Hopefully Game 7 is Exciting

The Miami Heat took care of business at home last night winning 103-91. They were able to force a game 7 back in Toronto where they will look to finish off the Raptors. The Heat will be without Hassan Whiteside and the Raptors will be without Jonas Valanciunas. This has made this series even less exciting to watch. The reason being is the Miami Heat's starting line up looked like my high school basketball team in that every player on the floor 1-5 was about the same height. That's right the Heat had Justice Winslow start at center for them. Rebounding was not as big of an issue as I expected because everyone boxed out and rebounded on defense. Luol Deng had 8 rebounds, Dwayne Wade had 6 rebounds, and Dragic had 7. In all the Raptors only won the rebound battle by 2 (43-41). That shows that Miami can actually get away with this smaller line up and be successful. In fact this small line up creates a few problems for the Raptors.

One of the problems that this line up created for the Raptors is Miami could switch on just about every screen. The only times that Miami would not switch the screen was when Dragic was going to be switched to cover the center or power forward. During the game this made it difficult for Toronto to get the pick and roll going. Not only that, but even though Toronto had the size advantage they did not have an offensively skilled big in who could take advantage of such great post position.

The second problem this small line up created for Toronto was defensive mismatches. Every player on the Heat could take either of the big men on Toronto of the dribble to get to the hoop. This ended up causing Toronto to over help or caused Biyombo to keep one foot in the paint. The Raptors defensive strategy was to dare Justice Winslow to shoot, leaving him wide open. Winslow hit his first three of the game and the Raptors quickly adjusted. The Heat even took out Winslow at times and added in someone who could shoot the ball. The Heat's biggest man in last nights line up was Josh McRoberts. Stoudemire and Haslem did not step on the floor at all. It was just a weird game to watch and the Heat won with their extremely small ball.

I still hope Miami advances because I think they would be the tougher opponent for the Cavaliers. There are also a few more exciting story lines with Miami moving on. It would be the first time the team has made it back to the Eastern Conference Finals since LeBron left. LeBron would face the Heat for the first time in the post season since he left. Wade and LeBron are still best friends and that would be exciting to see those two go at it. Either way we would be lucky to see the Eastern Conference Finals reach six games. No matter what teams makes it to the next round I have the Cavaliers in five. For now lets hope that game 7 is better than the series has been so far.