::::NBA:::: 2016-2017-2018 Season

Let's be VERY CLEAR from this day forward.... Cleveland has a big 2.... not a big 3.

Love is absolutely useless.

 

Love contributed that game, and has played better this series tHan I anticipated but he is out of his element defensively against gs

 

*The Hard Road* • r/Thunder

 

It's not only okc fans. Durant is really a hated guy based on what I see on twitter. The better he plays the worse it gets.

 

Are you including "punishment" Lebron takes when he flops or actual punishment?

Lebron is a finesse player in a power players body. It's difficult to ascertain what Lebron absorbs because he spends so much time exaggerating everytime someone touches him.

Case in point last night when Tristan Thompson caught him. He laid on the ground as if he were Roy vs Glen Johnson. After the timeout he drives down the court and does his normal forearm-shove lay up.

Lebron and toughness should never be confused with each other.

 

Refs did their best to try to help Cleveland but to no avail.

 

Lebron IS durable. Tough? I don't know. He plays the way everybody plays it now (except for Marcin Gortat, LOL) in order to get calls.

I think Lebron had no idea he ran into Tristan and thought he was trying to pull a flagrant from somebody on the Warriors. Could have also been taking a rest break, trying to slow the game down. NBA you can have an injury break and not have to come out of the game.

I think Jordan is easily #1 and I don't see any way Lebron overtakes him, but Jordan also probably took a little less punishment then everybody else in the league. I won't pretend he wasn't protected just a little bit more then other players of his era. Probably only other guy protected on his level was Karl Malone.......who was essentially the bowling ball version of James Harden of his era.

 

It was a very good game. Cleveland stars played about as well as they could and NOT win the game. Love even held his own defensively, even if he was slow getting back on a lot of possessions.

One thing Cleveland should have done from the very beginning, is to forbid Iman Shumpert and Deron Williams from ever taking a single shot, god they are bad. At least Shumpert can play some defense.........and Tristan Thompson has given them total shit in this series.

 

In THEORY, Stockpiling 3pt Shooters was a Good Move on Cleveland's Part...But After Game 2 of the Finals, it was APPARENT They Weren't Going to Beat Golden State in a 3pt Shooting Contest...

Game 3 was LOST in that Same Vein...All Series Looooooooooong, Bron has PENETRATED the Lane Effortlessly, Gotten Close Enough to the Rim for a Finger Roll and/or Floater, Yet Elected to Kick the Ball Out for a Corner 3...

This Resulted in a Shitload of Turnover's for Bron in Game 1, and a Litany of MISSED 3's, Since Then...A FOR SURE 2pts is Better than a POSSIBLE 3pts, All Day, Every Day...

Literally, Golden State is THE ONLY Team in NBA History that Can PASS UP a For Sure 2pts for a Possible 3pts...When Steph Pulls Up for a Trey, Even w/a CLEAR Path to the Basket, Even 35ft AWAY from the Basket, that's a GOOD Shot for Him...When Durant or Klay have Opportunities for Transition 3's, that's a FAVORABLE Scenario for Them...And They're THE ONLY Team that Can Consistently Do This and Win...

Cleveland has Spent All Series Trying to MATCH Golden State in this Way, and they're just NOT Equipped to Play that Game, Successfully...

Kyrie Irving FINALLY Started Penetrating, but he's Still Shooting Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay Tooooooooooo Many 3's...He's Caught Up Trying to OUT DUEL Steph...Play YOUR Game, Kyrie, Fuck Steph...

It's Pretty Much a MOOT Point Now, but Cleveland CANNOT Continue Trying to MATCH Golden State 3 for 3...

Even in the Closing Minutes Last Night, the Cavs Hoisted Up One Missed 3 After Another...w/Bron AND Kyrie on the Court, PENETRATE!!!...Draw Fouls, Make Layups, Create Offensive Rebounding Opportunities...Hell, Post Up Kevin Love, Who's Usually had an UNDERsized Guy on Him, on Switches...

Instead, Cleveland's Missing 3's and Golden State's Getting Pathetically EASY Looks @ the Basket, Because of Piss Poor Transition Defense...When Your Transition Defense SUCKS, the Last Thing You Need to Do is Jack Up 3's...

If Cleveland has ANY Prayer of Saving Face and PREVENTING Golden State from Celebrating on their Court, they HAVE to Become LESS Reliant on the 3-Ball...








REED

 

Love HASN'T Been the Problem...And Until Last Night, he was Having a BETTER Series than Kyrie, in REED's Opinion...








REED

 

REED's Pretty Sure Bron Caught Thompson's ELBOW in the Solar Plexus...

Sure, Bron Flops (Who DOESN'T, These Days?), but he TAKES a Great Deal of Punishment...More than Any Other Current Perimeter Player, for Certain...







