Arena The NBA Thread

Those Delly to Bron oops <3

 

I think the talk about how the Dubs "got lucky" last year, created a huge chip on their shoulders and they're taking out on their opponents. The Dubs best down the Rockets by 20 points in Houston when they were making a bunch of noise about the Dubs and last night the Grizzlies got waxed by 50 points by the Dubs and Curry didn't play at all in the 4th quarter. The Clippers have been talking the most smack about the Dubs in the off season and tomorrow the Clippers have an opportunity to back it up, but Roaracle will have a loud to say. Dubs vs Clippers might be the best rivalry in the NBA these days as both teams genuinely don't like each other.

 

omg stop saying dubs

 

*puts "got lucky" in quotes*

*faces a team without its All-Star starting PG and PF in the Finals*

k

 

i mean yeah they did get lucky. lucky to not face the spurs, lucky that the cavs were so depleted. that's obvious, but there's no guarantee that they wouldn't have won anyway. i think the chip on their shoulder this year is all about proving that they would have. steph has been more fun to watch than ever.

 

The Warriors were an all time great team last year, arguably the best of the post-MJ NBA (You could talk me into the 2000-2001 lakers). This whole lucky thing has got to stop.

 

Nothing against the Warriors, but I do think it's pretty clear that a full strength Cavs team wins that series in 5 games. The Cavs were controlling that series through the first 3 games, even in the game 1 OT loss, they controlled the tempo of that game for the majority of it. A healthy Love and Irving push them over the top, no doubt in my mind.
The main factor was that Kerr made the adjustments after game 3, and Blatt did not. Kerr went with the smallet lineup, and Blatt played right into his hands by trying to match it, instead of sticking with his size advantage with Mozgov (who was playing well). Blatt also for some reason decided to play 7 guys, instead of using the bodies on his bench (4 of whom had championship experience). Even though they were not what they once were, I believe they were capable of playing at least 5 minutes or so, to help keep the starters fresh. You can't play guys 45 minutes a night at that pace and expect to win.

 

kerr's strategy going into the series of basically letting lebron beat them and guarding everyone else was patently insane. as soon as they switched to the exact opposite strategy they won pretty easily. i don't think it's at all clear that the cavs would have won if they were at full strength. approaches and adjustments would have been different for sure, no telling how it would have played out.

 

You can be lucky and good at the same time.

Had the Lakers faced the Celts without KG/Ray Allen in 2010 it'd be the same thing.

I wouldn't describe anything about that Finals as "easy." God may hate Cleveland, but LeBron wasn't going out without roaring to the sky about it.

And I'd love to see Draymond Green run his mouth at 2001 Shaq. No really. Someone make that happen

 

yeah, thats basically what i was trying to say. they were lucky but they might not have needed that luck. but it seems like all the talk of luck is driving them, so good. kerr is great at keeping their minutes down too so i'm not really worried about them flaming out early.

 

I think it's really them or the Spurs from the West. Maybe the Clips if Pierce starts hitting the clutch again in May, maybe the Thunder if Russell Westbrook isn't put in jail for literally lighting someone on fire on the court at some point.

 

spurs are definitely scary again with aldridge and no one is outcoaching pop, but i think ultimately they're just too old. the thunder with westbrook in full fu mode alongside a healthy durant are way more terrifying to me. and i'm not a big billy donovan fan, but he can't possibly be worse than scott brooks. the clips i dunno, i just think that team as constructed has already hit their ceiling.

 

A prime example of a future 4-point basket.

 

It was a tough back and forth game with the Clippers last night, but the Dubs end the game with a victory.

 

I'm becoming cautiously optimistic about the Blazers this season. I never would have expected them to blow out the Grizzlies in this fashion.

 

At this point, though, who isn't blowing out the Grizzlies?

 

So far I've been very impressed by Okafor and Porzingis. You can see they can actually play in this league. Okafor more so, he's ready. Porzingis needs some work but you can see he can be great if he works at it and puts on some muscle.

 

Rose will a bit of a statement game against the Thunder. just hope he can bring that kind of game a bit more consistently this season. nice to see Noah looking a little bit more like himself too.

 

I'm definitely pulling for the Bulls to be a serious contender in the East as the Eastern Conference needs such type of teams to make the playoffs interesting. As such, I wouldn't mind if the playoffs did away with conferences and just let the teams with the best records in the playoffs. I mean, there are enough off days between games nowadays to do such a thing.

 

That's the face of a man stuck in a coaching nightmare.









Cover idea for a possible '15-'16 Laker yearbook.

 

I remember the days when the Lakers fans would out number the Warriors fans at Oracle. Happily, that is not the case anymore. Look forward to seeing the Lakers in Oakland next Wednesdays.

GO DUBS!!!

 

First LeBron came back

Then Mo came back

AND NOW...