OT: NBA Finals

[Fishy]

First, LeBron James is amazing.

LeBron and any four members of the Boneyard could contend for an NBA title.

Second....really, really strange game.

LeBron - +/- 0
Tristan Thomson - +/- -21
James Jones - +/- +22

 

[TasteofUConn]

What about Thompson? Guy was on fire all first half and to start the 2nd. 4th quarter, they didn't seem to be looking for him. He was killing it.

 

[superjohn]

He walked all over the place first. So it's a wash.

How on earth could they miss that travel and then they miss Lebron getting raked across the arm. Glad they didn't call the foul because he took 5 steps and their was 1 second on the shot clock. The refs were really bad.

 

[Scoe]

If Cleveland makes this lets say a 6 game series in a losing effort and Lebron is putting up monster performances every game, should Lebron win finals MVP. As great a player as Curry is he does get the benefit of getting some rest on the bench Lebron doesn't have that luxury.

 

[TasteofUConn]

LeBron - +/- 0
Tristan Thomson - +/- -21
James Jones - +/- +22

You know, they played great with James Jones out there - he hit a couple of shots, he's a tenacious defender, and the match ups just seemed better.
But Blatt doesn't seem to be a "play the hot hand" type of coach.
In the last game, Shumpert was playing great and Blatt sat him a lot late in the game.

 

[TasteofUConn]

If Cleveland makes this lets say a 6 game series in a losing effort . . . should Lebron win finals MVP [?]

If Cleveland wins another game, they should give LeBron the Series MVP and they should give him Curry's MVP.
The guy is an alien. Fishy is right. He's playing with a very good, but limited Thompson and THREE scrubs now. It's incredible that he willed them to the win tonight. Best I've ever seen.

 

[superjohn]

What do you think is up with him? Yips? Nagging D? Just a bad night? Hard to know. Many of his shots were contested, but that usually doesn't bother him, and he missed a few open ones.

Good defense but he just seems off. His head didn't even seem into this one from the start, weird decision making from him also. Part of it must be nerves being on the big stage for the first time.

 

[CTBasketball]

Chef isn't shooting 21% again. He had a good amount of decent looks - he converts those in the next few games Cavs will be down 3-1 or lose 4-1. It also takes pressure off the rest of the Warriors when he's shooting well.

 

[TasteofUConn]

Good defense but he just seems off. His head didn't even seem into this one from the start, weird decision making from him also. Part of it must be nerves being on the big stage for the first time.

Interesting. I haven't watched him enough to see whether he's out of any patterns - you know, shooting differently, footwork different, and so on. Generally you can look at the form of a guy shooting, if you've seen him, and know whether he's taking a good shot for him. Of course, with him and Thompson it doesn't seem to matter - they are unreal. Thompson kept them in the game hitting big shot after big shot. Guy is a stud.

This is what LeBron so amazing. Can you imagine if you swapped Thompson (or Curry) for any guy on the Cavs other than LeBron? The Cavs would have won by 30.

 

[champs99and04]

LeBron basically is the Cleveland offense. It's actually one of the most amazing things I've seen - they don't have so much as a reliable standstill shooter, much less a pick and pop partner of the Chris Bosh mold. They are just about literally isolating him every time and allowing him to play cat and mouse with the Golden State help defense. I'm with the others regarding Mozgov - at the very least, it was baffling that Blatt wouldn't play offense/defense with him and Thompson down the stretch. Mozgov is at least capable of drawing defenders on his dives to the rim.

This does seem reminiscent of the San Antonio-Miami series from last season. A thin Cleveland team just dumped their full supply of adrenaline into that one game, and now they must summon the energy to duplicate it again in 45 hours across the country, against a team that is deeper and better than they are.

 

[TasteofUConn]

Chef isn't shooting 21% again. He had a good amount of decent looks - he converts those in the next few games Cavs will be down 3-1 or lose 4-1. It also takes pressure off the rest of the Warriors when he's shooting well.

They struggled at home and gave up a shot to lose at the buzzer in game 1.
They struggled at home and gave up a shot to lose at the buzzer in game 2.
In the one game they had against LeBron during the season, they struggled and lost.

In those three games, Curry had 1 decent game, one horrible game, and one so-so game (for him). Maybe the Cavs' D is just in the guy's head. I've seen stranger things.
As I defender, I knew when I was in a guy's head - once you get there, you don't have to defend every play - the guy will start shooting quickly, or pass on a shot he normally takes, or take a shot he doesn't usually take.
Curry might be in that spot now, overthinking things.

 

[kyleslamb]

You know, they played great with James Jones out there - he hit a couple of shots, he's a tenacious defender, and the match ups just seemed better.
But Blatt doesn't seem to be a "play the hot hand" type of coach.
In the last game, Shumpert was playing great and Blatt sat him a lot late in the game.

In fairness, Jones was out there only until he picked up his third foul in the first half. In the second half, the Warriors stopped leaving him entirely so whenever the ball was reversed, he simply wasn't open. He did play a lot until the 4th quarter, and at that point the Cavs went with their best defensive lineup.

 

[johnhuskies95]

The Cavs basically played two guys off the bench and they outscored the Warriors bench, although granted the minutes were the same: 67 to 67.

@Matrim55 was right about what he was saying a few months ago, bench scoring is the biggest Warriors need. I'm curious to see what they do about that in the offseason.

