Position-by-position matchups for NBA Finals
A position-by-position look at the matchups in the NBA finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat:
CENTER: Kendrick Perkins vs. Udonis Haslem. Perkins brings the NBA finals experience most of his young teammates lack, having been part of Boston teams in 2008 and '10. He had a rare high-scoring night in Oklahoma City's regular-season win over Miami, scoring 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting. His time on the court in this series could depend on the Heat's lineups, because with Haslem and Chris Bosh both often more perimeter oriented, the Thunder may need to go small. Edge: Thunder.
POWER FORWARD: Serge Ibaka vs. Shane Battier or Chris Bosh. Ibaka has turned into more than just one of the NBA's top defensive players, having a 26-point outing on 11-for-11 shooting in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. He is shooting 55.6 percent in the postseason, best among players who advanced past the first round. The Heat have options for their rotation now that Bosh looks back to full strength after scoring 19 points and making three 3-pointers in the Heat's Game 7 victory over Boston to win the East. Battier, whose shot had been off most of the postseason, made four 3s in the game and hit three in both games against Oklahoma City during the season. Edge: Even.
SMALL FORWARD: Kevin Durant vs. LeBron James. Durant is the best scorer in the NBA, James probably the best all-around player. That includes his defense, and though Durant is a three-time scoring champion who has stretches where he's unstoppable, James has as good a chance as anybody in the league. He helped force Durant into a career-high nine turnovers in Miami's 98-93 home victory. And it's James who is actually the best scorer in this postseason, averaging 30.8 points. Edge: Heat.
SHOOTING GUARD: Thabo Sefolosha vs. Dwyane Wade. The Thunder began to change their series against the Spurs when they put Sefolosha, their best perimeter defender, on point guard Tony Parker. Now he goes back to defending a shooting guard, and one of the best in the league. Wade would surely welcome 1-on-1 coverage after the Celtics frequently double-teamed him while Bosh was out. Edge: Heat.
POINT GUARD: Russell Westbrook vs. Mario Chalmers. The Heat had all kinds of trouble with the Celtics' Rajon Rondo and they sure won't like playing against Westbrook, another speedy, do-everything point guard. He is prone to some poor shooting nights, such as 4 for 16 and 9 for 26 efforts in the regular season against Miami, but also has the potential to be the force that Rondo was in the last round. Edge: Thunder.
RESERVES: James Harden, Derek Fisher, Nick Collison, Daequan Cook and Nazr Mohammed vs. Bosh or Battier, Mike Miller, Joel Anthony, Ronny Turiaf and Norris Cole. If Bosh continues to play as a reserve, as he has in the three games since returning from a strained lower abdominal, Miami has some punch off the bench. Even so, the Thunder are better behind Sixth Man of the Year Harden, and Fisher is always good for a big shot or two this time of year. Edge: Thunder.
COACHES: Scott Brooks vs. Erik Spoelstra. Spoelstra was outcoached by Rick Carlisle in last year's finals but gets another chance now, seemingly with his full complement of players to allow him to mix and match. Brooks appears to have more options, and the 2010 Coach of the Year's move to change his defensive coverage and put Sefolosha on Parker in the last round slowed a Spurs team that had been in an offensive groove for weeks. Edge: Thunder.
-- Brian Mahoney
MIAMI (AP) â€" Several weeks before this season even started, LeBron James and Kevin Durant were competing against each other.
Hell Week, they called it, a four-day series of grueling workouts. Starting Tuesday, they'll meet again. They'll call that the NBA Finals.
Neither was playing at the level they are now when James invited Durant to work out with him during the NBA lockout in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Now as James tries to win his first ring, fittingly, it's Durant in his way.
"It's only right. It's only right," James said. "We look forward to the challenge. It's going to be a big test for us."
James played at a rarely seen level in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics. According to STATS LLC, James became the first player since Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 finals to have six 30-point games in a playoff series. In the one contest where James didn't score 30, he finished with 29 in Game 4, fouling out in overtime.
His series averages against the Celtics: 33.6 points and 11 rebounds per game on 53 percent shooting. He had five games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in the entire regular season â€" then did it five times in the series against Boston alone.
"He was absolutely brilliant this series, and we all know it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He's playing at an historic level during the playoffs, driving us with his will. We do not take his talent or his will or his competitiveness for granted. And we need every single bit of it. He is pushing himself beyond his limits, and he's pushing the rest of the team as well."
Said Heat guard Dwyane Wade: "He's amazing."
