A few observations about Miami-Philly

[birdwatcher]

I have watched three of the games in this series and noticed something Doug Collins figured out the last two games--Miami is very bad at defending the high pick & roll. The Sixer bigs are making easy passes from the high post to a variety of cutters. What seems to be working well is Hawes up top and Brand cutting to the low block--the problem is they're so open they've missed some bunnies (sound familiar?).

Also, there is no one on that team aside from LeBron that can keep up with Jrue Holiday--that HAS to translate well for GOOD Rondo, if he continues to show up.

Andre Igoudala is either focusing on Lebron on D, or not getting it together that well on offense. If we lean on Pierce this series, it's going to make Lebron's job really tough--I don't like how in a couple of games against the Knicks we let Carmelo dictate how Pierce played. We were much better when Pierce forced Melo to defend him, not the other way around. In fact, when Pierce focused on tough D against Melo, he had a tendency to go off and Paul didn't do a whole lot on offense. I hope we set the tone right away with that matchup and don't get away from it.

Miami relies on 3pt shooting a lot, much like the Knicks. Their offenses are pretty similar to one another.

Bosh sucks.

If KG plays with a chip on his shoulder and is aggressive on both ends, he will totally take Bosh out of the game. Period.

After watching this series, even though Miami will pull it out, possibly tonight, I feel very confident going into the next round.

[Celticsfan336]

My key observations...
-Heat have no to stop the quickness of Holliday and Williams, imagine what Rondo will do?
- They have started slow in every game...that won't fly against the Celtics.
- Heat are not deep AT ALL, but Chalmers isn't that bad (in streaks)
-There lack of depth leaves them gassed at the end of close games, and if they can't close out games against the young 76ers, they won't fare well with the Celtics.
-When Pierce and Green and Rondo are in the game, there is an OBVIOUS mismatch possible.
-If Elton Brand is playing this well, KG will eat Bosh for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I expect KG to be lights out.
-Most imporantantly, even this late in the season they still play a ton of 1 on 1 individual basketball. While that may fare well with the 76ers, the team defense of the Celtics will be much better than the 76ers.

But the Xfactor isn't anything in the game (even though those fare well with us as well, and Chalmers is a huge Xfactor) The intangibles....leadership, and Ubuntu will ultimately lead us to victory.

Most imporantly, Celts will be rested and well prepared while the Heat have 2 days at most, and barely 1 if this series goes 6 or 7.