Warriors in 6.  Rest of Cleveland disappears & Lebron unfairly criticized for being 2 out of 6.

Kyrie Irving is OUT. Cavs weren't going to win anyway though.

Yeah, with Irving and Love out, this will be quick. Obviously, not Lebron's fault.

Love watching LeBron's game in the finals thus far

Posted by bkbillups on 6/8/2015 7:36:00 AM (view original):
Love watching LeBron's game in the finals thus far

Is your favorite part the excess dribbling, the constant elbows to get free, the head-down shoulder-first drives, or the sub 40% shooting?

My favorite part is watching one of the greatest players of all time almost single-handedly beating a great Warriors team.

Posted by bad_luck on 6/8/2015 12:55:00 PM (view original):
My favorite part is watching one of the greatest players of all time almost single-handedly beating a great Warriors team.

He is undeniably one of the all-time best players, but let's not act like he's played great basketball the 2 games in this series. Everything I noted is true, and none of them makes for good basketball. Also, one extremely good regular season does not make the Warriors a great team, by any stretch of the imagination. They have their share of flaws, and some of them have been glaring the last few games.

This much I will say- Lebron may never be viewed the same as Jordan, and MJ had some incredible moments. But if the Cavs manage to somehow win this thing against an already favored Warriors team, I would call this greater than any single feat by Jordan. I mean, without Love most of the playoffs, without Kyrie for the finals after having him for barely half the East finals, & all this happening when they weren't expected to be this good yet after coming off a horrible previous season? No, this would be way more improbable & overcoming much more than any single thing MJ did. And again, nothing against MJ, but he never had the odds against him like this.

GSW are the far better team and they've been playing down to the competition in this series.

Exactly. Hence, why it's such a long shot for the Cavs. That said, both games were at GS, went it OT, yet were split. I'd say GS still has the advantage but the Cavs have managed to benefit more from the first two games.

Posted by stinenavy on 6/8/2015 8:05:00 PM (view original):
GSW are the far better team and they've been playing down to the competition in this series.

the Warriors problems are they have no real good drive it to the hole players and no one that can post up and score in the paint.  That is the perfect team for the Cavs to defend with the style of play the Cavs play on defense.  Golden State was always going to struggle to score a lot more against the Cavs then against other teams.  I do still expect the Warriors to have one of those games where they explode, but really do think those games will be limited.  The Cavs play hard nosed annoying perimeter defense and just camp Mozgov down low to clean up the stragglers. 

Posted by all3 on 6/8/2015 3:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bad_luck on 6/8/2015 12:55:00 PM (view original):
My favorite part is watching one of the greatest players of all time almost single-handedly beating a great Warriors team.

He is undeniably one of the all-time best players, but let's not act like he's played great basketball the 2 games in this series. Everything I noted is true, and none of them makes for good basketball. Also, one extremely good regular season does not make the Warriors a great team, by any stretch of the imagination. They have their share of flaws, and some of them have been glaring the last few games.

I'm sure if we warped back in time to 2010, we wouldn't find you defending Kobe from the critics after he went 6 for 24 in Game 7, would we?

It may not be pretty, but that Cavs team has LeBron and a bunch of role players at this point and it just beat a team that won 67 games, on the road, in the Finals.  And oh, LeBron put up 39/16/11.  And we're having THIS conversation about his play?  I'm not saying anything you said is incorrect, I'm just saying it it was any player but LeBron, nobody would feel the need to critique his play.

LeBron has his flaws, but he's also held to an impossible to match (on any kind of consistent basis) standard by way too many people.

So saying LeBron is playing as well this series as Kobe played in 2010 is supposed to suddenly make me think he's playing great basketball? WRONG! I went horse screaming at Kobe that series. Saying LeBron is playing good, NOT GREAT, is just holding him to the standard that other greats, like Wilt, Bird, Magic, etc., were held to, and when those players shot the way LeBron is shooting this series, they were justifiably criticized for not playing great, no matter what else they did. You can't try to put LeBron at their level, then not hold him to the same standard. He's a great player, playing good all-around basketball. If he were shooting better, he'd be playing great. He may not even need to play great, to beat an average (as Finals' teams go) GS team. As pointed-out, the GS weaknesses play perfectly into the Cavs' game.

Some really dumb statements being thrown around here.


I'm not the biggest LeBron fan, but when a guy puts a up a triple double to lift his team to victory, all of the other garbage is pure hating.
Nothing more.
He threw that team on his back and gritted out a W. On the road. Doesn't matter if it wasn't pretty.

If he were shooting a high percentage in addition to everything else he's doing, he'd be playing out of his effin' mind, not just great. 

Come on - find me solid evidence where someone on your list got the "good, not great" treatment you laid on LeBron after they put up anything like the numbers LeBron put up in a WIN in the NBA Finals.  He shot poorly in one game.  Fair.  MJ does that its "Yeah, he shot poorly, but..."  You're going " Yeah, he rebounded, distributed, got to and scored from the free throw line, and anchored a defensive effort that held the best offense in the NBA under 100 points through 53 minutes, but..."

You take LeBron off that team at this point you've got a contender for the #1 pick.  They just beat the best team in the NBA this year (I think calling them an average Finals team is ludicrous, but no need to even have that debate) on their court.  Someone's playing great basketball.