2018 Playoffs Thread

[GatorAZ]

Harden was 19-78 from 3.

 

[elindholm]

Harden was 19-78 from 3.

And 9-48 over the last four games.

 

[SirStefan32]

Signature choke job by a D'Antoni team.

Officiating was terrible. Not necessarily in favor of one team, but just inconsistent for both teams. I just don't understand what a foul was in this game.

 

[mojorizen7]

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[Russ Smith]

I really hate this Warrior team... and seeing how I cheered them on more than I've ever cheered on a non local team back in 2015... the turn around is stunning.

they really need to find a new Iggy because it's clear as he gets older he can't stay healthy and he's just so valuable to that team. I still don't get why they signed young although he did well tonight, and when they draft Trier to keep Durant happy this year it's going to be tough for me to keep liking the team.

 

[Russ Smith]

Disgusting how Livingston is allowed to pretty much wrap his arms around Harden when he didn’t have the ball. Anyone else notice that?

if you're watching Harden off the ball and not seeing how much he gets away with when he has teh ball, with his off arm, you're barking up the wrong tree. Did they miss some fouls on guys guarding Harden tonight, yes, did they put him on the line on phantom calls repeatedly yes. how about the play where Ryan Anderson comes up to set a screen, pushes Durant right into Harden who sweeps the ball forward and gets 2 FT's and complains it should have been 3? That's a designed play the Rockets do it all the time, the screener bumps the defender into Harden.

The way Harden plays you just can't convince me that complaining about no calls guarding harden is legit, he gets so many gift Ft's it offsets it.

 

[Russ Smith]

Capella got away with at least 15 blatant bear hugs and over the backs...

There was a play where Draymond got pulled down by Tucker and they called the foul and D'Antoni was arguing the call and Tucker had a smirk on his face because he knew he'd done it.

When you miss 27 threes in a row in a game I don't think arguing about officiating holds water.

 

[Russ Smith]

Signature choke job by a D'Antoni team.

Officiating was terrible. Not necessarily in favor of one team, but just inconsistent for both teams. I just don't understand what a foul was in this game.

Whole series was like that. There's so much emphasis on the ball with Harden that the refs let everything go off the ball. That moving screen by Bell for the Steph 3 was comical, but there to my recollection has been ONE called moving screen in this series, on Livingston last game.

the way guys screen is push the defender into the shooter, or grab and turn him. I was amazed Bell got away with it a rookie against Harden but they missed it the whole series

 

[Russ Smith]

Oh man, just looked at Ariza's stat line. Yikes.

wow hadn't looked 0-12 overall 0-9 from 3.

 

[Folster]

And 9-48 over the last four games.

It's amazing they were able to take it to 7 games.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Crazy: both teams tonight combined for a total of 10 bench points.

 

[overseascardfan]

Just like BOS, HOU shot themselves out of the game. They were up by 16 and went for the knockout by constantly jacking up threes that did not go in and GS caught fire in the second half, that sums up the game in a nut shell.

 

[Covert Rain]

No CP3 was the difference IMO. He would have been good for some easy buckets which would have helped them keep the lead IMO.

D’Antoni’s short bench does it again and probably contributed to his hamstring injury to begin with. Not to mention his team’s signature defensive collapse.

 

[Raindog]

D’Antoni’s short bench does it again and probably contributed to his hamstring injury to begin with. Not to mention his team’s signature defensive collapse.

Both of these are result of the "Curse of (no) D'Antoni," otherwise known as "Pringle-itis." Those of us who have followed the Suns over the past two decades are sadly familiar with the phenomenon.

 

[Hoop Head]

There really isn't much of a story in the Warriors vs Cavaliers, again. I know last year the Warriors ran through them pretty easy and they had Kyrie. This year I can't see the Cavs winning more than 1 game, even though the Warriors don't seem as unstoppable as they were before. Lebron's skill and the Warriors taking the Cavs too lightly will cost them 1 game in Cleveland but this shouldn't be more than a 5 game series. Too bad they don't handicap the finals. The Warriors need to win 5 games to the Cavs needing just 2 wins might make this competitive.

If Lebron can somehow win a title with this Cavs team against this Warriors team maybe that makes up for the negative finals record and puts him neck and neck with MJ. I doubt it happens though. One of the only reasons I'd like to see it is so Lebron has a harder time leaving Cleveland and the Warriors rethink paying Durant. What has the better odds of happening? Lebron winning another title with the Cavs, Lebron resigning in Cleveland this summer, or Durant leaving Golden State?

