As tough as the Oklahoma City Thunder looked at the beginning of their NBA Finals series with the Miami Heat, they did exit with a whimper: Four straight defeats of varying margins.
And let's face it, outside of point guard Eric Maynor, the Oklahoma City Thunder were pretty much healthy for the NBA Finals, which is not something you can say about the Knicks in their first-round series with Miami.
That's why we want you to tell us in the comment section below: Who put up a better fight against the Heat, the Knicks or Thunder?
Remember, New York entered the first-round series without Jeremy Lin and proceeded to lose Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis to torn ACLs while Amar'e Stoudemire battled back problems and a self-inflicted left-hand laceration. And in spite of all of that, the Knicks still pulled out a dramatic 89-87 Game 4 win and played hard in the fifth and final game of the series before ultimately losing by 12 points.
Truthfully, neither team played particularly great against a superior Heat squad, but the Thunder did keep it closer. New York's average margin of defeat was 18 points while the Thunder's four losses were by an average of 7.75 points. But considering everything that was working against the Knicks, the fact that they even took a game from the Heat is impressive on some level.
So what do you think, who fought harder against the Heat?

I actually think it's pretty close. We did go down to the eventual NBA champions. For irony's sake, if we had gotten the #8 seed and had been healthier, I beating the Rose-less Bulls and Celts was possible, although we probably lose to the Celts anyway. Fair enough.

New York's average margin of defeat was 18 points while the Thunder's four losses were by an average of 7.75 points.

Considering the Heat blew them out in the last game I'd say the Thunder.

In the three losses the Thunder could have won each of them.

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:The difference being that the Thunder were healthy while the Knicks only had one player show up.

The difference was we had one of the oldest starting lineups (45 years of wear and tear) that you would expect to have injury problems, while they had a young lineup that you would expect to be healthy.

But look at the players that got hurt. Shump was a rookie. Baron was only starting because Lin went down and the rest of our PGs were ancient or inept (TD). Chandler got the Flu. Amar'e is a headcase. It was a mix of bad luck and our roster being fundamentaly incomplete with no quality depth at PG and no reliable option at SG (I count JR as unreliable, albeit a good defender).

Solace wrote:

Nalod wrote:

New York's average margin of defeat was 18 points while the Thunder's four losses were by an average of 7.75 points.

Considering the Heat blew them out in the last game I'd say the Thunder.

In the three losses the Thunder could have won each of them.

Well, main point of contention was the Knicks were playing with a lot of injuries and they still won a game. I would say the Thunder also, but it's closer than it should have been, I think.

Bosh was at full strenght against us and was just coming back from missing a lot of time.

We scrapping the barrel to feel good about knicks? Thunder won three series to get to finals.

We won a game. Its nice, lets not get too excited. They ran us to the point we blew out two knees. One retired Baron and the other took Shump out for 10 months.

Looks like the Thunder walked off the court in one piece.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:The difference being that the Thunder were healthy while the Knicks only had one player show up.

The difference was we had one of the oldest starting lineups (45 years of wear and tear) that you would expect to have injury problems, while they had a young lineup that you would expect to be healthy.

Even with an ancient set of PG's, the Knicks could've been more competitive with a better offensive game plan. They didn't run enough plays for other players to get going. You have to have a very motion oriented offense to score against the Heat. We had too much ISO with Melo and JR in particular. other than that we also had a very basic and predictable attack. The timing of the coaching change and injuries made sure that the Knicks didn't have a very varied and strong offense.

The good news is that the Knicks should be a highly more competitive team with a deeper more talented roster next season. Not to mention that there should be an actual offensive game plan next time. Woody never really was able to settle on a very specific plan of his own. Of course i'm giving him credit that he would in fact be able to come up with something that will serve the team well. The rest of this off season will be very important to this team bridging the gap talent wise.

The Knicks should end up winning the Atlantic next year IMO. That should allow them to avoid a tough 1st rd match up like this year. The Heat won't have it so easy next year. Both the Knicks and the Heat should improve. The Pacers and Sixers may also improve a bit with the experience of last year. Basically the Celtics were too old and the other teams the Heat faced were not all the way there yet. Knicks due to health and the other teams due to youth.

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

nixluva wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:The difference being that the Thunder were healthy while the Knicks only had one player show up.

The difference was we had one of the oldest starting lineups (45 years of wear and tear) that you would expect to have injury problems, while they had a young lineup that you would expect to be healthy.

Even with an ancient set of PG's, the Knicks could've been more competitive with a better offensive game plan. They didn't run enough plays for other players to get going. You have to have a very motion oriented offense to score against the Heat. We had too much ISO with Melo and JR in particular. other than that we also had a very basic and predictable attack. The timing of the coaching change and injuries made sure that the Knicks didn't have a very varied and strong offense.

The good news is that the Knicks should be a highly more competitive team with a deeper more talented roster next season. Not to mention that there should be an actual offensive game plan next time. Woody never really was able to settle on a very specific plan of his own. Of course i'm giving him credit that he would in fact be able to come up with something that will serve the team well. The rest of this off season will be very important to this team bridging the gap talent wise.

The Knicks should end up winning the Atlantic next year IMO. That should allow them to avoid a tough 1st rd match up like this year. The Heat won't have it so easy next year. Both the Knicks and the Heat should improve. The Pacers and Sixers may also improve a bit with the experience of last year. Basically the Celtics were too old and the other teams the Heat faced were not all the way there yet. Knicks due to health and the other teams due to youth.

Melo and JR took way too many bad shots. However, we don't have anyone who can match Lebron and Wade on either end of the court and won't any time soon unless we're adding a healthy Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.

I don't feel that it's important to "match" Lebron and Wade per se. This team needs to get even tougher defensively by adding even more defensive talent. So any players we add should have a 2 way game. As long as we can get solid PG play that will make the players we already have more potent.

We lacked true speed when we faced the Heat in the playoffs. That should be addressed this summer. One thing that the Thunder showed is that you really need SPEED to have a chance against the Heat. Westbrook, Collison and Rondo had success against the Heat defense and if we can improve our guard speed that could really help a lot. You must have breakdown ability on the perimeter to beat the Heat, but you also have to share the ball. I thought the Pacers made a mistake by not using Collison more since he was destroying the Heat perimeter D. The Knicks need to get more Guard Penetration which we clearly lacked last playoffs. A kid like Ramon Sessions comes to mind. Shannon Brown as well. Guards that can get to the basket with ease.

I totally agree with you nix..lin probably wouldn't have made much of a difference, but a healthy amre and shump would have aleast gave us a better shot.The thunder miss harden big time, his lack of production all but killed any shot they had.

Felton is the ideal pg to beat the heat, a pg that will rebound the ball and push it from basket to basket..lin looks to break down the d with his quick first step in the half court offense, but the heat trap so often, and defend the pNr better then any team other then the spurs.

The Thunder, a overall solid defensive team, but a poor 3pt defending team, constantly left miller and battier open for back breaking 3's. Not to mention the heat rank 27th in 3 point % during the reg season.