Heat Thunder Summary

Best Player / Most Valuable Player: Dwyane Wade (Individual +35, Net +18). Lebron will deservedly get most of the credit for this series. But the numbers point to his sidekick as top dog in the Finals. His overall numbers (22 ppg, 6 rpg, 5 apg, 44% FG pct) are a slight uptick from the regular season. His ball-handling, particularly finding openings in the pick-and-roll, were a key to the series win. But there's a part of this that numbers can't capture: last year, Wade got the Jerome James award for, in part, holding James back in the Finals. One year later, it looks like he helped unleash him, and willingly took the sidekick role for the good of the team.

Worst Player / Least Valuable Player: Serge Ibaka (Individual -23, Net -12). Serge Ibaka is a great defensive talent. In my opinion, he's going to make another jump in offensive skill over the next 1-2 years. But, playoff series are about matchups. Ibaka's strengths (help-side shot blocking, occasional mid-range jumpers) were negated by the Heat (passing around the help defense, driving directly at the shot-blocker). His shortcomings (no low post offense, inconsistent rotations) were exploited at critical points in several games. As Thunder fans debate whether Ibaka or Harden deserve the last big contract OKC can afford to pay, I'll go with consensus and say Ibaka is the better long term fit. But this series was not his moment to shine.

Reverse Jerome James Award: Erik Spoelstra. When Lebron, Wade, and Bosh came together, the obvious assumption was that all that talent would easily steamroll the league. Based on that, Spoelstra was essentially handed a no-win situation in the eyes of public perception. Winning was a foregone conclusion, right? Well, 12 out of 20 ESPN experts picked the Thunder to win this series. The fact is, the three assumed weaknesses of the Heat (hero ball offense, weak roster outside the Big 3, poor clutch play) were each reversed in this series:

 - 90 assists on 178 field goals (51%) versus OKC's 79 assists on 183 field goals (43%)
 - Miami's other guys outscored OKC's other guys by 41 points in 5 games
 - 3 point lead with 1:47 left in Game 2 (won); 1 point lead with 1:30 left in Game 3 (won); tie game with 3:15 left in Game 4 (won)

He's never going to get a ton of credit, but Coach Spo did what few thought could be done as recently as two weeks ago. He won a title with the 2012 Miami Heat.