REED

 

james took a pretty hard hit from the blind side with thompsons shoulder to his jaw. that wasnt a flop

 

Pretty much. Lebron was just dominating the the 1st half, and Kyrie was making Golden State's interior defense look like a joke for most of the game. I understand that J.R. Smith and Love can occasionally get hot..............but why Lebron starts kicking out to Shumpert, Jefferson, Frye, Deron Williams and company for any reason at all in the 2nd half, when he can just lower his shoulder and do whatever the fuck he wants, I'll never know.

 

The Cavs have been reliant on the three all year, REED.

 

Steph Curry changed the game forever. Now everyone is trying to play the three point game.

 

Scoring wise Love hasn't been a factor but last night I thought he rebounded well and uncharacteristically made big defensive plays.

 

Steph played a role in the shift, but really, the main culprit that fucked up the game was analytics.

Bunch of number crunching nerd faggots that know fuck all about the game outside of statistics convinced GMs, coaches, and players that ONLY three pointers and layups are "efficient" shots. But they provided no context for such statements, hence, the death of the midrange game... aka the STAPLE of the goddamn sport.

And so, basketball is now far more boring than it once was, and you essentially have two teams who are simply attempting to out long range shoot, and out pick n roll the other team.

 

We'll agree to disagree on this point. Lebron's constantly running over and pushing guys out of his way. he dishes out more punishment then benefits at the free throw line and drawing fouls moreso than he receives punishment.

 

Lebron's never had to deal with REAL physicality.

I'm talking about early 90s Knicks physicality... Lebron would be whining his ass off.

 

I don't quite get your point here.

It might be that the game is more boring than before but development such as this happens all the time in all ball games.

Hockey has changed to a much faster game in recent years, in the 90s the players were muscular and strong, now they are lean and quick.

Soccer has changed to more strategic. You can't win anymore by just reacting or being creative, everybody has to know beforehand what to do in each situation.

Quick ball movement and shooting threes seems to be the winning strategy of basketball now but surely you can't blame the people who figured it out. It is up to other people to come up with a strategy that beats that and, who knows, maybe the traditional skills will be revitalized in progress.

You can't keep playing in a 'cooler' way if that leads you to get your ass kicked

 

"Reliant" Suggests they COULDN'T have Won Any Other Way, Which Wouldn't Be Accurate...

Yes, the Cavs have had SUCCESS w/the 3 this Season, but When Faced w/a SUPERIOR 3pt Shooting Team, They Need to Take a Different Avenue Towards Victory...

You're NOT Going to Beat Golden State via 3-Ball...







REED

 

if, If, IF it's "Boring" that's ONLY Because No Other Team Has Perfected it the Way Golden State Has, and Therefore Don't Offer Up Much Competition...

But Make No Mistake, WATCHING Golden State Play is VERY Entertaining...It Takes an INCREDIBLY HIGH Level of Skill to Shoot and Handle like Steph Curry Does...

And w/Time, More and More Teams will Effectively Adopt that Style of Play...

Would You Prefer the BULLY Ball Played by the Bad Boy Pistons, New York Knicks and Miami Heat, of the Early 90's???...1st Team to Score 80pts WINS, Type of Shit???...

REED Certainly Wouldn't...









REED

 

there arent any teams with the personnel to match up with golden state. the system isnt difficult to run

 

Kyrie, Klay and to a small extent JR Smith finally showed up to play in this one and we finally got one competitive game that for the first time I actually thought Cleveland would win.

Does nobody else feel like the refs were trying to extend this series by giving Cleveland the benefit of most calls and often not giving any obvious ones to GState? I thought it was a pretty big discrepancy.

I wanted the Cavs to win the series but in this game I was actually pulling for GState because I wanted my prediction of a Warriors sweep to come true.

 

I've seen a lot said about the refs doing that. I think everyone knows it happens and it's just accepted now.

 

No, I'd prefer more of a balance.

The league is more watchable when it's perimeter oriented, but it's become tooooooooooooo perimeter oriented, and too many teams are spamming the three.

I long for the day when there's a healthy mix of both.... perimeter players with the skill of today, and big men with the post skill of the 90s/00s. And I'd like to see the reemergence of the midrange. Not EVERY player is meant to spam from three.

 

Let's talk about the future of the league. One thing is for certain now, GState isn't going to have any trouble filling out their bench with good players. Good veterans like a Zach Randolph or a Pau Gasol who could be earning ten to twelve million a year will be begging GState to give them the minimum. And why not? You're basically guaranteed a ring now in GState as long as the main two guns stay healthy.

Thanks Durant.

 

Durant has said he'll take a few million less so golden state can keep igoudala and livingston. It will be up to the owner whether he wants to pay luxury tax

 

Of course he'll pay the tax. OKC has shown what happens to a team if your owner is a cheap fuck. It not only ruined OKC's franchise but led to the empowerment of two others and OKC's owner is still getting killed to this day for that move. Who the hell wants that for their legacy?

Now GState actually has a real possibility to bring to life Lebron's infamous "not one, not two, not three" line. Those guys are a definite dynasty in the making despite Magic Johnson's opinion on the matter.

 

I think Ron Harper said Jordan was hungover