NBA Playoffs Thread

Wow, you just put Puerto Rico in Europe. Says a lot...

But your basketball xenophobia is reaching new heights. Are you suggesting that eight of Dirk's 12 straight points down the stretch should have been disallowed because of various rules violations you imagined?

If they were going to start calling travels the way the rule book says they should be called, that would drastically change the NBA game. The website RefCalls.com, which reviews officials performance, said there were 23 missed travels last night, 14 on Miami, 9 on Dallas. That's one almost every two minutes. So you are suggesting, on a night when they had been letting travels go all night (which, I must add, was a typical night in the NBA), they'd call one on Dirk down the stretch? You are asking the officials to be as xenophobic as you are.

It's not worth complaining about for any one player because it's so widespread. It's ridiculous to bitch about a travel missed on Dirk (not sure what play you were talking about) when James and Wade have made a living on missed travels in the Finals.

Now, to James.

What I'm not OK with in regards to James is James having the ball in an isolation or pick-and-roll against Marion in those situations, especially when you have Wade on the floor with him with nobody capable of guarding him. Given some help -- and Dallas was providing it either by the way the screeners' man was hedging on pick-and-rolls or with the way they quickly brought help on isolations or zoned-- Dallas is capable of containing James. Now, that's saying something because James is very good at getting to the rim, but Dallas is an outstanding defensive team. Many times, James would end up jacking up 3's because he couldn't turn the corner on the pick-and-roll. Sometimes he just made bad decisions.

Now, I don't think Dallas is capable of containing Wade in the same way. Wade is shifty and slippery with the ball in a way James isn't. For all of his incredible speed for a man buit like Karl Malone, James still can't change directions like Wade. Wade is so good at turning the corner and, while at full-speed, changing direction and exploding toward the rim. This allows him to split doubles and traps, or to slip between a defender hedging on the pick-and-roll and the man going through the pick, all these little things that allow the guy up top to get into the middle of the lane.

If I have James on my team and I'm playing a team that can zone and understands help like Dallas, I don't necessarily want him to have the ball on top. I might post him on Marion at the elbow (like Dallas does with Dirk) or (what a concept) run some offense. With Wade, I might not mind playing pick-and-role even against Dallas, even against the zone. He's slippery and when he's getting away with the hop-skip-jump like in Game 2, he's unstoppable.

But that's the NBA. No sense bitching.

By the way, here's the site I was referring to.
http://refcalls.com/

I'd like to see Miami run more pick-and-roll with James as the screener for Wade. How do you play that on defense? Especially if Miami has Chalmers and/or Bibby out to spot up for a shot along with Bosh at a short corner.

 

On this board? Absolutely.

But Wade was on a 15-67 team (that went 10-41 with him in the lineup) in 2007-08.

James took basically a 19-63 team (last year's Cavaliers roster, give or take a few games) and won 60 games with it.

Bottom line: Wade can't do it alone. James can't do it alone (but actually gave people hope that he could). Edge to James.

 

Will? I can see it.

Should? No.

 

Umm, Barea is Puerto Rican and learned the game playing high school ball in Miami and then American college basketball at Northeastern. He has never played in Europe. I love this game where you try to group everyone who seems kinda foreign into the "gawdamn Euroballer" box.

 

Barrea didn't move to Miami until he was 17 and thus learned the game elsewhere and thus he fits clearly into my definition of the kind of eurotrash player briangriffin creams in his pants about. Forget that he defends nobody and against anyone with reasonable athleticism he is shut down without much effort - he has good fundamentals...

And brian - I don't expect every travel to be called which is why I couched it as "even bY NBA standards" because that was as blatant of a travel as I've seen and they usually get called but not against Dirk in this series. Similarly when a player puts a forearm up to the chest and runs through someone to the hoop,that's a text book charge.

So yes, at least eight of his fourth qaurter points were a fraud - and that's more than a coincidence.

And of course, in your rants about xenophobia, you overlook the fact that the guy I called the gold standard for preferential treatment was shane battier at duke.

As for James - if you really think it is not an issue that he's scored only six (or eight or whatever) in the past two fourth quarters, well, maybe you should stick to watching FIBA games and cheering for 7-footers who don't rebound but can shoot from 25 feet away

 

Oh wait one other thing - james and wade better get this done this year because according to Brian Griffin I'm sure the Bucks are going to win the next ten NBA titles now that Ricky Rubio is coming across the pond. The NBA is clearly not ready for a player of his caliber!

 

Ricky Rubio is going to play in Minnesota.

 

James can do MORE alone than Wade can (because of how much stronger and better of a passer he is).

But Wade has the championship gene to carry a team in the biggest of situations and James doesn't have it (at least, we haven't seen it yet).

 

TGO - good looking out - ok so it will be Minnesota winning the next ten titles....

 

Seriously? So a childhood in Puerto Rico makes one "Eurotrash"? The same Puerto Rico that is part of the United States? Jesus, that's batshit even by your standards, zag.

 

The Bucks?

I think somebody forgot to take their meds today.