NBA Finals Game 3 Open Thread

This article only adds to fact, outside of LBJ/KD, Bosh might be player I'd want most on GSW. Great read: http://t.co/C6Tk2BCHWo

— sam esfandiari (@samesfandiari) June 10, 2014

Two articles to read while you wait for Game 3 to begin: Tom Haberstroh's article about Chris Bosh and Tom Ziller's article about the importance of movement and spacing after Game 2, including this nugget about the Golden State Warriors.

In many ways, the Finals are a crash course for team-builders in what you need to win in today's NBA. The Spurs and Heat model aren't perfectly replicable because it's hard to find great talent...But teams can learn from the two franchises' actual on-court behavior. Too many teams lack a corps of shooters to pop in as needed. Too many teams rely on too few shot creators or embrace a system that restricts the natural ball-handling and passing skills of its players. (The Warriors' offense, for example, basically wasted the sharing skills of Andrew Bogut and David Lee.)

Ziller's note about the Warriors isn't exactly controversial or contrary to the prevailing sentiment around here and might even be quantifiable.

SportVU team data factoid, the Warriors were not only last in the NBA in passes per game, they were last by a sizable margin.

— Seth Partnow (@WhrOffnsHppns) June 10, 2014

This series has been basketball at its best thus far and, at this point, I just hope we see more of that regardless of who wins.

Enjoy the game.