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

[Scorpion King]

NBA should fine Lebron for this theatrics. We know the golden boy wont even be given for a warning for this.

[ppedro123]

I can't wait for this series to be over.


Cant stand Raps fans no more.

[DubTheVanDamage]

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.

I find it amusing that a poster that goes out of his way to complain about everything officiating that concerns the Warriors would say, "calls were bad both ways". No, they weren't; officiating clearly was tilted in favor of the Cavs and it's not just Raptors fans saying it. Last night's game was an embarrassing display of officiating for the NBA.

But here's the thing: it wasn't an embarrassing display of officiating for the Cavaliers. Maybe the league has an agenda to put LeBron in the finals. More likely, the officials just did a poor job. Basketball is a difficult game to officiate. Regardless, it wasn't the fault of the Cavs: they don't hire or supervise officials. Just say, sure, the refs did a poor job, we lost and move on. What's so hard about that? But debating foul calls or claiming it was bad both ways is silly at best and dishonest at worst.

One could take issue with LeBron's flopping but no one expects Cavs fans to abandon their team because of a couple of plays. And, sadly, flopping is the most effective way to get the attention of the officials. The only thing that regulates it is if a player flops too often, they can get a rep for flopping and don't get the benefit of the doubt. That's what LeBron needs to concern himself with, not outraged fans on a message board.

[everdiso]

if you were to rank the 5 best players on each of these ECF teams it would look something like this:

1.Lebron
2.Valanciunas
3.Lowry
4.Derozan
5.Irving
6.Love
7/8.Carroll/Smith
9/10.Biyombo/Thompson

not sure why people think the talent disparity between the two teams is so big.

[Duffman100]

Awesome that we won. For me, not crowding Lebron and giving him some space was the biggest difference defensively. That and Love missing wide open shots, that helped too.

[bmurph128]

Irving and Love are the 2nd and 3rd best players in this series..

Crazy the complaints here. Every team experiences bad officiating, and every team has players that flop. When you blame the refs you are skirting the process of holding your team accountable for the way they play.

I missed last night's game, but the officiating in the first two was fair IMO. And just thinking about it logically, it's unlikely the Raptors beat the Cavs while being so shafted by the refs....so I'm inclined to think that last night's game wasn't as bad as people try to make it

[chuckdevlin]

Irving and Love are the 2nd and 3rd best players in this series..

Crazy the complaints here. Every team experiences bad officiating, and every team has players that flop. When you blame the refs you are skirting the process of holding your team accountable for the way they play.

I missed last night's game, but the officiating in the first two was fair IMO. And just thinking about it logically, it's unlikely the Raptors beat the Cavs while being so shafted by the refs....so I'm inclined to think that last night's game wasn't as bad as people try to make it

[RoleModel]

I can't wait for this series to be over.


Cant stand Raps fans no more.

RealGM is a Raptors forum.

[everdiso]

Irving and Love are the 2nd and 3rd best players in this series..

you don't actually believe the raps would be a better team with either of those guys replacing lowry/dd/val, do you?

[DaKnicksAreBack]

Irving and Love are the 2nd and 3rd best players in this series..

Crazy the complaints here. Every team experiences bad officiating, and every team has players that flop. When you blame the refs you are skirting the process of holding your team accountable for the way they play.

I missed last night's game, but the officiating in the first two was fair IMO. And just thinking about it logically, it's unlikely the Raptors beat the Cavs while being so shafted by the refs....so I'm inclined to think that last night's game wasn't as bad as people try to make it

I agree with you that Irving is the second best, but lowry is third and Derozan is forth.

[JustLucky]

I think love would look great on the raptors playing along side jv as a stretch 4. But lowry>kyrie . Better all around game altho only slightly. but hes more of a true point gaurd.

Altho kyrie has outshined lowry this series

[DreamTeam09]

lol I hate the cavs n practically every player on that roster!!!

[Steelo Green]

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.

