NBA Playoffs

[orangehomer]

so..Cleveland will get a "win". that is the most insane lopsided ref'ed finals game I have ever seen. it was obvious that the refs were dictated from on high that Cleveland was winning tonight. last thought, LeBron looks like he is about 95 years old.

 

[NineOneSeven]

so..Cleveland will get a "win". that is the most insane lopsided ref'ed finals game I have ever seen. it was obvious that the refs were dictated from on high that Cleveland was winning tonight. last thought, LeBron looks like he is about 95 years old.

Didn't matter in this one. Pretty typical to drop one on opponent's home court.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Trade him in between now and then.

I mean, I rip on Love a lot, but even I didn't want to see something like this.

 

[Tom K.]

so..Cleveland will get a "win". that is the most insane lopsided ref'ed finals game I have ever seen. it was obvious that the refs were dictated from on high that Cleveland was winning tonight. last thought, LeBron looks like he is about 95 years old.

Yeah? Lopsided how? Cavs had more fouls called against them. Warriors got to the line 9 more times.

So again, lopsided how?

Cleveland just shot lights out tonight. Officiating isn't going to account for a 30 point deficit.

 

[cuseattle]

Warriors in 5, maybe 6.

It isn't a series until the home team loses.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

It isn't a series until the home team loses.

Also, I can't get a free Doritos Locos taco until that happens.

 

[Fireball Jr.]

Homer job. All the refs' fault. Obama and Bush's, too. LeBron should be wearing Depends. The fix was in. Cavs mighta won one tonight, but they still are gonna get swept in 4.

 

[Knicks411]

This still feels like the Cavs-Raptors series to me; Cleveland can win both at home but until they play the Warriors close in Oakland I dont know

 

[Tom K.]

This still feels like the Cavs-Raptors series to me; Cleveland can win both at home but until they play the Warriors close in Oakland I dont know

But this way it looks better on paper and I won't feel dumb for saying there's no way Cleveland doesn't win at least 2 games.

 

[RF2044]

Homer job. All the refs' fault. Obama and Bush's, too. LeBron should be wearing Depends. The fix was in. Cavs mighta won one tonight, but they still are gonna get swept in 4.

Typical Cavs fan -- struggles with reading comprehension!

Great performance last night, but don't start counting those chickens just yet. Everything went right for you last night, and everything went wrong for GS. It happens. Can you carry that over? Stay tuned.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I still say 5 games.

 

[Fireball Jr.]

Typical Cavs BS -- you guys are the best. No wonder everybody roots against you guys.

Great performance last night, but don't start counting those chickens just yet. Everything went right for you last night, and everything went wrong for GS. Can you carry that over? Stay tuned.

Just was summing up and echoing up the posts I glanced at throughout the game. Thought I was in a bad high school sports radio dream. It's hard to take the whining and complaining seriously when there's not even a hint of acknowledgement that maybe the winning team played a pretty good game.

Everybody roots against "you guys?" Who's "you guys?" And you've polled "everybody?" I don't know, man, I know a few people I think you missed.

And "everything went right for you last night?" Who's "you?" Gotta tell ya, bro, I was here on my couch in Rochester, not at the game, not on the floor. No room in the NBA for 67-year-old, 5-4 guys unless it's as ballboys or owners.

You know I think highly of you from little I've been able to glean from our personal "conversations," but I sit back and actually feel bad for you and wonder how bad your experience was in NE Ohio that you feel the need to fill threads such as these with your disdain for LeBron and all the annoying big fat fairweather fans who use terms like "we" and "us" as if they were setting picks for JR.

My rooting interests aside, I saw a thing or two the Cavs did that a basketball fan, even one who hates all things NE Ohio, might mention just for balance. Kyrie, for example, not bad. Defense, not bad. Young first-time head coach who came into a tough, tough situation showing why he was always at Doc Rivers' side as his primary game consigliere.

