Heat-Pacers

[BigErnMcCracken]

100% absolute crap what he posts. Funny they are always winners too.

Jesus, I was being sarcastic. You really think that Floyd Mayweather posts fake betting slips online? And in thinking that you actually think that they take the time to make these fake slips in the first place? Like "Hey, Money Team, what do you guys want to do tonight? duck six models on a pile of cash while eating lobster?" "Nah, let's play with photoshop and see if we can make pieces of paper to fool anonymous people into thinking we bet a lot of money on sports."

It might be easier on you to just not be the expert on one thing, for once. Don't worry, you can still be the expert on everything else.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I knew Miami would win the game in the first quarter when they were quickly doubling the post every time Hibbert and West got the ball, it shows Spoelstra's ineptitude that it took him until game 7 to employ double teams in the post as a consistent strategy. This is the generation of point guards in the NBA and the Pacers had a backup shooting guard running point in the Eastern Conference finals with Lance friggin Stephenson as his sidekick and DJ Augustine as his backup. If Spoelstra knew how to coach and Miami was fully engaged they wouldn't have had much trouble with this Pacers team.

No one around the league - absolutely no one - considers Spoelstra inept. (He was second in the Coach of the Year voting this season and he's incredibly well regarded by basketball people.) These "I sit on my couch and I'm a better coach than half the guys in the NBA" posts are really lame. You know what Spoelstra could have done to make the series less competitive? Poisoned Hibbert and West. It's about matchups. The Pacers play tough, tough D and pound you inside.

As far as Hill goes, he's a great fit in Indy. Great size defensively for a point guard and a very good defensive player. Can hit threes all over the floor which is what you want when you're posting bigs all night. Great at feeding the post which is where Indy's offense comes from. He's not a dynamic "kill you off the bounce" guy but Indiana's not that kind of team. They play solid, smash mouth basketball. He fits.

 

[whaler11]

Jesus, I was being sarcastic. You really think that Floyd Mayweather posts fake betting slips online? And in thinking that you actually think that they take the time to make these fake slips in the first place? Like "Hey, Money Team, what do you guys want to do tonight? duck six models on a pile of cash while eating lobster?" "Nah, let's play with photoshop and see if we can make pieces of paper to fool anonymous people into thinking we bet a lot of money on sports."

It might be easier on you to just not be the expert on one thing, for once. Don't worry, you can still be the expert on everything else.

Ok chief. Maybe tomorrow you can lecture me about the legitimacy of Bigfoot photos. Since yesterday's 'story' has proven to be complete nonsense - I'm sure every other instance is 100% legitimate. I mean who doesn't win every bet they place right?

 

[champs99and04]

If you think Hill and Stephenson are more than qualified to be the starting backcourt for a championship caliber team, I don't know what to tell you other then I completely disagree. They were horrible last night, game 5 they basically went scoreless the entire game until a couple of meaningless points by Stephenson in garbage time. Again I stand by what I said, they are one of the weakest backcourts in the league.

The Pacers pushed the defending champs to the brink and could have won the series if they had made one stop w/ 2 seconds left in game one. So yeah, I'm not sure what's so crazy about my statement.

 

[James]

After watching the playoffs I don't understand how you could come away with saying hill is one of the worst point guards in the league. Stephenson was guarding lebron and wade for a major chunk of the seven games, if anything he was a break out player a la jimmy butler.

 

[aceboon]

lol @ George Hill being great at feeding the post, Hibbert could have consistently put up the numbers he had against Miami and his best games against the NYK in the regular season if Hill was great at regularly feeding him down there. the Hill support is really bizarre on here, it's pretty much acknowledged that him and Stephenson were the weak links. Hill isn't a bad player at all, he's ok, but with the way the Pacers are constructed for them to really challenge for winning a title they need an upgrade there and SG. Who knows, maybe Granger fully recovers and they move George back to SG and bring Lance off the bench to strengthen their bench, or have Granger come off the bench as instant offense to improve that area. They definitely need help in those spots tho, I'm not sure how anyone could watch the games where they struggled and not notice that was their weak spot.

 

[champs99and04]

I'm not sure how anybody could have watched those games and concluded their bench was not the biggest weak spot. The numbers bare this out. Add a Jarret Jack type player to Indiana and they win that series.

Do they need an upgrade at the one or two? Maybe, maybe not. There are a lot of factors that will determine whether they can get back to the conference finals and win, but the facts are Indiana's starters pretty conclusively outplayed the Heat in that series. If George and Hibbert continue to develop at their current trajectory and West or a player of that caliber is signed, I'm just not seeing why a couple of young, talented guards in Hill and Stepehsnon can't win a title.

 

[superjohn]

Yep the George Hill love here is strange, don't think there are too many teams that would want him running point for them. He's just not a point guard, I watch him and don't see how people could think he played well or even ok, I thought he was exposed for what he is. The Pacers made a mistake giving him a big contract, he doesn't really have anything you look for in a point guard. He can't break his man down, struggles feeding the post and is turnover prone, guy is a backup shooting guard in my opinion.

 

[Scoe]

Lance Stephenson is Chris Tucker