ECF: | (1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs (2) Toronto Raptors | CLE 2-1

[2 kewl 4 skool]

Blame the league not him. If the game wasn't so soft and calls like this weren't made then we wouldn't have this problem. He's simply taking advantage of the rules and playing the game.

Blame the league for him flopping like this? Sure I blame the league for missing his flops. I blame them for not fining Lebron for flopping all the time.

But this is more to do with how undignified Lebron is. He should be ashamed of himself for being this kind of player. This is his legacy. Leflop James.

i can't really blame Lebron for flopping. if he doesn't, a foul doesn't get called. Van Gundy was talking about earlier how, Demarre Carrol's hard foul on him wasn't called a flagrant because Lebron withstood it, and yet that was more of a flagrant than Biyombo's foul because Carrol never went for the ball, just intentionally hard fouled Lebron. at least Biyombo went for the ball, even if he did get Lebron's head.

haters always like to point out how Lebron likes to flop, but they look the other way when Lebron gets fouled hard a lot and no call is given. a foul should be a foul no matter how strong the player getting fouled is. and yet no one in here can deny Lebron is getting officiated differently.

lol, man i cant believe i just read this smh

poor poor LeExcuses

Ive NEVER seen a guy get away with more offensive fouls in the history of this game

Keep on flopping Bron Bron, if you have tons of fans looking the other and not have a problem with it, keep flopping

[2 kewl 4 skool]

And Im getting tired of JVG sucking Bron peen

[DowJones]

Sooooo much complaining about the officials even though they have made no impact in this series. Do Toronto fans think they win game 1 or 2 if not for the officials?

[Spanish_Laker]

Thanks a lot, Toronto

[2 kewl 4 skool]

I swear there is a segment of Raptors fans who don't understand the NBA. They're either going to call games tight - or not. You guys want to be able to body up on defense, have Biz throw people around under the basket, and then you want to get fouls for "drawing contact" on the other end of the court. That's not how the league works. They were only calling blatant fouls tonight and that helped the Raptors considerably.

Calling games "tight" or "not tight" has nothing to do with it.

Calling games inconsistently at different ends of the floor has everything to do with it. Phantom fouls and touch fouls at one end, and non calls on blatant fouls and every single charge being declared a block at the other. Continuation on on-floor being manufactured at one end, actual mid-air shot attempts on fouls being taken out of bounds at the other.

You can choose to ignore the blatant inconsistency or you can be fair and admit when the refs are doing a terrible job at their job.

For all the griping, neither you nor Casey can point to an obvious foul that should have been called on the Cavs. There weren't any.

How about this one, called a foul on Biyombo:



Trust me, anyone who watched that game without whine and gold shades on would have seen the inconsistency. This isn't homer bias, there are non raptors fans who successfully identified the poor officiating.

They see no foul. What they see is LeBrons head tilt back and assume its a foul. If they see contact of any sort but dont know who actually did what, they base it off a players reaction.
They need more help imo fans in the stands (i know their biased lol) but you hear the reactions for travels, moving screens, etc because they can see it from a better view

[2 kewl 4 skool]

Lets put lbjs flop into perspective heres how I can hate it so much even knowing lowry is also a flopper and i love him.

Lowry or lbj make a game flop when they feel things should be going there way. Thats fine thats whatever I feel I would do the same if the whtiles going against me.

But this flop was not an in game flop. this was a **** scrum flop. Like doing that flop in that spot is not saying I want to get the other team a foul. Its saying I want **** demarcus carrol **** suspended flop. Thats just so much worse.

Like lebron thought carrol hit him and he tried to end his career. Make no mistake if carrol really hit lebron there incidental or not he would be done for the playoffs.

Thats where I have a problem with it...

This comment deserves more And-1's

No it doesnt. Any type of flopping needs to die already

[JustLucky]

To do that you have to change the reffing system but thats another debate. I think you missed the whole point of the posts

(robots plz robots anything but the human eye reviews on unsure fouls or more punishments for floppers)

[Focus]

Only Raptors fans could go on crying about the refs this long when THEY WON, dear lord get over it, they were bad both ways and you won, it did not cost TOR the game in game 3. TOR had a good game, CLE played poor, it's 2-1, get over it already.

yeah, they also complained forever after game 7 against the heat. there's something wrong with the mentality of most torontonians. They seem to really enjoy the narrative that they are overlooked or snubbed or somehow treated unfairly. I notice a tendency to make story lines out of nothing. Some recent examples: nonstop crying about Wade missing the Canadian Anthem when the dude apologized, making a huge deal out of that "other" poll when it was actually released before game 7 with the heat, etc.

Toronto fans need to realize the world does not revolve around them. There is no conspiracy to hold somehow hold them down.

[th1]

Doesn't Lebron realize that flopping is hurting his image and brand.

[Vlade Divac]

Shameful treatment of Byombo by refs is insult to the game of basketball. In what parallel universe is this Byombo's foul?

https://vine.co/9083e54e-9ee7-47cc-993f-cc8d724c83c6

[Childs]

I wish we would stop complaining and enjoy the win.

