You're confusing "I don't like him" with "he isn't likable."
Sure. That's what happens when you have to play pretty close to full-bore for 46 minutes. It's outrageous. The thought that he was out of gas!!
He logged 46 minutes of high intensity basketball. Athleticism wasn't the problem tonight. Every other Cav starter was -6 or worse tonight, in a 5 point loss. LeBron? He was +7 over 46 minutes. That stat is unreal. Irving played 44 minutes and was -9. Somebody sharper than me can figure out what that means in terms of the 2 minute difference and how bad Kyrie's squad without LBJ was in 2 minutes. He shot 4 of 9 from 3, and 11 of 19 from 2. He had 11 boards and 9 assists. And this, against a swarming, athletic, tall defense that was laser focused on him and that held the rest of the team to 39% shooting. And you think the problem was that he's lost some athleticism? I'm still waiting to find out how old you are. I'm completely serious about that.
1 extra stud player? LOL.
Agree on role players. Terrible tonight. TT had 3 boards and 0 points in 23 minutes tonight. Dreadful, but it really is more of a reflection of good GS is. Their 5th best defenders easily shut TT down completely.
The "actual" rules of the sport. Phew. Glad we're using the "actual" rules.
Oh man, no doubt the gun the 3 or crash the rim is the most efficient way to score. Did you think I didn't understand that? That maybe I thought the constant 3 point shooting by GS was not causally related to their success? Come on!
That's exactly the reason why GS is so good, why Curry and Thompson are regarded so highly (although both are tremendous shooters), and why I don't enjoy the NBA as much as I used to.
I love the concept that a longer shot should get you bonus value, because it spreads the floor out, speeds up the game, biases the game toward finesse players, and allows for larger leads to be overcome more easily. No doubt all true. I just think offering 50% more for what is now a shot that most shooters in the NBA can hit at 40% radically skews the shot selection in a less interesting way. When they implemented the rule, you didn't have a generation of kids bombing from 3 all day. Now you do. So change it. Back the line up (less preferred), or make it a 2.5 point line.