Let's put every Toronto fan in a box, that's a fair thing to do.

[Scase]

Irving and Love are the 2nd and 3rd best players in this series..

Crazy the complaints here. Every team experiences bad officiating, and every team has players that flop. When you blame the refs you are skirting the process of holding your team accountable for the way they play.

I missed last night's game, but the officiating in the first two was fair IMO. And just thinking about it logically, it's unlikely the Raptors beat the Cavs while being so shafted by the refs....so I'm inclined to think that last night's game wasn't as bad as people try to make it

I don't agree with the people bitching about the officiating in the first 2 games, we played like hot summer trash and deserved to lose.
Last night however, win or lose was some brutal officiating. Like, we're talking LAL vs SAC bad.

[Volcano]

I think Raptor fans were complaining too much about calls in their first two rounds when it went both ways. The Cavs series is clearly lopsided so far though..and you're a dumb homer if you don't recognize that.

Personal fouls in each series:
MIA vs CHA
20.7 - 17.6

MIA vs TOR
18.3 - 19.1

IND vs TOR
22.3 - 21.7

CLE vs ATL
19.25 - 20.5

CLE vs DET
20.25 - 19

CLE vs TOR
15.3 - 24.3

Must be a coincidence. I mean, when you have elite defenders like JR Smith and Irving on the perimeter and a defensive monster like Love backing you up, it's hard for the Cavs not to play perfect defense. Of course, the outcome of all 3 games still don't change and Cavs likely still win the series, but I don't want to watch some WWE crap.

[airhaj]

Just leaving this here for people who might have missed this last night

[Nebula1]

if you were to rank the 5 best players on each of these ECF teams it would look something like this:

1.Lebron
2.Valanciunas
3.Lowry
4.Derozan
5.Irving
6.Love
7/8.Carroll/Smith
9/10.Biyombo/Thompson

not sure why people think the talent disparity between the two teams is so big.

Lol no

1 Lebron
2 Irving
3 Love
4 Derozan
5 Lowry
6 Jonas


Great win for Toronto though

[everdiso]

if you were to rank the 5 best players on each of these ECF teams it would look something like this:

1.Lebron
2.Valanciunas
3.Lowry
4.Derozan
5.Irving
6.Love
7/8.Carroll/Smith
9/10.Biyombo/Thompson

not sure why people think the talent disparity between the two teams is so big.

Lol no

1 Lebron
2 Irving
3 Love
4 Derozan
5 Lowry
6 Jonas


Great win for Toronto though

you don't actually believe the raps would be a better team if they swapped any of those guys for irving or love.

[BirdmanPresents]

Annnd again we have more people on here complaining about Raptors fans whinning about calls, than there are actual raptor fans whinning about calls. Don't let a few people make you bring out the torches and pitchforks.

This series has been called terrible both ways. It happened game 1, 2 and 3. It didn't affect outcome of either 3 games, the best team won in all 3.

That is not to mention the Lebron treatment, because lebron will always get lebron calls no matter what. Just needs to be accepted as part of his game.

As for people saying he should of get more flagrant calls on him because people foul harder, why would you foul a bigger, stronger, person the same as a point guard? Obviously you have to foul the bigger guys harder you are trying to prevent them from getting an easy score or an and 1. The foul maybe harder but the outcome is the same. People will criticize when you foul Lebron lightly and he gets and and 1, then when you prevent him from getting the shot off by fouling harder they want a flagrant. Not much logic there. Obviously this is still with making a play on the ball, not trying to take him out.

[cammac]

The biggest advantage in the series was a healthy well rested Cav's team against a bruised and tired Raptor's team with a top 3 player out. The Cavs savaged the Raptors in the 1st 2 games but Casey & his staff found a way to mitigate the LeBron advantage and turned the tables.

Right now the Cavs have the best player in LeBron but if he can be kept to the season average" LeBron" frankly Cleveland isn't scary.