There were many moments for the Heat to celebrate on Saturday night, when they punched their ticket back to the NBA Finals by ousting Boston 101-88 in Game 7.
Heat owner Micky Arison couldn't have gotten his hands off the East trophy fast enough, since that isn't the one he wants anyway. James felt the same way. The Heat star left the floor in a cap and T-shirt, one arm raised in joy.
Behind him, the celebration continued. By then, he was already thinking about what's next.
"I really thought he in particular played a very smart, aggressive game," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "He kind of let the game come to him, and then down the stretch he took the game over. That's what great players do."
They don't do it alone, though.
Criticized last season for deferring too often in crucial situations, James went into the offseason driven by the pain of failing in the NBA Finals. And even during the lockout, he did anything he could to improve â€" two-a-day workouts, studying with Hakeem Olajuwon, yoga, boxing, beach sprints, even asking Durant to come to Akron for a few days for some training. In those sessions, they pushed each other to the limit.
"Me and KD, man, just tryin' to get better," James said in a video of one workout posted online.
And look at them now, two superstars set to fight for one ring.
"I envisioned it every day we worked out," James said. "I understood what his passion was. I understood what his drive was."
They both understood the other perfectly. James and the Heat lost to Dallas in last season's Finals. Durant and the Thunder lost to Dallas in last season's Western Conference finals. This probably couldn't have been scripted any better. Maybe the two best players in the world, scarred by similar disappointment, trying to make the other better.
And when the final series of the season begins Tuesday night in Oklahoma City, they'll each have a close-up view of how far the other has come.
"It's going to be a battle," Durant said.
The Heat and Thunder split two games during the regular season, both winning at home. Durant scored the most points in the NBA this season at 1,850, James was second with 1,683. James won the MVP award, Durant finished second in that balloting. And in these finals, one will finish first again, the other will finish second again.
"It's not about Kevin and LeBron," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "It's not about any other thing other than playing good basketball against a very good team. ... Individually, they're the best players in the league.
"They have many ways that they score and many ways that they help their team win. They make winning basketball plays, they're both defensively very good, they both get rebounds, they both pass. But it's always about the Thunder against the Heat."
There's probably little argument that James and Durant have been the premier players in this postseason. James is averaging 30.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists, while Durant is at 27.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists. But while Durant is celebrated for what he's doing as a 23-year-old on the rise in a small market, James gets the constant reminder of how he's a 27-year-old without a championship despite moving to Miami.
"LeBron James, I just have a feeling a lot of people are just waiting to pin failure on him versus objectively evaluating his game," ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said during the East finals. "I mean, think about it. ... James has an every-night pressure that no one else has. I don't understand what people don't like about him."
It seems no matter what James does or how well he plays, some can't get past The Decision â€" that infamous televised special where he announced he was signing with Miami in 2010. If he passes, he should have shot. If he shoots, he is being selfish. If he puts up 45 points and 15 rebounds, like in Game 6 of the East finals, some ask why he doesn't do that every night. If the Heat win, the reminders come that they didn't win it all last season.
Those around James say the scrutiny drives him. James, for his part, says he does his best to ignore it all.
"I can't worry about what people say about me, about my game, about who I am as a person,", James said. "I can't get involved in that. People can have their own opinions, and rightfully so. They can have their own opinions. For me I just go out and play at a high level, and do whatever it takes for us to win. And I can be happy with that."
As Heat return, Thunder get first taste of Finals
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) â€" When the Oklahoma City Thunder signed five-time champion Derek Fisher late in the season, they added a veteran guard with oodles more NBA Finals experience than the rest of the roster he was joining.
Whether Fisher can prepare his Thunder teammates for what they're about to face is another matter. While the Miami Heat are returning to the Finals for the second straight season, it'll be an eye-opening, first-time experience for most of Oklahoma City's youthful players. Only Fisher, starting center Kendrick Perkins and backup Nazr Mohammed have ever made it this far â€" all winning titles with other teams.
But for all the leadership Fisher has provided since joining the Thunder in late March, he doesn't plan any lectures for the team's younger set that includes three-time scoring champion Kevin Durant and All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook.
"With my experience, I've found it better to on some level allow guys to experience things for themselves in its natural state," Fisher said. "You can't always tell someone what they should feel or what they should be thinking as they get ready to go into what may be the biggest moment of their life or their career.
"I think it's important to allow people to be who they are and experience it the way they naturally would."
The finals are sure to disrupt some parts of the Thunder's routine. Their practices will be uprooted from their brand new training facility on the north side of town and instead held downtown at Chesapeake Energy Arena, where the Heat will also work out. They'll be surrounded by hundreds of additional media members, and it's not uncommon for old friends and family to come out of the woodwork at what might not be the most opportune time.
