Cavs V Boston ECF's

[Coxy]

Thought it'd be good to start a thread for the East WCF's, as we may be facing 1 of them if we beat up the Spurincesses.

So far in this playoffs, the Cavs have looked more and more like a 2 man wrecking crew on offence. Today in the 1st quarter against Boston, there was a tonne of Lebron ISO for his 15 1st quarter points, which I really like. I think that's the worst way the Cavs can play, even if Lebron is playing like a demi-god right now.

Another thing, Love has officially turned into a corner 3 and rebound guy. they don't even look for offence from him anymore.

I see some chinks in the Cavs armour, just Lebron though, dudes just brutal. Hate the showboating dribbling he's doing as he sizes up his man on the perimeter right now, hope someone gives him the business for doing it soon.

[Coxy]

Game 1 is a murder. They're going to need to get a forensics team in after this slaughter.

[gswhoop]

I think that this series will show how ineffective IT is against teams with long guards and decent bigs.

[Flash Falcon X]

Kinda OT.

As a Warriors fan I love having KD, but as a basketball fan it would be awesome if KD went to the Celtics.

LeBron gets an easy pass to the Finals every single season. Having to go through a 1st seeded Celtics + KD every year would make for epic Eastern Conference matchups. Especially if Boston traded their #1 pick for Jimmy Butler.

Warriors vs Celtics in the Finals every year would be much more entertaining. Both are big markets and Boston is a much better franchise than Cleveland.


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[laika]

No pretense about the outcome needed. The Cavs have about a 99.9% chance to win this series.

This thread should be about what went wrong in last years finals and how to fix it.

[Coxy]

Kinda OT.

As a Warriors fan I love having KD, but as a basketball fan it would be awesome if KD went to the Celtics.

LeBron gets an easy pass to the Finals every single season. Having to go through a 1st seeded Celtics + KD every year would make for epic Eastern Conference matchups. Especially if Boston traded their #1 pick for Jimmy Butler.

Warriors vs Celtics in the Finals every year would be much more entertaining. Both are big markets and Boston is a much better franchise than Cleveland.


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PG13 would be perfect for the Celts. Hayward will be a nice addition also as the rumour has it. Butler, I doubt gets moved to Boston, but would also be amazing.

They are going to get royally thumped this series, but they are in great shape moving forward. They also need a center. A real C, that can bang.

[Coxy]

I think that this series will show how ineffective IT is against teams with long guards and decent bigs.

It's really obvious now. His effectiveness on offence is now neutered, and they are just abusing him on defence as well.

[oaktownwarriors87]

Kinda OT.

As a Warriors fan I love having KD, but as a basketball fan it would be awesome if KD went to the Celtics.

LeBron gets an easy pass to the Finals every single season. Having to go through a 1st seeded Celtics + KD every year would make for epic Eastern Conference matchups. Especially if Boston traded their #1 pick for Jimmy Butler.

Warriors vs Celtics in the Finals every year would be much more entertaining. Both are big markets and Boston is a much better franchise than Cleveland.


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PG13 would be perfect for the Celts. Hayward will be a nice addition also as the rumour has it. Butler, I doubt gets moved to Boston, but would also be amazing.

They are going to get royally thumped this series, but they are in great shape moving forward. They also need a center. A real C, that can bang.

Agree. They need a bigger PG, a scoring SG/SF, and a real C... then they'll be real contenders. So close!

[cpower]

The Celtics dont really have a real center that can defend the paint. Horford is more offensive minded and they are in general undersized against the cavs. They are monsters on glass so we need to make sure not to get outrebounded too much.

[DAWill1128]

The Celtics have the assets to build a team to beat the Cavs but Ainge is extremely reluctant to square up with LeBron. Ainge may be over valuing his assets and could squander the franchise's opportunity, with the ever changing NBA landscape I am just not sure how a franchise can be so certain they will contend 4-5 years down the line.

The Cavs look better this year than ever, this group is the deepest with the best shooting I have seen. LeBron is better now than ever, almost seems like he gave Balco a call.

