NBA Finals 2012: 5 Difference Makers for Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder

Sitting courtside yesterday in Oklahoma City with Chris Bosh as the Miami Heat got in a final practice before their Game 1 matchup against the Thunder, ESPN's Rachel Nichols asked the oft-injured power forward if he feels ready for tomorrow night. Bosh responded by saying that he's ready and excited, and for anyone not excited about the NBA Finals, he said you ought to check your pulse. 

As a New York Knicks fan, I hate to agree with anyone from the Heat, but the dude is right. Tonight will be the start of something special for NBA fans. The Finals will win over even the non-believers—the haters who always gonna hate—and show the world why there are fewer things in life more entertaining that watching two bona fide megastars duke it out in a Best-of-Seven series with the NBA championship on the line.

So as we approach tip-off, I figured I'd write a few words about five players from both the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder who will need to have an impact for their team to emerge victorious

Without further ado, here are my top five players from each team who are critical to making the NBA Finals an amazing and competitive series.

LeBron Raymone James

Let's get the obvious ones out of the way. LeBron James is the best player on the court and in the league, and when all is said and done—with all due respect to Michael Jordan—he could have a better career statistically than His Air-ness. I still think MJ is and always will be the greatest ever, for reasons that extend beyond the basketball court—he pretty much invented sports marketing—but LeBron has a chance to do something special.

It begins tonight, as he stands only a few games away from his first ring.

All plays need to flow through LeBron. He's a play maker like Magic Johnson—and more like him than Michael Jordan—and the Heat are at their best when the offense is facilitated through LeBron, not Super Mario.

But speaking of, Mario Chalmers and LeBron should switch roles more often. LeBron needs to play the point in half-court offense more often, and Chalmers, a proven clutch shooter, needs to take more big shots down the stretch. Teams will collapse onto LeBron with tenacious double teams, so Chalmers needs to be ready to receive the kick-out pass from LeBron and hit the open jumper when the game is on the line. 

But I digress.

Simply put, if LeBron has one off game, it could cost them the series. The Heat are two Hall of Fame players supported by a cast of mostly average-to-mediocre role players, Bosh excluded (most of the time). While the Thunder can afford one of their many weapons to have an off night because of their well-balanced attack, the Heat won't win if either LeBron or Dwyane Wade play anything less than their absolute best.

Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade is going to have his hands full at times checking Russel Westbrook and James Harden. Will he have enough in the tank on both ends of the floor if the series extends to seven games?

Westbrook is sheer speed and, other than Emanuel Ginobili, Harden may be the craftiest player in the league in terms of reading defenses and switching on a dime.

Wade will get his shots as usual, but it's going to take everything he has on both ends of the floor for the Heat to win. The Heat need to get 60 points a night, at least, from Wade and LeBron. Bosh isn't reliable at all right now, and the Heat bench can't be expected to produce much; they certainly didn't in the Eastern Conference finals against the Celtics.

If the Heat can't score 90 points per night, they won't have a shot at winning it all.

LeBron has done his share by carrying the load all along. It's time for Wade to step it up and go point-for-point with LeBron. The biggest matchup for the Heat may not be with an opposing player. It will ultimately come down to how Wade stacks up against LeBron.

Is Wade capable of being the Finals MVP he once was?

Chris Bosh

Chris Bosh needs to shoulder some of the scoring load to take some of the burden off LeBron and Wade. The Heat have virtually no offense after the big two. It's been a few weeks since Bosh returned from the stomach injury, and it's time now for him to start earning his money with consistent play.

But it's not so much what Bosh will do on the offensive end that will determine the fate of the Heat this year as it is with what he does on the defensive end. Coach Spo will probably switch him between guarding Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, but he should be guarding Ibaka most of the series and let Joel Anthony or Udonis Haslem work on Perkins.

When Ibaka is scoring with ease—like in his game in the ECF when he went 11-11—the Thunder are nearly impossible to beat. Bosh not only needs to keep Ibaka from going off like that again, but he also needs to keep him away from the boards and out of the paint as much as possible.

When Ibaka has his way down low, players rarely get a shot off in the paint, be it from a layup or a post up move, and unless they make it, Ibaka will tear down the rebound.

Mike Miller

Other than maybe Shane Battier, no one on the Heat is good enough to knock down threes without commanding a double team except for Mike Miller. He's been rusty as of late (for a long, long time) but he should use that reputation to his advantage. The Thunder probably aren't spending a lot of time figuring out how to stop Miller, so he should be more aggressive this series in taking threes.

If he can catch fire, the Heat will be more than just a one- or two-man team and will actually spread the floor instead of just defaulting to an isolation play for LeBron or Wade. They'll actually have an offense whereby LeBron or Wade will have a reliable person to kick it out to once they face the double team.

Without Miller, the Heat will no doubt still be a threat to win the NBA championship, but sooner or later in this series the Thunder will figure out a way to contain one of them (probably Wade), and then that leaves LeBron to once again do it all on his own a la the Cleveland days.

And then somewhere, Dan Gilbert will be smiling, writing a letter in comic sans font. And no one wants that.

Udonis Haslem

I'm a Knicks fan, so naturally I hate the Heat. That said, it's hard to hate on Udonis Haslem. In fact, he kind of reminds me of the way the Knicks used to play in the 90s. I can totally see him backing up Charles Oakley or Anthony Mason.

