2015 NBA Playoffs

padraig_f

Totally unengaged by them. Felt pretty strongly beforehand that Golden State and Cleveland were going through, but it's been more one-sided than I thought. In fairness I suppose Atlanta have had injuries, losing Korver, Sefolosha, DeMarre Carroll getting hurt, and then Horford ejected last night.

Been a disappointing playoffs outside of Spurs-Clippers. Finals should be good though....Lebron against the best team this season, has to be good, right?

nerd69

finals could be great best team in the league vs lebron willing the cavs to it.

i think golden state could run away with it or it will be a close series i dont see the cavs winning in less than 6-7 games if they win

padraig_f

nerd69 wrote: »

i think golden state could run away with it

Like I said, it should be great

I think that's a possibility too alright, the Cavs haven't been tested in the East. But even if the Warriors win the series convincingly, it'll be interesting to see Lebron and his charges go against that (and Kyrie as well, to an extent).

You want to see the best players tested, and I think it will be fascinating to see Lebron play a series as the underdog.

I think it will be competitive anyway.

leggo

Reminds me of the NFL playoffs this year: heading towards an inevitable outcome with less drama along the way than hoped or anticipated. Hopefully the Finals are as enthralling as the Superbowl was. At this stage in the Conference semis, though, I'm rooting for the pair of sweeps. A week or so's break would get me thirsty for some action again, whereas I feel any real chance for the Hawks or Rockets is gone so a win on their part would just mean having to sit through another game or two to get us where we all know we're going anyway.

At least with sweeps the teams would be rested up. There'd be no pressure to rush Kyrie back and he'd hopefully be at 100% by then to make things interesting, and is Kevin Love officially ruled out of making a dramatic Finals comeback? It seems kinda like a situation we've got used to with Derrick Rose where nobody is saying anything but he's assumed out, then he starts warming up pre-game one day without warning and getting everyone excited.

ButtersSuki

Nasty fall for Curry last night as Houston finally turned up to play. I suspect Howard will suspened for G 5 following his stupid reaction to Bogut. If he is its series over.

D2D

D2D wrote: »

I don't know about ye but I'm feeling pretty underwhelmed from these conference finals. The fact that we could have 2 sweeps is going more towards a certainty than a possibility.

JINX!..

Paully D

Finals starting on June 4th as per initial schedule. I think a lot of the players were hoping for them to be pushed forward but the NBA said there's too many logistical obstacles to overcome to move from the initial date.

3 or 4 days would have been nice for the players to re-charge before they start, 8 or 9 and it's not ideal.

BQQ

Paully D wrote: »

Finals starting on June 4th as per initial schedule. I think a lot of the players were hoping for them to be pushed forward but the NBA said there's too many logistical obstacles to overcome to move from the initial date.

3 or 4 days would have been nice for the players to re-charge before they start, 8 or 9 and it's not ideal.

I'd say the Cavs wouldn't mind the extended break.
It would give Kyrie a chance to recover somewhat.

buyer95

Cavs to close out tonight. LeBron is around long enough to know the importance of rest, its going to be 5 straight finals appearances from him.

NufcNavan

Have to agree regarding the playoffs. It's been fairly dull viewing this year.

I know it appeared earlier in the year that the West was stacked, but I think the West is a fair bit weaker this year than last year. Warriors by far and away the best team out there.

nerd69

do ye think this team without love and with a hobbled kyrie or the last cavs team he got to the finals with are the worse team. he really has consistently put teams on his back year after year its amazing

NufcNavan

I know a lot won't like to admit it, but the East misses a strong Pacers team. They were a much more fformidable opponent than anything that was thrown at LeBron this year, on a worse team.

nerd69

NufcNavan wrote: »

I know a lot won't like to admit it, but the East misses a strong Pacers team. They were a much more fformidable opponent than anything that was thrown at LeBron this year, on a worse team.

a fully healthy bulls or a fully healthy hawks would be the same but i agree the east is pathetic. the bucks have potential so they could be up there in a few years but outside of that its hard to see who else will even develop into competition

D2D

EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS BABY!!!:D:D:D:D:D

NufcNavan wrote: »

I know a lot won't like to admit it, but the East misses a strong Pacers team. They were a much more fformidable opponent than anything that was thrown at LeBron this year, on a worse team.

I agree, anything to help the Eastern Conference get stronger. A fully healthy Pacers team along with a healthy Bulls, Hawks, Wizards will at least make the East competitive. Hopefully the Celtics will continue to improve and as nerd69 said above, the Bucks definitely have potential to be a nuisance in the Playoffs in a few years

Paully D

ButtersSuki

Paully D wrote: »

That reads "Golden State in 5" to me.

ButtersSuki

This is such a crazy season that J.R. Smith is potentially 4 games away from a ring.



I know it's not going to happen but Jesus H. Christ! If only Nuri was here to have a heart attack at reading that! :D

nerd69

ButtersSuki wrote: »

This is such a crazy season that J.R. Smith is potentially 4 games away from a ring.



