Arena The NBA Thread

ESPN: Will Korver Trade "close gap" between Warriors and Cavs? Close Gap? Which team has won four in a row in the series? Which team is the defending champion? Which team has managed to win a game that involved Kevin Durant? Which team has a 36-year old posterizing an All-Star from the other team?

#Clevelandvstheworld ... as always.

Not that I mind Lebron being told - again - he's the underdog with no chance at victory against the unstoppable behemoth.

 

seriously, what gap? the cavs have the best player in the world in his prime and an almost perfectly constructed supporting cast. meanwhile the warriors are 0-3 against the three teams most likely to challenge them. i was hoping the christmas loss would put the bed the notion that the warriors are huge favorites and maybe take some of that pressure off and put it back on the cavs. guess not. sheeeesh.

watching the cavs play the bulls without kyrie and love reminded me so much of watching lebron carry terrible cleveland teams to 60 wins for years. but those days are long gone. and there are so many questions around the three main contenders in the west. don't get me wrong, the warriors are very good but they are still learning to play together and are going through growing pains very similar to miami the first year with lebron. will they figure it out in time for the playoffs? even if they do, will they then be able to readjust to the more physical style of play that is always allowed in the post-season? it was a problem last year and one they didn't really address in the off-season. meanwhile the spurs look great again, but with two straight early round exits after great regular seasons you kind of have to start questioning whether they are built for the playoffs, where depth is no longer so important. and the rockets, as amazing as they've been, have to face similar questions with d'antoni's history of great regular season teams and not much more. then there's the fact that those three teams will have to get through each other while the cavs should have a much easier path to the finals.

anyway yeah, didn't mean to write a novel but when people keep repeating this mantra that it's the warriors and then the field it makes me think they're not really watching this season.

 

Shaq is estimated to be worth $350 million. Why on earth does he do these awful General Insurance commercials. They seem beneath him.

 

Memphis is now officially in my mind the fourth main contender in the West.

 

Not much of a fight really, but still made the game more interesting before the Lakers (thankfully) pulled ahead. Amazing too that despite their bad, bad stretch of games since December, they're only 3-games out of the 8th seed.

 

So, the Cavs are considering resting all three of Lebron, Kyrie, and K-Love tonight against Golden State. I've got to think it's mostly head games, at this point. The Warriors are likely to win, playing in Oakland. The Cavs are coming off an off-day, with another off-day tomorrow, so no real need to rest. But, if the Warriors beat the Cavs without any of the big three? That doesn't really count as beating them, does it? And so, when the finals start, if it's a rematch ... the Cavs will still have the actual four-game winning streak.

Interesting ... I'm fairly certain it will piss off the NBA's TV Partners, as this is TNT's only Cavs-Warriors game.

 

Also ruins the fun we were setting up in the Colors game this morning.



Shouldn't rest all 3, especially against the Warriors, and on a day so important to the league/country.

 

Silver better not fine the Cavs the way his predecessor did to my Spurs.

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On a strategic front, I absolutely support Lue sitting all three.

As a fan of the NBA and wanting to see a great game (especially on MLK day), I'm disappointed. MLK Day is NBA showcase, just like Fourth of July is MLB showcase, and Labor Day Weekend is College Football's Showcase.

 

well the story you linked says they considered resting them but nixed the idea.

 

Ah, so it does. I read it as "considering" not "considered"

 

One Heat fan in particular even attempted a frivolous lawsuit against the Spurs over this. The ticket stub makes it CLEAR that you paid to see the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back of it (Nowhere does it say "Tim Duncan vs LeBron James" or "Manu Ginobili vs Dwyane Wade"). On top of that, it's blatantly obvious that rosters and lineups are always subject to change. Unless there is evidence of wrongdoing (whether it's a flunked drug test, on-court misconduct, or in the case of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Joe Smith, if I remember the player's name correctly, a fraudulent contract), or if the league office has ownership of a team (see the Chris Paul trade), the league has absolutely no business micromanaging teams.

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So that game ass whooping might actually be what both sides needed.

Golden State gets their swagger back. They are more fun to watch, and easier to hate, in that mode. Steph just pulling up for three after three to open the game last night was both infuriating and fun. Cleveland should get their focus back. This team is maddening.

Best-of-Nine is tied at 1-1. See you in June.

 

Part of me expected something like that last night. We played like garbage on this road trip and while I hoped we'd pull it together for that game, I kinda figured we'd get kicked around.

 

yeah, this game was mostly just bad timing for the cavs, though the warriors did play well and dictated the style of play much better than they did on christmas. but working in new guys and new rotations, plus losing love and this falling on the end of a long road trip sort of set up an impossible situation for the cavs. i know liggins hasn't been playing great, and shumpert gives them more offense in the starting lineup, but i was still a little surprised that lue didn't go with liggins against curry after the way he shut him down on christmas.

 

After several years of EPA studies and court battles, the Warriors are finally able to break ground on their new stadium. Like the SF Giants, the stadium will be near the waterfront and will probably be one of the prettier facilities in the association.







I'm happy the Warriors are moving back to "the City," but I wish they were able to build on their original location which was near the Bay Bridge.

 

the new stadium is literally a 5 minute walk from my friend's house. going to be planning a few vacations around warriors homestands.

 

That's awesome, Tom. Especially the part about being walking distance. Many that know that area feel it will be a traffic nightmare to get there as Muni (SF public transit) isn't highly regarded and street traffic during rush hour is horrible on a normal day.

 

after spending a month driving in the city i am definitely happy about the walking distance. with all the new hospitals and other development in that area i have no idea where anyone is going to park.

 

Parking will be like $50. Since your friend lives close by and if he/she has a parking spot, he/she should rent it on on game day.

As for last night's game, it was a much needed win by the Warriors. It would have been such a distraction if the Warriors lost it's fifth game in a row to the Cavs.

 

Semi-random thought during tonight's game: why couldn't these Showtime-era uni's (the Lakers best aesthetic look ever) serve as the Sunday home alternates, instead of those iffy-ish white uni's? Jeesh.

 

Or perhaps the Lakers should stick with those uniforms permanently.

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Just a follow up to the Cavs vs. Warriors game the other day, I was surprised that LeBron was actually called for traveling. I don't ever recall him being called for traveling against the Warriors in the past couple of years.