Have been banned from the other thread by an apparently sensitive snowflake (ironically after dozens of pages of political discussion from others) so I'll stick my thoughts on the NBA Playoffs here from now on. We needed a new thread anyway. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
Awesome effort from him. Embarrassing effort from the Lakers. LeBron played more or less his standard game (25-10-8) but Anthony Davis completely took the night off. If that happens again, the Heat can win games in this series with as bad as the Lakers’ depth is. We aren’t done here yet.
Looked like the Lakers came out and thought they could just show up but Jimmy Buckets had a great game. Can't believe they won a game and it sounds like either Bam or Dragic will be back for Game 4. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
Looked like the Lakers came out and thought they could just show up but Jimmy Buckets had a great game. Can't believe they won a game and it sounds like either Bam or Dragic will be back for Game 4.
The psychology of sports. One team played like their lives depended on it, the other treated it like a scrimmage. And if those guys didn’t come back tonight, I’d be surprised if they came back for game 4. Bam’s injury in particular sounds worse than they are letting on. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
Awesome effort from him. Embarrassing effort from the Lakers. LeBron played more or less his standard game (25-10-8) but Anthony Davis completely took the night off. If that happens again, the Heat can win games in this series with as bad as the Lakers’ depth is. We aren’t done here yet.
I expect one game like that from the Lakers every series at this point. If they lose another, I'd frankly be surprised.
But god damn it Miami. Wait until you're down 3-0 before you start your comeback. Maybe next season someone can do it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by lcarus:
I expect one game like that from the Lakers every series at this point. If they lose another, I'd frankly be surprised.
But god damn it Miami. Wait until you're down 3-0 before you start your comeback. Maybe next season someone can do it.
I doubt Davis will play like that again, but it’s not like he’s a veteran of these type of games. There’s no guarantees there. I also feel like Butler didn’t do anything he couldn’t really do again (although the Lakers’ defensive scheme on him was terrible and they very obviously should have forced the ball out of his hands at some point that game).
I think there’s been a bit of a misconception about the Lakers in declaring inevitable victory before the series started. They’re not a great team (for example, they’re playing nowhere near the level the Raptors or Warriors did last year). They have a couple of great, great players but the rest of the roster is largely filled with replacement level castoff players. The Heat, even without Bam, have at least three better players on the court at all times. As such, they’re certainly not good enough to just be casually going through the motions for basically 3 quarters in the NBA Finals. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I doubt Davis will play like that again, but it’s not like he’s a veteran of these type of games. There’s no guarantees there. I also feel like Butler didn’t do anything he couldn’t really do again (although the Lakers’ defensive scheme on him was terrible and they very obviously should have forced the ball out of his hands at some point that game).
I think there’s been a bit of a misconception about the Lakers in declaring inevitable victory before the series started. They’re not a great team (for example, they’re playing nowhere near the level the Raptors or Warriors did last year). They have a couple of great, great players but the rest of the roster is largely filled with replacement level castoff players. The Heat, even without Bam, have at least three better players on the court at all times. As such, they’re certainly not good enough to just be casually going through the motions for basically 3 quarters in the NBA Finals.
Remember when the Lakers won a couple championships behind a young drafted star and THEN drafted James Worthy and traded for the rights to Byron Scott and they all played together for 10 years?
Even secondary draftees like Cooper and Rambis - hell, imports like Wilkes and Kareem - were all Lakers man.
One game away from title number 4 for the GOAT. 28-12-8 for another one of his standard Finals performances. Helped that AD actually showed up for this one and they played some semblance of defense on Butler. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TribalElder:
LeBron is not the goat
Well he’s the best player in the league at age 36 in his 17th year (continuing about a 15 year run at the top), is shattering every individual statistical regular season and playoff record, and is one game away from his 4th title. He’s plainly the GOAT for anybody being even remotely objective and further amassing team championships is taking away literally the only (weak) argument anybody had left to counter that. [Reply]
Very few people outside of yourself see Lebron as the GOAT. Hell, he doesn’t even own a .500 record in NBA Finals. He lost to a decent but very flawed Mavericks team with his own personally assembled cast of superstars. He was awful in that series. Losing 6 times in the NBA Finals is bad enough, but 2011 is HUGE black mark on his resume and always will be.
Sorry, those are not qualities of a GOAT.
But you continue to parrot it if it makes you feel better.
Real basketball fans (and players) know the truth. [Reply]
Very few people outside of yourself see Lebron as the GOAT. Hell, he doesn’t even own a .500 record in NBA Finals. He lost to a decent but very flawed Mavericks team with his own personally assembled cast of superstars. He was awful in that series. Losing 6 times in the NBA Finals is bad enough, but 2011 is HUGE black mark on his resume and always will be.
Sorry, those are not qualities of a GOAT.
But you continue to parrot it if it makes you feel better.
Real basketball fans (and players) know the truth.
That’s because many have been conditioned to hate LeBron for the past two decades (I personally hated the hype myself back in 2002-2005 and never bought into it until I could no longer refuse what was so plain and obvious to see) and are now incapable of admitting what this guy developed into. And then of course there are also the MJ fans who need to diminish him to protect that legacy (who conveniently ignore all of MJ’s own playoff failures in the 80s). None of it is based in any semblance of fact.
He’s on the most dominating individual run in the history of basketball and he’s showing no signs of slowing. What a time to be alive. [Reply]
The truth is this: the only reason you continually push this narrative so hard is because you’re trying so hard to convince everyone else it is the truth.
To be completely honest, I think you’re trying to convince yourself as well.
But enough of the Lebron vs. MJ debate. It gets old and just goes around and around in circles. You can believe what you wanna believe. Quit trying to proselytize everyone else with your belief. If you think Lebron is the GOAT, then good for you. You’re in the minority however. [Reply]
Jordan is the goat, one could easily say if he didn’t retire he’d have at least 2 more rings. It’s not a knock on lebron for being the second goat [Reply]