NBA 2015 Playoffs Thread
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Pigbenis
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Gilgamel
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Cleveland will be MASSIVE underdogs against GSW. Lebron is Lebron but don't kid yourself.
Pigbenis
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Have you guys been watching the eastern playoffs at all? Tristen Thompson? Dellavedova? Shumpert? JR Smith? This whole Lebron is the only talented Cavalier is very 2005. I'm not saying we're going to cruise through the finals, but you may want to check out player stats from like the past 5 games.
Gilgamel
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Hah. Dellevedova? Really? Might as well be Sasha Pavlovic. Shumpert and JR? Sounds like Larry Hughes/Delonte/Mo Williams. I would argue Big Z/Drew Gooden/Varejao is a better three man big rotation than Mozgov/Thompson/Kendrick Perkin's corpse. The difference? Lebron is now peak Lebron, and Kyrie, even gimpy, is better than anyone the Cavs had then. But it's not some huge difference. I bet you were acting like Boobie Gibson actually good when he was hitting threes with Lebron back then too instead of realizing he's just a guy, a guy who happens to be playing with Lebron. Just like Shumpert, and JR, and Dellevedova, and all the other fungible parts of this roster other than Kyrie and the injured Sir Armbar.
Lebron makes these schlubs look like good NBA players. The difference is GSW legitimately has lots of good players.
Zzen
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Yes, we have been watching the playoffs because we follow basketball. We didn't just start watching again this year because Bron Bron rejoined our team.
JR Smith and Shumpert are not going to keep shooting 66% from behind the line. Dellavedova is fucking terrible, he scored 0 points in 25 minutes in game 1. Enjoy your run through a shitty Eastern Conference, even by Eastern Conference standards, while it lasts.
Pigbenis
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Dude I've been watching the Cavs since Mark Price, Larry Nance and Hot Rod Williams. I'm a Cleveland sports fan.
I'll admit including Dellavedova above may have been a bit much but I digress! I do agree that the Cavs can't keep playing at this level, but to say they'll get stomped in the finals is just dumb. Once the offense started clicking without K Love they dominated the Bulls and are currently embarrassing the number one team in the East. To say the Cavs are like sub par just because they're in the east proves that you actually do not follow basketball.
I don't think it's likely they beat GS, but you could see the recipe for it: Lebron keeps playing at this level, Thompson/Mozgov give them fits on the offensive glass and get Bogut/Green in foul trouble allowing Lebron to attack at will, and you get one or two unconscious games from JR Smith.
Even if they get swept it shouldn't diminish just how good Lebron has been, without Love and a one legged Irving this is basically a team of misfit toys at this point.
Even if they get swept it shouldn't diminish just how good Lebron has been, without Love and a one legged Irving this is basically a team of misfit toys at this point.
Angelwatch
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I'm on vacation right now so I've only caught highlights but I'm loving that the "next man up" philosophy isn't just empty words. Lebron is fantastic in his own right but he truly elevates the play of his teammates.
Pharazon
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I'm not taking the Rockets series for granted, cause if Houston wins two at home game 5 becomes very scary (Warriors need to take better care of the ball). But Cleveland has always been the most scary team to me, even when Love went down. They've been playing superb ball pretty much ever since their round of trades, and we know that while losing Love hurt their floor spacing and rebounding, it probably made their defense better. 3 guys that can go off on you regardless of how good your D is playing. Lebron and Kyrie will do that frequently, while JR Smith as mentioned above can have his one or two games in a series. Kyrie is especially scary to me - you know Lebron will get his but it'd be tough beating them in a playoff game when both guys go off.
I don't think the Warriors would or should be heavy favorites going in to a series with the Cavs. Favored? Sure. But pretty much nobody that's playing now for the Warriors has ever even been in the conference finals, let alone the finals. The Warriors coach is a guy that used to play with Jordan - the Cavs have Jordan* on the court. The Warriors have a lot of good players but being on that stage, playing against Lebron, could make any given guy shrink a bit. When it come down to it, Curry has to keep playing at the ridiculous level he's at right now to win, because the team follows his lead.
But like I said - Houston series isn't over. Those games were much too close for comfort. Warriors need to take better care of the ball, and hopefully Klay is due for a big game or two.
I don't think the Warriors would or should be heavy favorites going in to a series with the Cavs. Favored? Sure. But pretty much nobody that's playing now for the Warriors has ever even been in the conference finals, let alone the finals. The Warriors coach is a guy that used to play with Jordan - the Cavs have Jordan* on the court. The Warriors have a lot of good players but being on that stage, playing against Lebron, could make any given guy shrink a bit. When it come down to it, Curry has to keep playing at the ridiculous level he's at right now to win, because the team follows his lead.
But like I said - Houston series isn't over. Those games were much too close for comfort. Warriors need to take better care of the ball, and hopefully Klay is due for a big game or two.
Ambiturner
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Whoa, now. Lebron's been blown out of the finals 3 times, so let's not get crazy with the Jordan references.
Pigbenis
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Jordan played until he was 40, and Lebron is only 30 and not slowing down very much. Lebron still has at least 4 more years left of MVP quality basketball... unless of course the NBA starts getting more strict on juicing heh. Lebron's already breaking some impressive Jordan recordsLeBron James Breaks Michael Jordans Playoff Record for Most 25-5-5 Games | Bleacher Report. It'll be interesting when he hangs it up to see how his legacy goes. Jordan was like the first big megastar with the Nike, and Gatorade contracts. He's so engraved in our minds they still make his shoes. I'm not taking anything from the guy, but I might be biased having had to watch him burn the Cavs in the 80s.
I'm obviously biased having been raised in Chicago, but LeBron has a long way until he reaches Jordan levels. Between the stats, the unrelenting will, and the championship rings alone. Not to mention LeBron having to leave a team once to actually win, that automatically lowers lbj in my eyes.
Having said that if LeBron pulls down two more titles as a cav he'll probably sit pretty comfortably as my number two best basketball player.
Djay
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Jordan played college ball and had his baseball hiatus, as well as his second retirement before joining the Wizards, so he played 1072 games in 15 professional seasons and most were during the handcheck era. LeBron is already at 911 games in 12 seasons played (so he would get to 22 seasons if he played until 40). Jordan played 179 playoff games...LeBron is already at 170. My point is...LeBron could break a bunch of Jordan's records simply because he's going to play a shit ton more games than him...that alone doesn't make him better,
Personally I have LeBron at 4th All-Time, so I'm not saying he's not great, but my point is that those numbers don't mean much. Karl Malone beat out Jordan for an MVP and is higher on the All-Time scoring list...nobody is going to say Karl Malone was better than Jordan. LeBron's legacy is going to be defined by taking bad teams to the Finals and getting beat, then needing to form super teams to win...and doing it out of the weaker Eastern Conference. He's a Top 5 player all-time, but it's hard for him to get in that Top 3 while taking all of that into consideration.
Ambiturner
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That's what annoys me so much when they talk about Lebron's playoff record. The shittiness of the Eastern Conference really pads those numbers and makes it a meaningless statistic.