NBA Finals Gamethread or how the NBA has more downtime than Game Of Thrones
- Thread starter DeJesus Built My Hotrod
- Start date
He only got those numbers because he teammates were allowing him to pad his stats.
Tonight's game was fantastic from the opening tip, which is good because, overall, the playoffs have been the worst I've ever watched.
They literally take a bunch of quick-triggered threes with hands in their face all the time. I know you are a GS fan and all that, and they do make a ton of tough shots and it's a delight to watch, but they take more "huh?" shots than any other team in the league.
Surprised Frye hasn't played at all. He can hit open 3's and the Cavs need that. Shumpert isn't playing smart either. Stevens would use them differently than Lue.
You're a top 3 poster in the NBA/NFL/CFB fora here, but please go and look at the 1993 NBA Finals.
LeBron at the presser: They made shots we didn't. Miss/make league. Digging deep into the cliche bag.
Cavs starting 5 draft positions:
1, 1, 4 ,5 ,18
Warriors starting 5 draft positions:
2, 7 ,11, 35, 42
WTF are you talking about? riboflav knows more about basketball than pretty much everyone in here, and certainly more than you.
You talking about the John Paxson jumper? Jordan didn't pass the ball to him, and I'm willing to bet he never would have in that spot. You know that 3 pointer from Paxson was the only points scored by the Bulls in the fourth quarter by someone other than Jordan?
Sure, there were games here and there where someone else made the final shot, but by and large, when the game was on the line, MJ did it himself. And he certainly wouldn't have been looking to pass it off for a 3 pointer, when his teammates were something like 7 for 33 from 3 point land at that point in the game. Jordan was the assassin that Durant is becoming. Lebron could be that guy, and he has been in series past. For some reason, he wasn't tonight.
that's precisely why they're right.
Warriors best strategy to beat Cavs or anyone else is to play beautiful basketball.
Cavs best strategy to beat Warriors or any other skilled team is to bruise them.
Which would be dumb because Love has been outstanding for them this playoffs.
Rebounds, hustle, bball IQ, and a great threat to have outside the three point line creating room for LBJ and Kyrie to drive.
If LeBron decides to tinker with the roster, who says no to a Paul George for Kevin Love trade this summer? Cleveland gets more athletic defensively and someone who can take the shot creating load off of LeBron and Kyrie. Indiana gets a good player who is signed for 2 more years for a guy they are likely going to lose next summer.
Yeah, because Jordan had something Lebron doesn't have. A coach who calls the plays. Phil Jackson called the play. If there was no play call from arguably the greatest coach of all time, who do you think would have taken that shot?
Lebron has no such restrictions. IMO, he needs to be more selfish. His teammates aren't getting it done, and they haven't been all series. Durant is literally taking the games over down the stretch. Lebron needs to do the same.
The real reason to root for the Cavs is to see what amazing lie Durant conjures up for his move to Cleveland.
Anthony Davis would be a great fit on GS.
Ian Clark, JMM, and a couple of firsts should be enough to get that done.
Ian Clark, JMM, and a couple of firsts should be enough to get that done.
You're contradicting yourself. If MJ wasn't calling his shots, or at least the game-deciding ones, because of Phil, then you can't give MJ credit for the shot-calling.
Plus Lebron is right to pass. Not only is he a worse long distance shooter than mature MJ was, but Kyrie is a better shooter (NOT PLAYER) than Pippen, Love a better shooter than Grant, and Korver a better shooter than Paxson.
People are getting caught up in individual plays at the end of the game without providing context. 32.5yr old LeBron James, who has played 14 regular seasons plus the equivalent of another high-leverage two and a third seasons of NBA basketball in his playoff career played 45 minutes tonight after averaging Cleveland-return high of 37.8 mpg this season. He was gassed at the end when Durant, who was on the court for 40 minutes tonight (but who averaged a career low 33.4 MPG this season), took that three.
Hell, Kyrie, had to work 44 minutes for every bit of his amazing - and damn is Kyrie insanely good at finishing - 38 points on 55.2% shooting. He was gassed too when he couldn't get one of those last out-of-nothing layups to fall. He too was gassed at the end.
This is the story of the game and the series. The Cavs have to play near perfect basketball to have a chance and despite doing so, spread out between their top two offensive stars who played the whole game, they still came up short.
That said, Cleveland still has a path to victory on Friday and that is all that matters.
Keep trapping Curry to start the game when Zaza is on the floor. Klay Thompson got hot tonight but their best bet is to keep gambling against him (as crazy as it sounds, it really is their best chance). On offense, keep getting LeBron switched on to Curry so he can either drive and kick to a shooter. Love can and will shoot better from deep. If Smith and Young Korverstein can hit their shots, we will have a ballgame. It just sucks for the Cavs that their biggest guns simply cannot rest. This is where LeBron's regular season milage (and with all due respect to HRB, I don't agree that a few games of rest toward the end helps here) and age are his enemy. He worked as hard for the game he had and the bill came due at the end.
Hell, Kyrie, had to work 44 minutes for every bit of his amazing - and damn is Kyrie insanely good at finishing - 38 points on 55.2% shooting. He was gassed too when he couldn't get one of those last out-of-nothing layups to fall. He too was gassed at the end.
This is the story of the game and the series. The Cavs have to play near perfect basketball to have a chance and despite doing so, spread out between their top two offensive stars who played the whole game, they still came up short.
That said, Cleveland still has a path to victory on Friday and that is all that matters.
