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I know I shouldn't be disappointed. After all, I predicted the Miami Heat prevailing over the young and inexperienced Thunder in the NBA Finals on Christmas day. But after watching the Oklahoma City group earn air quotes surrounding "inexperienced" by dismantling a previously invincible Spurs squad four straight times, I altered my prediction.
OKC is too deep at every position to lose in the finals. My disappointment with game one was that OKC won the game without playing that well.
Miami shot out of the gates with a quick start, thanks in great deal to 5-6 shooting from three-point territory, and led 29-22 after one quarter. A film clip of Thunder head coach Scotty Brooks showed him urging his team to simply continue, because Miami would not be able to sustain their hot shooting. Having just said this exact thing to my friends gathered around the television at my home, I nodded in approval of the coach's advice, and scolded myself for not having an NBA coaching job/NBA coach’s salary.
The Thunder's young point guard Russell Westbrook started the comeback in the third quarter, but he did so in a way that was, well, not a basketball way. With the Heat one foul away from the penalty, Westbrook secured a defensive rebound, ran in front of the still-hobbled Chris Bosh and lobbed his body back into Bosh. Immediately the foul was called on Bosh, and Westbrook went to the line for two free throws. If you've seen players (namely, Chris Paul, Manu Ginobili and others) do that this season, then you know it's the kind of thing that would get you voted out of the game in church ball or at a rec center.
Whistles didn't lose Miami the game, though. OKC ended up shooting much better after halftime and for the game — 46 percent vs. 52 percent overall — and Westbrook and Kevin Durant outscored the entire Miami team in the second half.
Here is where my frustration comes from: I didn't think Miami would struggle offensively against the Thunder guards. The OKC bigs of Kendrick Perkins, Nick Colliso and the NBA's best shot blocker Serge Ibaka could have come in and been game changers, but they really weren't, and maybe they didn't need to be.
I didn't think that OKC would win with its two leading scorers off and not a ton of help from their other guys. I didn't predict that the Thunder would play Miami Heat basketball and beat them at their own game. I did predict a Thunder win, although with OKC completely undefeated at home (also winning its regular season game at home vs. Miami), that wasn't the most daring calculation.
Either way, OKC earned game one. Westbrook played a strong second fiddle with 27 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists, which only served to make Miami's Dwyane Wade (17 points on 7-19 shooting) look that much older. But I want points scored. I want everyone to play like LeBron James did in game six against Boston. I want Durant, Westbrook and James Harden to combine for 100 points. I want Wade to dunk on Ibaka so hard they're both sore from it. We saw a few sizzles last night, but I want to have to see a doctor from way too much steak.
Whoever wins this series, which, despite the overreactions you will read today, is a very close contest talent-wise, I hope that we as fans are able to see the talent involved perform more competitively and impressively than we did on Tuesday.
Jack Ady is a seminerdy everyman with a severe case of Basketball Addiction that one doctor once referred to as "not life threatening." Follow him on Twitter @80cent.
