Cavs won two game and then got outclassed Games 4-6.
I think both the Thunder and Warriors match up well with the Cavs. They both have the players to defend LBJ as well as you can. Both have the personnel to defend the Cavs if they go big or small. And I don’t think the Cavs have the depth to win unless their big 3 go off together for four games.
Cavs are better this year than last year. But so are the Warriors and Thunder. OKC has had to play two great teams in a row. Could wear on them.
If Cleveland wins, it’ll be because OKC or GSW did not play their best. And not really because the Cavs forced them to play that way.I just don’t think much of the Cavs. They have great talent, but I don’t think they really fit together as a team. And the other two teams would have a massive coaching advantage IMO.
Last year they had the players to defend LBJ without the Cavs two other best players. The Warriors had a lot of help against LBJ. They won’t be able to sag into the paint this year and Iggy or not no one can really defend LBJ one on one.
I mean, fouls aren’t completely arbitrary. There are rules of what can and can’t be done.
But if the point of the instant replay is to get the call of the play correct, then consider the entire play.
Maybe not review foul calls, but if a foul is CLEARLY committed with obvious evidence and THAT causes the result of the play, then that should be considered when deciding to overturn a call.
I can’t believe I’m the only one that feels this is completely ridiculous.
That’s why I said defend him as well as one can. Nobody is ever going to completely shut down Lebron. But I just don’t see a lot of matchup problems for the Warriors or Thunder against the Cavs. If the Thunder/Warriors play to their ability against the Cavs, who also play to their ability, I don’t see the Cavs coming out victorious in 7 games.
Cavs need split the first two games if they play the Warriors. Then we will have a series. I think they have home court on the Thunder, in which case they need to open 2-0 IMO. Cavs have all the pressure on them IMO.
I think most understand what you’re saying. But you’re opening up a can of worms by reviewing fouls. The last couple minutes already take more than enough time with reviews, a million timeouts and fouls down the stretch. No need to slow it down anymore.
Just because they had the lead for 3.5 quarters doesn’t mean they played well. They weren’t very good on the offensive end the entire night. Durant went 10-31, Westbrook 10-27. As a team they shot 3-23 from long range. That’s 13%. I think the Warriors did play incredibly well in that they shot 21-44 on 3’s. So it was a 63-9 advantage on 3 pointers, and OKC still almost won. If either Durant or Westbrook had played well, or if OKC had just shot poorly on 3’s rather than incredibly poorly, the game would have been out of reach.
It looked like the kind of game OKC wins 4 out of 5 times. With that being said I don’t think they have a chance at Oracle, lol.
Still he got two games by himself. I think the cavs are underrated right now if you could believe that. They can play small or big. They shoot the three ball well. They won’t get pushed around by either team and they can match up small if they have to or try and make the Warriors pay on the glass like Thompson did last year or thunder are doing now. I truly believe this is a series for the ages coming up either way.
Thunder will cause more problems because Westbrook will kill Irving or delly. I’m standing by the cavs win with love and Irving last year and now their even better too. If their dogs I may get on them. I still think lebron is the best player in the nba and I plan on him showing it.
From my viewpoint it’s pretty clear Westbrook is the player that should have the ball to close out games, as KD has struggled in that regard. We debated a bit earlier in this thread about KD/Russ and who’s best on the team. I think the last 2 years, and this year by a reasonable margin, Westbrook has shown he’s the best player for OKC, if not the world. Certainly top 5 hands down
And OKC almost doubled GS’s points in the paint, shot better from two and ended up with a better overall FG %, had more offensive rebounds and second chance points, shot more FT and had only 5 TO going into the 4th Q IIRC. I don’t think OKC played great, but they were far from atrocious and GSW was not at their best either. Curry and Thompson didn’t really have great games other than from 3. Shooting kept them in it and then GSW executed and finally made some stops in that last 5 minutes.
OKC doubling GS’s points in the paint and getting to the line more is what you would expect for pretty much any game in this series, regardless of the result. The better overall FG% you mentioned was by <1%. You talked about OKC’s low number of turnovers going into the 4th, but the Warriors ended the game with fewer turnovers. Also, Curry was one assist away from a triple double and Thompson broke the playoff record for 3’s. I don’t root for either of these teams, but it looked to me like it took a pretty special effort from GS to overcome an average/slightly below average night from OKC.
I’m with you JM - Lebron, Russ, Kawhi, Curry, and KD are top 5 players in the world. 2 years ago it was Lebron hands down, now I think there is probably a debate to be made for any of those guys, and its reasonably close.
Those 5 for sure. All five I would obviously take but I favor Westbrook a ton since I was in a basketball camp with him in Florida in '06. Kid has become a HOF and back then there was no predicting that.
We all know I’m an energy/effort guy, and the most remarkable thing about Russ is his energy level, its just non-stop. I honestly don’t know how it is humanly possible to play with that level of intensity/energy on both ends of the court. Russ has to be one of the best conditioned athletes in the world, not just basketball, but all of sport in general. I admired Kobe so much because of his work ethic, and similarly admire Russ for his work ethic on gameday.
If you’re a coach, what can you really say to Russ? Seriously, I mean the guy takes some bonehead shots at times early in the clock, but can any of us name a single guy in the league that plays harder?
I agree, the man seems like he’s from another planet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tired. The exact guy I want running my team. I’m pretty confident in them winning tomorrow I think he and kd both play better as underdogs. Imagine if the thunder could pull of aquiring jimmy butler somehow, that would be amazing. Sg seems to be the only position where they need quite a bit improvement. Roberson has played ok but he’s not really a starting NBA sg.
I wouldn’t say costing them games but it does allow his defender to sag off of him. Butler is a top sg do he probably wants his own team but that would make okc the favorite I’d think. I want Russ to get a ring so bad. I know I’m dreaming about butler but it would be a perfect fit. Having only two guys who can dribble in your starting five is pretty tough. Shows just how good kd and especially Russ is.
It’s a pipe dream JM. Even with cap going up substantially, you have KD as a FA this year and Russ next year. Assuming both those guys max out, that eats into 60 mill on those 2 alone. No way possible they add Jimmy unless he’s willing to take 15mill, which I doubt. Batum is more realistic, and that would make OKC title favorites for the next 2-3 years
And I’ve stated since the beginning that OKC played alright for 3.5 quarters. They only scored 5 points in the last 5 minutes and had like 5-6 turnovers. That’s when they played poorly. Not that badly before.
And I know the FG % was close. The difference was that Klay and Curry made 3s. OKC shot poorly from 3 and execute my very poorly down the stretch. That was the difference in the game.
GSW won 70+ games. Those kinds of performances are ones they’ve put in on a regular basis. It wasn’t some other worldly effort IMO. Especially since they consistently gave up second chance points and made very bad decisions at some points (like Speight losing his mind for like 3 straight possessions on both ends of the floor; Green not takin care of the ball/silly fouls)