NBA Games Discussion Thread - Part 3

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I had the same thought last night that I had about this time last year:

DEPTH MATTERS!!

Great players are important, but having lots of good ones is important too. Basketball is a game of matchups. How huge to be able to get turn to a guy like David Lee -- who had become a complete afterthought -- to help turn this series. He has flaws, yes. But the matchups in this series mitigate them to a degree and his strengths are having a huge impact. Same for Livingston and of course Iguodala. Ezeli has had important moments.

This leads me back to my believe that the Wizards should be aggressive this summer with the MLE and those TPE's. Use our draft picks. FOcus on improving the roster 1-15, as you never know when a matchup or an injury is going to create a need.

The other thing it drives home, is that for all of his limitations, Nene (like Lee) can be a useful player. He's just got be on board. Most of his time should be at backup C, but he can be used as a bully-ball PF against certain teams.

Go Dubs!

Depth matters, indeed.

Wittman was wrong to use a short bench vs Atlanta.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Speaking of bad no-calls, I wish the refs would call LeBron at least once for using his off arm to push off when backing down his opponent or driving to the basket. Dude is big enough where it is hard to stop him...its impossible when he is constantly allowed to basically give a forearm shiver to bull his way to the basket. Shaq did the same thing.

This.

There was one particularly egregious example last night. Right between the FT line and the restricted
area. In that case, Bron ended up passing - not sure why - but it was so obvious as to be farce.

At least he got his comeuppance when he exaggerated the contact from Bogut and dived headfirst into the cameraman. And I think Iggy might have been trying to clown him when he got fouled by LeBron on a similar play and kept reaching for his arm afterwards.

Exactly.

Lebron launched himself right into the camera lense.

[tontoz]

For the series Lebron is shooting 18-54 with Iggy guarding him.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status ... 0013326337

[LyricalRico]

Wow, these refs continue to fall for Dellevadova's nonsense. Makes zero sense how basically a nobody can get this much benefit of the doubt for an entire playoff run. Dude is dirty and should have been gotten clocked.

[queridiculo]

That takedown should get a retroactive technical, absurd.

[FAH1223]

Kerr and Blatt are coaching their asses off, all the adjustments and different looks



LeBron got dunked on by Barnes

[queridiculo]

Van Gundy is absolutely terrible. The amount of times he gets calls wrong despite having the benefit of the replay is astounding.

[tontoz]

Barnes is who we thought he would be pre-draft.

[FAH1223]

[nate33]

Heard a debate on sports talk radio this morning. Who deserves the MVP?

Let's assume Golden State wins Game 6 and Lebron has his usual 35/11/8 type of effort on relatively low shooting percentages.

Do you give it to Lebron if he loses the series 4-2? Do you give it to Curry, the best player on the Warriors? Or do you give it to Iguadola who arguably has been the most impactful player for the Warriors?

[stevemcqueen1]

Van Gundy is absolutely terrible. The amount of times he gets calls wrong despite having the benefit of the replay is astounding.

My least favorite commentator by far. He spends half the game bitching about ticky tack contact going uncalled and then the other half bitching about how JR Smith's little football hit was a flagrant foul. He's a clown. I'm waiting for Mike Breen to call him a moron.

Mark Jackson just seems dull-witted. He spends a lot of his time talking about irrelevancies. I actually think he makes Randy Wittman seem clever. This is a pretty lame commentary crew.

[montestewart]

Van Gundy is absolutely terrible. The amount of times he gets calls wrong despite having the benefit of the replay is astounding.

Didn't he even admit it, saying after a mistake something like, "As long as you've listened to me talk, you still think I know what I'm talking about?"

[AFM]

They're going to give it to Curry because he's the darling of the NBA this year. Lebron definitely deserves it, he's putting up one of the GOAT finals series. Basically playing one on five

[tontoz]

Curry was bad in game 2. However in the other 4 games he is averaging 28 ppg shooting 50% from the field and from 3 even though he is the focus of the Cavs D.

[stevemcqueen1]

Heard a debate on sports talk radio this morning. Who deserves the MVP?

Let's assume Golden State wins Game 6 and Lebron has his usual 35/11/8 type of effort on relatively low shooting percentages.

