JR Smith: "I was trying to get enough to bring it out to get a shot off. I knew we were tied, I thought we were going to call timeout. If I thought we were ahead, I'd have held onto the ball and let them foul me."
JR apparently not aware there are television cameras at the NBA Finals that can see what these guys are saying at all times ("I thought we were ahead"). Also Lue already said what the truth was. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
It doesn't matter if the call was right. What refs in the right mind reviews a totally different call, then reverses a judgment call? That is incredibly unusual. Let alone make that kind of call after a completely botched phantom foul on a Durant strip.
One ref called charge the other called block. After Lue was saying that never in NBA history has a block\charge call got over turned KD said it happened to him this year.
The block call was the obvious right call. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rams Fan:
Serious question: Were the Bulls ever underdogs with Jordan in the Finals?
Yes, in both 91 and 93.
In 91, just a slight underdog against the Lakers, but in 93 most experts picked the Suns (League MVP Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, etc.) to come away with the Title. Jordan and the Bulls took em down in 6, with John Paxon delivering the dagger to finish off the Suns in an epic Game 6. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
I’m going to stop you right there because this is just wrong. Yea the first year they won 55 games without MJ only to lose in the playoffs and prove they were nothing more than an average playoff team, but the next year they were hovering around .500 at the All-Star break until MJ came back. That team never wins anything of significance without Jordan, and he certainly carried them to championships in that sense.
None of Lebron's teams win anything without him.
Miami never would have made it out of the East
Cleveland never would have beaten GS [Reply]
Oh they're a team accomplishment too. Just more impressive individually because LeBron was on much weaker teams than Jordan's Bulls for the vast majority of the run. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
KCC care to acknowledge that Kyrie has more 30 pt finals games than Pippen?
Ridiculous stat. Doesn’t quite fit your narrative.
Why does that matter? There's way more to basketball than scoring and that's all Kyrie does. Pippen did a lot more out there and was clearly the far better player. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
Why does that matter? There's way more to basketball than scoring and that's all Kyrie does. Pippen did a lot more out there and was clearly the far better player.
Because we’re talking about 6 finals trips vs. 2. That is ****ing ridiculous and you can’t just dismiss it.
It’s not like he also played with Wade for several years who I’m sure also has more 30 pt finals games than Pippen.
Lebron could afford to have off nights offensively or count on another guy to make up the difference, MJ never had that, and he also put forth more effort defensively than Lebron does at this point of his career. I’m not saying his teams were better or worse. I’m saying your narrative that there was this huge difference is horseshit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy:
Did you not listen to the announcers explain the process as it happened?
Durant was fouled.. they called Lebron instead of the guy that yanked him by the shoulder.
So the refs took 5 minutes to decide who fouled Durant? That would have taken them about 5 seconds. They were clearly reviewing if Lebron was in the restricted area and in the process decided to also review if Lebron was in legal guarding position. The refs can do that, but it's still incredibly controversial, especially given that if anything on a 50/50 call you'd think it would go to the team that had several missed calls prior. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
So the refs took 5 minutes to decide who fouled Durant? That would have taken them about 5 seconds. They were clearly reviewing if Lebron was in the restricted area and in the process decided to also review if Lebron was in legal guarding position. The refs can do that, but it's still incredibly controversial, especially given that if anything on a 50/50 call you'd think it would go to the team that had several missed calls prior.
No. Talking about 2 different plays. The Lebron strip should have been a foul on whoever was yanking on Durant's shoulder.
Lebron was clearly moving. That one was not 50/50. [Reply]
This argument is getting tired, but as has already been pointed out in this thread neither Lebron’s teams nor Jordan’s 90’s Bulls teams win a single title w/o their respective alpha dogs.
As far as whose supporting cast was better: Jordan’s Bulls teams were definitely better than the current Cavs and the 2007 Cavs, and maybe equivalent to the Lebron/Kyrie led teams, but Lebron’s Heat squad that he put together was better than any team Jordan ever played on, talent wise. So enough with the excuses about Bron Bron’s supporting cast not being good enough to get it done.
He’s 3-5 in the Finals now and should be at least 5-3. The Mavs loss was brutal (including Lebron’s performance in that series) and they should/could have beaten the Spurs.
Jordan never laid an egg in the Finals. That’s all that needs to be said about that. [Reply]
