2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

Game 4 vs. Toronto.

 

I guess. The last lead change in that game was with five minutes left. Not exactly the tooth and nail game i was envisioning, but fair enough.

Cavaliers vs. Raptors - Play-By-Play - May 23, 2016 - ESPN

 

If they could get Mark Jackson do to color on the game how hard could it have been to pair him with Blatt.
I know money is in short supply this year at ESPN/ABC/TNT, but they could certainly cut some dead wood and throw a million or 2 at Blatt. How fun would it be? Bitter Jackson and Bitter Blatt.
A lot of talk last year that Kerr was winning with Jackson's players. Not much talk this year about Lue doing less, so far in the Finals, with a significantly stronger Cavs team than last year.

And how is it that James, the best player in the league almost since his arrival, conference finals winner 7 times, is always the underdog in the Finals?

 

I'm starting to think you aren't aware that two of those teams did win championships.

This Finals features the greatest difference in regular-season win totals since 1986 (Celtics vs. Rockets, also a 16-win difference). It's baffling that anyone is surprised by what's happening or thinks it's a matter of LeBron not playing up to snuff. It would be utterly shocking if this were going any other way.

 

Listen man, that finals went six games at least (Blue Font)

It's funny to look and realize the gap between these teams is the same as the gap between the Cavs and the No. 10 seed in the East. Detroit was only 13 games worse. What the hell is wrong with Reggie Jackson?

 

LeBron isn't playing great. He's playing well. There is no reason he should be taking too many outside shots, especially with between 10 and 20 seconds left on the shot clock. But he's doing what he's supposed to do. Irving is overrated. The Cavs are poorly put together. They have had 3 overall number 1 picks and a number 4 overall pick in the last 5 years and only Irving is on the team. The trade for Love, at LBJ's insistence ?, isn't terrific.

OTHO Is LeBron viewed with such greatness that he can't over achieve? Is he such a perfect player that he literally plays at 100% every series and there is no room for improvement?
Are there no upsets in Finals?
Discount this year because he is playing a historically great team. Discount last year because of his teammates injuries. Discount his last year in Miami because he was playing against an veteran dynasty who was 8 games better in the regular season. Discount the loss to Dallas because they were a dynastic type team.

What was the excuse in 08-09 when they were the higher seed and lost the Conf Semi's to Orlando? Or the year after that when they lost the conference Semi's to Boston?

He's the victim of poor ownership, poor GM's, poor coaching and poor surrounding players.

 

That Jackson's players thing was dumb when it happened. The part of about a "significantly stronger" Cavs team also probably deserves to be treated with more nuance. The full strength Cavs team is a worse matchup than the limited one. It's been reported Golden State thought that before last year's finals.

As for the second question, the answer is that team building is a wonderfully fascinating subject, and perhaps could be looked at more closely if we stopped looking at basketball as one guy doing the thing alone.

 

In two games, LeBron has taken nine 3s and four shots outside 8 feet. 63 percent of his shots have been at the rim.

 

I stand corrected. It was my impression without looking at stats that he took too many long shots.

Looking at the stats, he was shooting around 60% FG for the Toronto series and shooting 42% this series. 33% from 3.

 

Yeah, it's kinda wonky. He went from playing a not great defensively Raptors team to a quite good defensive Warriors team that spent most of the season not going all-out on that end. GSW has three all-defense-type guys that can share the load and switch onto him, plus a couple more 6-7/6-8 wings who can at least bother him. GSW's defense is perfectly built to frustrate the Cavs' new spacing based offense, and they've made him finish through guys at the rim, which isn't all that easy.

That said, James' jumper is also broken, and that's a damn issue because it means Golden State can even hold him down when they keep a conventional center in for rim protection by going under screens. It also means opponents are sitting on hit drives, making everything else harder. James isn't playing great, but he'd have to be REAL great for it to matter.

 

Whatever it may be, it's working.

 

No surprise here.

Citing recent injuries, Curry to skip Rio Olympics