Miami Heat v. Oklahoma City Thunder
My prediction first before position by position analysis. Heat in 5
Mario Chalmers/Russel Westbrook - Advantage Oklahoma City. Obviously. Westbrook has his flaws but is in general under-appreciated. Chalmers always seems to be the type of guy who scores 21 points when Miami loses.
Dwayne Wade/Thabo Sefalosha - Advantage Miami. Harden takes a lot of minutes so it may not fair to not include him but he technically isn't the starter. Sefalosha is a good defender but is not in the league of D-Wade
LeBron James/Kevin Durant - Advantage Miami. LeBron can do everything Durant does (outside of perhaps outside shooting) better. Durant is not on LeBron's level. He gets a lot of positive pub since he seems to be a good guy but he isn't in LeBron's class.
Chris Bosh/Serge Ibaka - Advantage Miami. Bosh is a guy who has gotten so much criticism its to the point where he is underrated. Ibaka is a good player but he gambles a lot on defense and while his block numbers look impressive he isn't all that great of an all around defensive player.
Udonis Haslem/Kendrick Perkins. Advantage Oklahoma City. I'm not a Perkins fan but he is a good defender and has Finals experience.
Bench: OKC advantage and a substantial one at that. Harden is a game changer and much better than anyone on Miami's bench.
Coaching: Draw. Don't think Erik Spoelstra is that bad of a coach and I don't think Scott Brooks is worthy of Coach of the Year honors. I've seen OKC at end of games and they haven't been all that impressive. Durant has bailed them out a lot.
Intangibles: OKC advantage. Seems like Miami is almost cursed and OKC has far superior fan support.
Game 1: OKC Wins
Game 2: Miami Wins
Game 3: Miami Wins
Game 4: Miami Wins
Game 5: Miami Wins
I think we are going to see Game 6 ECF LeBron and that LeBron is near impossible to beat. When LeBron is going by himself and not trying to be selfless he is pretty hard to beat. Add in Wade and Bosh and OKC's inexperience and Westbrook's selfish tendencies its not going to be close. I can't even count the number of games where OKC goes away from Durant in the 4th. LeBron and Battier are quality defenders so it may be difficult to get his looks.
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