NBA Playoffs 2017

ButtersSuki

A number of piss poor offences there from GS and some Kyrie-ness on several consecutive plays sees Cleveland go up 7 - biggest lead in the series from memory.

ButtersSuki

KD......

ButtersSuki

I think we're done. 12.9 sconds left, down 3.

Bad D on LeBron's part to allow that pull up. Not picking on him before anyone says anything - he's had a monster game but that small lapse could be game/series.

ButtersSuki

Iggy with the strip. That's game.

ButtersSuki

GS score last 11 to win.


That's it. It's all over.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Special from Durant at the end and what a steal from Iguodala. The Cavs must be sick, looked like they had it won.

Gregk961

Cavs made a bit of a balls of the last few minutes to be honest, they were pretty comfortable until the last 4 minutes or so. Love with a layup under the basket to go up by 8 sticks out in my mind.

Cavs played well in fairness, missed a lot of good 3s but most of the bench players showed up and contributed.

Eyes Down Field

Crushing defeat for Cleveland, After playing so well throughout, they lose it like that in the end.
Irving, James and Love were great but all missed crucial attempts in the closing minutes. JR Smith really stepped up his game tonight, Thompson was good, Korver, Jefferson, Everyone played well. But it still wasn't enough.

Congratulations to the 2017 NBA Championship
Golden State Warriors

LuckyLloyd

James was +7 in 46mins, and the Cavs lost by 5. Incredible.

Carcharodon

All going to script this is going to be a bitter sweet victory
All the Skip Bayless morons of the world can talk all they want about adding Durant or whatever nonsense they come up with, no one here is going to care

K.O.Kiki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

James was +7 in 46mins, and the Cavs lost by 5. Incredible.

He's the MVP in my eyes, Cavs would be nothing without him.
***

However: Steph is averaging 29/10/9/2 on +17

Paully D

LeBron: "this is the most firepower I've played against in my career."

Probably time for him to switch teams again.

LuckyLloyd

Hardly controversial to state the bleeding obvious - that this Warrior's team is probably the greatest team of all time!

D2D

That's probably the best we could've played but Golden State are just too good. Sweep is probably likely now:(

johnpatrick81

LeBron is so good that when he went off the floor in the first quarter it was a gulf of difference. Warriors immediately hit 10 without reply.

Hard to see anyone get close to this Warrior team in the next couple of years, absolutely stacked with talent.

Eyes Down Field

I feel most of the blame for the Cleveland's​ bottle job in the last few minutes last night has to fall on Lebron, He missed an easy layup, didn't take charge when the Cavs needed him most and allowed Durrant that wide open, uncontested 3 that stuck the dagger into Cleveland.

ButtersSuki

Eyes Down Field wrote: »

I feel most of the blame for the Cleveland's​ bottle job in the last few minutes last night has to fall on Lebron, He missed an easy layup, didn't take charge when the Cavs needed him most and allowed Durrant that wide open, uncontested 3 that stuck the dagger into Cleveland.

If I posted that I'd have been shot!

The big lapses/mistakes were on him down the stretch but in the contect of the game he had a monster game.

The failure to guard Durant on the pull-up 3 was a mental lapse IMO, not sure why he did it - why would you give him a walk-up/pull-up 3 with the game on the line? It was effectively an uncontested shot.

The Iggy strip/steal is on one hand a far more forgiveable play as it's just a great defensive play. On the other however it's poor shot selection seeing how closely he's guarded and how early it was in the possession. After being blocked in last year's game 7, it's sweet revenge in a way.

I genuinely feel sorry for LeBron (first time I've ever said that I assure you!) after last night as he put up a monster line again and is on the wrong end of yet another Finals loss.

I do expect them to be completely demoralised in Game 7 and get whipped though...unless of course GS went on the complete p*ss last night.

Eyes Down Field

Lebron has never been a late 4th quarter player though, He's not a closer. Last night was not the first time he didn't want the ball in his hands at the end of a crucial game. Ray Allen bailed him out in the finals in Miami and Kyrie bailed him out in game 7 last year. Look back on that play last night where Irving ends up talking a bad shot over Thompson, Where is Lebron? Standing well beyond the arch, like he didn't want the ball. Lebron should be demanding the ball, driving to the basket, draw the foul, go to the line for 2 if necessary.

ButtersSuki

Eyes Down Field wrote: »

Lebron has never been a late 4th quarter player though, He's not a closer. Last night was not the first time he didn't want the ball in his hands at the end of a crucial game. Ray Allen bailed him out in the finals in Miami and Kyrie bailed him out in game 7 last year. Look back on that play last night where Irving ends up talking a bad shot over Thompson, Where is Lebron? Standing well beyond the arch, like he didn't want the ball. Lebron should be demanding the ball, driving to the basket, draw the foul, go to the line for 2 if necessary.

I've said all of that in the past and was crucuifed on here for it by certain people......

Gregk961

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I've said all of that in the past and was crucuifed on here for it by certain people......

Does anybody want to touch that line of debate again though? Its been played to death for years. Its a very simplistic way of looking at that Kyrie play to boil it down to "Lebron should have steamrolled into the paint". People get a hard on for last minute clutch plays but LeBron played incredibly for most of that game and they would have got annihilated without him.

