1. Kevin Durant is not as good as Lebron James…….Yet no matter what Lebron owns the thunder and has incredible shooting on the outside for when he drives and takes the whole defense with him. Chalmers, Battier, Allen, Miller kill the thunder because they can simply stroke wide open 3′s.

2. Scott Brooks gets a lot of praise for being a great coach and i for 1 think he is probably one of the worst coaches in the league, he has has been handed the keys to a corvette. Any idiot on the street can see that Kendrick Perkins should just be deactivated when they play the Heat. He is a huge liability on offense because his guy can double team Durant or Westbrook and not have to worry about Perkins doing anything at all. Also he gives Derek Fisher a lot of minutes which is the biggest mistake anyone can make. That guy cannot guard anyone in the NBA right now and his ugly shot isnt even close to worth having him on the court. If Brooks were smart he would have prepared Perry Jones who is a young athletic 6’11′ guy who can matchup with Chris Bosh and can close out on 3 point shooters that the Heat have. Not only that Reggie Jackson is an excellent basketball player and should never have to worry about some miserable player like Fisher takes his minutes. Brooks shoudl have also given Jeremy Lamb more minutes because he shoots nearly 50 percent from the three point line. ……….Over all Scott Brooks is a terrible coach and makes terrible substituions and gets thoroughly outcoached when they play the heat. I am a huge thunder fan and cannot stand that midget brooks. Please Bring Phil Jackson in and watch us go win 4 in a row!

Not one of you mentioned that Sefalosha and Wade both have their good points . Wade experience and probably more explosive on the offensive end . Give the edge to Sefalosha on the defensive side and he does contribute from the 3 point line . .

Ibaka and Haslem at the power forward . Are you kidding me ? Ibaka is All NBA defensive team and delivers points in the paint . He’s a great shot blocker . Haslem is in there because you have to have
five players on the floor .

Perkins and Bosh . No doubt Bosh gets the edge on the offensive side , but Perkins is not on the team to score points . He’s there to hurt you and get rebounds for Durant .

Now for James and Durant . Argueably the two best players in the world . James is number 1 . Durant number 2 , but if your argument is that James is miles ahead of Durant then you belong in a looney bin .
Like I said the Heat’s bench is the re-tread factory . Battier is the best of the bunch and a real defensive giant . . Kevin Martin is the Thunders best 6th man . Toss up ..

The regular season doesn’t mean a thing sports fans . The playoffs are the start of the real season . I’ll even go one step further and say the Heat don’t make the finals . They won’t get past the Pacers or the Knicks for that matter . The Thunder will play the Lakers and win in four . Next , the Nuggets and win in 6 .. The biggie is the Spurs . Toss it up .

Sorry , but nobody really knows until the play-offs are over . At least I have an opinion and I’m sticking to it . Personally , I would love to see a Thunder – Heat re-match with everybody healthy and ready to go .

That being said it’s pretty ridiculous to say the Thunder have a better starting 5 than the Heat. Both extremely talented teams but how can you not give the nod to the defending champs.

1. Pacers – elite size (Hibbert + West) and good passing. With Danny Granger’s health issues, you wonder if he’ll be ready for the playoffs, and he’s one of their best shooters (38% from 3 for his career). Still, the Pacers are an elite team even without Granger.

2. Knicks – They’ve beaten the Heat twice thanks to hot 3-point shooting and elite passing and were competitive in a third game (a loss). They qualify as a threat to the Heat.

3. Bulls with a healthy Derrick Rose – In theory, they’re a team that combines size with elite passing/PG play with Derrick Rose, but unless Derrick Rose starts playing soon, there’s little chance Rose would be very effective. Playoffs start in just over a month – it’s going to take awhile for Rose to get back up to speed. Bulls can’t beat the Heat in a 7-game series with a sluggish Derrick Rose, so unless Rose starts playing before April starts, I don’t consider them a real threat to the Heat.

That’s the list of threats in the East (smaller than the list in the West).

I can’t call the Celtics a true threat to the Heat in a 7-game series. They don’t have a size advantage. Their outside shooting has been inconsistent. And while the ball movement has improved without Rondo, the fact remains that Rondo was the “matchup nightmare” for the Heat against the Celtics. Rondo has always played well against the Heat, and without him, I don’t see the Celtics beating the Heat.
Yes, they beat the Heat once without Rondo this year, in triple OT, but since then, they’ve suffered further injuries, and the Heat have gotten better.

2. Elite passing – The Heat’s aggressive defense can only be exploited by elite passing. Rick Carlisle of the Mavs said it in 2011 during the Finals. of the Pacers said it in 2012 during the Conference Semi-Finals. A team has to keep moving the ball around to force the Heat to keep rotating, eventually leading to an open shot.

3. Elite 3-point shooting – The Heat’s defense is built on using athleticism to prioritize defending the paint while recovering to contest 3-point shots. Teams with elite 3-point shooting can exploit that by forcing the Heat to cover a lot of ground with multiple 3-point shooters to defend. This is why the Knicks have done well against the Heat.

The Heat have shown they can overcome teams with 1 or 2 of those traits, but the hardest matchup for the Heat would have all 3.

I think OKC can win it all, but I’d favor the Heat in a re-match slightly because I think the Heat match-up well against OKC, which has good passers and good 3-point shooting.
However, they lack a true size advantage, as Perkins and Ibaka aren’t great rebounders or very skilled on offense.

Likewise, the Memphis Grizzlies are a threat because of their size and passing ability, but they lack good enough 3-point shooting to prevent the Heat from swarming Gasol or Randolph in in the paint.

Like Memphis, the Clippers are a threat due to their combination of size and elite passing (run by CP3), but they lack elite outside shooting. While they have the deepest bench in the NBA, Deandre Jordan isn’t a very skilled center.

If I’m the Heat, the team I fear the most is the LA Spurs. They have Splitter and Duncan as two skilled big men who are good rebounders. They have a terrific pass-first offensive system run by Tony Parker. And half their roster consists of good to great 3-point shooters. I feel like a Heat-Spurs series would be very, very competitive.

Actually sir, your statement is ridiculous. How is the Thunder’s starting 5 ‘much’ better than Miami’s?… And I bet you probably think OKC’s bench is better than Miami’s, which is another debate… So in your words OKC has a much better team than Miami… Real bright dude

….So how did the Heat beat the Thunder last year (and this year), if the Thunder’s starters are better and if the Thunder’s bench is better?

But.. few can so there’s that.

ktgotgame.com

Having said that, I do think Miami owns OKC. But the Finals won’t start for three months, and a lot can change between now and then… And regardless, as a player you have to believe in yourself and your team; if you didn’t you probably wouldn’t have made it to the NBA.

The problem is, the Thunder’s big men have very little offensive skills, but they are great on defense. There are a lot of good offensive big men in the west, ( san antonio, memphis, LA ), but they all have to go through the Thunder in order to play the heat. The thunder’s defensive big men are good against these teams and then pretty useless against miami, look at Perkins last year. It’s frustrating because I’m not convinced the Heat would make it out of the west, but since they are in the east they can just hope they play the thunder and they don’t ever face their toughest challenge. I will take the Heat over the Thunder because the Thunder don’t have the right team to dominate the heat inside, and lebron is just better than Durant. If the heat were playing memphis or San Antonio I think it would be closer.