Keep trapping Curry to start the game when Zaza is on the floor. Klay Thompson got hot tonight but their best bet is to keep gambling against him (as crazy as it sounds, it really is their best chance). On offense, keep getting LeBron switched on to Curry so he can either drive and kick to a shooter. Love can and will shoot better from deep. If Smith and Young Korverstein can hit their shots, we will have a ballgame. It just sucks for the Cavs that their biggest guns simply cannot rest. This is where LeBron's regular season milage (and with all due respect to HRB, I don't agree that a few games of rest toward the end helps here) and age are his enemy. He worked as hard for the game he had and the bill came due at the end.
Last edited:
Here comes the gassed argument even after Cleveland swept Round 1, waited 8 days to start Round 2, swept Round 2, waited 10 days to start the ECF, won the most lopsided 5 game series you will ever see and got a week off before the Finals started.
How will the Cavs manage in Game 4 in crunch time when it is the only game in the Finals with 1 off day beforehand?
How will the Cavs manage in Game 4 in crunch time when it is the only game in the Finals with 1 off day beforehand?
Yes, but being tired can be an acute thing too. I'm not sure that I would have used the term "gassed", because they looked pretty good to me. But it's certainly believable that GS had more left in the tank at the end, and it could explain why they stopped attacking the rim despite being so dominant.
I understand your skepticism but the reality is that there is plenty of data to back up the concept of players succumbing to fatigue.
At the end of the day, you saw the game. LeBron and Irving were unstoppable at points. The problem is that their performances were unsustainable and that led to the Warriors comeback. That said, you and others will go with whatever narrative you see fit.
For me, its pretty clear that asking LeBron and whatever second banana he chooses as his sidekick to beat a team loaded with four plus stars who have the luxury of sitting for five-plus minutes is a tall order. And if you are on the wrong side of 30, the odds simply do not favor you.
I don't know about you, but having to play 45 minutes, needing to score 40, and then defending Durant/Curry on the other end for much of it, would have even world class athletes tired.
You never see a single player on GS beg for a whistle. Nope, they play the right way, with the best players. Top men.
I hope my sarcasm meter is broken because there's not a single NBA player that doesn't whine for fouls. Curry is a big whiner, Durant too. Any player that regular drives to the basket is a whiner.
Top men should have been a clue I was being sarcastic. Any team with Draymond Green on it does not get to complain the other team whines.
Feel free to make the argument that the Cavs have better players, if you'd like to.
Even a casual sports fan watching the 1st quarter would have been amazed at seeing Lebron desperately crashing all over the place. I think the plan was to use that intensity to open up a lead and then to hold that lead with the defense they deployed in the second half, while giving Lebron something of a rest. Just didn't pan out that way.
But that has nothing to do with the style the Cavs, or the rest of the NBA, play. The notion that this series will somehow kill "hero ball" ignores that it's been largely dead for years now. The Cavs are pushing the strategy everybody agrees they should push this series. And they aren't even doing a great job of it, the pace is WAY too fast for them to win. They're not a hero ball team. They're just doing what they have to do to compete with a 73 win team that added an MVP and top 2 player.
And yet he thinks a league whose best teams are Golden State, San Antonio, Houston, Boston, and Cleveland is rife with hero ball. The league has shifted drastically over the last 3-4 years. Hero ball died already.
You left out Draymond, who is likely the worst offender in the entire NBA in terms of over the top whining.
And yeah, I also don't buy that we have a hero ball problem anymore. The Cavs offense looked nothing like this during the Celtics series and they were constantly finding open guys - it just happens that they ran into the one bigger buzzsaw and they stopped hitting the open looks they were seemingly hitting every time against us.
I just don't understand how someone that has played basketball his entire life does not understand the game situation and how you absolutely had to go for a 2 on 1. He had 10 seconds of dribbling, he didn't even need to really rush to make it happen. That's Andy Reid level clock mismanagement.
What was the last "hero-ball" team to win a title? The 2010 Kobes? Even that is fairly debateable.
It was awful, and I'm guessing that the 44 minutes played made him marginally more prone to mental lapses of that kind.
Harden, IT, Kyrie, Durant and Curry at times, all say hi. I'll grant you that Spurs don't really play hero ball.
Oh, I see. You don't know what hero ball is. The guy running D'Antoni's offense and who lead the league in assists is paying hero ball.
Cleveland doesn't play hero ball. That's ludicrous. They play fast, spread the floor with shooters, run an offense around pick and rolls, etc. It's essentially the same offense that Golden State runs. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Golden State has much better players. That's it. That's the difference.
The Cavs played as well as could be expected last night for the first 44 or 45 minutes and still lost. That has to be demoralizing. Yes, they could have shot a little better and should have managed the clock better late, but given how well Kyrie and Lebron played on offense and how well Love rebounded they should have had a more secure lead. I don't know where they go from here. I guess they could explore trading Love for Butler or George in the offseason. That makes them different, but I'm not sure it makes them better. Or at least not better enough to beat this version of GS.
The Cavs played as well as could be expected last night for the first 44 or 45 minutes and still lost. That has to be demoralizing. Yes, they could have shot a little better and should have managed the clock better late, but given how well Kyrie and Lebron played on offense and how well Love rebounded they should have had a more secure lead. I don't know where they go from here. I guess they could explore trading Love for Butler or George in the offseason. That makes them different, but I'm not sure it makes them better. Or at least not better enough to beat this version of GS.
