The Lebron '20 Thread (Pt. 7)

[xb3at band1tx]

Bam is the heat's best player but I still need to see it whether he can bother AD in a 7 game series. In theory, he should be able to, but even like a team like Denver whose forced AD into a jumpshooter, he's still killing them no matter what they do.

[nzahir]

It really frustrates me that Vogel hasn't been able to implement any strategies to take advantage of Denver packing the paint like this. You can't have AD setting a down screen in this situation to free up Green for a three up top? Or have Green and Dwight double screen the weak side defenders to get KCP open for the corner three? Or have KCP sprint baseline to the other side to draw Craig to the corner and free up LeBron for a drive? Or literally have all the players off ball just moving around in general to get the defense at least out of position and not literally just staring at LeBron while knowing where everyone else is on the floor?

Miami will no doubt take notes from Denver and pack the paint if they face the Lakers, and they have even better defensive personnel to execute it.

That is on Vogel honestly....but dw DG would likely brick it

We need shooting this summer. Can use playmaking too, but I think shooting is a bigger need, especially since we still have Lebron and AD can kick out of the post ups

Why did we stop playing Dwight in the 2nd half? He was great

[freethedevil]

I really wanna see Bam vs. Davis. Bam is becoming one of my favorite players to watch right now and if he's matched up against the Lakers, will be rooting for him to take it to Davis lol. As much as Davis has been an offensive beast, I don't really enjoy watching him. On the other hand, I find Bam must watch TV - especially in the bubble. Not gonna lie, was not that familiar with him pre-bubble.

Not sure miami is gonna be easier for davis, given how much work BAm gave giannis offensively. He won't be pulled to the perimiter i guess.

Bam is awesome but Jokic just provides so many options for his team's offense especially being able to space the floor.

H2H a rebounding battle could be tough but Heat really have no other bigs to back Bam up (maybe olnyk?)

Despite all that, it's clear AD wants to play like he's KD anyways lol

Well ad's shooting more than well enough atm to justify playing like kd. But just like KD, that doesn't translate to the impact he would have if he was contributing defensively as opposed to coasting on rep.

[freethedevil]

Bam is the heat's best player but I still need to see it whether he can bother AD in a 7 game series. In theory, he should be able to, but even like a team like Denver whose forced AD into a jumpshooter, he's still killing them no matter what they do.

Denver don't have any elite rim rprotectors. Additionally that's on offense. AD's shown up offensively, at the cost of his defense.

[Baski]

This board is rather gloom and doom this entire playoff run regarding Lebron. Some of you guys need to have more faith in Lebron and AD haha.

It's the duality of being a Bron fan man. You have utter faith that at any moment, he can completely dominate every possession on both ends with his GOAT level ability and motor. So when he falls short of that, you (unnecessarily) worry and overreact.

Obviously REALLY ugly win from them, but they got the job done through their offensive rebounding (and, in the end, their D). It's a classic Ferguson United win - they just played well enough, especially in squeaky bum time. The hallmark of what championship runs are made of.

As for LeBron: On O, he took what the defense was giving him (even though they all bricked), fought his way to the line (a couple of times just punishing bad IQ by Denver defenders to get a couple of cheap fouls), and when the game was in the balance, switched onto Murray and helped stop him as they built a small lead.

Overall pretty solid game for him

Hated that guy and team so much for that. Dunno how he did it but he had an ATG knack for instilling a level of confidence and calm in his players that always showed season by season especially when things got tough.

[Dupp]

Denny green sucks

[JulesWinnfield]

Denny green sucks

He has been a dumpster fire. On the bright side, the law of averages states he has to start knocking some of these down, and this would be the perfect time for a nice little stretch. He owes Lebron a finals performance after such ungodly shooting *against* him in 13 and 14

[JulesWinnfield]

I still am at a loss to gauge how much I should actually fear the Heat. It’s certainly less than any of Lebrons other 9 finals opponents entering the series. If you proposed a Laker/Heat series to me before coronavirus I’d have laughed at the notion that Miami has any chance whatsoever, and frankly there’s a side of me that still wouldn’t be surprised to see LA just plow through them. Obviously though that was ages ago now, and you can’t deny what they’ve done, even as some of it still doesn’t make a ton of sense. I mean Boston is shooting better from the field than Miami, better from 3 than Miami, better at the line than Miami, AND outrebounding them on their way to trailing 3-1.