Do you give it to Lebron if he loses the series 4-2? Do you give it to Curry, the best player on the Warriors? Or do you give it to Iguadola who arguably has been the most impactful player for the Warriors?

It shouldn't be Iggy. He's been essential in his role but Curry is the leader of the team and the one carrying the biggest offensive load. His ability to command regular double and triple teams has opened up the floor for that whole team. Plus outside a nightmare game two, his shooting has been incredible and that's powered their offense. He hit over 50% of his threes last night and they were all off the dribble against multiple defenders. Crazy.

LeBron has a legit argument to win it even if they lose it. Hasn't happened in a long time, but he's clearly stood out as the best overall player in the series. His volume numbers aren't want convince me of that though. They're a function of him playing the Russell Westbrook role for his team: Absurd usage, a whole lot of chucking, and small line ups where he can scoop up a ton of rebounds. For me, LeBron's case is based on the fact he's been the perfect leader and has been whatever his team needed and elevated his inexperienced group of role players enough that they won at least two games and really took it to a strong Warriors team. Plus he's made a ton of big plays.

If Curry has another night like last night on Tuesday and they close out the series, then I think he probably wins it. But if not, or LeBron powers the team to another win, then I think he has a good chance to win it.

[stevemcqueen1]

If Curry gets a ring and a Finals MVP, that would pretty much validate his career from here on out. He'd be a future HoFer. He's already better than Mark Price and a ring would cement him as better than Steve Nash.

I'd like to see Iggy and David Lee get rings. They've become two of my favorite non-Wizards players. I like Barnes and Klay Thompson too. Bogut is supposedly a cool guy too. It's a good group. Frustrating to watch the style they play at times, but an easy bunch of personalities to root for.

[nate33]

Heard a debate on sports talk radio this morning. Who deserves the MVP?

Let's assume Golden State wins Game 6 and Lebron has his usual 35/11/8 type of effort on relatively low shooting percentages.

Do you give it to Lebron if he loses the series 4-2? Do you give it to Curry, the best player on the Warriors? Or do you give it to Iguadola who arguably has been the most impactful player for the Warriors?

It shouldn't be Iggy. He's been essential in his role but Curry is the leader of the team and the one carrying the biggest offensive load. His ability to command regular double and triple teams has opened up the floor for that whole team. Plus outside a nightmare game two, his shooting has been incredible and that's powered their offense. He hit over 50% of his threes last night and they were all off the dribble against multiple defenders. Crazy.

LeBron has a legit argument to win it even if they lose it. Hasn't happened in a long time, but he's clearly stood out as the best overall player in the series. His volume numbers aren't want convince me of that though. They're a function of him playing the Russell Westbrook role for his team: Absurd usage, a whole lot of chucking, and small line ups where he can scoop up a ton of rebounds. For me, LeBron's case is based on the fact he's been the perfect leader and has been whatever his team needed and elevated his inexperienced group of role players enough that they won at least two games and really took it to a strong Warriors team. Plus he's made a ton of big plays.

If Curry has another night like last night on Tuesday and they close out the series, then I think he probably wins it. But if not, or LeBron powers the team to another win, then I think he has a good chance to win it.

This is my sense as well.

Lebron can win it if he manages to drag his team to Game 7 and perform admirably in a loss, assuming Curry doesn't play at Game 5 levels for Game 6 and Game 7.

If Golden State wins it in 6, Curry is MVP.

Iggy has been outstanding, but still not better than Curry. Iggy was POTG for Game 4, but not for the entire series.

[Higga]

Lebron has been amazing but its way too awkward to give MVP to a guy on the losing team, even if he has literally been the most valuable player on the court.

I don't think its over just yet though. I think Lebron has enough left in him to win one more game at home and push this baby to 7.

[tontoz]

Mozgov has been the Cavs 2nd best player. Benching him, especially given how thin they are, was a pretty bad move IMO.

Going small against the Warriors is not the answer. You aren't going to beat them at their own game.

[dobrojim]

That takedown should get a retroactive technical, absurd.

If you're talking about the play I think you are, at least Delly got his face smashed into
the court for all his trouble.