I know it's not going to happen but Jesus H. Christ! If only Nuri was here to have a heart attack at reading that! :D

funny thing is you could see jr going off in at least one of the finals games and if the cavs win him being a significant reason why.

with kyrie hobbled he's actually quite an important part of this team

ButtersSuki

nerd69 wrote: »

funny thing is you could see jr going off in at least one of the finals games and if the cavs win him being a significant reason why.

with kyrie hobbled he's actually quite an important part of this team

I know, that's what I'm saying! But put it this way, if someone said to you last year after his God awful year in NY on the court BEFORE you even get into the off-court crazy that he'd be in the Finals this year you'd have thought...well...they're at J.R. Smith level of crazy.

nerd69

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I know, that's what I'm saying! But put it this way, if someone said to you last year after his God awful year in NY on the court BEFORE you even get into the off-court crazy that he'd be in the Finals this year you'd have thought...well...they're at J.R. Smith level of crazy.

wouldnt have put money on it at any odds

ButtersSuki

nerd69 wrote: »

wouldnt have put money on it at any odds

Even Nuri wouldn't have bet on that!

ButtersSuki

Wonder how much Steve Kerr regrets not taking that Knicks job......:rolleyes:

Really interesting side note to tonight's game was the amount of different defenders GSW threw at Harden. I suspect Iggy will primarily get the task of guarding LeJon in the Finals, but the constant switching like that will be an interesting tactics if they repeat it.

For me though it's GSW in 5...with one caveat, the refs. Looking at nba.com over the last week you'd swear there was one team in the League (Cleveland) and LeJon was averaging 100pts, 99 rebounds and 99 assists they way they're fawning over him. I hope it's a fair fight.....but I suspect one Joey Crawford will be getting a lot of games in the Finals.

Carcharodon

Absolutely delighted right now, has been an incredible season, a well deserved western champions. I thought they would get pushed a bit more but they have a great squad of players, especially the likes of David Lee, a former all star that could have sour grapes but is the # 1 fan from the bench, everyone has bought into the system and their role.
No matter what happens, it has been an unreal season, just a handful more wins to top it off now.

Cleaveland should be tough, arguably the best player on the planet with a pretty well rounded team right now by the looks of it, should be interesting.

On tonights game, feel nad for Harden, has had a fantastic season, pitty he limped out like that on the last game, just one of those nights.
As for Howard, he may be a future hall of famer but he will always be not good enough for me, just lacks any real motivation to win, he did show he is pretty petulant with a couple of sneaky/dirty plays

ButtersSuki

Carcharodon wrote: »

As for Howard, he may be a future hall of famer but he will always be not good enough for me, just lacks any real motivation to win, he did show he is pretty petulant with a couple of sneaky/dirty plays

Yup, that pretty much sums up how everyone feels about him. It's such a waste of talent. If he had the heart or competitiveness of truly elite athletes he'd be in conversations for Top 10 All Time given his skill set and physical gifts. Mentally I think he's the closest thing the NBA has to the worst type of Premiership Soccer Player - you know the flash twat with the ego the size of the stadium and not even the star player type?

This is what happens when you pamper a guy from age 0 and spoil him every inch of the way whilst effectively making a billionaire out of him (by the time he retires). Given a choice of any player in the league (hell, let's just limit it to big men) - find me a coach that would start with or build a team around Howard and I'll find you a liar. It's not a stretch to say I think most would rather have Duncan (at his current age) for a year than Howard for 5. I think you'd have more chance of winning with Duncan for 1 than Howard for 5.

I saw him in the flesh in a couple of games for the US Olympic team in Vegas in 2008. The guy is chiseled out of rock and has insane athletic ability for a big yet seemed more concerned with being seen as messing around in the warm ups and being the joker than winning. You had 11 other guys taking it incredibly seriously and he was shooting 3's in the warm ups and trying all sorts of stupidly complex layups and missing everything whilst then grinning like he was on E after he missed. A couple of times I caught players roll their eyes at him and his antics but of course Dwight was oblivious to all of this. He tries so hard to be popular it's a little embarrassing. I would almost feel sorry for him if I was more gullible.

And all of that's even before I mention how he screwed both Van Gundy and Orlando. Most people also seem to forget he was a Laker for a year and managed to screw that up too because he wanted guarantees to be No. 1 whilst Kobe was still active. He's a joke.

padraig_f

Good stat...

Last NBA Championship:
Warriors: 1975
Cavaliers: never

@RealGM

GoldFour4

Hopefully the finals is decent now. I haven't caught much at all of of the conference finals and by all accounts I haven't missed out on much at all.

nerd69

thibs officially gone

NufcNavan

Just read the Bulls Press Release.

They threw Thibs under the bus, then backed it up and ran over him multiple times.




https://twitter.com/MillerTimePod/status/603966194459090945

For Forks Sake

NufcNavan wrote: »

Just read the Bulls Press Release.

They threw Thibs under the bus, then backed it up and ran over him multiple times.

Reisenberg took aim with both barrels, checked to make sure he was dead and put another couple of rounds in anyway......

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2465606-tom-thibodeau-fired-by-bulls-latest-details-comments-and-reaction

The Chicago Bulls have a history of achieving great success on and off the court. These accomplishments have been possible because of an organizational culture where input from all parts of the organization has been welcomed and valued, there has been a willingness to participate in a free flow of information, and there have been clear and consistent goals. While the head of each department of the organization must be free to make final decisions regarding his department, there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone's ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private. Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization-staff, players, coaches, management and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture. To ensure that the Chicago Bulls can continue to grow and succeed, we have decided that a change in the head coaching position is required. Days like today are difficult, but necessary for us to achieve our goals and fulfill our commitments to our fans. I appreciate the contributions that Tom Thibodeau made to the Bulls organization. I have always respected his love of the game and wish him well in the future.

nerd69

all **** aside the bulls get away with murder because the greatest player of all time fell in to there hands what an absolute **** thing to do on the bulls part