Quote:
Originally Posted by eddiehaskell
The thing is...the 2-3 elite teams are in the west so Lebron doesn’t face them to make the finals. And when he does, he loses more than he wins. How many of those eastern teams over the last 8 years have been legit title contenders? The Raptors? Pacers led by 22-23 year old PG? One year wonder Hawks? I certainly couldn’t see any of them beating the Wade/Bosh/Lebron Heat. How many eastern teams had a legit shot at taking out the Lebron/Kyrie/Love Cavs? A historically bad #1 seed Craptors team? A hobled Celtics team?
|
Boston has been a legitimate threat, two different iterations of the Celtics in one decade. The early decade Celtics (2010-2012) were absolutely a legitimate title contender, they went to a Finals and were a game away from another with three HOF'ers guiding them. The late-decade C's of the last two years were threats mainly because of coaching, but they were the higher seed both times. 53 wins and 1-seed last year, 55-wins and 2-seed this year, and they stomped through everyone else in The East both years. To dismiss them as "hobbled" is biased and is only to handicap their accomplishments and diminish Lebron's...
Two different versions of the Celtics have been legit contenders...
The mid-decade Indiana Pacers were legit contenders and went to back-to-back conference finals, and pushed the Heat to the brink. You guys have selective memory, because especially that year they were #1, they were spoken of as contenders. That was the year Paul George rounded into elite form, his age 23 season. He was All-NBA, All-Defense, and that was Year 4 of his career, so he wasn't exactly a bum or young in the sense of a first or second year player (he was All-NBA in Year 3, 2013, and that's typically the year great players make the leap). I find it funny that you snicker at those Pacers who were well coached, played defense, had an elite playmaker, etc...
But hey, anything to discredit Lebron...
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7express
Why would he go join a West team when he can stay in the East (Cleveland/Philadelphia) and coast to another final(s).
|
Wow, you're bitter! Lol...
News for you brodie, you can't "coast" to the championship round eight years in a row. This is an entirely different tune from a month ago when you were ultra confident in the Raptors being able to knock out The King. This is a different tune for all of you guys who claimed somebody in The East was going to beat Cleveland...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocko20
Not rigged, just biased.
Even when the Cavs did beat GSW they needed Draymond Green to be suspended for game 6 and countless calls against Curry. Expect a lot of bias calls from the refs to keep this series from being a nightmare sweep.
Yeah, this is going to be very boring.
|
The NBA can't make a team that won a record number of games and obliterated many offensive records choke away a 3-1 lead---unless you're also going to argue that The League also did the same to the Thunder in that years WCF, right?
Again selective memory by you guys. The driving narrative that entire season was that the Dubs were possibly the greatest team ever, unstoppable, Curry back-to-back MVP had an unconscionable year and was argued as having dethroned Lebron as the best player in the game. The narratives were all in Golden State's favor, so where was the incentive to keep that series going?
.........
My early take on The Finals:
I like this Cavs team's chances better than last year's. Last year I thought we were overconfident and much too reliant on offense. This year there is no overconfidence, and that alone is beneficial. I think we were humbled last year, we needed to be...
This year we are battle tested and this team has gelled more as the playoffs have gone on. The defense is the 9th-best of this year's 16 playoff contestants, which if extrapolated into the season, would have been #16, which is a marked improvement over their actual #29 ranked defense in the regular season. So this isn't a great defense by any stretch but they have improved each series and have played spurts of great D when they have really needed it...
I also think Lebron finally has guys who believe in, and play for, each other. They believe. I don't think they are afraid of the Warriors and I don't think they buy the media frenzy saying they are going to get rolled. I do think they have a healthy respect for Golden State, which I think was missing last year with the cockiness...
And I've long been a tough critic of Lue, and still don't think he's a great coach, but hos adjustments on the fly have been admirable all postseason long. Sure, he has the luxury of having Lebron--Kerr has the luxury of the three best shooters in the game, it doesn't diminish his coaching acumen. Lue's coaching has been underrated this postseason, and he and Lebron have wanted this rematch this year. They haven't publicized it or taken shots at Golden State (which if you recall, the Cavs did all 2017 season, taking jabs at The Dubs). They didn't this year, which shows they've matured and were humbled, but make no mistake: Lebron and Lue,those two especially but probably other guys, they want this fight...
I won't make a prediction because the Warriors ARE the better team and have more advantages and have more mismatches they can exploit. But you guys know what side I'm on. This is why they play the game, it isn't won on paper...
Go Cavs!
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