 

[Western Font]

If Lebron can somehow win a title with this Cavs team against this Warriors team maybe that makes up for the negative finals record and puts him neck and neck with MJ. I doubt it happens though. One of the only reasons I'd like to see it is so Lebron has a harder time leaving Cleveland and the Warriors rethink paying Durant. What has the better odds of happening? Lebron winning another title with the Cavs, Lebron resigning in Cleveland this summer, or Durant leaving Golden State?

Usually I cheer for any team out of the west not named the Lakers, and against LeBron post-decision, but this year I really don’t have an interest.

I think it’s Warriors in 6, but it depends on when they turn it on. They’re coming off a big win, but also one where the opponent fell off. If they have a slow start, CLE may steal one early. But as the cliche goes, the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead two years ago. A different CLE roster and pre-KD, but still, LeBron.

Your thoughts on how the result affects LeBron and KD’s possible exits might be the most dramatic part of this for a lot of us, though.

 

[Phrazbit]

There really isn't much of a story in the Warriors vs Cavaliers, again. I know last year the Warriors ran through them pretty easy and they had Kyrie. This year I can't see the Cavs winning more than 1 game, even though the Warriors don't seem as unstoppable as they were before. Lebron's skill and the Warriors taking the Cavs too lightly will cost them 1 game in Cleveland but this shouldn't be more than a 5 game series. Too bad they don't handicap the finals. The Warriors need to win 5 games to the Cavs needing just 2 wins might make this competitive.

If Lebron can somehow win a title with this Cavs team against this Warriors team maybe that makes up for the negative finals record and puts him neck and neck with MJ. I doubt it happens though. One of the only reasons I'd like to see it is so Lebron has a harder time leaving Cleveland and the Warriors rethink paying Durant. What has the better odds of happening? Lebron winning another title with the Cavs, Lebron resigning in Cleveland this summer, or Durant leaving Golden State?

Well... Durant ain't leaving Golden State, even if they somehow lost this series, the grass still wouldn't be any greener elsewhere in the near future AND other suitors cannot pay him as much or more than the Warriors.

If LeBron won a title with that garbage Cavs team then I would guess that would move his odds from leaving Cleveland from 99% to... 50%?

However... this playoffs has proven a couple things to me... #1, that LeBron is the greatest player in league history outside of Jordan... and #2 (largely as a byproduct of #1) that this Cavs team is the worst supporting case that anyone has dragged to a finals that I have ever witnessed (a NBA follower since about 1992).

If you replaced LeBron with a league average player I suspect this Cavs team would have won somewhere around 25 games... easily in the running for "worst team in the league". Barring him averaging 40-15-15, I cannot fathom them winning the finals... and therefore him staying to drag them around any longer.

Seriously... this Cavs team is so terrible... especially with Love out. Would anyone start with ANY other contending team? Hell, would any of his teammates even be in the rotation of the Warriors?! His BEST healthy teammate might be George Hill... who obviously wouldn't start for the Warriors... but would Hill even see the court for Golden State? I'd take Livingston over him in a heartbeat.

 

[Hoop Head]

I think the 2007 team that Lebron drug to the finals is worse than the one he has now. That team started Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavlovic, Lebron, Drew Gooden, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the finals vs the Spurs. They benched Hughes for Daniel Gibson for 2 of those games. I'd take George Hill, Kyle Korver, Lebron, Love, and Tristan Thompson over them every time.

This has to be the worst team Lebron has had in his 8 straight finals runs though. The Cavs are in a bad spot but Lebron is part of the reason for that. He couldn't make it work with Kyrie and the trade sending him out brought in IT and Crowder, who Lebron couldn't work with either. They shuffled half of their roster at the deadline and I think they got worse. They would have been better off with maybe doing the IT and Frye for Clarkson and Nance trade and then waiting till the offseason to blow up the rest. Crowder should have brought them back a rotation player. Sending D.Wade away for nothing hurt their depth also. Derrick Rose and Crowder were traded for Hill and Rodney Hood, and they're stuck paying Hill $19 million next year. Their salary situation is a nightmare and it was all for a quick fix of sorts when they weren't winning a title this year regardless of the moves they made. Maybe if they made a deal with the Nets pick to get someone like DeAndre Jordan back they might be in a better position but surrounding Lebron with talent isn't as easy as it should be. He's supposed to be the best player of this generation but for him to truly compete for titles he needs a very specific type of team around him. He needs a scorer to take pressure off of him, Kyrie or Wade, a big to rebound and spread the floor like Bosh and Love, and a rim protecting Center which he lacks now, and shooters. All he has for shooters is Korver and maybe JR Smith in every 3rd game.