"Those are things that you can control and basically block out. If they haven't called you in the past couple months, then don't take their call now," Fisher warned.
"It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Just politely don't answer or don't respond to the text. And then in a couple weeks, once you're done, you can reply back that you were busy. That's how you keep that part under control."
Not so easy for some to handle, Fisher said, are the heightened emotions that come with playing for a championship. It could be anxiety, tension or excitement. Some players might not be able to sleep.
"The bottom line is on the basketball court everybody feels comfortable," said coach Scott Brooks, a reserve on Houston's 1994 NBA championship team. "Everybody will have nerves, nervous butterflies, before the game. ... You're always nervous before the games until the tipoff. As a coach, I'm the same way. As a player, I was the same way. But that's part of it."
Brooks even considers the nerves to be good, a sign that players care.
"Once the tipoff is in the air, our players aren't going to get nervous," he said. "Once that ball is in the air and they're ready to play, they're going to fly around the court, they're going to be aggressive and they're going to play good basketball."
Westbrook said Sunday the fact that he's in the Finals probably won't settle in until he's playing in Game 1 on Tuesday night at home.
"I'm kind of just going with the flow right now," Westbrook said.
Seeking redemption for last year's Finals loss to Dallas, Miami's roster should be aware of what's to come. The lion's share of the team is back from last season, and Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem were both on the 2006 squad that won it all. LeBron James will be making his third finals appearance, including one with Cleveland.
"It's been a long 12 months. But obviously when you lose in the finals, it hurts," Wade said. "And you have to come into the season, you have to forget it. But you can't forget in a sense. So you play and you try to get back to this moment again, so you can in a sense redeem yourself or in a sense put yourself in that position again to succeed."
Perkins â€" who won the title with Boston in 2008 â€" said he sensed growth in the Thunder's 20-somethings over the course of the season. He believes "guys knew what it takes to get where we needed to go."
There's only one step left to take.
"You can't hide the fact that we have a young team, but that's never been an excuse for us and we don't look at it as one," Brooks said. "Young is good. I wish I was younger."
-- Jeff Latzke
Other NBA News
Rivers, Celtics look back on good season, bad end
BOSTON (AP) â€" Ever since the 1960s, when the Boston Celtics emerged as the most decorated franchise in the NBA, nothing less than a championship has satisfied the team or its fans. This year's team may have changed that.
Overcoming age and injuries to make it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the more-heralded Miami Heat, the Celtics bowed out of the playoffs on Saturday night with a 101-88 loss that likely ended the new Big Three era in Boston.
"I don't know if I've ever had a group like this," coach Doc Rivers said. "They did everything I asked them to do. They came up short. ... Our guys, I love them. They were phenomenal."
The Celtics won their 17th NBA championship in 2008 â€" the first season together for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. They returned to the finals two years later and, playing without injured center Kendrick Perkins, came within 6 minutes of beating the Los Angeles Lakers again.
Perkins was traded the next year as general manager Danny Ainge attempted to stock up for another title run. But his roster began to fall apart even before the season started when Jeff Green was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm; center Jermaine O'Neal was lost during the season and guard Avery Bradley went out in the playoffs, costing Boston one of its best defenders.
"I wish we could have had healthy runs," Rivers said. "This team won a title. Got to another one, a Game 7, where they had a shot to win. Got to the Eastern Conference finals and one game away on the road. Banged up.
"But you don't get do-overs."
With Garnett and Allen eligible for free agency, Ainge considered breaking the team apart at the trading deadline to build for the future. Rivers campaigned to keep the group together, and when a deal for Allen fell through at the last minute, the coach got his wish.
"It was a great opportunity," Pierce said. "You couldn't ask for anything more. We're very thankful for these last five years."
For his decision this year, Ainge was rewarded with another long playoff run.
But now he might have no choice.
"I think we're going to wait and see what happens with free agency and all that stuff," Rivers said. "I just want to stick with this group if it's a couple more days, a couple more weeks, or whatever. I just want to stick with them."
The postseason began with promise, as guard Rajon Rondo and the Celtics, without home-court advantage on Atlanta, outlasted the Hawks in six games, setting up a Round 2 matchup with rival Philadelphia. An upstart who knocked off the No. 1-seeded Chicago Bulls in the first round, the 76ers pushed the Celtics to the brink, before Boston finally disposed of them in Game 7 at TD Garden.
