Quotatious wrote:Baski wrote:Lebron vs. Kobe 2009
Would've been epic
Probably would've been an easy win for the Lakers, to be honest. Cavs wouldn't be able to deal with Pau and the Lakers frontline, and they had nobody other than LeBron, to guard Kobe - but of course the Cavs needed LeBron to carry them offensively, so LeBron wouldn't be the primary defender against Kobe, he would have to conserve energy for offense, and I see a 30+ ppg series for Bryant - James would likely be the best player in that series, he was on an absolute tear in 2009 playoffs, unstoppable individually, but it wouldn't be enough to push LA to more than 5 or 6 games - I would pick LA in 5, to be honest). Narrative would be that Kobe outplayed LeBron because their teams had almost the same record in RS, so people would think it was a matchup of two equal teams (and we all know how much people like to think of basketball as a clash of two superstars, and whichever team wins, their superstar is considered to be superior than the superstar who plays on the losing team, regardless of how well both of the superstars play individually, which is very unfortunate - for example, I bet that if the Knicks beat the Rockets in '94 finals, many people would argue Ewing over Olajuwon that year, even though in reality Hakeem easily outplayed Patrick individually, and Ewing's offensive struggles were really bad - Knicks minus Ewing outplayed the Rockets minus Olajuwon, which is why that series was so close - hell, if Starks went 7/18 instead of 2/18 in game 7, NYK would've won that series), but the truth is,those Cavs teams during LeBron's first tenure in Cleveland were built for regular season FAR more than for the playoffs. They were sort of "paper tigers", because they had obvious, exploitable weaknesses. Teams like the Magic and Lakers, who had elite bigs such as prime Howard and Gasol, would have a massive edge over those Cavaliers.
Here's how I see that series going - LeBron and Kobe would both have a great series - James would have the upper hand, but not by big margin (because LA had better answers for LeBron than Cavs had for Kobe - LA could put Ariza and Odom on LeBron, and Kobe on some possessions late in games, too), but Kobe's and LeBron's performance would not be the deciding factor - Pau's dominance over Cavs frontcourt would give LAL the edge, a clear edge, at that.
Why are you preemptively trying to justify the Cavs losing as a team but projecting Lebron as the best player on the floor? Is that what you thought during the 2011 finals? Why are you underplaying a team that won 60+ games back to back as a team that was not very, very good with Lebron leading them. Going by the #'s and not the narrative:
CLE rankings
DRTG 3rd
ORTG 4th
Opp Pts per game 1st
SRS 8.68
The Cavaliers swept the first two rounds....8-0, in this fictional match up the Cavaliers would have had HC advantage and they would have had all kinds of options vs the Lakers front line. Then people forget that Andrew Bynum was not that big a part of the Lakers during that finals series. He was playing less than 20 MPG and not the most effective player; Bynum was scoring 6PPG on TS% of .406 for the series. Then Lebron was shown to be very effective against Pau in situational moments.
Also, why would anyone take Ewing over Olajuwon? I never ever thought Ewing was in the same class as DRob/Hakeem/Shaq during the early 90's. He always struggled in the post season and I had figured out the Knicks could not beat the Bulls because Ewing could not dominate the Bulls inside. He depended too much on his outside game and getting dunked on by MJ/Pippen instead of being the dunking on the Bulls. Did Ewing ever win an MVP?
He made one All-NBA first team while competing vs the other great centers of the 90's
All-NBA first team selections:
Hakeem - 6
DRob - 4
So during Ewing's prime he was rarely considered the best center in the game. If the Knicks somehow won that series, it would not have changed anyone's thinking about that comparison......
I'm so tired of the typical......
