mreinman wrote:The Heat stink in 4 quarter/close games because Lebron is an arse! He lost the game for them tonight on the same stupid shot the STAT blocked on him. Bosh was something like 9-14 in the game and had (i think) 1 shot in the 4th quarter. Jordan took a few years to learn that until you can learn to trust in your teamates, you won't win jack squat.

As far as championships, I can't recall a team that has won in many many years that was not a top defensive team in the league.

The problem the Knicks have (and Miami too) is: can they be a great defensive team without the dominating size up front?

Miami has had trouble scoring late in the game. Those plays are being called from the bench. You know that they drew up a last second play and they've failed a lot. Surely it's something that they might take time to address having failed at it as much as they have. So why ignore the fact that they have a coach who is supposed to help them come up with something better and get past this stumbling block. That's my point. It's not just great D, you have to have a serious offensive game too or else the best teams will be able to shut you down. There have been lots of great defensive teams that didn't win a title despite being the best on D.

mreinman wrote:

nixluva wrote:

mreinman wrote:The Heat stink in 4 quarter/close games because Lebron is an arse! He lost the game for them tonight on the same stupid shot the STAT blocked on him. Bosh was something like 9-14 in the game and had (i think) 1 shot in the 4th quarter. Jordan took a few years to learn that until you can learn to trust in your teamates, you won't win jack squat.

As far as championships, I can't recall a team that has won in many many years that was not a top defensive team in the league.

The problem the Knicks have (and Miami too) is: can they be a great defensive team without the dominating size up front?

Miami has had trouble scoring late in the game. Those plays are being called from the bench. You know that they drew up a last second play and they've failed a lot. Surely it's something that they might take time to address having failed at it as much as they have. So why ignore the fact that they have a coach who is supposed to help them come up with something better and get past this stumbling block. That's my point. It's not just great D, you have to have a serious offensive game too or else the best teams will be able to shut you down. There have been lots of great defensive teams that didn't win a title despite being the best on D.

I don't really know if ES is a good coach or not. But as it was with Jordan, the coach says: "give it to Lebron. Lebron, drive and if the defense commits, give it to the open shooter". Thats all a coach can do with a star like Lebron. Lebron just sucks at doing the right thing when it counts.

I agree that there needs to be some semblance of good offense and I think the Knicks have enough offense at this point to win a ring. Teams have done it with less. But defensively, I don't think any team has won with their caliber defense / rebounding.

Knixkik wrote:Defense matters down the stretch, but at the end of the day, the idea of the game is to score more points than the other team. Whoever scores more always wins

What seems to always go overlooked is that many great teams are very balanced. It's not just that they play great defense, but they are usually very good offensive teams too. It's not like every year the #1 defensive team wins. I would venture to say that many great defensive teams fail due to a lack of balance. They just aren't good enough on offense to get the job done. I will also say that poor offense diminishes the effect of great defense. It can lead to fastbreaks which put a great defense on it heels. This can lead to a loss in a close game as we've seen from the Heat. Poor execution doesn't allow them to closeout a win.

When it comes to the playoffs you're only playing the best teams at a certain point and the teams are more evenly matched. If you're strong on the defensive side of the ball that's great, but it's not everything. If you face a team that is only marginally less of a defensive team, but substantially better on offense it could be enough to tilt the scales in favor of the better balanced team.