[mtcan]

Only Raptors fans could go on crying about the refs this long when THEY WON, dear lord get over it, they were bad both ways and you won, it did not cost TOR the game in game 3. TOR had a good game, CLE played poor, it's 2-1, get over it already.

yeah, they also complained forever after game 7 against the heat. there's something wrong with the mentality of most torontonians. They seem to really enjoy the narrative that they are overlooked or snubbed or somehow treated unfairly. I notice a tendency to make story lines out of nothing. Some recent examples: nonstop crying about Wade missing the Canadian Anthem when the dude apologized, making a huge deal out of that "other" poll when it was actually released before game 7 with the heat, etc.

Toronto fans need to realize the world does not revolve around them. There is no conspiracy to hold somehow hold them down.

It does. That is where you are wrong.

[JustLucky]

Doesn't Lebron realize that flopping is hurting his image and brand.

good thing he signed for life for 1 billion...

[Dupp]

That was a make up call

We're still waiting for about fifty make-up calls based on the first three games. If we get the next fifty makeup calls to stop complaining we'll stop complaining.

Yeah the refs were fine the first two games, it wasnt lop sided at all. Your fan base just likes to complain far beyond a reasonable amount. You even won tonight, easily and 95% of the posts are you guys complaining.

[choppermagic]

Doesn't Lebron realize that flopping is hurting his image and brand.

Sadly, flopping IS his brand now.

[whysoserious]

Sooooo much complaining about the officials even though they have made no impact in this series. Do Toronto fans think they win game 1 or 2 if not for the officials?

No, the team played poorly in both games. That still doesn't excuse bad officiating in Game 2 and now Game 3.

[Lord Eder]

Cavs are already pulling Biyombo out with Love and Frye, it's why there was such a red carpet to the basket in game 1 and 2. They were so concerned with Cavs gaudy 3 point shooting. Game 3, Raptors made an effort to protect the paint first and foremost. They always had someone down there roaming. While the other 4 guys guarded the perimeter, seemingly switching all screens and everything. They closed shooters out well. Cleveland missed a few open shots but give credit to Toronto's defence. Effort and scheme.

Let's see what comes out in game 4

My point is that when Biyo switches onto LeBron, there's clearly a size mismatch somewhere on whoever is guarding TT. When LeBron drives, Biyo would back pedal and disrupt the shot or a help defender joins in. In this case, Biyo can recover and grab the defensive rebound. But keep him near the 3pt line, have TT/Love get into the paint and let LeBron shoot the 3 or mid-range over the sagging Biyo. Normally the Cavs call for a clear out so that LeBron has open space to drive, so TT/Love rushing to the basket wouldn't be impeded by the Raps because that's what they want.

Even if LeBron can get a better look by driving, the Cavs have to find a way to deter Biyo from sagging into the paint because he affected so many shots tonight. So make or miss, LeBron shooting from mid-range out is a good shot because the Cavs would send 2 bigs (one of which has LeBron's man guarding him) into the paint in case of the rebound.

I was impressed with the Raptor's effort and schemes tonight. I think one adjustment the Cavs may make is to use Frye/Love as the C at times (or have them both on) with Biyo on the floor. TT maybe gets 1 play called for him in a blue moon, and that's usually withing 4 ft of the basket, so Biyo doesn't have to worry about him. But because the Raps don't respect TT's offensive game, Biyo is allowed to play free safety and provide help on all of the Cavs post play/drives. The Cavs will lose out in rebounding and some defense, but at least the paint won't be as congested and opens the floor for PnP and kick outs at the 3pt line. Of course that strategy only works if guys are making their open shots.

Even if you are trying to create a mismatch for Thompson, I think Toronto can combat that by having Patterson out there. If you try and put LeBron and TT in screen action you can simply switch on the screen because Patterson is capable of guarding either player. He did a solid job on LeBron last night.

Before yesterday I was in the boat that the Cavaliers offence was just unguardable right now. The only way to win would be to out gun them. But they showed last night that that offence can indeed be slowed down.

We'll see if it can be sustained. Cavs are a great team, and LeBron is a legend. I'm sure they'll figure out something to exploit.


Maybe if Toronto locks down the paint again in game 4 you look to Mozgov for some minutes? Get him some looks in the post. His size might be an issue for Biyombo.

We'll see

[Vlade Divac]

I am puzzled with K.Love. Kyrie had a bad game too, very bad, but he was trying. Love looked lost, afraid and without any confidence. If you allow yourself to be stopped by Scolas in this league you do not belong on the big stage.

[Duke4life831]

Man the last few pages of this thread is pretty funny. Two of probably the most annoying fan bases on here going back and forth living up to the stereotypes on here

[crossroads]

That was a make up call

We're still waiting for about fifty make-up calls based on the first three games. If we get the next fifty makeup calls to stop complaining we'll stop complaining.

Yeah the refs were fine the first two games, it wasnt lop sided at all. Your fan base just likes to complain far beyond a reasonable amount. You even won tonight, easily and 95% of the posts are you guys complaining.

Yeah, it gets annoying as hell and detracts from any real discussion about the actual game being played. But at the same time there are posters from every teams fan base that do this. Hell during game 1 the outlaw was complaining the the refs were absolutely screwing the cavs while they were up by like 25 or so in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately the massive amount of raptors fans on this site + the amount of new fans to the team that have come from the bit of success the teams finally had the last couple seasons can make for a large and obnoxious contingent. Someone needs to make a thread dedicated to complaining about the refs and leave these game threads for all matters unrelated to ref competence