Saturday, May 28, 2011

2011 NBA Finals Pre-Tip Off

The 2011 NBA finals are set, as the Dallas Mavericks, go to face the Miami Heat. These two teams have shown brilliance throughout the playoffs, from Dirk Nowitzki’s AMAZING increase in production to Lebron James and the heat proving that they can finish games out very strong.

The Miami Heat have yet to face a dynamic player such as Dirk, and the Dallas Mavericks have yet to face such a triple threat offensive game. Both teams need to play to their strength, obviously, in order to win this series.

This match-up will be a great one, and for the Heat to defeat the Dallas Mavericks they will need to go to their most potent offensive weapons, which are transition, cutting, and hand-off baskets. The Dallas Mavericks will have trouble with dribble penetration as Russel Westbrook was getting into the paint multiple times, and now Lebron adn D.Wade will try and do the same. The Dallas Mavericks want to make Miami become a spot up shooting team and live with the consequences. Lebron James has had his stats decrease in many areas when facing the Dallas Mavericks, but the regular season does not matter, as he has won games in the final minutes for Miami in the Boston series as well as the Bulls series.

The Dallas Mavericks will need to play to their strengths as well on the offensive ends, which are post-ups and spot up shooting. They will need to make their pick and roll and transition game become more potent, especially when JJ Barea comes into the game with energy to push the pace. The Miami Heat want to stay on the three point line, and try to defend Dirk as best as they can when he post-up at the elbow.

Both teams will need to defend very well and it will be hard has both teams have superstars that will get points. Shawn Marion for the Dallas Mavericks has been fantastic on defense, and he showed how good he was while guarding Kevin Durant. The Mavericks will need to have Jason Kidd play the same defense he has been playing and surprisingly Deshawn Stevenson, when in the game, will need to play great defense against Dwayne Wade.

The Miami Heat will need to guard the three point line and stay in front of JJ Barea, but their largest defensive task will be to somehow slightly slow down Dirk. Lebron and Haslem will need to play great one-on-one defense on Dirk, and try to make him take the most difficult shots they can force him into. Miami most likely will need to double dirk as the game goes, due to his skill set on off-balanced shots.

The boards will be the deciding factor in this series, especially for Dallas, because you don't want Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, and Chris Bosh to have to many second chance shots. The Dallas bench will need to keep up their spectacular play, and Miami’s bench will need to step it up to help the big three.

In 2006 I wanted Dallas to go over, and in 2011 I will cheer for Dallas again. Dirk is one player I really want to see win that championship. It is difficult to make a prediction on who will win this series.

Here It Is & Remember The Orlando Magic are still #1 team.

P.S. Will Orlando fans want to see the Miami Heat, a home state team, win?

No comments: