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Yeah! Warriors finally end their 40-year championship drought with a 4-2 Championship series victory over Lebron and the Cleveland Cavaliers. So the best team in the regular season was also the best team in the playoffs.
The only thing that surprised me a little was Andre getting the Finals MVP over Curry, but I can't really complain all that much. He put up truly a great and consistent performance throughout the Finals.
If you're happy for the Warriors, give a shout-out here.
Good on them. They were basically an unofficial farm team for the NBA throughout the 80s and 90s (when I followed basketball a little bit). It's good to see they've broken the ceiling.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/06/17 18:45:16
Yeah, I've seen some fun Warrior teams - Run TMC, Latrell and Webber, Baron Davis and the upset of then-favorite Dallas - but this team was definitely the best of them all. They certainly did break that ceiling and glad to see them do it with a defensive intensity that was also fun to watch as well.
Unfortunately it was very clear that they were better than the battered and exhausted Cavs, but much like several friends who are a few years older than me hate the spurs because of 2007, I hate the Warriors. Everyone on that team irks me.
On to 2015/16 season
DR:80+S++G+M+B+I+Pwmhd11#++D++A++++/sWD-R++++T(S)DM+ Ask me about Brushfire or Endless: Fantasy Tactics
Interesting to hear from the Cleveland fans as well.
BTW, Lebron played spectacularly. I got to hand it to him. He's a monster in the game and can back up his claim that "he's the best player in world today." Had Irving or Love been healthy, it might have been a totally different series.
jy2 wrote: Interesting to hear from the Cleveland fans as well.
BTW, Lebron played spectacularly. I got to hand it to him. He's a monster in the game and can back up his claim that "he's the best player in world today." Had Irving or Love been healthy, it might have been a totally different series.
I think if Kyrie were healthy for games 4, 5, and 6 we pull it out. I think the Cavs needed Delly to be the best version of him in Game 3, and to keep Curry frustrated. After that though it was pretty much over, but I don't think we win if Kyrie was healthy the whole series. Neither he nor Love really play defense, and that's what we needed the most for those first few games. Afterwards, yeah we needed someone who can score.
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Kyrie is a much better defender than people give him credit for. He did a better defensive job against Curry in game 1 than Smith or Shumpert in the whole series anytime they had to guard him. On the offensive end, he is a much more reliable scoring threat than anyone on their team not named Lebron.
Had Kyrie been healthy enough to play through the series, I think it would have gone to 7, though I think that the Warriors still would have taken it. But I shudder at the thought of them playing against a healthy Cleveland again next year.
jy2 wrote: Kyrie is a much better defender than people give him credit for. He did a better defensive job against Curry in game 1 than Smith or Shumpert in the whole series anytime they had to guard him. On the offensive end, he is a much more reliable scoring threat than anyone on their team not named Lebron.
Had Kyrie been healthy enough to play through the series, I think it would have gone to 7, though I think that the Warriors still would have taken it. But I shudder at the thought of them playing against a healthy Cleveland again next year.
Well, it all depends on how physical the East decides to get in the playoffs, and how many of the current roster Dan Gilbert is willing to pay for. Currently 10 people on the roster are free agents including Love and LeBron. Although I don't see LeBron leaving again... If he did, this city'd riot like they had won a championship and probably burn down Bath, Ohio (where his house is).
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How again, is missing around 58% of all shots taken in the post season "spectacular" ?? Seriously, among shooters in the playoffs this year, he was #100. Shooting around .418
To put that in perspective, in 1911, Ty Cobb batted .420 for the season. as in, he only met with success while batting 42% of the time. And, to my knowledge, baseball is the ONLY sport where we call someone who fails 7 out of 10 times a "legend" in the game.
I'll also leave you with this:
Notice one thing?? MJ, who is the Greatest, never once says he's the best in the world.... unlike someone else who just lost a finals.
James jinxed himself by proclaiming himself the best basketball player in the world, which he is, but you never, ever do it yourself. I hope he never wins another championship.
Big Mac wrote: I hope he never wins another championship.
Same here... Actually, I hope the Cavs go the way of the Indians and Browns.... down to mediocrity and wistfully remembering the days of being playoff contenders
Big Mac wrote: I hope he never wins another championship.
Same here... Actually, I hope the Cavs go the way of the Indians and Browns.... down to mediocrity and wistfully remembering the days of being playoff contenders
That's not a nice thing to say, what has Cleveland sports ever done to you for you to hope that they are relegated to mediocrity? Jeeze, I may hate the Warriors, but I don't want them to never have success.
DR:80+S++G+M+B+I+Pwmhd11#++D++A++++/sWD-R++++T(S)DM+ Ask me about Brushfire or Endless: Fantasy Tactics
How again, is missing around 58% of all shots taken in the post season "spectacular" ?? Seriously, among shooters in the playoffs this year, he was #100. Shooting around .418
To put that in perspective, in 1911, Ty Cobb batted .420 for the season. as in, he only met with success while batting 42% of the time. And, to my knowledge, baseball is the ONLY sport where we call someone who fails 7 out of 10 times a "legend" in the game.
