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Friday, May 05, 2006

Miami Versus New Jersey Preview

Eastern Conference Second Round

#2 Miami (52-30) vs. #3 New Jersey (49-33)

Miami can win if… Dwyane Wade outperforms Vince Carter, Shaquille O'Neal stays out of foul trouble long enough to average 25-plus points and 10-plus rebounds and either Antoine Walker, Jason Williams or James Posey is a viable third scoring option.

New Jersey will win because…their perimeter players will attack Miami in the paint, create high percentage shots and get O'Neal in foul trouble. In round one, Chicago showed the blueprint to beat Miami but just did not have the horses to complete the job.

Other things to consider: New Jersey is a talented team that is loaded with playoff veterans; Miami is also loaded with playoff veterans, but several of them are well past their prime. The Nets beat Miami 3-1 in the regular season. Miami has had trouble all year long defending high scoring wing players, including Vince Carter, who lit up the Heat on several occasions. Make no mistake about it, though, this series will be tough. The Heat have the home court advantage and will not go down without a fight but New Jersey will ultimately prevail.

posted by David Friedman @ 1:42 AM

8 comments

8 Comments:

At Thursday, May 11, 2006 8:14:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yo i think you are so wrong. You need to go back so do some more research. Your words are as faulty as a fake pastor's.

 
At Friday, May 12, 2006 4:19:00 AM, Blogger David Friedman said...

Could you be a little more vague :)

There is a saying about disagreeing without being disagreeable. I may very well be wrong about this series, but you did not list one reason why you think I am wrong. Why do you think that Miami is going to win?

 
At Monday, May 15, 2006 11:15:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The biggest reason you would be wrong is that VC is notorious for choking in the playoffs and anyone who thought the Nets were better then Miami are living in fantasy land. No matter how many times VC dunks he will never be as good as Wade. Maybe he should work more on his game then he does on his after dunk theatrics.

 
At Monday, May 15, 2006 2:32:00 PM, Blogger David Friedman said...

VC actually played pretty well for Toronto in the playoffs a few years back versus Philly, taking the Raptors to the seventh game. That was the series for which he caught a lot of flak for getting his diploma and flying back for game seven, which ended with him missing a potential game winning shot. D Wade has outplayed VC in this series but he and VC have the same number of NBA Finals appearances: 0. D Wade is young, so he has more of his career in front of him, but the future isn't guaranteed to anyone. Just ask Grant Hill. Until he takes a team to the NBA Finals, his playoff career is not any more distinguished than Carter's. Both have put up good scoring numbers in their playoff careers but the ultimate goal of postseason play is making it to the Finals and then winning the title.

 
At Tuesday, June 06, 2006 2:56:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, they've made the Finals, obviously to your dismay. I see you've picked against Miami yet once again. That's good because you've been wrong about them all through the playoffs. I don't know much about your background but it's evident you are a Heat, Shaq, Wade hater and make all of your decisions are seriously biased. Wade still got much, much further then Vince in a shorter period of time. Wasn't VC supposed to be the next MJ? LMFAO

 
At Wednesday, June 07, 2006 2:19:00 AM, Blogger David Friedman said...

I don't hate the Heat, Shaq or Wade. I do disagree with the way that Shaq's departure from the Lakers has been portrayed and I disagree with Kobe receiving the brunt of the blame for that situation.

I picked New Jersey to beat Miami because Miami had a poor record all year against winning teams, struggled with a mediocre Chicago team in the first round and had trouble defending against high scoring perimeter players, several of whom had big games against Miami in the regular season--including VC. Obviously, Miami's defense has improved a lot in the playoffs. Jefferson's injury really hurt the Nets; in the 24 minutes and change that he was healthy the Nets were killing Miami--but the Heat did win four straight games, so there is no doubt that the better team advanced.

Detroit eliminated Shaq's teams from the playoffs the last two years, so I felt that the Pistons had a lot of experience in guarding him. I did not expect Wade to have the kind of series that he did--shooting 70% from the field for the first five games is amazing and he was productive in the second half of game six despite his illness.

I picked the Spurs to win the championship at the start of the playoffs but I felt that their toughest challenge would be the Mavericks. The Mavs took them out, barely, and so it is only logical for me to pick them to win it all.

As for Wade versus VC, Carter never has played with a center like Shaq. He also has battled injuries. That said, you are right that Wade has gone further in a shorter period of time and is a better player. I never said that VC would be the next MJ and would have disagreed with anyone who suggested that.

 
At Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:28:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think carter can be the next nba owner he is my fav player and if he just gets better at his 3's he'll dominate M.J

 
At Friday, February 23, 2007 4:17:00 AM, Blogger David Friedman said...

I like VC's game a lot but I'm not ready to put him up there with MJ, who was a much better rebounder and defender--and who also shot a much better percentage from the field while scoring more points.

 

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