NBA 2015 Playoffs Thread

Draymond needs to stop being a whiny bitch every time he loses the ball/misses a shot and thinks he got fouled.

I know I am a biased Houston fan but I saw this play out before. 1995 Western Conference Finals. The Admiral gets the MVP that year. Olajuwon, defending champ and previous MVP, eviscerates Robinson in 6 games.

Their defense on Lebron is as good as its going to get. He's scoring a lot of points, but taking a ton of shots to do it and his fg % is pretty low this series. Really that's all you can ask for against someone like Lebron.

Warriors just need to stop making really stupid mistakes and stop missing so many open jumpers

You can look at that two ways though. LeBron is taking a lot of shots and missing a good amount of them, but what about when he starts making shots and has one of those 45 point games on 20-25 shots? If he does actually start finding his shot and keeps getting easy points in the paint guys like Delly wont have to score 20 points to put the game out of reach.

Golden State has to win tomorrow.

Despite what people keep saying, GS just isn't the superior team(obviously). I brought up how they went 1-1 in the regular season being relevant and got told it had no relevance. It obviously does, as these games have been very close. I took cavs in 6 and I still think that's how it plays out. cavs win next game and GS wins the following then Cavs put it away. In yo faces bitches!

West and East teams don't play each other four times in the season.

Curry needs to play like he did in the fourth quarter the whole game. For people who haven't watch much Dubs this season, you're watching the worst they've played all season. Warriors have been held to under 60 points after three quarters only twice all season. Both times have been in the past two games. It's just sickening to watch because it's hard to believe that the fucking Bad News Bears of basketball are the team to smother this Warriors offense.

I'm hoping for a repeat of the Grizz series. Dubs had enough. Kerr makes a money adjustment. Dubs don't lose another game.

Ugh. Meant 1-1. They split

I actually do think GS is the more talented team. I just think they are choking. They play fine when they are down 20 and make the comeback but when things get close, the shots start missing. Cavs are just playing stronger mentally and that's because of lebron

Alex_sl said:

West and East teams don't play each other four times in the season.

Curry needs to play like he did in the fourth quarter the whole game. For people who haven't watch much Dubs this season, you're watching the worst they've played all season. Warriors have been held to under 60 points after three quarters only twice all season. Both times have been in the past two games. It's just sickening to watch because it's hard to believe that the fucking Bad News Bears of basketball are the team to smother this Warriors offense.

I'm hoping for a repeat of the Grizz series. Dubs had enough. Kerr makes a money adjustment. Dubs don't lose another game.

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I like your confidence. But your basically saying the series can be had via Rambo esque one man band type shit with Curry carrying his team. Well thats already happening with Lebron. And if you are talking which superstar is more capable of carrying their team its obviously Lebron.

Curry has been great this year and might be the best deep threat the league has ever seen but he cant do the things James can its not close. You arent going to win a one man army contest against Lebron, Warriors role players and secondary guys are going to have to step up for them to even win another game never mind the series.

Alex_sl said:

For people who haven't watch much Dubs this season, you're watching the worst they've played all season.

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The problem is they're playing a different game now than in the regular season. They're caught in the "playoff basketball" phenomenon where the game is suddenly different than in the regular season, and they don't have the experience to adapt. What's surprising me is they don't even seem to understand it, and keep looking confused at the refs when calls that were routine in the regular season aren't called, or when they're getting physically bullied.

A lot of credit goes to Cleveland for knowing how far past the regular-season line they can push things and Lebron for having the experience to exploit it and coach up the team. Kerr should know better, so maybe it's just going to take a bit to sink in for the Warriors or they need to get punched in the mouth an entire series before realizing how it works and better luck next year. Thought they would have learned from the Grizzlies, who were maybe too beat up or lacking outside shooting to really teach the Warriors a few lessons.

I personally think it's dumb. It happens a little in football, but really the rules and enforcement are similar, it's just a rough game gets rougher because teams aren't holding back on one-and-done formats. It's a unique thing in the NBA where the literal rules and how a game is called can change completely the deeper you go into the playoffs. Add in the NBA refs, which I think are the most inconsistent and shitty of any sports league, and it's frustrating no matter who you're rooting for.

I'd rather they just went back to a regular season that wasn't all pussified and full of ticky-tack fouls, but that won't happen. The NBA has to protect it's flashy cash cows, so we're going to keep getting basketball where the best teams look like dogshit, and the successful playoff teams are the ones that understand they need to "slow it down and play physical" which doesn't exactly make for exciting basketball to the base the NBA tries so hard to reach.