 

[CTBasketball]

They struggled at home and gave up a shot to lose at the buzzer in game 1.
They struggled at home and gave up a shot to lose at the buzzer in game 2.
In the one game they had against LeBron during the season, they struggled and lost.

In those three games, Curry had 1 decent game, one horrible game, and one so-so game (for him). Maybe the Cavs' D is just in the guy's head. I've seen stranger things.
As I defender, I knew when I was in a guy's head - once you get there, you don't have to defend every play - the guy will start shooting quickly, or pass on a shot he normally takes, or take a shot he doesn't usually take.
Curry might be in that spot now, overthinking things.

How many times can LeBron go for 4o+ and a triple double? This game went perfectly for the Cavs and they won by 1 point. The writing is on the wall.

The only trump card is LeBron. If he can go for 40-50 each night and win this series, I'll buy you sacreds before/after a future Husky hoops game.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

This one was pretty egregious. He took four steps, then lifted his pivot foot on the fadeaway.

The foul was spectacularly egregious too. Without the travel first, that would have been one of the worst no calls ever.

Still a terrible no call because he didn't call the travel. Seeing two violations and calling neither is terrible officiating.

And the final play in regulation.....they didn't see one foul on that play? Not one?

 

[superjohn]

How many times can LeBron go for 4o+ and a triple double? This game went perfectly for the Cavs and they won by 1 point. The writing is on the wall.

The only trump card is LeBron. If he can go for 40-50 each night and win this series, I'll buy you sacreds before/after a future Husky hoops game.

If he shoots 35-40 shots every game he's obviously going to go for 40 each game. The Warriors defense has been fine, it's the offensive end that's giving them all sorts of problems.

 

[TasteofUConn]

How many times can LeBron go for 4o+ and a triple double?

Dude - he had a terrible shooting night. He can for 40 every night the way the Warriors defend him.
And you think "everything went perfectly" for the Cavs?
JR smith 3 dumb fouls?
LeBron shooting 28% from 2?
Delavadova missing his first, what? 7 shots?
If everything had gone perfectly, they would have won by 25.

 

[TasteofUConn]

Still a terrible no call because he didn't call the travel. Seeing two violations and calling neither is terrible officiating.

And the final play in regulation.....they didn't see one foul on that play? Not one?

Love the Avatar - GREAT episode. I was losing faith in the series. It was becoming a soap opera, with way to much chatting and nonsense. The skin wasn't nearly as good as the first few seasons as well. Then BOOM. Hardhome. 9.5 out of 10.

 

[Gurleyman]

Still a terrible no call because he didn't call the travel. Seeing two violations and calling neither is terrible officiating. And the final play in regulation.....they didn't see one foul on that play? Not one?

I agree on both points. The no call in regulation at the start of LBJ's drive gave Iguodala a huge advantage (for a defender who was beaten) and I think that's a case where swallowing the whistle is not "letting the players decide the game" - it's doing the opposite by denying the advantage to the player who earned it. And I thought he hit LBJ on the shot enough from behind to warrant a call there too.

The play in OT was a whole lot of bad officiating, that happened to work out to a wash. The travel was beyond a simple NBA travel - he saw the double team coming and aborted his move, in doing so he shuffled his feet several times without a dribble. Then he traveled again on the fadeaway (which was more subtle - that one alone would be no big deal, but coupled with the shuffle it gets his step count up to around 6). And then the hack was as clear as hacks can possibly get. Not a great moment (or day) for the stripes, but the correct team won so fortunately for them they will be forgotten.

 

[TasteofUConn]

If they started calling proper travel in the NBA, there'd be 30 turnovers per team, minimum.

 

[lange10]

Chef isn't shooting 21% again. He had a good amount of decent looks - he converts those in the next few games Cavs will be down 3-1 or lose 4-1. It also takes pressure off the rest of the Warriors when he's shooting well.

Klay went for 34, kind of evens things out. Cavs as a team shot 32%. They outrebounded GS by 10. If they continue to win the battle of the boards and Lebron keeps this up, this series doesn't end in 5. Also, don't be so quick to say it was automatically an off night for Curry, Dellavedova played NBA first team like defense tonight on the MVP - deserves a ton of credit.

 

[Scoe]

If Cleveland wins another game, they should give LeBron the Series MVP and they should give him Curry's MVP.
The guy is an alien. Fishy is right. He's playing with a very good, but limited Thompson and THREE scrubs now. It's incredible that he willed them to the win tonight. Best I've ever seen.

Cant take away Curry's MVP its a regular season award, GS won 67 games, Lebron has 4 of them anyways he didn't win the MVP because he wasn't interested in it, not knocking Curry, Lebron is just that good, I told people all year Lebron is holding back his game for the playoffs knowing he needs to play 40 plus minutes a night for his team to win it all on both ends of the court, of course its even more magnified without Love and Kyrie.

 

[TasteofUConn]

Cant take away Curry's MVP its a regular season award . . .

Dude, really?

 

[TasteofUConn]

GSWs only had the lead for 26 minutes in the first two games.
Game 3 is going to be fascinating.

 

[boog204]

If Cleveland wins this, is it Lebron's crowning achievement as a bball player? And, does it trump any of Jordan's championships? I know LBJ's shooting percentage will be pretty low but I'd argue yes as Cleveland is pretty bad right now and Lebron will have to put up 35-10-10 every game for them to win. The thing that's scary is, that he will.