 

[Russ Smith]

No CP3 was the difference IMO. He would have been good for some easy buckets which would have helped them keep the lead IMO.

D’Antoni’s short bench does it again and probably contributed to his hamstring injury to begin with. Not to mention his team’s signature defensive collapse.

He would have at lesat gotten into guys faces and said we've missed X threes in a row how about driving in. Gordon was doing it but he wasn't getting n people's faces, just driving. they needed a guy like Paul, or maybe a coach, to tell the players look the 3's are not going right now stop shooting so many

 

[Russ Smith]

Well... Durant ain't leaving Golden State, even if they somehow lost this series, the grass still wouldn't be any greener elsewhere in the near future AND other suitors cannot pay him as much or more than the Warriors.

If LeBron won a title with that garbage Cavs team then I would guess that would move his odds from leaving Cleveland from 99% to... 50%?

However... this playoffs has proven a couple things to me... #1, that LeBron is the greatest player in league history outside of Jordan... and #2 (largely as a byproduct of #1) that this Cavs team is the worst supporting case that anyone has dragged to a finals that I have ever witnessed (a NBA follower since about 1992).

If you replaced LeBron with a league average player I suspect this Cavs team would have won somewhere around 25 games... easily in the running for "worst team in the league". Barring him averaging 40-15-15, I cannot fathom them winning the finals... and therefore him staying to drag them around any longer.

Seriously... this Cavs team is so terrible... especially with Love out. Would anyone start with ANY other contending team? Hell, would any of his teammates even be in the rotation of the Warriors?! His BEST healthy teammate might be George Hill... who obviously wouldn't start for the Warriors... but would Hill even see the court for Golden State? I'd take Livingston over him in a heartbeat.

It has been amazing to watch. Cleveland is really bad but it also illustrated to me the difference between putting up stats on a bad team and the playoffs. Jordan Clarkson was the poster child for his, his stats actually got better in Cleveland, better % at least, but obviously less shots. Then the playoffs started and he looks like he's never played before. A guy who never met a shot he didn't take is suddenly so scared to shoot it's stunning. AS the playoffs went on Love and Korver were the only Cleveland guys not afraid to shoot.

As bad as the East was for him to get that team to the finals is absolutely stunning. Curry was talking about Cleveland last night and was like he's afraid to say look it's LeBron and 4 dudes from the park on that team. They learned 2 years ago how amazing LeBron is, they don't want to take anybody lightly this year

 

[Hoop Head]

Even with the shooters the Rockets have, it's foolish to try and outshoot the Warriors. Especially when everything depends on that 1 final game. After missing like a dozen consecutive 3's, drive the damn ball inside! I saw people blaming the refs, refs can be bad but no officiating in the world causes a team to hoist up 25 straight misses from outside like that. How many misses does it take for a team to try something else? Is there a coach in the league that would have let his team continue like that after like 15 or is Mike D in a class of his own in that regard?

Saw a telling stat, there have been 381 games in which a team attempts 40 or more 3 point shots. The Rockets had the worst shooting percentage of any of those games at 15.9% on 44 attempts.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.fcgi?id=k5tQy

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

It has been amazing to watch. Cleveland is really bad but it also illustrated to me the difference between putting up stats on a bad team and the playoffs. Jordan Clarkson was the poster child for his, his stats actually got better in Cleveland, better % at least, but obviously less shots. Then the playoffs started and he looks like he's never played before. A guy who never met a shot he didn't take is suddenly so scared to shoot it's stunning. AS the playoffs went on Love and Korver were the only Cleveland guys not afraid to shoot.

As bad as the East was for him to get that team to the finals is absolutely stunning. Curry was talking about Cleveland last night and was like he's afraid to say look it's LeBron and 4 dudes from the park on that team. They learned 2 years ago how amazing LeBron is, they don't want to take anybody lightly this year

Yep, no need to provide additional motivation. Though, there is already one douche from Yahoo! Sports painting Curry's comments as trashing Lebron.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Here is the ******* article making something out of nothing:

https://sports.yahoo.com/stephen-cu...ng-credit-dont-disrespect-guys-232110496.html

 

[Raindog]

This article pretty much says everything we here already knew about Mike D., but it's an apt summary...

https://thebiglead.com/2018/05/29/mike-dantoni-rockets-warriors-offense-harden/

 

[CardsFan88]

Definitely didn't want to see ANOTHER Cleveland vs Golden State series. Ugh.

I hope the ratings tank hard.