I do not fear LeBron James.

[HeroicKennedy]

I really don't. Everyone's like "LeBron is God" or "LeBron is too good to be stopped" or "Well, he kicked your ass in the playoffs last year!"

Well, that was last year, and this is now.

Almost every aspect of our team has improved or is improving.

How much outside of LeBron is improving for the Cavs?

[ajaX82]

I think what you meant was:

I do not fear the Cleveland Cavaliers
I do fear Lebron James

Clevelands supporting cast sucked than, it sucks now. I think we would/will beat them, but i dont neccessarily want to find out.

I still have nightmares of him cutting into the lane and dunking uncontested. He might as well have been cutting into my heart!

[HeroicKennedy]

I think what you meant was:

I do not fear the Cleveland Cavaliers
I do fear Lebron James

Clevelands supporting cast sucked than, it sucks now. I think we would/will beat them, but i dont neccessarily want to find out.

I still have nightmares of him cutting into the lane and dunking uncontested. He might as well have been cutting into my heart!

No, I really don't fear LeBron. The reason he beat us was because we gave him so many uncontested dunks and layups. That's not going to happen nearly as often. Not with Maxiell and Amir roaming the paint. So until Cleveland bothers to put some talent around LeBron, I don't fear him or his team.

Teams win championships, not one player.

[SAKURABA216]

-= original quote snipped =-


No, I really don't fear LeBron. The reason he beat us was because we gave him so many uncontested dunks and layups. That's not going to happen nearly as often. Not with Maxiell and Amir roaming the paint. So until Cleveland bothers to put some talent around LeBron, I don't fear him or his team.

Teams win championships, not one player.

Im not so sure we can stop him this year, though. The guy is a tank and if he doesnt plow through you he'll get the whistle. We had Maxiell last year and it didnt stop him.

Also Z can shoot over Sheed, their guards can frustrate ours, and they can out-rebound us. They are a great matchup for us and I only hope that Boston and Cleveland have to play eachother first. (yes, I dont care if we take the easier route)

[gusman]

Well you should, he beat us last year and he has the refs on his side.

BE AFRAID

[nasty daddy]

I don't fear any player or team to beat us this year, we have the team to go all the way.

[Liqourish]

I love all the selective memory a year later. Lebron had one great fourth quarter and overtime... other than that he wasn't some great force. In fact Varejao getting Sheed and Dice out of the game, Chauncey getting trapped over half court and Titty Gibson raining 3's were the biggest the reasons we lost four straight. You better bet your ass, our team won't be leaving Gibson open behind the arc anymore, and we added two ball handlers in Stuckey and Afflalo who can bring the ball upcourt so Chauncey doesn't get trapped and turn it over. My biggest concern is sideshowbob flopping and the refs calling it to get lebron back to the finals. Lebron James is not some great and powerful force, fans and the media just make him out to be that way.

[jab]

I love all the selective memory a year later. Lebron had one great fourth quarter and overtime... other than that he wasn't some great force. In fact Varejao getting Sheed and Dice out of the game, Chauncey getting trapped over half court and Titty Gibson raining 3's were the biggest the reasons we lost four straight. You better bet your ass, our team won't be leaving Gibson open behind the arc anymore, and we added two ball handlers in Stuckey and Afflalo who can bring the ball upcourt so Chauncey doesn't get trapped and turn it over. My biggest concern is sideshowbob flopping and the refs calling it to get lebron back to the finals. Lebron James is not some great and powerful force, fans and the media just make him out to be that way.

[Big Steak]

Don't get me wrong, I think D-Wade and Lebron are both insanely talented players; it's just that when we play against them, I fear the guys blowing the whistles more.

[Snakebites]

I love all the selective memory a year later. Lebron had one great fourth quarter and overtime... other than that he wasn't some great force. In fact Varejao getting Sheed and Dice out of the game, Chauncey getting trapped over half court and Titty Gibson raining 3's were the biggest the reasons we lost four straight. You better bet your ass, our team won't be leaving Gibson open behind the arc anymore, and we added two ball handlers in Stuckey and Afflalo who can bring the ball upcourt so Chauncey doesn't get trapped and turn it over. My biggest concern is sideshowbob flopping and the refs calling it to get lebron back to the finals. Lebron James is not some great and powerful force, fans and the media just make him out to be that way.

I was thinking something similar. Its almost as though some have forgotten what really happened during the rest of the series other than that absurd performance Lebron turned in during that fourth quarter and OT.

There was even a game or two where Lebron didnt really play that well at all, but the supporting cast killed us and we still couldnt score to save our lives.

The TEAM just isnt a good matchup for us.

I dont really agree to taking it as far as saying Lebron isnt a great force, but to say he's the only thing that beat us in that series just isnt true.

[m23uza1hem36]

Team match's up with us more then Boston, there guards are big enough to guard ours, Z is good enough to defend and shoot on Rasheed, Tayshaun can only do so little against Lebron and our young guys match up with there Verjia and Pavlavish.

[SAKURABA216]

I think it may help us if we lose the first game to them, that way we can play with more motivation and not take them lightly. I think we looked past them after we won the first two and I still think our team doesnt consider them a major threat. Make no mistake, they took us to 7 two years ago and beat us in 6 last year. If anything, we must prove that we are the superior team not the other way around. Im sick of excuses and the results speak for themselves.

If you continue to write the Cavs off you will be in for a huge, rude awakening come April. Trust me, I know all about it.

Me, last year=

[jab]

I think it may help us if we lose the first game to them, that way we can play with more motivation and not take them lightly. I think we looked past them after we won the first two and I still think our team doesnt consider them a major threat. Make no mistake, they took us to 7 two years ago and beat us in 6 last year. If anything, we must prove that we are the superior team not the other way around. Im sick of excuses and the results speak for themselves.

If you continue to write the Cavs off you will be in for a huge, rude awakening come April. Trust me, I know all about it.

Me, last year=

[Snakebites]

I think it may help us if we lose the first game to them, that way we can play with more motivation and not take them lightly. I think we looked past them after we won the first two and I still think our team doesnt consider them a major threat. Make no mistake, they took us to 7 two years ago and beat us in 6 last year. If anything, we must prove that we are the superior team not the other way around. Im sick of excuses and the results speak for themselves.

If you continue to write the Cavs off you will be in for a huge, rude awakening come April. Trust me, I know all about it.

Me, last year=

This is pretty flawed logic. If motivation was TRULY the primary problem, which appears to be the prevailing theory for a lot of people, than wouldnt losing two or three in a row have been the motivation we needed to get going last time?

If they were still taking the Cavs lightly at that point then than nothing is gonna motivate these guys.

I firmly believe we lost because of matchup issues and a failure to adjust our approach when defensive and offensive strategies werent working. The motivation theory doesnt work at all for me, actually. We failed to play to our potential in that series, and motivation is the easy diagnosis, but one that the facts dont really seem to back up.

If it did, and this team truly couldnt get up for the CONFERENCE FINALS facing the prospect of reaching the finals again, then we would all be a lot more upset with the team than we are now.

[triplet1984]

We can stop this motivation nonsense.

We lost the series for 2 reasons:

1) because Cleveland used a defense that has CONTINUALLY SHOWN to work against us, it worked in the closing moments against San Antonio, it worked in that 2nd game against Boston this season, and its worked at styming our offense both series against cleveland. Put bigger guards on Chauncey Billups, trap him hard and tire him out.

It's basically what Billups does to guys like Steve Nash. It works.

And neither Billups nor our idiot coach came up with a good adjustment in time.


2) We didn't defend Lebron well enough.

