you 12 minutes a piece. They don't have to score. You have a scoring big man in Bosh and two of the NBA's best scorers in Wade & LBJ to handle that. You just need each man to commit to 10-12 minutes of hard defense, good picks and rebounding. When you only play Joel Anthony and Big Z, now you're asking Z (who's older than Methuselah) to play 24 solid minutes running with young energetic 76er big men. NOT GOOD.
Mr. Spoelstra also continuously ignored the fact that Henry Bibby's son couldn't hit Rhianna with Chris Brown's fists today. He was missing everything. Mike Bibby's ONLY reason for living is to make shots right now. He's old, slow, a terrible defender and cannot create his own shot. Couple this with the fact he's guarding 20 and 22 year old Philly PGs and you've got a recipe for disaster. NOT GOOD.
If young Erik would look past the 3rd player on his bench, he'd realize he has the perfect substitute for a struggling Bibby
in uniform. Bibby's brother-in-law, Eddie House can shoot with the best of them, has enough energy to spark a complacent Heat lineup and will match the game speed and intensity of a desperate Philly squad. Instead he left Bibby out there to lose momentum for Miami repeatedly. It sounds harsh but, you gotta know when to give up on somebody and trust your bench. Spoelstra didn't and he paid for it.
Poor Defensive Strategy
The sad part about this issue was the Heat Staff implemented the solution earlier in the game. When trying to cut into the 1st half Philly lead, Miami started traping the ball handler off of pick n roll situations. This caught the player off guard and because a big man was a part of the trap, made it hard for the guard to see any options. This made Wade and Lebron able to shoot passing lanes and steal weak passes from PGs who made unsure passes to teammates they really couldn't see. This strategy not only got Miami back in the game, it got them a half time lead.
Once they came out of the locker room for the 2nd half, they all but abandoned the strategy and players like Jrue Holiday and Lou Williams were left in one-on-one situations that they could manipulate as they did early in the 1st half.
Furthermore, lazy defense from Wade on Lou Williams at the end of the game contributed to the made three pointer with eight seconds left.
Like most pro players, Wade thought it was okay to put a hand in the face of Williams WHILE he shot the three. The appropriate time to put a hand in a shooter's face is BEFORE they think about shooting. This will either discourage them from shooting or change their line of sight and affect their shot. By the time Wade put a hand up, the ball was already in position to leave Williams' hands. NOT. GOOD.
Drive Ms. Daisy, Don't Drive LIKE Ms. Daisy
First things first. Chris Bosh is soft. Stop always shooting 15 footers and go to the rim. Stop getting pushed around. Yes you are skinny. No excuse for ALLOWING people to push you around. Cmon Son.
Now. Onto the last drive by Lebron. Everybody you hear from will say how he isn't clutch and so forth and so on. Ask them why IN BASKETBALL TERMS that last play proved fatal. They'll just say he missed. There's a simple basketball explanation for what Lebron did wrong. Just as he did against the Knicks at home in the regular season, Mr. James failed to drive to the basket with the proper approach.
At 6-8 265lbs, Lebron should drive to the MIDDLE of the paint. He is big enough to take the middle of the paint away from the defender while driving. By being in the middle, he can go either way and with either hand once he gets to the rim or dunk straight up. Instead, Lebron picks a side (Left in the Knicks game, right in the 76ers game) and gives the defender one less half of the paint to defend.
By going right, the defender only had to steer him away from the basket to the right, which he did. although Lebron was able to shed him late, his body was turned away from the basket and hence couldn't put all his strength towards a shot to the basket on his left, making for an easier block for Elton Brand.
Furthermore, if you have Lebron's body and the paint isn't congested, GO FOR THE DUNK. EVERY TIME. WHO'S GONNA STOP YOU??!?!
Because teams fear Wade flashing from the perimeter and Bosh spotting up and hitting a mid-range jumper off of Lebron's penetration, the lane will be relatively empty. This means dunk the ball. There's no excuse. Even if you don't make the shot/dunk, you'll get a foul by Elton Brand or one of the other front court players helping at the basket. By throwing up a one-hand touch layup going away from the basket and AWAY FROM THE DEFENSE, the refs won't give you the benefit of the doubt and you have to make the shot, a harder shot at that.
This has nothing to do with a clutch gene. This can be fixed with a simple video session and practice. Whether that happens, we shall see, but there's always a basketball explanation for basketball issues. Save me the melodramatic, soap opera, ESPN First Take explanations of success and failure.
Here are some other interesting statistics I think catered to a Philly victory in Game 4:
As always, the team who outrebounds...WINS:
Heat: 41 rebounds
76ers: 49 rebounds
Wade, Lebron, Evan Turner and James Jones (Back-court players) all had more rebounds than Chris Bosh:
Wade: 8
Lebron: 7
Turner: 6
Jones: 6
Bosh Spice: 5
Wade also had a higher amount of blocks than his front-court teammate:
Wade: 5
Bosh: 2
Wade only got to the line 2 times after being among the tops in the NBA in free throws attempted during the regular season.
Philly clearly won the battle from beyond the arc as the stats show:
Heat 3pt %: 5-23 (21.7%)
76ers 3pt %: 8-18 (44.4%)
Philly also bested Miami on Points in the Paint:
Philly: 36 pts.
Miami: 28 pts.
Lou Williams and Evan Turner combined for 34 points. (17 points apiece) of the Sixers' bench. The Heat bench combined had less than each of the aforementioned 76ers with 16 points total.
That said, we'll be closing out Game 5 easily, so Bring On The Celtics!!!
My thoughts on the matter after the jump.