The Lebron Thread (2015-16 Pt. 3)

[PaulieWal]

Bold prediction: Oklahoma City is gonna make this void by cooling their minds and winning on monday

Way to stake out that corner. I do not think it will be a blowout like many are predicting. The Dubs were only in this because of outrageous, bonkers, BS shooting from Klay. If OKC can keep their heads and just play their game, they have a decent chance.

And what's to say in a game 7 Curry and Klay at home aren't going to make same BS contested 3s?

Not to mention the whistle will be a lot friendlier to the Warriors at home.

FWIW, Warriors are opening as a 7 point favorite for Game 7.

[PaulieWal]

Also for all the talk about the curry green pick and roll killing the cavs draymond has had a tendency of calling for the ball in the post and that's not been to efficient, golden state's screens are looking softer, theyve been sloppier with the ball. Etc. I would say cleveland is gelling better than GS and I just think people are overreacting to the RS games

Cavs are playing horrible defense in the PS. Lowe said Irving/Love in a PnR are a disaster giving up something like 1.25 PPP. If GSW escapes OKC I think they will have their groove back. This is a 7 games series with Thunder playing the defense of their lives. How are the Cavs gonna stop all these shooters? Love and Frye will be unplayable against the Warriors unless you want a layup line for the Warriors....

See you get why this just got a lot harder for us.

Yeah defence is a disaster i dunno how we step that up. Thunder have so many more weapons to throw at the warriors. Oh well may the better team win.

Yeah, I do get it but as I said it's still a weird way to look at it.

Anyway, I still hope we get a Cavs/OKC Finals.

[rich316]

Bold prediction: Oklahoma City is gonna make this void by cooling their minds and winning on monday

Way to stake out that corner. I do not think it will be a blowout like many are predicting. The Dubs were only in this because of outrageous, bonkers, BS shooting from Klay. If OKC can keep their heads and just play their game, they have a decent chance.

And what's to say in a game 7 Curry and Klay at home aren't going to make same BS contested 3s?

Not to mention the whistle will be a lot friendlier to the Warriors at home.

FWIW, Warriors are opening as a 7 point favorite for Game 7.

They certainly might, but even with that level of shooting they "only" scored 108 points. OKC is capable of matching that - the point is, OKC's defense never really wavered except until the very end when they were totally gassed and dispirited. Green continued to be a non-entity on offense, I don't think that will change.

Anything can happen, of course, but the fundamentals of the series remained the same: OKC's D shuts down everything except Splash Brothers nonsense, and Westbrook and KD need to get their teammates involved to win. Of course that could all flip in game 7, but nothing we saw tonight indicates that a major change happened. People are calling the series over because of momentum/demoralization, and that may be a factor- we will see Monday.

[RSCD3_]

Bold prediction: Oklahoma City is gonna make this void by cooling their minds and winning on monday

Cavs have a better chance of sweeping the warrirors. Thunder will lose by 20.

The spurs had a absolutely ridiculous unfathomable collapse in game 6 and we're down by 2 with a point blank duncan at the rim even though their loss was way worse, I think it will be closer because klay wont shoot insane and durant wont be so bad two games in a row.People are being swept up in their emotions after this. OKC still has a 35% chance

[LivingLegend]

Is there a reason why everytime the Cleveland curse is on the verge of being broken there is some sort of historic feat standing in the way? Like come the eff on. We were the favorites in 2009, then the average Magic made a historic effort at shooting the 3 and hit like 20 a game against us. Then got smacked down. Then we have a chance and Kyrie/Love get injured. Now we have a chance but we are literally facing one of the greatest teams of all time who seem to have every ball bounce their way.

Can we just win god dadfrojfr without some historic feat or team being put in our way! Ce just face a normal team in the finals that isn't historically relevant for the love of god.

[GSP]

I think people are overreacting to the matchup advantage Golden State has. Do people think it wil be easy to stop a +15.0 offense? I think if this is the matchup lue might have some trocks up his sleeve. They shouldnt do much worse than they did last year with a much stronger team

I think this Cavs offense is in the running for greatest ever but do u believe +15 is truly indicative of their offensive level?

Its hard to imagine Gs not exposing Kyrie and Love badly on pickandrolls. Cleveland wouldnt be anywhere near as successful switching everything with Kyrie and Love playing. Okc, Minny, Boston, Spurs and Bucks are prolly the only teams who have the coaching/Iq and/or talent/athleticism/length to be this effective against Gs with that strategy (and in a 7 game series i dont think its possible given how gassed Thunder plays look now, how much more space they give off screens on switches etc.). Man i hate this. Okc would have been such a good matchup for Cleveland plus homecourt. This is awful.