If we get the trilogy does it make sense for Klay to guard LeBron with Igoudola taking the task when he is in? Durant did a great job I thought on LeBron in game 2 and his length gives LeBron troubles. But it appears Durant isn't getting as low of a slide position since his return injury. Thompson is fantastic laterally and that might make more sense to prevent LeBron on the drive as opposed to Durant contesting the shot. Plus we really don't know if Klay will bounce back offensively, do we really want Durant exerting extra energy and fouls on LeBron? Now this could be beneficial because Durants length could disrupt the shots of Smith and Korver when he isn't sliding onto Love in small ball situations. The only drawback is Curry on Irving, but what's more favorable? Slowing down LeBron or slowing down Irving?

Little disappointed we haven't been using our small ball lineup much, I thought this was how we would eventually roast the Cavs by running Love off the floor. I do think unlike the Spurs that the Cavs will struggle with the McGee lobs.

[Quazza]

as previously stated, this Lebron worries me

This Lebron is the best player we've seen since MJ.

Thankfully we have a lot of different bodies to throw at him

[Impuniti]

Kinda OT.

As a Warriors fan I love having KD, but as a basketball fan it would be awesome if KD went to the Celtics.

LeBron gets an easy pass to the Finals every single season. Having to go through a 1st seeded Celtics + KD every year would make for epic Eastern Conference matchups. Especially if Boston traded their #1 pick for Jimmy Butler.

Warriors vs Celtics in the Finals every year would be much more entertaining. Both are big markets and Boston is a much better franchise than Cleveland.


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PG13 would be perfect for the Celts. Hayward will be a nice addition also as the rumour has it. Butler, I doubt gets moved to Boston, but would also be amazing.

They are going to get royally thumped this series, but they are in great shape moving forward. They also need a center. A real C, that can bang.

Hayward is technically better for them though. Not that he's better than PG, he's not. But he is a FA, while PG would join them with only 1 year left on his contract. This way they can bring Hayward and Fultz, which should make them a much better offensive team. They rely exclusively on IT for their offensive production, and this makes them much more dynamic off esp if Fultz turns into a reliable 14-15ppg on good eff player. Then you have 6MOTY material in Bradley coming in while you rotate both PGs.

The problem for the Celtics is even with those changes, they need to either focus on slowing the entire Cavs team down or need one more player that will specifically slow LeBron down. Their future looks good, hindsight is nice but it looks like it was the smarter choice to not make a trade for Butler or PG.

as previously stated, this Lebron worries me

This Lebron is the best player we've seen since MJ.

Thankfully we have a lot of different bodies to throw at him

You're forgetting this guy, prime Shaq in 01. Used to be pretty good. Lebron isn't playing with any pressure atm for the first time in his career. He's going to steamroll everyone on the East. There's no such thing as no pressure vs this Warrior team. Even if you don't have it before the game starts, it will creep on you. They pretty much shook the Spurs in a manner that I haven't seen since I don't know when.

Whichever team wins, they will have beat a better team that Jordan ever beat in the Finals though. This final is a legacy builder, for Curry & KD or Lebron.

[KidPistol]

as previously stated, this Lebron worries me

This Lebron is the best player we've seen since MJ.

Thankfully we have a lot of different bodies to throw at him

I've been saying the same exact thing all playoffs. This guy is definitely on a mission. However, let's not forget that Steph has also been on a mission this year as he's probably has been the 3rd best player this postseason shooting at high percentages. I personally think we should rest Iggy for this series even if he's ready to go right now because he's arguably our best LeBron defender. But overall, I expect a hard fought series between both these great teams and even if we lose, I hope we keep the core together. Kyrie has been trash this post season and so has Klay. If we want any hands to win this bad boy, Klay stepping up to play like the all star he is would do wonders.

[KevinMcreynolds]

The finals right now is a coin flip, I think it has been all year. At no point have I felt confident we'll win the whole thing.

