“HeatCheck” tag's highlights of related matches, posts & more...
The UNSOLVABLE PROBLEM For Miami...
Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Watch the trickery that Jokic pulls off on the first possession of the game. Bam is fronting him trying to deny this pass. So Nikola at one point just stops asking for the ball and instead sets an impromptu screen. You see that while Murray can fly all the way to the rim, Vincent now must go around 2 big bodies and there’s no stopping this as Jamal lays it in. The 2 man game for Denver was deadly in game 1, but as tough as that was to stop for Miami, they have another huge issue that doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to solve. Let me explain. First let me show you the pick and roll clinic that they ran. Jokic sets a great screen up top and Jamal has a lot of room here. You see that Bam is trying to split the difference between the 2, of course watching for the roll by the big man. He can’t commit to a full switch and leave Vincent with Nikola. So Murray realizes that he can just raise up for the shot and knocks it down. This one was even easier as Adebayo is in a full drop right here. So you see all the space that Jamal has and this is easy money for a great mid range scorer like him. This time it’s finally Nikola’s time in the pick and roll as he gets the pass down low and look at the beautiful spin into a hook shot- this is unstoppable. Jokic is just too big for either Adebayo or Zeller and we saw that when he’s able to get it inside it’s either a bucket or a foul, as Nikola ended up shooting 12 free throws which is double than what he usually does. This is how we get to Miami’s biggest issue that is matchups. Watch Aaron Gordon looking like Lebron against the smaller guys that the Heat had on him. He bulldozed through Gabe Vincent and Max Struss on multiple possessions. Then with Caleb Martin on him you see that Denver clears out the left side for him and with shooters all around- and yeah that includes Jokic who’s firing threes at 47.5% this postseason. So Miami can’t help here and this is easy work again for AG. Again, same thing just on the opposite side. I understand the fear of the open 3 for the Heat but this is a 100% type of shot so you gotta help out here. Gordon finished the game with 16 points on 70% from the field and you can see why that percentage was so high. So with 2 of the 5 positions being a real mismatch that’s a huge problem for Miami. I expect Hayward Highsmith to get much more playing time in game 2 as a terrific defender who had some great moments as one of the key pieces in that fourth quarter run. And even with his limited offensive assignments he still dropped 18 points. Speaking of the 4th quarter run- it was the zone that got Miami back from 21 points within single digits in just a few minutes in the fourth, but when Denver found Jokic in the middle, he broke them down either with a flip shot like in this situation, or some incredible interior passing finding guys right under the rim to put the nail in the coffin for this game 1. If Miami even hopes to make this series interesting then Jimmy Butler must be much more active and it’s inexcusable to pass away good looks like this one right here, or end up with just 2 free throws as a team. 2 free throws they actually set an NBA record for fewest free throw attempts in a playoff game. One thing that they can hope will go their way is shot making because, look at all of these open looks that Miami couldn’t convert. Max Struss went 0-9 from downtown and he better get back on track for the Heat to even have a chance in the finals. A convincing win in the opening for Denver and they made it look like they are an unsolvable problem for their opponent. Let’s see if that will be the case moving forward. Let me know what you think. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
THIS Is NOT Going To Work Against Denver...
Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ This was the situation just a month and a half ago. Miami lost the play in game against the Hawks and were trailing at the end of their final chance to reach the playoffs. The Heat’s run to the finals might just be the most miraculous one that we’ve ever seen. But they are such a confident group of guys that first Butler guaranteed even last year that they’ll be back and win it. And he kept the same attitude this season as well. Then, having Boston come back and force a game 7, what did the Heat do? They booked a flight from Boston directly to Denver. They were not going to lose this game by any means. Did you see Butler’s reaction at the end? We need to discuss that. The guy was ice cold, the entire time. No celebration, no excitement. As if he’s already focused on the finals. This is the true mamba mentality. And you see there’s zero emotion even when they give him the conference finals MVP. Which btw, this should have absolutely been Caleb Martin. He averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds, while shooting, get this: 60.2 percent from the field and 48.9 percent from downtown. This type of efficiency is unreal, and it almost makes you think there’s a typo somewhere. He capped off his incredible effort with a 26 and 10 in the deciding game 7. And while we’re giving credit where credit is due, a massive shoutout to Derrick White for his amazing performance, both offensively with an insane efficiency similar to Caleb, but combine that with the phenomenal defensive effort, literally locking down Jimmy Butler at times. Up until last night Jimmy shot a combined 12 for 31 a horrible 38% when guarded by White. But all of that is behind Butler and the Heat now as they face Denver in the finals, and they won’t be able to utilize the zone defense as much as they have against Boston. Check out this stat. The Nuggets scored 1.169 PPP against zone during the regular season. That ranked first in the NBA. And you know that anything over 1.1 is absolutely elite efficiency. Compare that to Boston who had 3 games of the conference finals shooting in the 20s from downtown. That won’t happen against Denver. Regardless of what’s going to happen I gotta admit that I’ve been secretly rooting for this finals matchup because I love both how Denver is playing, and the fact that Nikola Jokic was able to shut everyone up, all the doubters by going to the finals. If he wins, I’ll be so happy for him. On the flip side, I just idolize the dog mentality that this Miami team has, especially Jimmy Butler. We gotta be honest here- he doesn’t have anywhere near the talent that some elite level players have, but he still finds ways to consistently get wins for his team. Just think about it, in the 4 years that he’s been with the Heat, they’ve made the conference finals 3 times out of which this is going to be his 2nd trip to the finals. When literally nobody expected that to happen. Not a single season have they been among the top favorites, and yet they still go far in the playoffs year after year. You gotta admire and respect that. So I’m just going to enjoy these finals in a win-win situation, being happy with whoever wins. The Nuggets are of course the favorites but with everything I’ve seen from Miami there’s no way that I’m writing them off. Let me know in the comments who you got winning it all. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
THIS Is The ULTIMATE CHAOS For The Golden State Dynasty
Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Things have never been more complicated for Golden State. Not only was the chemistry horrific off the court, but it spilled on the court as well. When is the last time you’ve seen a player getting this mad about a bad shot from a teammate? How about a coach in disbelief watching a contested 3 pointer in the clutch. And this is how a reporter described the tension during the locker room interviews after this shot. This is the same championship team that had things going perfectly for them just a season ago. How is this possible? This is Golden State's biggest crisis of this dynasty and to make matters even worse they are considering if it’s even worth keeping this team together. And there are some new reports on that. So let’s get into it. Obviously Steph Curry isn’t going anywhere. He carried this team and is still a top 5 top 10 player in the league. But Klay Thompson’s dreadful performance in the second round, is casting some doubt. He went 5 for 14, 3 for 11, 3 for 12 and 3 for 19 in the final games of this series. This following season would be Thompson’s last year of his contract and is going to make a whopping 43 million. This was definitely not a postseason worthy of that but he did have a great regular season where he led the NBA in 3 pointers made with 301 and did it at a terrific 41%. That’s actually phenomenal. Even with that however, the Warriors have to plan what happens after this season. Do they extend a 34 year old Klay and at what price. If they don’t, then it’s very tricky because you want to get some return for him and not just lose him in free agency, but at the same time there, his contract situation makes him extremely difficult to trade and get a valuable return back. Things are equally as complicated with Draymond Green as well who has a player option but obviously would terminate it if he gets a longer term deal. He says that he wants it to be Golden State, but due to their clogged up salary cap, they may not be able to offer him as much as some other teams. And seeing how great of a defensive season Green had in which he was actually voted in the second team all defense- contenders that are 1 piece away could pull the trigger. And the Lakers connection has been obvious. Green and Lebron are often hanging out together, Rich Paul is Draymond’s agent, and he’s a huge Lebron fan. I mean he even asked the team to let him fly to LA to witness Lebron’s all time scoring record in the middle of a Golden State road trip. That is absolutely crazy. So yeah, this is another decision for the Warriors front office. There’s only 1 way to make everyone happy and pay up but at this moment that’s almost mission impossible. That is trading Jordan Poole. His contract extension kicks in and he is set to make 27 million per year. Jordan did not have a regular season worthy of that, but the playoffs is where things really went catastrophic for him and no team would ever want to trade for him. His production dropped from 20 to 10 points per game in the postseason. At 34% from the field and a miserable 25% from downtown. Add the fact that he’s a liability on defense, and I don’t know which team decides to take him at this moment. So the Warriors may be stuck with him and their only hope is for a bounceback season. But I don’t know if that’s even possible for him on this team given the entire atmosphere. “We were teammates. It's just business, honestly. And that's really all it was, it is, it has been. It's just been business. It's been basketball." Poole said it himself that the relationship between him and Draymond is strictly business, meaning that they are not even talking outside the lines and sometimes even on the court. Poole doesn’t want to even look at Green. And the front office has a difficult decision with yet another guy on this team. Jonathan Kuminga had a great stretch of about 20 games after the All Star break where he averaged 13 points per game in 24 minutes playing great all around. But as the playoffs came, Wiggins came back to the team and Gary Payton entered the rotation and Kuminga’s minutes almost vanished, dropping to just 6 minutes per game. So his agent and the team are having conversations about what’s the long term plan for him. Either they’re going to play him, or it would be better for everyone if they trade Kuminga. Overall, a lot of tension, a lot of difficult decisions and the 1 question that remains- is this the end for the Golden State Warriors dynasty? Let me know in the comments what you think happens to the team. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
How The Kings Defense SHUT DOWN Steph Curry
Support by checking out these awesome NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ This is how you guard Steph Curry. Davion Mitchell ...
