"Dude, I don't want to watch the Finals. The Heat can't win and Thunder can't win. Lose lose situation for me. Like I am seriously considering not watching. Seriously."
- Former Seattle Sonics fan and one of the biggest basketball junkies I know.
Seven months ago when the lockout finally ended no one knew what to expect out of this season. All we knew was Derek Fisher and David Stern concocted a fishy deal, the crammed shortened schedule was going to kill at least 17% of the players in the league, and Eddie Curry would still weigh 350 pounds. So many variables out of the norm would skew the outcome resulting in a random young deep team like the Pacers or Clippers to come out on top, rather then a veteran laden experienced squad. Picking chalk was stupid. Going Heat/Thunder made you a fool because it was improbable for the two best teams to stay healthy all year and meet in the Finals. It just doesn't happen that way. Opening odds in December had the Heat and Thunder one and two, at 20-7 and 15-2 respectively. In 2012 nothing was supposed to go right... except everything went exactly as planned.
The 2012 Finals, if for any reason, will go down in history as one of the most compelling player match-ups of all time. Durant/Lebron will rival Magic/Bird, West/Havlicek, Russell/Chamberlain, Jordan/Isiah, and the list goes on. It's classic sports. One you love. One you hate. There is no middle ground (except for Sonics fans, then you hate both). When Lebron left Cleveland for Miami, he changed the way an entire fan base thought of him. He was the Chosen One. The beyond human cyborg specimen high school phenom who was supposed to be the best ever, surpass Michael, and win not one... not two... not... you know the rest. But that never happened. In a blaze of glory, no pun intended, Miami and the Big 3 lost to Dallas to bring unimaginable ridicule to Lebron and his "legacy." Durant on the other hand lit up college hoops as a Freshman before being drafted #2 overall by the Zombie Seattle Sonics in 2007. The Sonics hadn't won a title since 1979, and after a 28 year drought they finally got their man. With Durant, coupled with the drafting of Russell Westbrook in 2008, Seattle was set... until the team was torn away from the city and moved to Oklahoma City for reasons I still don't even understand. It was a cruel injustice that the NBA will never be able to remedy, and for that reason Seattle fans will forever be bitter, but that is for another day.
Simply put, the Heat are incomplete. The Big 3, when playing at the top of their games, are close to unbeatable, but when they're not, blood is in the water. We've seen it the entire playoffs. Wade took over the Indiana series with a few 40 point games, Lebron put up his clutch (I use that cautiously) 45-15-5 in Game 6 in Boston, and Bosh showed how important he was to the Heat in Game 7 with three back-breaking three pointers to defeat the Celtics. Having Bosh healthy creates a mismatch not many teams can handle. Your best defender needs to be on Lebron, plus either Lebron or Wade needs a double team, leaving a wide open Bosh, Chalmers, or Battier waiting to bury a jumper. If all that goes right, the Heat win. No questions asked. But things don't always go as planned. Unfortunately for the Miami Heat, if Lebron or Wade get in foul trouble, or are shooting ice cold, or worse get hurt, they have no bench to pick up the slack. But what worries me most about the match-up against OKC is Miami's presence in the paint. They have none. While Lebron and Wade can drive to the hoop like no one else in the league, they do not have anyone to match up with Ibaka or Perkins down low consistently.
The Thunder on the other hand are a tantalizingly good basketball team. Durant's the 3x reigning scoring champion, clutcher then clutch, and thrives in the moment. He is flanked by possibly the most athletic point guard ever in Russell Westbrook, plus the shot block master Serge Ibaka. The Thunder are a team who thrive on efficiency and depth. This season they led the league in scoring with 102.3 PPG and a .835 FT%. Most importantly, they get contributions from bench players on a consistent and effective level. Nick Collison, Nazr Mohammed, and the "Brian Wilson of the NBA," James Harden make the Thunder the best team in the league. Not the best Big 3. The best team. The cherry on top of this OKC team though is confidence. No one on the Thunder ever shies away from the spotlight. Fear is not in their vocabulary. Down 2-0 to the seemingly unbreakable Spurs, this team won four big games in a row to reach the Finals. No team in the league can hit big time shots like the Thunder, and those are essential to winning the title.
Don't get me wrong, we are going to see at least three huge "Superstar" games this series; triple doubles, 40 pointers, and hopefully a buzzer beater or two. But when the dust settles, and the Larry O'Brien Trophy is raised, one of our two ring-less icons will no longer be left empty handed. If it's Durant, the Twitterverse will anoint him the new "top dog." The guy who took a controversial franchise from rags to riches, and will be back next year to start the dynasty conversation. On the other hand, if Lebron wins, he wont get cheers. He wont get praise. What he will get, unfortunately, is "what took you so long? You couldn't do it by yourself in Cleveland so you joined with Wade and Bosh to get the job done. It was a cop-out." Win or lose, Lebron always loses, and that's just not right.
Both Durant and James won Rookie of the Year. They both have NBA scoring titles. They both are All Star game MVPs. They both have at least three All NBA First Team honors. For all intents and purposes, the only thing separating the two is Lebron's three MVP trophies. However, despite all the accolades and honors, neither has an NBA Championship ring. And while MVPs and scoring titles are nice, championships are how the greats are measured.
Thunder in 5.
~Shilz
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