[RSCD3_]

I think people are overreacting to the matchup advantage Golden State has. Do people think it wil be easy to stop a +15.0 offense? I think if this is the matchup lue might have some trocks up his sleeve. They shouldnt do much worse than they did last year with a much stronger team

I think this Cavs offense is in the running for greatest ever but do u believe +15 is truly indicative of their offensive level?

Its hard to imagine Gs not exposing Kyrie and Love badly on pickandrolls. Cleveland wouldnt be anywhere near as successful switching everything with Kyrie and Love playing. Okc, Minny, Boston, Spurs and Bucks are prolly the only teams who have the coaching/Iq and/or talent/athleticism/length to be this effective against Gs with that strategy (and in a 7 game series i dont think its possible given how gassed Thunder plays look now, how much more space they give off screens on switches etc.). Man i hate this. Okc would have been such a good matchup for Cleveland plus homecourt. This is awful.

Okc can still win game 7

[TurnDownForWatt]

I recall seeing something on defense that Irving and Love are pathetically bad in pick and roll situations. Imagine them having to chase Curry and Green around.

Cavs got Frye to matchup with the Warriors specifically.

Warriors matchup well with the Cavs since Thompson and Iggy can somewhat slow down LeBron. Nobody in OKC stood a chance against LeBron.

[rich316]

I recall seeing something on defense that Irving and Love are pathetically bad in pick and roll situations. Imagine them having to chase Curry and Green around.

Cavs got Frye to matchup with the Warriors specifically.

Warriors matchup well with the Cavs since Thompson and Iggy can somewhat slow down LeBron. Nobody in OKC stood a chance against LeBron.

I actually think Roberson is the best Lebron defender left in the playoffs. He has been incredible, he has length, quickness, strength, and young legs. I can't fault him at all for Klay putting the 2K settings on "Easy" in the 4th. Iggy can get it done for stretches, but he doesn't quite have the stamina to do it all game.

[Dupp]

I recall seeing something on defense that Irving and Love are pathetically bad in pick and roll situations. Imagine them having to chase Curry and Green around.

Cavs got Frye to matchup with the Warriors specifically.

Warriors matchup well with the Cavs since Thompson and Iggy can somewhat slow down LeBron. Nobody in OKC stood a chance against LeBron.

I actually think Roberson is the best Lebron defender left in the playoffs. He has been incredible, he has length, quickness, strength, and young legs. I can't fault him at all for Klay putting the 2K settings on "Easy" in the 4th. Iggy can get it done for stretches, but he doesn't quite have the stamina to do it all game.

Actually Roberson being in foul trouble probably cost thunder

[yoyoboy]

Not even excited for the Finals to be honest... OKC wasn't the only team that had its championship aspirations destroyed tonight.

Golden State could conceivably win the title for the next few years in a row, and I can't imagine what team stands in their way. Maybe in 4-5 years Minnesota plays up to their potential and provides some adversity, but other than that, I see no team in the league that can contend with the Warriors in the near future. They're just too good, and while the Cavs have at least similar talent level, they match up absolutely TERRIBLY.

Ugh... Sports suck.

[therealbig3]

Some epic reverse jinxing going on in this thread lol.

[bballexpert]

Is there a reason why everytime the Cleveland curse is on the verge of being broken there is some sort of historic feat standing in the way? Like come the eff on. We were the favorites in 2009, then the average Magic made a historic effort at shooting the 3 and hit like 20 a game against us. Then got smacked down. Then we have a chance and Kyrie/Love get injured. Now we have a chance but we are literally facing one of the greatest teams of all time who seem to have every ball bounce their way.

Can we just win god dadfrojfr without some historic feat or team being put in our way! Ce just face a normal team in the finals that isn't historically relevant for the love of god.

Well to be fair you guys pretty much have a cake walk to the finales that is already a advantage for you. Mean while the Spurs, Warriors and Thunder have to battle it out just to get it to the finales. I mean what else do you want you already have a advantage to rest you faced ok team in Raptors and you guys get to rest only team good going to face is in the finales. Warriors win they just better and they had to go through so much more **** to even get there its not even funny really. I mean even if you lose at least you guys won the ufc heavyweight title that something right you guys got a winner for once should be happy about that.

[JVL]

Not even excited for the Finals to be honest... OKC wasn't the only team that had its championship aspirations destroyed tonight.

Golden State could conceivably win the title for the next few years in a row, and I can't imagine what team stands in their way. Maybe in 4-5 years Minnesota plays up to their potential and provides some adversity, but other than that, I see no team in the league that can contend with the Warriors in the near future. They're just too good, and while the Cavs have at least similar talent level, they match up absolutely TERRIBLY.

Ugh... Sports suck.

