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I think one thing is clear: the better strategy is to be up 4 with 14 seconds remaining.

disgusting end to an otherwise nice series. I've rarely seen such bad refereeing

In the first game of the Finals, the score after 3 quarters was 74-73, and Okl outscored Mia by 10 in the 4th Q.
After 3Q, you can say .75 wins have been earned by both teams combined. At the end, the total is 1.00 .
In Pythagorean wins, a tie score after 3Q would be .375 per team. Here's the progression from 3Q score to final score for G1, in the score, Pyth Wins, and eWins: That 4th quarter (31-21 Okl advantage) added .40 pWins to Okl and subtracted .15 from Mia.
In the same interval, eWins improved .27 for Okl, while Mia lost .02

Did anyone else get the impression that in Game 2, LeBron was pretty much granted immunity from traveling calls and fouls?
The league may want the series to go 6 or 7 games, and they may want to help get the monkey off LeBron's back; but I thought the bias was pretty blatant last night.

Mike G wrote:Did anyone else get the impression that in Game 2, LeBron was pretty much granted immunity from traveling calls and fouls?

I saw one blatant travel (which led to a two pointer), which ironically was shown ~10 times because the tv station probably thought it was pretty. And I guess he fouled Durant on that drive in the last minute.

I'm kind of confused with Scott Brooks. I thought OKC was aware of the fact that Collison is immensely important for their success and that he's way better than Perkins and probably better than Ibaka. Last night he went +8 in all of 14 minutes, after going +13 in 21 minutes in game 1. I know he's probably not getting these minutes against Miami's starting lineup, but still.
OKC has been in pretty deep holes after the 1st quarter. I'm pretty sure those could be avoided by substituting Collison in earlier, and I'd play Collison more minutes overall

In game 3, the Thunder were -11 in Collison's 13 minutes.
In 3 games, then, they're +10 in his 49 min.

In the closeout against the Spurs, he was -7 in 7 min. Previous game +2 in 20.
Before that +8 in 19, ...

It sure looked as though the refs were determined to call fouls on Durant in G3. So he guards LeBron sometimes -- is that like an insult to the referees, like Brooks is daring them to call fouls on his superstar?

LeBron initiates a lot of the contact, but he gets almost all of the calls.

Scott Brooks benches both Durant and Westbrook, and casually watches a 10 point lead turn to a (5 point?) deficit before reinserting them. Harden really isn't that great as the #1 (or only) option.

The refs have handed OKC the last 2 games. Not that the Thunder necessarily would have won either game without their help, but they may have gone down to the very last second. They'd both have been better games.

I didn't have a preference for either team at the start, but I'm getting one pretty strongly.

I think the officiating has been pretty poor on both sides actually. I'm not too sure if it's really been that one-sided at all. I can remember multiple calls in game 2 that went against the Heat. In the first quarter, James Harden throws up a wild three near the end of the clock and gets "fouled." In the 4th quarter, Westbrook gets a transition And-1 by sticking out his arm and touching a jumping-backwards Lebron while laying it up with his other hand.

And in game 3, there could be a good case made that all of those Durant fouls were legitimate calls. The 4th one is the one I hear the most complaints on, but he clearly catches wade with an elbow to the arm if you watch closely.