Arena The NBA Thread

Things are nuts here. People (myself included) don't knowing how to react. Some are still in disbelief. Folks out in the suburbs were setting off fireworks a few moments after the win, there were watch parties everywhere and no one wanted to go home. The parade Wednesday is going to be the most surreal thing ever, hope to see you there. Oh and one last thing...

God loves Cleveland.

 

The date of "Next Year" is officially June 19th, 2016. We can stop waiting.

 

Congrats to the Cavs and their fans.

The Cavs played tremendous defense and made the keys shots to win the game.

 

hey, okay so. i'm sure no one is at all surprised that i have A LOT of thoughts on the game, the series, and the season in general. but first i just want to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the cleveland fans, particularly my buddies DarthIntegral LloydChristmas and xblackout. it honestly couldn't be more well-deserved, and when it was all said and done, as disappointing as losing was, i felt that disappointment outweighed by the happiness i felt for you guys. can only imagine what this means for you. i will post the rest of my thoughts soon.

 

Something I'm noticing about this is that pretty much nobody, other than Warriors fans, obviously, seems to care about the "73-9 but lost" storyline today. LeBron has eclipsed everything.

 

I know.

 

I felt the Warriors were in trouble after losing Game 5 and Bogut, as the psychological battle has shifted. The Warriors were playing every game thereafter not to lose, whereas the Cavs were playing every to win. After Game 5 you see the Cavs confidence build and never give up on plays. I mean, LeBron ran down every lay up that seem to be like a sure thing and ended up blocking them. You could see that Curry, Green and Thompson think twice before trying to go for a layup.

With the LeBron playing free safety around the rim, the Warriors just couldn't get anything points in the paint. But the Cavs' perimeter defense was just as strong, as they were able to defend Curry on the three point line by guarding him with a big man or trapping him. Unlike Kryie, Steph couldn't blow by the big man on the mismatch and drive to the hoop for either a bucket or foul.

When watching last night's game, I could hear the commentators saying in the fourth quarter, "The Cavs are waiting too long to get their offense in motion." I knew they were wrong as I saw exactly what the Cavs were doing in the final minutes of Game 7, the were running down the clock and allowing their players to rest. As James was dribbling the ball near half court, you could see Kyrie resting in the corner with his hands on his knees. The Cavs knew they would be able to get a good shot off before the 24 second clock expired or go to the line.

The Cavs had the players and game plan to hold the Warriors under 90 points in a Game 7 at home.

 

Game 7 ratings peaked 25.9

In television ratings, anything that starts with the number "2" is massive.

 

okay, first a few game 7 comments. a lot being made of lebron's block on iguodala. it was an amazing play no doubt, but if you watch the play again it's clear that iggy should have gone straight up to the rim and he would have been hammered by j.r. i felt that the fact that he had just missed two free throws made him reluctant to attack there and instead he tried to finesse it a bit, going under j.r., and that's what gave lebron the chance to make the incredible play. kyrie's shot was cold blooded. lebron obviously deserved the mvp, but no way they win without irving. completely outplayed curry. overall, what a game. fought by both sides just as hard as a game 7 in the finals should be.

i guess my greatest disappointment with the series as a whole was that the warriors never really played their best game. even in the three wins they only ever showed flashes of the brilliance they showed all season. yes, cleveland's defense deserves a lot of the credit, but i thought okc defended them just as well (if not better) and the warriors were able to find an even higher level of play. that just never really materialized in these finals. i'm not sure why. i met a professional gambler when i was in reno during the thunder series, who had an astrological component to his gambling system, and told me that curry and thompson were better during the waning moon than they were when it was waxing. he predicted that the warriors would lose game 4 against okc and then come back and win the next three games. i don't know, maybe he was onto something. the full moon is tonight. why couldn't this series have gone 9?! lol

a lot of people are going to look at the warriors' season as a disappointment because of what they had on the line, i see the word "choke" being used a lot. but it was a great season. and obviously that's the only reason the expectations were so high. getting to watch all those wins, curry's mvp brilliance, some of the most beautiful team basketball i've seen, the 400 threes, that regular season game against the thunder, curry's return and then ridiculous overtime against the blazers in round two, that comeback from down 3-1 against a thunder team that looked unstoppable. it was an incredible ride, and at least for me not tainted at all by the end result. maybe if they hadn't won last year i would feel differently.

