Playoff Game Thread
- Thread starter ElUno20
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The Cavs are pretty stacked. I'm not sure shitty would be the right word to use to describe the team. In the first half, the refs were calling it Toronto's way but it didn't matter, they can't keep up with the shooters.
Toronto is the disappointing team. I thought they might be capable of giving Cleveland a bit of a fight. No such luck...
If it ends up Cle vs Boston and Hou vs GS, that is 4 of the top 5 teams in 3PA. 4th place is the Brooklyn Nets...
Fair enough.. I'm just tired of watching the LeBron show I guess. And I don't really see Cleveland as stacked I suppose, but I probably don't understand the current NBA landscape. I get LeBron, Irving, maybe Love.. but after that it's players like Smith, Shumpert, Corver, Thompson... is this stacked? Who would those players compare to in past NBA eras? Is that like saying Horace Grant, Paxson and Cartwright?
edit: I feel like the tenor of the game changed in the fourth.. and admittedly I may have missed things, but there were a number of possessions in a row where fouls were called on one end and not on the other. And I know that's the refrain of the loser, but through the first three quarters the difference between the two teams was minuscule and suddenly everything changed.
Not playoff game specific but wanted to make sure I shared this playoff oriented piece penned by Dion Waiters for the Players Tribune. I love Waiters but I know others don't like him. This may change your opinion of the guy,
I have no evidence to back this up but I feel like SA rolling out three guys (Gasol, Lee and Aldridge) that can score with their backs to the basket throws teams through a loop. No other team in the NBA is going to roll out a unit like that so teams have little experience dealing with it.
It's not going to work against GS, but nothing would from any team, assuming their big 4 stays healthy.
Yup. Spurs might be able to take them to 6 if they play well. Houston would lose to GS in 4 or 5. On the other side, neither the Celtics nor Wizards would pose much of a threat to Cleveland. Celtics would have homecourt but just aren't playing good enough basketball although there's still time for that to change.
Those Warriors/LeBron matchups are fun but I'm ready for someone new to emerge.
We need some pairups of the young superstar big men and the superstar guards, not sure how that will happen but I hope that it does.
Yup. I feel like there is a lot of wasted talent not being displayed due to Anthony Davis, Cousins, and Towns playing in NBA purgatory.
I think Milwaukee is the team that will rise up and challenge people. They have some flexibility with Monroe's expiring contract and they have a little bit of cap room. If they can get a bit more offense and a few three and D guys for the bench, they have the personnel to give Cleveland a run.
Great article, thanks for posting. It's hard to imagine what some of these guys go through even while reading it. I bet he ends up in broadcasting.
I still can't believe they basically maxed him
If they blow it up or for another reason let Lowry go and have derozan on an almost max the gm should be lit on fire
The East needs another "Big 3" so bad. LeBron has been amazing but he has benefitted from his Miami peak coming at the tail end of the original Big 3 era and there hasn't been anyone since. You can only play your schedule so can't knock him for it but kind of sucks that we have to wait until the NBA Finals every year to see him get challenged.
The C's should be close if they land Fultz and if Milwaukee ever gets fully healthy, they'll be dangerous.
Fultz hasn't even turned 19. He wouldn't make a big impact next year, at least with respect to knocking off Cleveland. Hopefully the Celtics can land one of the Hayward/Butler/George trio. Agree on Milwaukee if Parker can come back healthy. I don't think anyone else is even remotely close.
With 19 seconds in the 2nd quarter, Hood hit a 3 pointer to give the Jazz the first lead they've held this entire series. They are up 50-49 at half.
They are awful. Not one mention of Oubre's contact with the ref. What a bunch of disingenuous pricks.
Cleveland /Golden State. What a shocking confluence of events if it comes to pass. Wake me in 2019.
I played this back three times to make sure I got it right, preserved for posterity:
“You got to sprint back collectively, it’s tough to have Rodney Hood be the lone defender against Kevin Durant with a full steam of headm."-Mark Jackson
(It wouldn't have been so funny if he had just transposed 'head' and 'steam', but after he said 'head' he knew something was missing, so he said 'headm' (pronounced heddum) on national TV and I'm pretty sure no one called him on it.)
“You got to sprint back collectively, it’s tough to have Rodney Hood be the lone defender against Kevin Durant with a full steam of headm."-Mark Jackson
(It wouldn't have been so funny if he had just transposed 'head' and 'steam', but after he said 'head' he knew something was missing, so he said 'headm' (pronounced heddum) on national TV and I'm pretty sure no one called him on it.)
It's unbelievable that ESPNs "A" team is the top announce team in all of basketball. Also, how the fuck is Mike Breen ahead of Marv Albert and Kevin Harlan? I think there are a lot of good NBA teams on the air and somehow the ESPN A team is the worst one.
Note: This is the first of roughly 2,000 posts I will make complaining about Breen, JVG and Jackson between now and the end of the finals.
Who loses first this postseason, GS or Cleveland? And when? Game 3 of the conference finals? Game 1 of the Finals?
Significantly less fun. Instead of Houston, San Antonio, and Okla City all having a chance, all three have absolutely no chance. This season, the NBA was a blast. There are some incredible things happening on the court. And some incredible and amazing players.
But these playoffs have been astoundingly bad. It's not even remotely dramatic. The games have been bad, in general, and the series' have been worse. It kind of sucks.
I think Cleveland sweeps the east, but GSW will lose one or two against SA if they advance. If Houston advances, I think they get swept. I don't think the finals will be very good either - it will be crazy if Cleveland sweeps the east...then gets swept themselves in the finals.
I'd tend to agree with this. By my count there have been 56 playoff games so far and 32 of them have been decided by 10 or more points. No idea how that compares to past years but seems like a high percentage.
There have been some good games but there have been far too many games where one team craps all over itself.
The first round wasn't that bad; MIL vs Toronto, HOU vs OKC, ATL vs WAS, SA vs MEM and LAC vs UT were all competitive. The second round has been pretty bad mainly because it's become clear that we are headed for a third CLE vs GS Finals, which is great if you are a fan of one of those two teams, kind of lame if you are a fan of any other team.
I'd argue that this has been fully clear all season long, and it's definitely impacted my interest level all year.
How is this obvious outcome any different than the entire history of the league? The 2-3 elite players of that generation dominate for a 10-15 year period, with occasional 'one hit wonder' teams.
It's really rare that both finalists are this locked in all season long, even last year when GS had the best record ever, they had a genuine challenge from OKC in the playoffs. You might have to go back to some of the Celtic/Laker Magic/Bird years to find cases where both finalists seem this definite from day 1.
Exactly. The only difference is that some eras only have one dominant team while this one like many others have two.
NBA basketball has always been dominated by the top individual players who you can best build elite teams around. Still the case.
I don't think we should be conceding the finals to the Cavs just yet. The odds are in their favor, but the Celtics are capable of bearing them in a 7 game series just like OKC was capable of doing so to GSW last year.
OKC was capable of beating GS because they had two top 5 players in Durant and Westbrook along with a solid supporting cast. The Celtics don't have that.
The Celts just don't match up with the Cavs in any way. OKC had Westbrook and KD. Two generational talents. It's not a good comp.