It's not like the Warriors haven't taken advantage of the more lax calls though, they were running Curry off 2-3 illegal screens on every play at the end there. It wasn't even subtle on some of them, Dellavedova was getting killed by guys throwing their asses/elbows into every pick.

I still wouldn't be shocked at all if GS wins the series, it really looked like Cleveland had nothing left in the tank last night. Shouldn't take anything away from what they've done though, it's incredible they're taking it to this supposedly superior team with a 7 man misfit rotation.

It's not about Curry so much carrying them as it is leading them. A lot of the time, as he goes, the team goes. All season long I've seen a lot of people making claims about how Curry shouldn't be the MVP because of how talented they are. They are a very talented team, but they are a few steps lower on the offensive end if he's not playing or not playing well. When he plays well on O, it makes everybody else more dangerous. When he's out there making shit passes, poor decisions, and missing open jumpers as he has been, they're obviously much easier to keep in check. They have to find a way to make the Cavs pay for doubling him relentlessly off screens, or not much will change. They had some success doing that with Lee last night, we'll likely see more of him (especially since Green seems to be hurt.) Green has laid an absolute turd on the offensive end in this series.

Curry can't do the things Lebron can, but Curry has faced tougher D in this series than Lebron has. Curry often has two (at times even 3) guys focusing on him, while the Warriors are still playing Lebron about as straight as you can. Lebron is getting his points, but doing so at a shit percentage even with that coverage. The argument to be made for changing it up now and trying to double Lebron would be to speed up the tempo of the game, and hopefully create some turnovers to lead to easy baskets. More likely though they stick with their current scheme on D and try some offensive wrinkles as we saw in the 4th Q last night... though it's tough to tell how much of that was something they "found" and how much was the Cavs becoming lackadaisical on D after going up 20.

This always happens to jump shooting teams in the playoffs at some point. The games slow down, every possession eventually devolves into half-court basketball, and they stop calling ticky-tack fouls. If you cant adjust from there, your doomed. At this point, Kerr needs to force an adjustment somehow.

GSW was extremely reliant on fast break points in the regular season, but the way Cleveland is playing offense (aka Lebron ISO, which with his experience is very low turnover) those opportunities just aren't there anymore.

Skrala_sl said:

It's not like the Warriors haven't taken advantage of the more lax calls though, they were running Curry off 2-3 illegal screens on every play at the end there. It wasn't even subtle on some of them, Dellavedova was getting killed by guys throwing their asses/elbows into every pick.

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There's a difference between benefiting from random calls and game-planning play calling.

The more Lax calls? And you're going to bring up screens? And then complain about Del-do getting hit on screens?

Cavs fan or dirty casual....?

It's easy to start complaining about screens in the playoffs, especially since they're often on-ball so people actually notice them instead of all the other 'physical' shit going down, but the Warriors have been setting the same screens with Bogut's fat ass all season. That's the problem. They either won't change their style, or can't, and it's killing them. Bogut sticking his ass out or Green setting 2 hard picks a game may look illegal, or seem tough, but they aren't as effective or physical as constantly grabbing and making an opponent drag you around the court or popping them when they even think about coming to the rim for a rebound.

If Lebron wins this title that will be 3 for him with 6 appearences. And to do it with such little help would greatly improve his legacy.

Not only that but if Love signs n stays healthy along with Irving they have a chance to dominate the east and contend for the title for the next 4 years easily. Lebron could end up with 5 rings if they pull this off.

popsicledeath_sl said:

It's easy to start complaining about screens in the playoffs, especially since they're often on-ball so people actually notice them instead of all the other 'physical' shit going down, but the Warriors have been setting the same screens with Bogut's fat ass all season. That's the problem. They either won't change their style, or can't, and it's killing them. Bogut sticking his ass out or Green setting 2 hard picks a game may look illegal, or seem tough, but they aren't as effective or physical as constantly grabbing and making an opponent drag you around the court or popping them when they even think about coming to the rim for a rebound.

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Well no, the screens don't look illegal, they are illegal and are just not being called. Just like Dellavadova grabbing Curry, or Iggy mauling Lebron every time he drives. Lets not pretend that Cleveland is the only ones benefiting here though, that's ridiculous. Cleveland is just doing it better at the moment.

The one no-call that drove me wild was when the W's were mounting their epic fourth quarter comeback and Curry had a wide open shot and LeBron just tackled Curry before he got the shot off. Curry lost the ball and it was ran back to the other end. Simply considered a Curry TO. I shouted WTF pretty loud at that one.