NBA Playoffs Thread

He shut down one of the Mavs top two scoring options, sending them into an offensive tailspin. I don't care if Terry starts or comes off the bench, he's their second best scorer and their best perimeter scorer. Miami put James on him -- an unexpected twist -- and it completely threw the Mavs off their game because James simply owned Terry. That won the game for Miami.

Spoelstra gets a lot of credit for that. It really allowed Miami to land the first big haymaker of the series. But since then, it's been Dallas coming up with most of the good twists and adjustments. I think Carlisle has outcoached Spoelstra in games 2-4.

 

Jordan was known to play quite well on offense AND defense. Often in the same game, even.

 

Laettner was a great, great college player, but those two guys from UCLA have set the bar so high that I don't think anyone will ever touch it.

Walton lost five games in his career at UCLA.
Alcindor lost three games in his career.

That is just insane. I am not going to do the research, but they should be in the ballpark of 200-8 combined.

Laettner lost 26 games.

 

heck, if if EVER had a game like that i'd be in a coma. ANYONE has a game with those numbers i'd venture to guess they were 'dominant.' wtf gives you the notion he's capable of having such a theoretical game? sure, he's got the skills required to have such a game in any of those categories but i've yet to see him EVER actually produce such. let's deal in what is and has been, not what is possible in lebron fanboi dreamland.... gosh, you fanbois make it sound as if i'm not agreeing james is a great player. he's just not THIS player. nothing wrong with having to show up scoring the ball some to 'dominate.'

 

surely you jest. wowza.

 

James has career averages of 7.1 rpg and 7.0 apg and just under two steals and a block per game. So 16 rebounds and 10 assists aren't a big stretch at all. He has been a productive all-around player. The steals and blocks would be huge for him, but double-digit rebounds and assists aren't far from his averages.

 

Yeah Shockey, to suggest that he's not at all capable of that kind of game is a little ignorant on your part. Doesn't make a me a fanboi at all. If you recall, I was amongst the first to criticize on Tuesday night. Im a big LeBron fan, but Im fair. He's completely capable of having a game like that.

So answer the question. Is that not a dominant performance while scoring only eight points?

 

I'd argue that Laettner might not have been the best player on his team. When they didn't have Grant Hill, they got their doors blown off by UNLV in the championship game. The next year, they add Hill and they beat UNLV in the semis (Hill's not the only factor for the change of fortunes, but he was a big one).

Laettner was a great player for Duke, don't get me wrong. And his penchant for hitting the big shot was uncanny. But man, there have been too many really great college players for me to even entertain the notion of Laettner being in the top five. I mean, even in that same general era, Danny Manning may have been a more valuable college player than Laettner. Let's not even start with the likes of Jerry Lucas, Big O, Pistol Pete and all those great, revolutionary careers from eras past.

 

Once the Heat win this series, if they do, then people can start picking apart what James did and didn't do.

And all this talk is moot if they lose.

 

This is the problem with hypotheticals. You are discussing something that will never, ever happen.

The guy is being pushed as one of the top five all-time players in the history of basketball, and on the biggest stage he just had the kind of game that could reasonably expected of Ron Harper. Huzzah.

 

Dude's 27, 28 years old and he's already in the top 10 for career triple doubles. He's already had a triple-double in an all-star game. Why couldn't he produce that stat line?

Never thought I'd be on here defending LeBron James.

 

I'm sure he could produce that stat line on a Tuesday night in January. And since basketball seems to be going the way of baseball with the belief that every single quality can be boiled down to a number and then that number can be extrapolated out to cover every situation, LeBron has a large share of supporters who are wowed by his fantasy stats. But he cannot and will never do that in a Finals game because he doesn't have the composure, killer instinct, drive, whatever you want to call it, to do that.

Now Dwyane Wade, I could see him putting up a game like that.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I just re-read your post, but did you seriously quote stats from a fucking ALL-STAR GAME to prove your point?