There is a very small minority of people who are rooting for the Miami Heat to succeed. David Dwork from SB Nation blog Peninsula is Mightier is in that minority. D-squared does a nice job over there and we'll be talking to him a bunch in the coming days. We swapped questions and answers -- read my responses to his questions over there.
LB - What matchup favors the Heat the most?
PiM - I would say that the shooting guard matchup of Dwyane Wade and Jodie Meeks probably favors the Heat most out of the starting five positions. With Iguodala probably staying on LeBron and Bosh keeping Elton Brand busy, Wade will get a bit more freedom with the inexperienced Meeks covering him. I know that Meeks is having a solid season but there are only a handful of guys in the NBA that can handle the duties of covering D-Wade.
LB - Who on the Sixers do you least want to face?
PiM - Generally the Heat have a hard time with opposing point guards, and I think that Jrue Holiday has been an ‘under the radar’ guy all season. I’m sure he’ll be a handful for Mike Bibby and Mario Chalmers, neither of which are particularly good when it comes to defending the quicker point guards in the league.
LB - Do you think Miami is overlooking this team?
PiM - Definitely not. The Heat didn’t overlook anyone during the regular season, whether they were playing the Celtics or the Wizards, so I certainly don’t think they will overlook anyone in the playoffs. This is the time of year that Miami has been preparing for since the Big 3 came together last summer and I imagine that they will be as focused as ever when this series gets underway.
LB - What will be the presumably catastrophic implications if the Sixers pull of an upset?
PiM - I think that would be a pretty big disaster down here in Miami. That isn’t a knock on Philly because regardless of who the Heat were going to play in the 1st round, if they don’t move on the round 2 then I don’t even want to think about what its gong to be like down here. Every media outlet will be drooling at the idea of being able to call this team a joke and give all the reasons why it’s never going to work, and we’ll have to endure that kind of talk for the majority of the summer. (Mike salivates.)
LB - Give me your prediction, biases and all.
PiM - I think that overall the Heat present too many matchup problems for Philly to overcome. Combine that with Miami chomping at the bit to get out there and start to do what they have been anxiously waiting to do for over six months, and I think that this will be a relatively quick series. I think the Sixers will take one of their home games, but that’s about it. I’ve got the Heat moving on in 5 games.
Thanks to David for answering some questions. Feel free to stop by and mingle with the folks at Peninsula is Mightier, but as always - be respectful and try to keep the Boshtrich chants to a minimum. Game one starts in approximately 30 hours!