No, sorry, we didn't lose the series because of "Boobie". That was one game only, and if we'd been up say 3-1, then we'd only be 3-2 after that game. And Boobie being wide open was a consequence of our DEFENSE AGAINST LEBRON.
We didn't defend him well enough in Game 5, didnt rotate our defense when he blew by Tay...... so like an idiot coach, Flip overcompensated and essentially "called a blitz" on every single play that Lebron had the ball. If you leave a good 3 point shooter open constantly, he will get hot at some point.

The whole entire series comes down to DEFENSE.

Cleveland figured out a defense that worked against Billups.

We didn't come up with an effective defense for Lebron + open role players. Lebron isn't some invincible force but neither are we. Any good team that plays defense and rebounds the basketball has a good chance at beating us.

The Cavs out-defended us. There's a reason people invented the phrase "defense wins championships". Cavs out-defended us and the Spurs out-defended the Cavs.

Now you can go back to your regularly scheduled excuses like "if we'd had home court we woulda won" and "because Boobie got lucky" and "oh they weren't motivated" oh stfu with that crap, these guys are pros, they are motivated in the damn ECF. If they really weren't then their asses should be shipped out peroid.

[SAKURABA216]

We can stop this motivation nonsense.

We lost the series for 2 reasons:

1) because Cleveland used a defense that has CONTINUALLY SHOWN to work against us, it worked in the closing moments against San Antonio, it worked in that 2nd game against Boston this season, and its worked at styming our offense both series against cleveland. Put bigger guards on Chauncey Billups, trap him hard and tire him out.

It's basically what Billups does to guys like Steve Nash. It works.

And neither Billups nor our idiot coach came up with a good adjustment in time.


2) We didn't defend Lebron well enough.

No, sorry, we didn't lose the series because of "Boobie". That was one game only, and if we'd been up say 3-1, then we'd only be 3-2 after that game. And Boobie being wide open was a consequence of our DEFENSE AGAINST LEBRON.
We didn't defend him well enough in Game 5, didnt rotate our defense when he blew by Tay...... so like an idiot coach, Flip overcompensated and essentially "called a blitz" on every single play that Lebron had the ball. If you leave a good 3 point shooter open constantly, he will get hot at some point.

The whole entire series comes down to DEFENSE.

Cleveland figured out a defense that worked against Billups.

We didn't come up with an effective defense for Lebron + open role players. Lebron isn't some invincible force but neither are we. Any good team that plays defense and rebounds the basketball has a good chance at beating us.

The Cavs out-defended us. There's a reason people invented the phrase "defense wins championships". Cavs out-defended us and the Spurs out-defended the Cavs.

Now you can go back to your regularly scheduled excuses like "if we'd had home court we woulda won" and "because Boobie got lucky" and "oh they weren't motivated" oh stfu with that crap, these guys are pros, they are motivated in the damn ECF. If they really weren't then their asses should be shipped out peroid.

I agree w/ this, but then you have guys like Chauncey Billups telling the media that we were the better team even though we lost. There was even a guy on Sport Center that said the Pistons suffer from a mental breakdown in the post season 3 years in a row. Whether we lost due to a lack of motivation, failure to make adjustments by our coach, or a failure to execute is irrelevant. The point is whether we should fear Lebron James and the Cavs and all signs point to yes we should. They have given us all we could handle for two years in a row and we are on a collision course w/ them again this year.

[jab]

-= original quote snipped =-




I agree w/ this, but then you have guys like Chauncey Billups telling the media that we were the better team even though we lost. There was even a guy on Sport Center that said the Pistons suffer from a mental breakdown in the post season 3 years in a row. Whether we lost due to a lack of motivation, failure to make adjustments by our coach, or a failure to execute is irrelevant. The point is whether we should fear Lebron James and the Cavs and all signs point to yes we should. They have given us all we could handle for two years in a row and we are on a collision course w/ them again this year.

[SAKURABA216]

-= original quote snipped =-

douche

[jab]

We are not responsible for what you do IRL