What You DIDN'T SEE In The NBA All Star Game...
Merch: https://heatcheck.info/ Luka Doncic doing crazy circus acts, Tatum vs Brown going 1 on 1 with everyone else looking on the side, and some loooong range bombs. This all star game was action packed so let’s go through all the best moments. Starting off with Lebron and Giannis picking the teams like we did it on the playground. Giannis came out old school with a full on notebook and everything handwritten. Can you make up the combinations here? Let me know in the comments. The reserves were picked first to avoid the uncomfortable situation of a player getting selected last and I like the execution. Although we saw that Jaren Jackson Jr was the last one, it got kind of lost in the shuffle since the starters were up next. So this is a win for this live format. BTW, Antetokounmpo had a bit of an embarrassing moment when he picked the reserves: Anyway he eventually got him on his team, because Lebron after all the love-hate rollercoaster recently was pretty excited to pick Kyrie on his team. Here are the full teams and on paper in a real NBA game James’s team would destroy the Greek Freak. Am I right? However the playing time and the intensity isn’t the same in the all star game as we saw right from the start. Gianis gets his 2 points and immediately subs out to protect the slight injury to his wrist so he did not return. Lebron on the other hand looked like he was 26. Check out this monster jam off of the assist from Jokic. Then just moments later, take a look at this self alley oop off the backboard. Dude is still in his prime. This is ridiculous. But the very next possession Tatum immediately responds with the exact same dunk on the other end. And not only that but he went directly at the king on this drive. James at the very last second made a smart business decision and got as further as possible from this poster, but couldn’t completely escape it as you can see. But look at Ja Morant with this nasty double clutch reverse. He had an even crazier one, as he runs past his teammate and takes off for a 360 throwdown. Luka Doncic was right in front of the action for the first dunk and watch what he said to Morant. Turns out he really can-and he put his name down for the slam dunk contest. Keeping the same vibe with the jokes, Doncic also showed us that he can do some tricks outside basketball. Moving on, Jokic had a few great assists. Here's some big man to big man action on this alley oop. And another connection between these 2 as Nikola throws a quarterback pass on the money for the easy layup. And watch him acting like he’s super mad that he didn’t get the alley oop pass. Seriously, he is hilarious. And just seconds later a casual no look pass right to the corner for the three. Amazing. What’s not amazing is that when he got an alley oop pass- this is how that ended. What kind of jump is thiiiis?! Maaan Jokic is a treasure. Anyways, you could see that Kyrie was aggressive early on and showed off his flashy layup package on multiple occasions. He led everyone at halftime with 18 points. And speaking of halftime, at the break, the NBA got the 3 players with the most points in NBA history all in 1 place. Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul Jabar and Lebron James. We also got this wholesome moment of Lebron showing some love to the little mambas, Kobe Bryant’s daughters. But right before the second half, we got news that Lebron will not continue as he suffered a minor injury going up for a block. Even without him however, there was a ton of action. First Donovan Mitchell took some heat check shots from way downtown, and look at this one from the logo nothing but the bottom of the net. He had 4 long range bombs in the third quarter. Speaking of these shots, you know that Damian Lillard would not be outdone here, as he casually fires away from his own half and splashes the three. Unbelievable. But, the third period belonged to Jayson Tatum as he went god mode. Check out these 5 threes in a row- in a span of only 2 and a half minutes. He was unstoppable. Shot after shot Jayson could not miss and was stuck on automatic And watch this sequence. At the end of the period Jaylen Brown attacks him, the stepback and the swish. And says that Tatum is too little. Jayson then has to go at Brown, and gets him on the crossover buuut loses the handle. Jaylen’s turn again on the other end as he hits him with the fancy dribbles, and knocks down the three over his teammate, so at this point Jayson is down bad and has to take this one. Thankfully for him, the shake and bake creates space for the shot and swishes it. At this point, 8 of the best players in the world are just walking up and down the court, watching these 2 go at it. Look at the positioning on the final possession. This was a true 1 on 1 battle. And at the end Tatum gets a stop here as we go to the 4th quarter.
