The Lebron Thread (2015-16 Pt. 4)

[yoyoboy]

LeBron might need to put up the best perpfrmance of his lifetime for us to win Game 7. And I wouldn't be surprised if he did it...

[Dupp]

What do you all make of Delly being nailed to the bench and turning into a complete non-factor in this series? I get that Lue has tightened his rotations, but it's surprising to me considering how good he was in the regular season - he was much, much better than Shumpert, who has been the 3rd guard off the bench in the finals. I don't think Shump has been horrible, he has played adequate defense, but that's supposed to be Delly's strength too, in addition to being a more impactful offensive player. Is it all an evil plan by the Cavs to depress his free agency value? I don't think that's actually it, but it's odd.

Shumpert HAS been horrible. He allows too much separation for a so-called "defensive specialist" and he misses open shots, thinks he can dribble, and can't finish other than on dunks. He has a PER of 6.8 in the playoffs.

Delly should be in there. He struggles as the ball handler against GS but he can be the backup SG or nominal PG.

Delly has just had injuries take their toll on him to the point he's almost useless now. Came at a bad time of year.

Shump is just crap at basketball.

[SideshowBob]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/744014882304049154[/tweet]

[MisterHibachi]

Cleveland is gonna spam Curry into defending pick and rolls, one way or another. Kerr has to come up with a solution, and thinking about it a little, all his options seem bad. He could stick with the current strategy of switching and have Curry guard LeBron on those pick and rolls. That's a good way to both get fatigued and get into foul trouble. And since his help line is a lot weaker without Bogut there, LeBron has little reason to not bully his way to the front of the rim.

Haralabob suggested they don't switch. Then they either hedge or ice it with Curry as the roll man defender. That's a difficult task for him too, mostly because LeBron is gonna destroy the hedge and idk if Curry has the capability to ice properly or effectively. Or they double LeBron. His main defender is most likely Iggy or Barnes, both guys shorter than him, and if they involve Curry, he isn't really gonna bother LeBron's line of sight. LeBron should be able to hit the correct pass. It's not a great bet to bet against LeBron making the right passes out of the double. Idk, I'm feeling optimistic that Kerr won't have the right solution for this.

[JulesWinnfield]

If you guys put on NBATV right now, the Cavs and Warriors media availability is coming up live. Awaiting updates on Kyrie and igoudala while fully expecting to not find out anything new.

[JulesWinnfield]

Kerr said igoudala did not take part in the light practice that they had today. He got treatment instead. Will play tomorrow, hopes 24 more hours can improve things. No minutes limitation on him "as of now", they'll see tomorrow

[GSP]

On another note, with no Bogut and golden state having to play small even more often now than before, Tristan Thompson is going to continue to be a major issue. That may be the single most sustainable thing about last night, even more than LeBrons performance. He's a problem for the Dubs.

Draymond VS Tristan is the matchup to watch for. Whoever won that matchup in each game did it in dominating fashion as their team won wide.

https://mobile.twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/743874588921061377
https://mobile.twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/743875021509013504

The eye test def backs that up. Really shows how important Bogut is to their success, defense in game 5 died after he got injured, they've got on offensive droughts without his screens/playmaking. they can't slow the pace much without him which swung the series against Okc. This GS team really is the sum.of their parts type team

[Dr Spaceman]

Kerr said igoudala did not take part in the light practice that they had today. He got treatment instead. Will play tomorrow, hopes 24 more hours can improve things. No minutes limitation on him "as of now", they'll see tomorrow

I honestly have a hard time seeing GSW coming out alive if Iguodala isn't fully ready. No way in hell can they afford to not have his impact.

[toodles23]

I said before the Finals LeBron could be the best player in the world at 36 and I wouldn't bat an eye. Win or lose, this is maybe the best performance we'll see in our lifetimes and it's so insane to see a guy playing maybe the best ball of his career at 31 with this insane mileage in him. As crazy as it sounds given his history it wouldn't surprise me to see LeBron even outdo himself in this G7. What a great time to be a fan.

I expect Kerr to double/trap Lebron more in game 7 than we've seen, and if he does, it would be extremely difficult for him to have another monster game. However, that I trust Lebron in this situation more than anybody else on either roster... something I'm not sure you could have said 5 years ago.

[Dupp]

I said before the Finals LeBron could be the best player in the world at 36 and I wouldn't bat an eye. Win or lose, this is maybe the best performance we'll see in our lifetimes and it's so insane to see a guy playing maybe the best ball of his career at 31 with this insane mileage in him. As crazy as it sounds given his history it wouldn't surprise me to see LeBron even outdo himself in this G7. What a great time to be a fan.

I expect Kerr to double/trap Lebron more in game 7 than we've seen, and if he does, it would be extremely difficult for him to have another monster game. However, that I trust Lebron in this situation more than anybody else on either roster... something I'm not sure you could have said 5 years ago.

