NBA Update

With 46 seconds left, the Oklahoma City Thunder are wrapping up their victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. This will be a disappointing result for the Heat, who were up 54-47 at the half. In my opinion, it's extremely bad news for the Heat, because they were actually quite lucky in this game. (That's it; the game's over. OKC wins 105-94.) During the regular season, the Heat made 35.9 percent of their three-point shots, while OKC made 35.8 percent. So the two teams are basically even behind the line. But in this game, the Heat went 8-19, for 42 percent, while the Thunder were only 5-17, for 29 percent. During the regular season, the Thunder were the best free-throw shooting team, making 80.6 percent of their free throw attempts. Tonight, they made 74 percent (20-27), while the Heat went 14-18 (77 percent) from the line. So the Heat actually shot free throws and three-point shots better than the Thunder -- and that won't happen very often. Still, the Heat were beaten.

The Heat are a defense-oriented team -- they were fourth in the league in points allowed this year. But as Tubby Smith and Gene Keady saw year after year, basketball is a game that favors the offense. It is extremely difficult to defend a team of unselfish players who can spread the floor and make jump shots. And as the game went on and the Thunder got more comfortable, their offense just got better and better. OKC scored 22 points in the first quarter, 25 in the second, 27 in the third, and 31 in the fourth. Kevin Durant finished with 36 points, while Russell Westbrook put in 27. They outgunned LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who went for 30 and 21 respectively.

I'm sure that ESPN will spin all of this as something to do with LeBron's will, but personally I think OKC is a terrible match-up for the Heat no matter how hard LeBron plays. I don't trust defense-first basketball, because I don't think it works against great offensive teams. I think the Heat will really struggle to hold OKC below 100 points, especially when the Thunder are at home. Besides, the whole idea behind a defense-first approach is to turn the game into a half-court slugfest, and I think OKC is better at scoring in the half court than Miami.

I would like to see Miami come out with a run-and-gun strategy in the hopes of getting LeBron and Wade to the rim as often as possible. Instead of trying to hold OKC below 100 points, try to beat them 120-111 (which was, in fact, the score of Oklahoma City's last loss). Certainly it will be interesting to see if they try anything different in Game 2.