It's not just how well/poorly you shoot that defines how well a person plays.
1. Lebron was a monster on the boards.
2. He kept his teammates involved despite their horrendous shooting with almost 10 assists a game. Had they shot better, he would have easily averaged a triple-double.
3. Despite his subpar shooting percentage, he was Cleveland's most consistent and reliable offense.
4. He provides a lot of the intangibles. His leadership, his post presence demanding double-teams, his ability to find the open man, his toughness, etc. You just can't measure these things with numbers.
5. Without Lebron in the game, Cleveland would have been swept 4-0.
If you are just basing his Finals play on shooting percentages, then you have a very near-sighted perspective of how much he has meant to his team and how much trouble he gave to the Warriors in this Finals.
I'll also leave you with this:
Notice one thing?? MJ, who is the Greatest, never once says he's the best in the world.... unlike someone else who just lost a finals.
To me at least, it isn't so much what you say as much as it is what you do. Yeah, Lebron might not be the most humble person in the world, but then his actions speak much more loudly than his words. 2 Championships, 6 trips to the Finals and one of the most impressive performances in Finals play in recent memory. If it were anyone else speaking those words, then I'd probably say, yeah, right. But coming from Lebron, it'll be hard for me to disagree that he isn't the best NBA player in the world currently.
Big Mac wrote: I hope he never wins another championship.
Same here... Actually, I hope the Cavs go the way of the Indians and Browns.... down to mediocrity and wistfully remembering the days of being playoff contenders
That's not a nice thing to say, what has Cleveland sports ever done to you for you to hope that they are relegated to mediocrity? Jeeze, I may hate the Warriors, but I don't want them to never have success.
If you think that's bad, you don't want to know what I think about the 49ers or the Cubs (actually, not entirely true... I just happen to have the Jedi sense to know that if the Cubs break their curse, the world as we know it will end. Chicago will become a charred crater of exuberance)
@jy2.... for the record, I absolutely DETEST the game of basketball. It's a waste of airtime. Quite literally every highlight you see on ESPN or similar, are the same: someone does their job by scoring. Frankly speaking golf highlights have more variety than basketball ones do. I'm here in this thread, simply because I love the delicious irony of folks online saying gak like "Lebron was the real MVP!!" when he has stats like the one I pointed out. Heck, even Skip Bayless (say what you will about him, it's probably true, and I don't particularly care for him either) commented to the effect of "You CANNOT be an MVP with those kind of shooting numbers!!" and that was before game 6 or whichever that I happened to hear those comments.
And, it really is just as much about what you say, as what you do. All those teammates of Lebron's know exactly where they stand with him: under him. At least with Jordan, his teammates knew that, while he was better than them, he knew he had to count on them as teammates in order to succeed.
@jy2.... for the record, I absolutely DETEST the game of basketball. It's a waste of airtime. Quite literally every highlight you see on ESPN or similar, are the same: someone does their job by scoring. Frankly speaking golf highlights have more variety than basketball ones do. I'm here in this thread, simply because I love the delicious irony of folks online saying gak like "Lebron was the real MVP!!" when he has stats like the one I pointed out. Heck, even Skip Bayless (say what you will about him, it's probably true, and I don't particularly care for him either) commented to the effect of "You CANNOT be an MVP with those kind of shooting numbers!!" and that was before game 6 or whichever that I happened to hear those comments.
And, it really is just as much about what you say, as what you do. All those teammates of Lebron's know exactly where they stand with him: under him. At least with Jordan, his teammates knew that, while he was better than them, he knew he had to count on them as teammates in order to succeed.
To judge a person based just on only one quality while ignoring all of his other qualities is a very myopic way of looking at things. Like saying Andre Iguodala can't shoot Free Throws worth a lick or that he let Lebron score 40-pts on him a couple of times so he does not deserve to be the MVP of the Finals? No, you have to measure the worth of a MVP-candidate by all of his traits combined and the overall impact he had on his team. Of course I don't think Lebron deserves to be MVP just by the sheer fact that their team didn't win, but I cannot deny overall the impact that he has had on both his team and the entire series.
While Jordan might not have said aloud in public that he was the best, he acted like it in private. He was a tyrant in the practice room, yelling at teammates if they did something wrong and getting management to make changes if he didn't like something (like benching players or even getting rid of them). Ironically, Jordan has great respect for Steve Kerr because Kerr was the only one who stood up to him (they actually got in a physical fight over Jordan's attitude). And while Lebron might have proclaimed himself "the best" out in public, he has never acted to the extent that Jordan did in private. Like I said, it isn't so much what you say as it is what you do.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/06/18 17:46:34
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
or the Cubs (actually, not entirely true... I just happen to have the Jedi sense to know that if the Cubs break their curse, the world as we know it will end. Chicago will become a charred crater of exuberance)