The Warriors haven't even made the Finals yet and were down 3-1 before Durant folded under the pressure and Klay Thompson set an NBA record...

Calm down.

[kayess]

Some epic reverse jinxing going on in this thread lol.

I think that the Cavs have a higher ceiling, but the Warriors have a WAAAAY higher floor, and a high-enough ceiling that's pretty easy for them to reach. They simply have way less variance than Cleveland.

I don't know about the other guys, but to me, the only question in my mind about evaluating the series was whether I was overrating LeBron by thinking he can win 1-2 games against GS. If I didn't have to argue that in my mind, I would've said "GS 4-0 CLE" as soon as the way Game 2 of the WCF ended.

Hell, when OKC went up 3-1 I thought that if GS blew them out in Game 5 that it'd be over. The way they lost game 5 gave me hope, but yeah, can they really recover from this loss? I wouldn't be surprised either way, tbh - but then that would mean OKC overcomes even greater adversity, and probably plays even better than expected in the Finals against the Cavs.

It's not reverse-jinxing, it's honestly just plain realistic thinking lol

[JordansBulls]

Is there a reason why everytime the Cleveland curse is on the verge of being broken there is some sort of historic feat standing in the way? Like come the eff on. We were the favorites in 2009, then the average Magic made a historic effort at shooting the 3 and hit like 20 a game against us. Then got smacked down. Then we have a chance and Kyrie/Love get injured. Now we have a chance but we are literally facing one of the greatest teams of all time who seem to have every ball bounce their way.

Can we just win god dadfrojfr without some historic feat or team being put in our way! Ce just face a normal team in the finals that isn't historically relevant for the love of god.

One of the greatest teams all time doesn't go down 3-1 in a series.

[ppedro123]

Not even excited for the Finals to be honest... OKC wasn't the only team that had its championship aspirations destroyed tonight.

Golden State could conceivably win the title for the next few years in a row, and I can't imagine what team stands in their way. Maybe in 4-5 years Minnesota plays up to their potential and provides some adversity, but other than that, I see no team in the league that can contend with the Warriors in the near future. They're just too good, and while the Cavs have at least similar talent level, they match up absolutely TERRIBLY.

Ugh... Sports suck.

You have LeBron on your team. Dont overreact.

Dont you think LeBron and the coaching staff have been expecting to meet Golden State in the Finals since the beggining of the season?

[PaulieWal]

Is there a reason why everytime the Cleveland curse is on the verge of being broken there is some sort of historic feat standing in the way? Like come the eff on. We were the favorites in 2009, then the average Magic made a historic effort at shooting the 3 and hit like 20 a game against us. Then got smacked down. Then we have a chance and Kyrie/Love get injured. Now we have a chance but we are literally facing one of the greatest teams of all time who seem to have every ball bounce their way.

Can we just win god dadfrojfr without some historic feat or team being put in our way! Ce just face a normal team in the finals that isn't historically relevant for the love of god.

One of the greatest teams all time doesn't go down 3-1 in a series.

No, they fight back and then go on to win the title.

I am not going to lie and say that I didn't want OKC to win last night but if anything, this just cements GSW's status as a GOAT level team if they win on Monday and then win the Finals. GIve credit where credit is due, JB. Don't be THAT guy.

[yoyoboy]

Not even excited for the Finals to be honest... OKC wasn't the only team that had its championship aspirations destroyed tonight.

Golden State could conceivably win the title for the next few years in a row, and I can't imagine what team stands in their way. Maybe in 4-5 years Minnesota plays up to their potential and provides some adversity, but other than that, I see no team in the league that can contend with the Warriors in the near future. They're just too good, and while the Cavs have at least similar talent level, they match up absolutely TERRIBLY.

Ugh... Sports suck.

You have LeBron on your team. Dont overreact.

Dont you think LeBron and the coaching staff have been expecting to meet Golden State in the Finals since the beggining of the season?

It doesn't matter if we have LeBron. When a team can essentially make your 2nd and 3rd best players liabilities on the floor due to the matchup problems they create, you don't really have much of a chance. I still think LeBron is the best player in the world, but Golden State is on a mission and they're not being stopped this year.

[PaulieWal]

It doesn't matter if we have LeBron. When a team can essentially make your 2nd and 3rd best players liabilities on the floor due to the matchup problems they create, you don't really have much of a chance. I still think LeBron is the best player in the world, but Golden State is on a mission and they're not being stopped this year.

I don't even think they are on a mission or anything like that. It's more that they have a real life NBA 2k shot making duo on their team. It doesn't matter what kind of defense you are playing it's hard to beat any team when 1-2 games a series Klay/Curry are going to make contested 3s. And when they are on like that you can't do anything.