dougthonus wrote:bledredwine wrote:How is beating a 73 win team impressive
You have to ask the question how beating a 73 win team in the NBA finals is impressive? You're not sure? You don't know?
when the main reason they got 73 wins with one of the greatest seasons ever... was injured and even outplayed by his positional matchup on Lebron’s team in Kyrie? What, celebrate beating Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who even sat out in a pivotal game? Hmmm
Curry definitely wasn't 100% and Kyrie was definitely a star of that series too, but Curry played in the games. He wasn't zero. Up until game 7 he shot the ball really well.
LeBron effectively averaged 30/11/9 for the series though. Let's not pretend it wasn't an amazing series for him and that the story line was all about Kyrie.
And the same team adds KD and slaughters then two years straight, Durant outplaying him both times and even sweeping him. It puts that 73 into perspective.
Yep, as we all said when following the KD Warriors, the only thing that could stop them was injury, and injury would only stop them if multiple guys got hurt. That seems to have been backed up by the results. That team was probably legitimately the best team ever assembled even if they didn't go hunting for the wins record.
Doug.....
The previous series, the Rockets nearly took out this so-called 73 win team and Steph only played 2 games (not particularly good either) hobbled. Steph had a gamescore of 10.5, understandably. Harden struggled and still managed to post a gamescore of 19, well ahead of Steph by nearly 50%.
Then the very next series, Steph finally played his first full series.
Kyrie had a gamescore of 19.1. Steph had a gamescore of 13. How is this anywhere near the 73 win performances that Steph facilitated? 13 is historically bad for a finals 1st option and Steph did this after having a historically great season. Lebron did not face a 73 win team. If you want to say that Lebron overcame a 73 win team, then he should have easily defeated KD's warriors... but we know that it wasn't a "73 win team" by playoffs, at all.
And come on Doug.... You're going to quote my "How is beating a 73 win team impressive" and completely omit the rest of my sentence which is crucial, to address half of my sentence as if it's a separate point? I won't take your half-sentences out of context to address them.
Thing is, Curry had a much better season than Lebron and Kyrie. You can say he shot fine, but he wasn't moving around, shooting his typical volume, and therefor dominating the game like he had all season.
His regular season - Averaged 30.1 ppg, 7 assists, 2 steals, .454 from 3.
that playoffs - Averaged 25.1 ppg, 5 assists, 1.4 steals, .404 from 3.
It'd be one thing if this was James Harden, but this is Steph Curry, who usually ups his game for the playoffs.
A 73 win team would have played better defense and likely slaughtered those Cavs. The KD Golden state warriors teams were not 73 win teams, and they swept the Cavs. Durant crushed Lebron in the clutch, winning games. Why? Because he was a real batman and on the level of Lebron. Now if Lebron shut down or even limited Durant, I'd be way more impressed.... but he's never been able to do so, Durant averaging 30 on Lebron over their entire careers.
I find it ridiculous that fans try to credit Lebron with overcoming a 73 win team when A. The 73 team's leader wasn't the same player at all. The 69 win Celtics are not 69 Celtics without Bird, either. and B. Lebron's second option averaged nearly 30 points per game, far outplaying the 73 win team's first option. And Kyrie's not even a good defender.
Lebron had no "batman" or competition to face on the Golden State Warriors, point blank. Trying to call that finals team a 73 win caliber team is a dream at best.
For me to take him more seriously as a top 5 player of all time, I'd much rather see Lebron overcome Kawhi or someone his own size and talent, which he has yet to do, unless you really think Lebron outplayed Durant in the OKC series..... which is fine, but he sure didn't in the most recent 2 series. His competition in Dirk, Durant twice outshined him consistently, game after game. Though as a floor raiser, I'd put Lebron top 3, as a greatest player, I'm not convinced that Lebron helps win championships anymore than Hakeem, Shaq, Magic, or Bird.
Why? His free-throw percentage, and terrible midrange game - shooting 39% outside of 3 feet in the regular season, 34% in the playoffs, and then 31% when the score is within 5 points and the game has 2 minutes or less left. This is why Dirk and Durant basically took a metaphorical **** on him. The context is there, the stats are there, and I don't see why people could believe that it was some miraculous event, having watched the series without rose-tinted shades on.
LeBron is 0-7 in game winning/tying FGs in the finals. And is 20/116 or 17% in game winning/tying FGs in the 4th/OT for his career. That's historically bad 
