crimedog

Yeah, I wondered throughout the game why he didn't just do that every game. Did they switch strategies on him?

Larry Bird once shot left handed for an entire game just to see what happened. Stupid response: "... but it wasn't the playoffs" Logical answer: "Doesn't matter, you still have to play those teams again and you could very well play that team in the playoffs. Not trying for an entire game is more insulting to the opponents and entire league than attempting a dunk in front of your home fans during the waning moments of a freaking blowout... Did Bird not get it?"

Read the article. Don't disagree with anything in it. On the other hand, he has definitely been our best player this series. Unless you still want to say its Al Horford... My point is, while we're in this series and can't do anything about the fact that he's doing this... Lets focus on some positives. Its just a pain in the *ss to come on here after our wins, in which he was a huge part, and read about all the things he did wrong. We didn't break-down every missed shot Joe had while he was shooting 35% with more TOs than assists in the previous 4 games. We didn't break down every possession in which Al got schooled by JO. We didn't break down every possession Flip took the shot with an open man in the previous 4 games even though he was shooting sub-30%. So why do we have to break down literally everything he does wrong even though, with all his inconsistencies, he's been our most consistent player in this series (which, obviously says something about our team's ability to be consistent... another story altogether).

So there shouldn't be dunks on breakaways? Just layups. We should all just be content watching the number on our side going higher than the number on their side?

Eh, obviously I agree with the assessment. I just think that his value to the team right now is about what we pay him (either that or we pay Joe Johnson waaaaay too much money). At this point its less about potential more about production.

Hahahahahaha, profanity filter won't like you say "d*ck" ahahahaha. Anyway, yeah, they suck. If I have to listen to announcers who have a desired outcome in mind (Wade being a hero against the villianous Josh Smith and his band of brutes), I'd at least like them to be home announcers who tell funny stories about 12th men.

That Solo thing was ridiculous. He gave him a freaking hug. Who cares? I don't mind Wade taking offense and trying to get the guys fired up but talking smack to him. I don't mind Solo talking back. I don't mind Magloire standing up for his star. And I don't mind Smith standing up for his boy. Its part of the damn game, and frankly, I'm loving that even in a series of pretty uncompetitive games, we're giving basketball fans something to talk about. Think about it, we've had ONLY double digit games in this series and people are still saying "hey man, those Hawks are something else, they don't take **** from nobody"

That means something in a lot of circumstances, I'm not sure why you are pointing that out now. In the other thread someone asked whether Bird, Magic, or MJ would do something like this. Do people forget, those guys LIVED to embarass opponents. They talked trash when they were up 30 and all 3 were big into theatrics. Now, what I'd say to Josh is, if you are going to do it, do a dunk you know you'll land. To those that are complaining though, what should he have done? A layup? No, excite the crowd and thank them for coming to the game. Josh takes stupid shots, complain about that.

He's the second best perimeter player in the league, I can't take that away from him, but every time I watch him now, it seems like he's just trying to make highlights for those NBA 25 years of champions DVDs "Wade, after barely being able to get off the bench because of an injury, pushed the Heat past the Hawks with a breathtaking performance" I said it in another thread but it seems like Kobe rubbed off on him in the wrong way this summer. Now Wade thinks its just the Dwyane Wade show. Its annoying to watch Josh complain to the refs but at least he doesn't play it up when he hits the ground, which is a lot.

I think we should be able to close this one out without those dudes. I think we would lost to Cleveland regardless. I guess the concern is a "playing with fire" situation with Solo playing big minutes.

Duff_Man, apparently he's money from downtown.

If I were one of those teams and I wanted JJ, I'd take Paul and then trade him to ATL for Joe Johnson plus an unprotected 1st.

To be fair, it hasn't really been that type of series. This is a series with two defensively oriented coaches who like to grind it out. No one is really trying to blow the roof off. EDIT: Although I just looked and his playoff PER is 4.5 which is pretty astounding.