[kayess]

This board is rather gloom and doom this entire playoff run regarding Lebron. Some of you guys need to have more faith in Lebron and AD haha.

It's the duality of being a Bron fan man. You have utter faith that at any moment, he can completely dominate every possession on both ends with his GOAT level ability and motor. So when he falls short of that, you (unnecessarily) worry and overreact.

Obviously REALLY ugly win from them, but they got the job done through their offensive rebounding (and, in the end, their D). It's a classic Ferguson United win - they just played well enough, especially in squeaky bum time. The hallmark of what championship runs are made of.

As for LeBron: On O, he took what the defense was giving him (even though they all bricked), fought his way to the line (a couple of times just punishing bad IQ by Denver defenders to get a couple of cheap fouls), and when the game was in the balance, switched onto Murray and helped stop him as they built a small lead.

Overall pretty solid game for him

Hated that guy and team so much for that. Dunno how he did it but he had an ATG knack for instilling a level of confidence and calm in his players that always showed season by season especially when things got tough.

He left us with one final masterpiece - his last season where players just played waaay over their **** heads and they managed to win the title. Utterly unbelievable stuff.

I hope Bron, in his last (hopefully we haven't seen it yet) finals appearance does something like "Lads, it's Tottenham" to rile up the troops at halftime

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[Ursusamericanus]

I still am at a loss to gauge how much I should actually fear the Heat. It’s certainly less than any of Lebrons other 9 finals opponents entering the series. If you proposed a Laker/Heat series to me before coronavirus I’d have laughed at the notion that Miami has any chance whatsoever, and frankly there’s a side of me that still wouldn’t be surprised to see LA just plow through them. Obviously though that was ages ago now, and you can’t deny what they’ve done, even as some of it still doesn’t make a ton of sense. I mean Boston is shooting better from the field than Miami, better from 3 than Miami, better at the line than Miami, AND outrebounding them on their way to trailing 3-1.

Same here. Miami is well-coached, balanced, deep, defensively scrappy, and has good shooters and incredible chemistry/camaraderie. But they lack superstar power and I think the veteran poise and championship experience from guys like LeBron, Rondo, McGee, and Green will win the day. I also expect that AD will have an easier time with Bam than he has had with Joker, and Miami lacks someone as explosive as Bubble-Murray (and that's no disrespect to Jimmy Buckets). I picked LA over Miami in 6 for the championship from the early stages of the playoffs and am sticking with it. And that's not to get ahead of ourselves - respect to Denver - but I see the LA wrapping up the current series in 5-6. It'll be in their interest to finish Denver off ASAP also to rest LeBron and AD's nagging injuries/soreness.

I maintain that this is LeBron's "easiest" path to a ring so far. He himself is obviously a step slower now, but AD is his best teammate yet, and with guys like KD, Kawhi, and Steph out of commission this is the perfect window of opportunity to grab ring #4.

[Homer38]

Read on Twitter

[Baski]

He left us with one final masterpiece - his last season where players just played waaay over their **** heads and they managed to win the title. Utterly unbelievable stuff.

I hope Bron, in his last (hopefully we haven't seen it yet) finals appearance does something like "Lads, it's Tottenham" to rile up the troops at halftime

I hear ya. They should NOT have won that last title. No goddamn way.

The sheer audacity of substituting a motivational speech with "come on boys we own these guys" and knowing that that was exactly what the boys needed to hear is classic Fergie. Though the football gods made up for that when Barca humiliated em after his "We're not Real Madrid" line.

But imagine it being leaked that Lebron told his teammates "we got this lol" during the finals or something. Dude would get ripped to shreds on the internet.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Not sure miami is gonna be easier for davis, given how much work BAm gave giannis offensively. He won't be pulled to the perimiter i guess.

Bam is awesome but Jokic just provides so many options for his team's offense especially being able to space the floor.