To me the problem in that case was a bad play call, and there have been dozens of those by the Cavs in this series. Im not 100% sure but I think that was out of a timeout, and it ends up being a Kyrie isolation against Thompson. That makes no sense. Granted Kyrie is an incredible Iso playmaker but do you want the most important play of the game to be that?

Ive watched games 1 and 2 again today and I've changed my view that Golden State were always going to won this series. The Cavs are hardly scrubs, they have a good team but the coaching has been as big a problem as the roster. It could be a case of LeBron waving too much power over decisions he isnt qualified to make or maybe Lue just isnt good enough.

Carcharodon

Eyes Down Field wrote: »

Lebron has never been a late 4th quarter player though, He's not a closer. Last night was not the first time he didn't want the ball in his hands at the end of a crucial game. Ray Allen bailed him out in the finals in Miami and Kyrie bailed him out in game 7 last year. Look back on that play last night where Irving ends up talking a bad shot over Thompson, Where is Lebron? Standing well beyond the arch, like he didn't want the ball. Lebron should be demanding the ball, driving to the basket, draw the foul, go to the line for 2 if necessary.

Such a hot take but complete and utter nonsense. Going to break LeBron down into a few select plays that "sports writers" love to bring up to get clicks.
Lebron can't catch a break to be fair to him, averages a triple double in the post season and still gets scrutinized.
How about we acknowledge the great plays the winning team rather than over analyzing the losing team.
I am pretty sure LeBron made some brilliant plays on their way to victory last year. If you want to point the blame, LeBron made a super pass to Korver before Durant scored and Korver missed, that's what he was brought there for.
Also LeBron looks like he may be gasing out towards the end, a lot of minutes in such intense games

ButtersSuki

LeBron banned for Game 4 following kick to the groin of Iggy:

https://twitter.com/DefPenHoops/status/872671091063492608


I am joking, but if that was Draymond Green.......

Eyes Down Field

I think Lebron brings allot of the critisim on himself, He plays into the Jordan comparison so his supporters can't complain when he's held to that standard. There have just been far too many times that James has not produced a crucial moments in finals, Against San Antonio, Dallas and Golden state. I'll give him top 10 all time but not in the same breath as MJ.

Carcharodon

Eyes Down Field wrote: »

I think Lebron brings allot of the critisim on himself, He plays into the Jordan comparison so his supporters can't complain when he's held to that standard. There have just been far too many times that James has not produced a crucial moments in finals, Against San Antonio, Dallas and Golden state. I'll give him top 10 all time but not in the same breath as MJ.

Oh yea, these lethargic comparisons to MJ are getting old. Is this what it has come down to, LeBron is judged by his comparison to MJ and his body of work over the last decade just goes out the window.
These "moments" he hasn't produced, this is all down to LeBron yea ? The other teams, players and coaches he played against had nothing to do with it ????
We can analyze certain plays and games after the fact but a broader analysis has to be made over a player and teams body of work.
Iam by no means LeBrons biggest fan but no one can deny how great he is, iam more so defending a more rational and logical view of the game. We can't just base our views off tacky ESPN shows.

K.O.Kiki

LeBron played 46 minutes (averaging 42mpg this series) and finished with +7

WTF more do you want from him?
He's outmatched by an All-Star Warriors team, but he's still the best player on the court.

Carcharodon

It really baffles me how some people think, I heard on the radio a usually pretty rational commentator say KD is now the the best player on the planet, so if he misses that shot is he no longer the best player ? Iam pretty sure the same people shooting his praises would be cutting him down

Carcharodon

Carcharodon wrote: »

It really baffles me how some people think, I heard on the radio a usually pretty rational commentator say KD is now the the best player on the planet, so if he misses that shot is he no longer the best player ? Iam pretty sure the same people shooting his praises would be cutting him down

People just repeat the **** they hear on the likes of first take those shows have made convorsations with certain people pointless because they feel like they are repeating an experts opinion when the likes of skip bayless have made a career off of saying whatever will cause the most people to shout facts don't really come Into it and a long term balanced answer won't generate clicks

Sam_Doyle

Oh well, 3:0 for Warriors. I'm still hoping that Cavs can win some game and make it more interesting for watching. Kevin is unbelievable

Gregk961

Aron Old-fashioned Overlord wrote: »

People just repeat the **** they hear on the likes of first take those shows have made convorsations with certain people pointless because they feel like they are repeating an experts opinion when the likes of skip bayless have made a career off of saying whatever will cause the most people to shout facts don't really come Into it and a long term balanced answer won't generate clicks

I was thinking the same thing by some of the posts here, that type of low quality "analysis" is meant for entertainment not for actual sports talk, but apparently(even outside the US) its taken seriously.

Mark Cuban went on First Take a few years ago and exposed Skip Bayless as not having the first clue about basketball. He couldnt even answer simple questions and kept going back to "Lebron choked against Dallas pure and simple".

ButtersSuki

The Van Gundy and Mark Jackson combo on commentary are unbelievably annoying.

The Kardashian commentary section was ridiculous. As if the refereeing so far btw.