but yeah, as chefcurrywindu pointed out, they poked the bear. the altercation during game 4 was bad enough but i was watching all the **** talking that took place after the game in absolute horror, thinking "what are you doing?! you still have to win won more!" i thought it was definitely a moment of hubris for the warriors, and that maybe they let up one game too soon. in any case they definitely helped inspire lebron to heights we've never seen before. and that's probably my biggest take away from this series. the lebron vs. curry debate suddenly is no debate. lebron james is the best basketball player on the planet, full stop. and at least for me "best player of all-time" is now a conversation.

and none of that is a knock on curry, still my favorite player ever. curry is the anti-lebron in a lot of ways. what he does is so amazing, because he does it without much physical prowess and is often the smallest person on the floor. i think in the finals you expect teams to get away with a little more physicality, but i think that more than anything really hurt steph. they were bodying him, grabbing him, doing anything to slow him down every time he tried to move through the lane or come off a screen. he just never could get into his normal fluid game, but he still made a lot of big shots and i would never say he choked. i honestly don't know how much more he could have done, the way the cavs defended him. he's been so amazing this year that i think people expected too much, they expected at any moment he would go into human torch mode, but the cavs' main defensive gameplan was to never let that happen.

anyway, can't wait for next year. obviously a lot of competition out west, and who knows what will happen this off-season to further shift things, but i really hope this rivalry gets a round 3.

 

"Iduodala to Curry, back to Igoudala, OH BLOCKED BY JAMES!" may have supplanted "This is gonna be a home run!" in my announcer pantheon.

 

LloydChristmas, xblackout, DarthIntegral, jcgoble3, Force Smuggler, Bardan_Jusik

 

Going into this series, I posted that which ever team defends the 3 point line the best will win the series.

The Cavs wanted to make sure that Steph and Klay weren't going to be beat them at the 3 point line. I thought the Warriors and Curry would be able to take advantage of a big man coming out and guarding Curry at the 3 point line, but they couldn't after Game 2. The Cavs switch up their defense. Instead of having LeBron guard Curry out there, they put either Thompson or Love. If a big man wasn't on Steph, the Cavs trapped, especially when the Warriors tried to run screens but they weren't worried about a pick and roll as none of the Warriors big men were effective during this series. Moreover, when the Warriors tried to run the pick and roll out of the Curry trap, it would often lead into turnovers. The few games of the series, the Warriors couldn't generate points in the paint or get to the free throw line.

The Cavs were also made adjustments on the defense switches. Early in the series, the Cavs were expecting Klay to set a screen for Curry or who ever had the ball, but then they figured out Klay was not running to set screens but pretend to do so, and therefore ran open for a shot. The Cavs' adjustment was to just run with Klay in a man on man defense. No more switching. The Warriors offensive rhythm is now out of sync.

Offensively, the Cavs were able to dictate match up with screen/switches. It felt like 90% of the time, Curry was guarding LeBron which LeBron took full advantage of in the later games of the series. Anytime a big man was Irvin, Kryie just took the ball to the hole.

 

What's interesting about The Block is that in real-time I thought it was a Don Bebe-style "Running as hard as you f-ing can" type thing, but it was actually sublime timing and athleticism.

 

they made it back to cleveland, but JR Smith's clothes did not

 

Posnanski, as only he can write about Cleveland's first title in forever.

Not his best piece. Not by a long shot. But a few pieces of brilliance. especially the ongoing theme of "this place (Cleveland) gets inside you".

 

Also, another amazing stat I hadn't considered... the Cavs went into super-lockdown mode so hard, that the GSW didn't score a point in the last 4:39... all those pieces on how Love didn't give up the ghost at the end mean a ton more now... wow...

 

That stat did not allude me. Believe me, I was watching the Warriors being stuck on 89.

I saw LeBron dribbling the ball atop the 3 point line and letting the clock bleed out, while also allowing him and Kyrie take a breather.

 

Also, Lebron's "secret motivation" first mentioned in 2015 revealed:

http://deadspin.com/lebron-says-he-was-motivated-by-some-hurtful-parting-wo-1782291641

"Without having any evidence that James was referring to Pat Riley, it was totally Pat Riley."

 

Yeah, I heard that last sentence on Mike and Mike this morning.

 

i think the worst part of this is it's going to be seen as evidence to support the dumb oscar robertson/charles barkley old head hot take that steph isn't actually that good and he just needs to be bodied up or whatever.

watching lebron at the end of the game almost made me cry

 

Someone needs to hide my Credit Card.

 

Congrats to the Cavs and Warriors. Congrats to both their fans. Really impressed with the people of Cleveland for handling their championship with class and just celebrating and not destroying.