I think Kerr will do the same which means other guys are gonna have to make shots. Hope they don't crumble to the pressure. J r starting off with some early 3s would be huge

[JordansBulls]

Kerr said igoudala did not take part in the light practice that they had today. He got treatment instead. Will play tomorrow, hopes 24 more hours can improve things. No minutes limitation on him "as of now", they'll see tomorrow

I honestly have a hard time seeing GSW coming out alive if Iguodala isn't fully ready. No way in hell can they afford to not have his impact.

Especially considering Barnes has been terrible.

[rich316]

I said before the Finals LeBron could be the best player in the world at 36 and I wouldn't bat an eye. Win or lose, this is maybe the best performance we'll see in our lifetimes and it's so insane to see a guy playing maybe the best ball of his career at 31 with this insane mileage in him. As crazy as it sounds given his history it wouldn't surprise me to see LeBron even outdo himself in this G7. What a great time to be a fan.

I expect Kerr to double/trap Lebron more in game 7 than we've seen, and if he does, it would be extremely difficult for him to have another monster game. However, that I trust Lebron in this situation more than anybody else on either roster... something I'm not sure you could have said 5 years ago.

I think Kerr will do the same which means other guys are gonna have to make shots. Hope they don't crumble to the pressure. J r starting off with some early 3s would be huge

Yepp, role players on both teams will most likely decide the game. I expect huge games from Lebron, the Splash Brothers, and hopefully Kyrie if his foot is OK. They will cancel each other out, and whoever of Iggy/Barnes/Love/JR catches fire will win their team the title.

[JordansBulls]

I do think the Cavs will win the title next year so for GSW sake they will need to get this one otherwise there titles may stop at 1.

[JVL]

I'm not sure. Lebron has to decline at some point, he's logging so many minutes we've never actually seen anything like this before. I do feel it's a ticking time bomb.

However, provided the Cavaliers can move Love for some pieces they actually need it might be interesting.

[JulesWinnfield]

Game Day! Here we go. Bring it home LeBron.... Man this is going to be a long 11 or so hours before tip.

[tsherkin]

I'm not sure. Lebron has to decline at some point, he's logging so many minutes we've never actually seen anything like this before. I do feel it's a ticking time bomb.

Really? He's never played FEWER minutes in a regular season ever before (first season under 36 mpg, and last year was his first season under 37 mpg). This is only his second postseason under 40 mpg, and is the second-lowest mpg he's averaged across a postseason run in his career to date. Yeah, he's averaging 40.9 mpg in the Finals, but we've seen minutes like this before in basically every other postseason of his career. This isn't unusual, and he's supported it by playing a lot less during the RS and in the previous rounds of the playoffs. He's been saving himself for exactly this.

[yoyoboy]

A little over 10 hours away...

Biggest game in LeBron's career.
Biggest game in Cavs' franchise history.
Biggest game in Cleveland sports for decades.
And quite honestly, maybe what could eventually prove to be one of the most important games in the history of the league.

I'm a nervous wreck.

[rich316]

Apparently Iggy's back got even worse on the flight back to Oakland, and he had to have the trainer come to his house it was so bad. If he can't make it through a flight, seems unlikely he can check Lebron tonight. Will be very, very interesting to see what happens.

[RSCD3_]

Kerr said igoudala did not take part in the light practice that they had today. He got treatment instead. Will play tomorrow, hopes 24 more hours can improve things. No minutes limitation on him "as of now", they'll see tomorrow

I honestly have a hard time seeing GSW coming out alive if Iguodala isn't fully ready. No way in hell can they afford to not have his impact.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/744014882304049154[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SteveKerr/status/440219555437109248[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/andre/status/187370918576799745[/tweet]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

Do you have their playoff ORtg minus Game 1 and 2 in GS.

120.1 playoffs ortg without G1&2.

Any of guys know the conversion between win shares and per or maybe a better way of putting it is what kind of game correlates with things like a .15, .25, etc. How much did lebrons win shares rise after thursday?

Because he is currently 17th at 4.54, .16 shares away from 10th in a season and .30 WS away from 5th of all time which is his own 2009 playoff run. Does he need to win also to get the shares?

[SideshowBob]

Any of guys know the conversion between win shares and per or maybe a better way of putting it is what kind of game correlates with things like a .15, .25, etc. How much did lebrons win shares rise after thursday?

Because he is currently 17th at 4.54, .16 shares away from 10th in a season and .30 WS away from 5th of all time which is his own 2009 playoff run. Does he need to win also to get the shares?

WS depends on difference between interaction of USG/ORTG & DRTG (so to oversimplify, WS = [USGxORTG] - DRTG).

His WS before Game 6 were between 3.9 and 4.0. WS before Game 5 were between 3.4 and 3.5, so ~1.2 WS through 2 games.

Also, Mike Goodman on APBR has been estimated game-by-game advanced shifts for Lebron in this series:

Link