LIFE SENTENCE Fouls In The NBA
Merch: https://heatcheck.info/ We gotta start this infamous list with this brutal elbow hit by Andrew Bynum completely knocking JJ ...
Why The Mavs Got WORSE With The KYRIE Trade
Merch: https://heatcheck.info/ Ever since this shot here’s Kyrie Irving’s career path: A trade request from Cleveland, then a promise that he will stay in Boston only to request a trade from there as well landing in his hometown, along with his best buddy and once again saying that he’s going nowhere to now finally request a trade from there as well. So what are the Mavs doing? And did they get better with this trade? I think they actually got worse. And this is why. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Ok so the Mavs traded away their best defender in Finney Smith, who guarded the most dangerous perimeter player on the opposing team as well as Dinwiddie who’s also decent on that end of the floor, and brought in Kyrie Irving- a below average defender realistically. Dallas was bad enough on defense even before this move. They rank 24th in the league and got worse. Just imagine that. I don’t care how good of offensive players these 2 are, you’re not winning any playoff games against teams constantly scoring 120+ points. This tells me that hopefully the Mavs are not done and will look to bring in some defensive presence. Now I know that the chances for this are slim because the Raptors have a high asking price involving a lot of picks, but IF Dallas somehow manages to get a guy like OG Anunoby as well, this will instantly catapult them as the favorites in the West. But if not him, we should also be on the lookout for guys like Jarred Vanderbuilt, or Bojan Bogdanovic. But back to the current roster- The fit is going to be interesting to watch. Kyrie did play off the ball in Brooklyn when James Harden was there and was great in that role, but Luka holds the ball even more than the beard, leading the league in this category in the last 3 seasons. If the ego doesn’t get in the way for Kyrie, there is room for a nice partnership there. Doncic finally gets another guy that can break down the defense forcing help, double teams and rotations. He’s never had a teammate like that in his career. And Luka desperately needed help in terms of scoring. I mean look at this boxscore. Dude has been holding the entire offense on his back. So when the team asked for his opinion on this move, Doncic himself gave the green light according to reports, and honestly I fully understand him, despite the possible drama that Irving brings with him everywhere he goes. This is possibly the reason why Dallas hasn’t promised a new contract to him. And this is where things get really interesting. We know that the reason why Kyrie asked for a trade from the Nets was because they didn’t offer him the 4 year max extension. Now on the Mavs because of NBA regulations he can only sign a 2 year contract if it’s offered until June, or if he plays out the season and Dallas doesn’t give him anything, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. So you would assume that Cuban has to re-sign him right? After all he initially saw Brunson go, then he traded away Dinwiddie and Finney Smith and to not re-sign Kyrie as well would be like he imploded the team. So why the hesitation? Well, on 1 side- they can see how the 2 guys fit, and how this team holds up in the playoffs and if they’re convinced- give him the contract. But if not- they could have a max spot this summer and really be aggressive in building a championship roster. This is both a smart move but a risky one as well. The downside and the potential risk to this is the fact that the free agent market this summer is pretty weak and Luka’s patience could end soon. The Brooklyn Nets and their fit are a whole different story and a separate future video. So stay tuned. The Slim Reaper is by himself now. Link in the description for this shirt plus other cool designs from my merch line. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
The SCANDALOUS All Star Game Voting...
Merch: https://heatcheck.info/ The voting for the All-Star reserves this year was scandalous! And James Harden seems to agree ...