The guy has been in Miami during some bad runs but has always played with heart. He even walked away from big money in other markets two summers ago for a chance to win now with two superstars in Miami. He's sacrificed his body and a lot of money to be where he is right now, and no one on the Heat deserves another ring more than UD.

But he's fallen off as of late. He was rendered useless and was nowhere to be found in pivotal games against the Celtics. His team was good enough to get through to the next round without much from him, but they need him back in a big way. Udonis will need to do all of the scrapping and diving that he's known for in order for the Heat to win.

If he can't get dirty and challenge for every rebound like he normally does while also putting up 10 point per game, the Heat may fall in the NBA Finals.

Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant. Find me another player, besides maybe Tim Duncan, who is as modest as he is talented. Durant is a franchise center and likely a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  At the same moment in NBA history that LeBron broadcast his "decision," Durant quietly tweeted that he signed a max contract.

But enough of the comparisons. They're both amazing players, and any fan would gush over having either one on their team.

In order for OKC to continue to dominate, Durant just needs to be his normal, brilliant self and keep doing what he's doing. The question is: Will he be able to do it in a seven-game series against an amazing defender like LeBron? Or as a first-timer in the Finals, will he cave under pressure?

As great of a defender as LeBron is, Durant should use his quickness to beat LeBron off the dribble. If he can get past LeBron, he will find himself driving the lane towards an incredibly intimidating front court of Joel Anthony and Chris Bosh (can someone invent a sarcasm font?).

If Durant settles for jumpers, LeBron's going to stop him eventually. But if Durant can beat LeBron off the dribble a few times, it'll be a piece of cake to score from there. The Heat are going to be thin on defense on some possessions, and the Thunder's job is to recognize and exploit it immediately.

And it will begin and end with KD.

Russell Westbrook

The NBA Finals are as much about continuing to do what you do well as they are about making adjustments and changing playing styles. We all know Russell Westbrook can score with the best of them, and I don't think we've realized just what he's capable of offensively. He may be the closest player we'll see to Derrick Rose.

But my advice to Russ would be this: Stop shooting so much! Pass more, and you'll find that the team is unstoppable. The Thunder already have enough offensive weapons that they don't need to rely on their point guard to shoulder the scoring load, much like the Chicago Bulls do with Rose.

Westbrook is going to get double teamed without a doubt. The question is, when the double comes, will he force the shot or pass out to the open Harden stoking his beard on the three point line? Don't force shots like you often do, Russ.

Look for the beard. Look for the beard.

Serge Ibaka

If Serge Ibaka only plays an average series, OKC could still win. But he's a difference maker in the sense that if he defends at a high level, rebounds and blocks like a monster and can still score in double digits every game, the Thunder are going to win the series and get their first championship.

One of the most obvious mismatches in this series is at the center position. Expect Ibaka to have a few big scoring games, either from put backs or by creating his own shot. Joel Anthony, Udonis Haslem and even Chris Bosh stand little chance at stopping him if he plays like he did at points against the Celtics in the Conference finals. It'll take LeBron coming over as a weak side defender to really put Ibaka in check.

Ibaka should have free reign this series and with the Heat concentrating on Perkins, look for the Thunder to really exploit the mismatch that Ibaka presents to Miami.

Thabo Sefolosha

The Thunder don't expect much from Thabo Sefolosha in terms of doing things that show up in the box score. They expect him to make sure his opponents don't show up in the box score.  And even though James Harden won Sixth Man of the Year and Thabo's the starter, we all know who the better player is, and I don't think even Thabo would disagree.

But when he's doing things like recording six steals in a Conference finals game like he did a few weeks ago, the Thunder take on a whole new dimension. No one questions the offensive prowess of the Thunder. But when Thabo plays defense, it's not even close. The rest of the team follows, and they're sound on both ends of the court.

He's got a ton of skills for such a young player, and we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg with this kid. The question is whether he's ready to take his do-it-all-but-never-be-recognized skill set to the next level on the NBA's biggest stage.

If he does, he'll definitely be recognized.

James Harden

I wonder if Durant calls him Jim when he doesn't play well. It can't be all that often because Harden has taken his game to the next level during these playoffs, leaving everyone to wonder if he should really be eligible for sixth man—and if the Thunder will be able to afford him when it soon comes time to renegotiate his contract.

Harden will be asked to do a lot this series, and he'll have to do it at times against Dwyane Wade, one of the league's premiere perimeter defenders. For the Thunder to be successful, though, Harden needs to be brilliant. Without him, the Thunder are very much like the Heat in that they have two very good players and then a cast of others who could either stink it up or step up.

The Thunder are obviously a more well-rounded team, but the point is, when Harden is at his best, it seems at moments that the team's offense runs through him rather than through Durant.

Defenders haven't found a way to stop him short of elbowing him in the head simply because he can react on a dime and his young legs allow him to adjust immediately to weak-side defenders. He passes well out of the double team, too, and he should look to do this if the show is not there. The same goes for Westbrook.

Harden needs to be aggressive this series and just believe in himself. If he does that, the Thunder will be very hard to beat.

And maybe, just maybe, in a few weeks we'll see him shave off the beard.