The issue is though, with the Hinrich Noah deal, that it ends up hurting us on offense because Noah is even more reliant on others for his offense than Horford is while Josh can create his own shot decently if not near the level of a guy like Bosh and our team unfortunately relies on that to an extent.

He's our leading scorer in this series... Unless Joe can start handling these doubles or Al develops some sort or shot creating ability, we need him to score if we are going to win, it would be very nice if he were to score like he did in game 1 more often.

Well, I'm definitely annoyed with Smith's whining to the refs but I do agree with the sentiment that you have to pick something. If you think Joe gets hacked and it pisses you off that he doesn't get called, don't complain that Smith whines to the refs. If you want license to complain about Smith, don't start claiming that Joe deserves the same treatment as the other stars who do the "work" to get those calls. I'm a big Smith fan but if we could get Bosh or Amare to resign, I'm probably in. More bullish on Bosh, but I also think he's less likely to want to sign in ATL. Noah/Kirk/1st is pretty good value as well. Another one I'd have to definitely think about. If we did get Bosh or Amare though, I'd look into trading Al for a real beast because the D would start gettin real sweaty.

I don't agree with this. I just think its ridiculous to continually call Smith out even though he's been the most productive player this series. He's our leading scorer, he's getting just under 9 boards a game, and his D has been great. His FG% is down from the 49% it was earlier but his FT% is up and he's scoring more which is the opposite of Al and Joe who are both scoring less and doing it less efficiently (they all have had about the same drop in FG% actually).

2 things. What do you mean? Also, I thought there was still some confusion in how to translate his exact earnings when you figure that his Euro salary was stated post-tax. Either way it seems like he's up and if he started buying stuff that appreciates, he could be really up.

Except that he's let a guy who was supposed to be washed up and a lesser player dominate him. He's shown a complete inability to create his own offense. He's shown a knack for disappearing in times of need. I don't mean to denegrate Al as I actually like him as a center on our team. Its just annoying to see someone who often uses such rational reasoning making unsubstantiated statements about the guy who has been our best player this series being such a disappointment and blindly defending a guy who has been average at best.

Didn't Chris Paul just go 4-6 while his team got a 58 point beatdown at home?

Its funny because in 06' he just played the game. He got calls but he didn't have to sell himself, he just attacked relentlessly. Kobe never did that. Then, after this summer, people write articles about how much good it did for the young guys to play with Kobe and how they are starting to act like them but the only time I see guys like Wade acting more like Kobe is the the whining, the scornful looks towards the teamates, the inncessant attempts to be dramatic, and the higher propensity to settle for "heroic" fadeaways in late game situations.

Lebron, maybe? Duncan of years past? Kobe failed mentally against the Celts last season (and against the Suns for a couple seasons before that and against the Pistons a couple seasons before that). Wade continually settled last night, pouted when things didn't go his way. KG has always been criticized for not having a killer instinct. Dirk let a red hot Wade steal his thunder when he did make it to the finals.

I thought that as poorly as the played... they played pretty well. If that makes any sense. They tried this game outside of a few stretches where Joe looked exhausted (it didn't seem like mental exhaustion where he gave up either, he just seemed tired as all hell). The rest of the guys were running, trying to make plays. Bibby had a great game, Zaza dominated like he was Moses Malone, Josh played amazing D, Mo hit his open looks, Joe hit tough shots when we needed him to down the stretch, and Flip played great D on DWade. Positives. For once.

He was victimized by JO more than terrible foul calls. He's had a pretty weak series, but big deal. We're 2-2 and going home, lets give the guys some credit for winning and instead of continually criticizing the only player on our team who has been better in the playoffs than the regular season, lets get behind the team. We can talk about how much better we'd be with Joel Anthony on our team after Josh is done being the best player on the team in the playoffs. You're right though, the refs were godawful. Not in the way you'd expect with Wade on the floor, they were just about as choppy as you can get.

Al was without a doubt the worst player on the floor last night for either team with the possible exception of Beas. We don't have threads calling him out for letting a broken down JO abuse him the past 3 games, why not?