And then, of course, in the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics held a 3-2 series lead on Miami before finally wilting. Rondo finished the postseason with averages of 17.3 points and 12 assists per game.
"Nope," Rondo said Saturday night when asked if Boston was just too tired to advance. "We missed shots. We just came up short."
Allen averaged 10.7 points and 4.1 rebounds across the three rounds.
"Under the circumstances, we are proud of what we accomplished and by no means, do we think this was a fluke. Our young guys, played hard for us," Allen said. "I don't know what Kevin (Garnett's) situation is, but there's still a lot of basketball left in my legs, I feel. So, it's hard to say what will happen. But the four of us (Garnett, Pierce, Rondo and Allen) know how to play basketball ... and win games."
Rivers concurred.
"If we could have gotten this group to the finals, it would have been fantastic for us. They deserved it with their will," he said. "I hear so often that the NBA is an individual league. That theory is gone. This team â€" we had a terrific team effort from everybody."
Lot of that has to do with the coach, of course. The players feed off Rivers' enthusiasm and respect for the game. It shows on and off the floor.
"We have a coach like Doc who we feel gives it all to us," forward Brandon Bass said. "As players, we have a tremendous amount of respect for him. And because of that, we leave it out on the court for him."
Perhaps, though, even with contributions from Bass and the like, fatigue did set in with the veterans. Those stiff challenges from the Hawks and Sixers, after all, forced the Celtics to work a little longer than expected. In the end, Boston played 20 playoff games.
"It's been a trying year with injuries. A lot of things didn't go our way throughout the course of the season," Pierce said. "For this group not to complain and concentrate on what we had, it just forced us to pull together. At one point we were one game above .500, and look here today, we were one game from the championship (series)."
Pierce had a stellar postseason, averaging 18.9 points and 6.1 rebounds. At 19.2 and 10.3, respectively, Garnett led the team in both categories.
"I know people will always look at the Big Three individually â€" Kevin, Ray and Paul. I'm never going to do that. I'm going to look at them as a group, collective," Rivers said. "They were willing to do whatever for the betterment of the team. That's what we should focus on. How much they gave up, to try and win.
"That's what I will remember most about them."
Barkley visit to Okla. City bombing museum hailed
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) â€" The executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum says a recent visit by NBA sportscaster Charles Barkley provided invaluable exposure.
Barkley spent more than an hour at the site where 168 people were killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He later spent several minutes talking about the museum during the nationally televised Western Conference finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.
Museum director Kari Watkins told The Oklahoman that the airtime is estimated to be worth about $270,000. She says the museum's annual advertising budget is about $150,000.
Barkley also donated an autographed pair of lizard-skin boots that bear Thunder logos and were given to him by the team. The boots are now on display inside the museum front doors.
Heat-Celtics Game 7 draws big television rating
MIAMI (AP) â€" The Miami Heat's win over the Boston Celtics to reach the NBA Finals has drawn the highest preliminary television rating for an NBA playoff game on cable since records started being kept in 2003.
Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night on ESPN produced a 9.1 overnight rating. The network said Sunday that the three highest overnight ratings for NBA games on cable have come during this series. In Boston, the game had a 21.7 rating, the highest on cable for an NBA playoff game in the market since records started being kept in 2003.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.
WNBA News
Capsules: Prince pours in 26 to send Sky past Liberty
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) â€" Epiphanny Prince scored 26 points to help the Chicago Sky beat the New York Liberty 73-64 on Sunday for their fifth straight victory.
Prince, a former Rutgers player, scored 10 points in the second quarter and had eight in the third. The Sky improved to 6-1, the best start in team history.
Cappie Pondexter, also a former Rutgers player, led New York (3-6) with 22 points. The loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Liberty, who were playing their fourth game in seven days.
Tamera Young had 12 points for the Sky, and Sylvia Fowles finished 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Kia Vaughn added 16 points for New York.
SUN 92, DREAM 73
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) â€" Tina Charles had 22 points and 11 rebounds to power Connecticut to the victory.
Charles became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 50 career double-doubles, accomplishing the feat in 75 games. Charles already held the league record for most rebounds in a season with 398 in 2010 and most double-doubles in a season with 23 in 2011).
Connecticut shot 61.7 percent (37 of 60) from the field, the second-best effort in franchise history.
Asjha Jones had 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks for the Sun (6-1), and Kara Lawson had 21 points.
Angel McCoughtry had 23 points, six rebounds and four steals for the Dream (3-5) and Sancho Lyttle added 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.
The Sun put the Dream away with an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter.
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