H2H a rebounding battle could be tough but Heat really have no other bigs to back Bam up (maybe olnyk?)

Despite all that, it's clear AD wants to play like he's KD anyways lol

Well ad's shooting more than well enough atm to justify playing like kd. But just like KD, that doesn't translate to the impact he would have if he was contributing defensively as opposed to coasting on rep.

Whose been saying ADs doing bad on D tho lmao. He had a bad rebounding game the last game but this game its much more because of how he was positioned on D vs anything else, hes been tasked with guarding against guards on switches more than half the time and is doing solid, but he hasnt even been in a position to protect the rim as much as in series one because of his role within the defense

One of the big things is they do a good job in keeping the guy AD is guarding attached to the perimeter, opposite of where murray is driving, which means AD cant reallg rotate and guard the rim. Iirc only 1-2 of his defensive possessions i remember against murray I though he did anything wrong positioning wise, and he did great contesting shooters on kickouts mostly

Thats why hes rebounding has been so low too, because he hasnt been able to be at the rjm defensively, but that versatility has been important in denying nugfets players open threes in kickouts because of that speed. He had a few good defensive help possessions on jokic as well, iirc.

Offensively, i mean iso scoring on broken possessions os the most impactful scoring you can have for obvious reasons, idk why Kd is being mentioned as if high iso scoring in the team that never has broken possessions and has a money play like the curry green pick and roll is the same as the lakers right now

[Mazter]

So the Lakers are up 3-1 for the third consecutive time, the Nuggets are down 1-3 for the third consecutive time. Who is go going to complete the trilogy...I go for the in between, Lakers in 6.

[Heej]

LeBron would be a great in-game coach tbh. He's the one that asked for the assignment on Murray, and iirc he was the one who told Spo to put Norris Cole on Lance Stephenson all those years ago vs the Pacers when Lance was being a difference maker in the series.

[MisterHibachi]

It's not a LeBron title run unless his jumper is shaky. Honestly, his jumper being shaky is giving me more confidence this year ends in a title lol

Also re Miami: Denver is an offensive juggernaut, and kinda shredded the Lakers defense in games 2 and 3, mostly because of Jokic and Murray. That's really what makes the Lakers a championship team, not their offense. I don't think Miami's offense will pose the same challenges and the Lakers defense should return to top form for the most part. And that's what they need to win the title. Their offense was top 5 all year, but not really the reason why they're the best team in the league.

[KTM_2813]

It's not a LeBron title run unless his jumper is shaky. Honestly, his jumper being shaky is giving me more confidence this year ends in a title lol

Also re Miami: Denver is an offensive juggernaut, and kinda shredded the Lakers defense in games 2 and 3, mostly because of Jokic and Murray. That's really what makes the Lakers a championship team, not their offense. I don't think Miami's offense will pose the same challenges and the Lakers defense should return to top form for the most part. And that's what they need to win the title. Their offense was top 5 all year, but not really the reason why they're the best team in the league.

I agree. As long as they can generate enough offense, the Lakers are the favorite in all remaining games because of neutral court. The question is just whether they can get to that minimum offensive threshold, and I do think there's an outcome to these playoffs where they don't win the championship because they return to shooting 20% on three pointers.

[Mazter]

LeBron would be a great in-game coach tbh. He's the one that asked for the assignment on Murray, and iirc he was the one who told Spo to put Norris Cole on Lance Stephenson all those years ago vs the Pacers when Lance was being a difference maker in the series.

For me that's what differs him from the rest in "the best player of the world" narrative. Statistically he can't carry the load anymore in his 17th season at 35 like he did in the past. But the way he leads and coach both on and of court is what a lot of this other superstars are and were missing. It's been said a couple of times, but he is on his way to lead his 5th different set of teammates to the Finals. It like you give him whatever, he makes it works. Switch him and Kawhi this season and Clippers would be still in one way or the other and the Lakers might even be out already.

[SideshowBob]

Lakers ORTG in this series is 117.8 and up to 115.4 for the playoffs.

Through 14 Games: +8.4 SRS, +4.5 Off, -1.8 Def