[FloydWarrior]

I think this Boston team reached their peak this year by reaching the Eastern Finals. They're not going to win 4 games against these Cavs, Lebron is just too much for them.

They're in a good position for the future but if they want to seriously get in the Finals conversation with Lebron in the picture (I say he has 3/4 years left as a main dog/mvp type player in the league) they have to pull the trigger and start using their trade assets...PG or Hayward are good gets, but they're going to need a little more.

[wco81]

Iggy is hobbled and actually, from game 5 on, the Warriors had all kinds of problems defending Lebron, who was hitting 3s.

But the primary defender isn't going to matter. The Cavs are going to force switches so Lebron is often going against centers or slow-footed power forwards or small PGs.

Celtics tried to stay home so Lebron racked up all those points beating mismatches. They did try to cheat a bit and Lebron found Love for some 3s.

Lebron has been shooting 3s really well this postseason but he was 1-6 last night. Last year, he was shooting 3s poorly but then he had a great game in game 5 of the Finals and the Warriors had to fear it, which led to switches with Curry or Ezeli trying to guard him.

I think you still need to go under the screen and let him take those shots, avoid the mismatch switches. Like I said he's shot the 3 really well, not just in the playoffs but in the postseason as well. But what are the odds, is he going to hit 10-15 of them in a game like Curry and Klay can? If he can, there's no stopping him but I think he won't, maybe hit 5-7 or 8 at most.

Best you can do is try to lure him into setting for jumpers. Celtics couldn't do that as when they had mismatches, he would just back the smaller player into the lane. It's odd, Indy found itself in mismatches with their PG switched on Lebron and now the Celtics couldn't avoid it either.

[Outside]

as previously stated, this Lebron worries me

This Lebron is the best player we've seen since MJ.

Thankfully we have a lot of different bodies to throw at him

I agree with Impuniti that Shaq in 2001 was as dominant a player as I've seen. His averages:

Season: 28.7 pts, 12.7 reb, 3.7 ast, 2.8 blk, 57.2% FG
Playoffs: 30.4 pts, 15.4 reb, 3.2 ast, 2.4 blk, 55.5% FG
Finals: 33.0 pts, 15.8 reb, 4.8 ast, 3.4 blk, 57.3% FG

That was his peak combination of skill, athleticism, and ability to overpower people. He was an unstoppable force of nature.

Still, they won the title, not just because of Shaq, but because they had Shaq, Kobe, and other really good players playing within a team system at both ends of the court. Even if you allow that LeBron playing this way means that the Cavs have the most unstoppable individual player, Curry at his best isn't far behind, and LeBron, for all his greatness, isn't as overpowering and efficient as 2001 Shaq. The Warriors superior overall talent playing superior team ball should be able to overcome a great individual player.

Brilliant team play is what made LeBron's stellar individual play irrelevant in 2014 (Spurs) and 2015 (Warriors), even without great individual performances to rival LeBron. My first wish is for the Warriors to win the title, but not far behind is my wish for Curry to show in the finals how great he truly is, and to show that he does it within a team system.

But the Spurs first. The haters on the general board keep saying that Warriors fans are glad Kawhi got hurt, but I for one am not, because it deprives the Warriors of the accomplishment of beating the healthy Spurs in a seven-game series. I hope Kawhi is back for game 3 and plays well the rest of the way.

[BayAreaFan]

No pretense about the outcome needed. The Cavs have about a 99.9% chance to win this series.

This thread should be about what went wrong in last years finals and how to fix it.

You're a jazz fan, why do you care what our board does?

[Starboy]

Go under the screen every single time. He can get his 3's, I don't care. The most they'll win on Lebron's jump shooting is one game.

No reason to put unnecessary strain on Curry and our bigs.

[Outside]

No pretense about the outcome needed. The Cavs have about a 99.9% chance to win this series.

This thread should be about what went wrong in last years finals and how to fix it.

Swapped Harrison Barnes for Kevin Durant and have kept Steph healthy. Fixed.