NBA Finals 2012: 5 Reasons Thunder Will Dominate Heat on Way to Title

The stage is set for the most potentially athletic, explosive NBA Finals in the history of the league. The Oklahoma City Thunder will take on the Miami Heat starting Tuesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, but it's not as even of a draw as outsiders are giving it credit for.

This is what fans and television companies have been craving. For reasons I figured it might happen, and for all the unpredictable factors that played into it, this dream matchup has become reality.

The old guard of the NBA and some of the most consistent teams in recent years have been the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics. This finals matchup signals the new guard in the league, especially in the case of the Thunder, as it features two recently emerging teams that are wandering into uncharted territory.

Dwyane Wade has been there before, but it's been far more of a challenge to get back to the championship round this season. LeBron James has been there before, but hasn't gotten it done either time.

Meanwhile, the Thunder are all making their first Finals appearances, save for Derek Fisher, who will be gunning for his sixth ring.

Here are seven reasons why the Thunder will make the most of their first opportunity at NBA immortality by dominating the Heat.

Thunder Have More Clutch Offensive Creators

Much of the Heat's offense relies on two perimeter players in isolation situations needing to create their own shot. There isn't much ball movement, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade continue to struggle with figuring out who takes over when.

While the same case can be made of the Thunder— Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all are often given isolation situations—there have been multiple cases where all three of these players have hit clutch shots down the stretch of games.

Wade is the only one of the two players on the Heat who has hit clutch shots on a consistent basis throughout his career. For whatever reason, James has been met with criticism for not being the one to take the shot with the game on the line.

As a team, the Heat have statistically proven to not be clutch this season, while Durant has taken over multiple playoff games, Harden hit the biggest shot of the postseason for his team in Game 5 against the Spurs, and Westbrook has proven to be a reliable facilitator in crunch time. Even though his shooting percentage isn't great, Westbrook has shown he can collapse the lane and dish to capable teammates to hit big shots.

The Heat also aren't big on the defensive interior, and Westbrook should have no problem getting there in this series. This will prove to be a huge advantage for the Thunder.

In winning four straight games against a dynamic, deep Spurs squad, the Thunder also learned to significantly improve its ball movement, and rely less on isolation offense now as a result.

When the game is on the line, though, is when isolation situations will be at a premium. The Thunder will be the team with the upper hand in this facet of the game.

Momentum

The Heat had to grind out a series against a relentless Boston Celtics squad who gave them all they could handle despite injuries that sidelined Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Avery Bradley.

The Thunder, meanwhile, rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Spurs, who were considered the deepest team in the league and playing the best basketball as they swept through the first two rounds with ease on the way to a 20-game winning streak.

Not only did the Thunder snap the winning streak, they sent the Spurs four games in the opposite direction.

Only six percent of teams in NBA playoff history have rallied to win a series down 2-0. With the Spurs appearing on the way to another sweep and a finals berth, the Thunder stormed back and dominated the rest of the series. When the Spurs made their very best runs to build sizable leads, including in the Game 6 clincher, the Thunder responded emphatically.

The Heat were dangerously close to losing a similar 2-0 lead to the Celtics, a team not as deep and not as seasoned as the Spurs, whose nucleus has had a hand in four NBA titles.

Scoring Depth

To say the Thunder and Heat have comparable depth is laughable.

The Heat have zero reliable scorers coming off the bench, and no defenders for that matter.

The Thunder, meanwhile, have Sixth Man of the Year Award winner James Harden, underrated and offensively skilled Nick Collison, and the man with five championships in Derek Fisher.

Even the occasionally utilized Daequan Cook proved his worth, exploding for eight quick points during a key stretch of Game 5 to keep the Thunder afloat while starters sat in the franchise's most important game since the move to Oklahoma City.

The Heat, meanwhile...have you seen their stats?

The "depth" they possess on the perimeter consists of Mike Miller, James Jones and Norris Cole. They are shooting 37, 35 and 31 percent respectively in the postseason.

Time and again, these role players have proven they cannot hit clutch shots, open shots—or any shots.

Starter Shane Battier only hits 31 percent of his shots. Seriously? 

Talk about a lot of strain on the Miami Big Three for offense, whereas the Thunder's "Big Three" don't have to carry the load in scoring every night, as was proven by outbursts from big men Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins in the Western Conference Finals, and even the typically defensive-oriented Thabo Sefolosha.

Interior Advantage

The aforementioned explosions on offense by Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka show that they can be counted on even in roles outside of their comfort zones.

They also make up the most formidable and physical interior defensive tandem in the NBA, as these playoffs have proved.

The chemistry has only improved, and it made life difficult for premier slashers Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili of the Spurs, as Ginobili's effectiveness after the first two games largely came from the perimeter.

The Heat, meanwhile, have Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem on the defensive interior. It's almost impossible to account for Chris Bosh in this group, since defense truly is not his forte at all.

Even offensively, the presence of Perkins and Ibaka almost neutralizes what Anthony and Haslem bring to the table. Never expect much out of Perkins or Anthony, but Ibaka and Haslem can both get hot and explode for points at times with underrated mid-range games when given open looks.

Obviously, Bosh is miles ahead offensively of his closest counterpart on the Thunder in Collison, but it is not even close as far as who is better on the defensive interior.

Defense wins championships, and it is more of that that has gotten the offensively explosive teams to this point. The Thunder are much better on the inside, especially with Bosh seeing his minutes increase.

Bosh will be hounded on the offensive end more than he ever has been in his entire career, even in last year's finals since he went up against Dirk Nowitzki, who is similarly not an interior force or massive presence on the defensive end.

Miami Big Three Pressure Is Better Than OKC Big Three Pressure

The huge publicity blitz and media attention garnered by LeBron James' "The Decision" and Chris Bosh's decision to join forces with James and Dwyane Wade in Miami was capped off with this bizarre pep rally after the Big Three had signed.

There was no publicity of this sort. The more humble, less glitzy "Big Three" of the Thunder is more humble, not quite as high-profile, and most importantly is homegrown.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden were all drafted by the franchise, and GM Sam Presti has been praised for building such a potential juggernaut dynasty almost completely through the draft.

Given that James predicted something like eight championships, he'd better get moving. At age 27, he has roughly 10 more years left, and if year two ends with no ring again, it seems less and less likely the team will even approach that number first.

The Thunder come in with nothing to lose in its first trip. There will be intense finals pressure, but expect them to play more carefree and aggressively, and come up big more often than their Miami counterparts, especially with Bosh facing such a different animal as far as his matchup, and James desperately trying to prove critics wrong and make his third NBA Finals appearance the charm to finally get it done.

The Heat Big Three know what failure on the biggest stage feels like. The Thunder "Big Three" don't know any better, and have proven they aren't afraid to take the big shot in any instance. That shouldn't change.

More people around America will likely cheer for the troubled, hardworking city that harnesses the Thunder over the entitled, hype machine from Miami.

All indications point toward a dominant finals performance by the Thunder, and a feel-good story that will give more fuel—and add more "Heat"—to magnify the story of the most vilified franchise in the NBA.