I lived in Ohio, on my own, first time away from the 14620 ever, from the age of 17 to 27. Some great experiences, a lotta bad ones, painful ones still with me today. I have no love for Cleveland, Akron, Kent, Youngstown, went back for a visit 2 years ago, that mighta been it. I am torn, 'cause if I'm pulling for a people and areas, I'm GS all day. F Cleveland, Love my cousins in Oakland and SF, big fan of the Bay Area. Been in phone and email communication quite a bit this past week with a female sports agent for magazine article, she reps Luke Walton, her father is a Bay Area legend, sports columnist since 1979, our paths crossed in my Ohio sports scribe period.

NE Ohio. blow it up and start over. Take out Chief Wahoo first. He alone is reason enough to dislike Cleveland. And, for me, throw in the National Guard, Gov. Rhodes, Woody Hayes, Bobby Knight, and Bobby Knight's mother (unpleasant interview).

But Cavs a pretty good team, the first game wasn't a blowout, although it was, what, 15 points at the end. It was competitive late. I'm glad we're gonna have at least 5 games, more, I'd hope.

 

[MikeSU02]

Typical Cavs fan -- struggles with reading comprehension!

Great performance last night, but don't start counting those chickens just yet. Everything went right for you last night, and everything went wrong for GS. It happens. Can you carry that over? Stay tuned.

How did everything go right for Cleveland? They had to start Richard Jefferson, unplanned.

Granted, they may be better without Love in this series, but it's not like Ty Lue had planned on benching him for RJ.

It's amazing how much scrutiny LBJ and his team gets. If Bron had the game that Steph had (crapping the bed on offense, basically being put into every action on defense because CLE wanted him guarding the ball), there would be twenty ESPN articles about it.

Instead, it's just assumed that GSW just had a bad game.

GSW is the better team. But they aren't that much better and LBJ is still the best player in the game.

And, look at this dunk!

 

[Cusefan0307]

How did everything go right for Cleveland? They had to start Richard Jefferson, unplanned.

Granted, they may be better without Love in this series, but it's not like Ty Lue had planned on benching him for RJ.

It's amazing how much scrutiny LBJ and his team gets. If Bron had the game that Steph had (crapping the bed on offense, basically being put into every action on defense because CLE wanted him guarding the ball), there would be twenty ESPN articles about it.

Instead, it's just assumed that GSW just had a bad game.

GSW is the better team. But they aren't that much better and LBJ is still the best player in the game.

And, look at this dunk!

Great win by Cleveland. They played well. Lebron made some jumpers. They need to show they can do this more than once. The previous 7 games to me still outweigh what the Cavs did last night.

 

[MikeSU02]

Great win by Cleveland. They played well. Lebron made some jumpers. They need to show they can do this more than once. The previous 7 games to me still outweigh what the Cavs did last night.

I think that's totally fair. The defensive intensity to start the game seemed to jump start the Cavs.

 

[RF2044]

How did everything go right for Cleveland? They had to start Richard Jefferson, unplanned.

Granted, they may be better without Love in this series, but it's not like Ty Lue had planned on benching him for RJ.

It's amazing how much scrutiny LBJ and his team gets. If Bron had the game that Steph had (crapping the bed on offense, basically being put into every action on defense because CLE wanted him guarding the ball), there would be twenty ESPN articles about it.

Instead, it's just assumed that GSW just had a bad game.

GSW is the better team. But they aren't that much better and LBJ is still the best player in the game.

And, look at this dunk!

I think most people make that assumption because it was a horrifically poor offensive performance for GS, which is HIGHLY uncharacteristic.

And also because Cleveland got such great offensive performances from Irving and Smith--who had been relative non-factors up until this point.

I give Cleveland credit--this was a do or die game for them [hate to be overly dramatic about a game 3, but that's the way it shaped up].

I still believe [and I'll own this opinion] that Cleveland is not on par with GS, and that this isn't a situation where we have two evenly matched teams.

 

[RF2044]

Just was summing up and echoing up the posts I glanced at throughout the game. Thought I was in a bad high school sports radio dream. It's hard to take the whining and complaining seriously when there's not even a hint of acknowledgement that maybe the winning team played a pretty good game.

Everybody roots against "you guys?" Who's "you guys?" And you've polled "everybody?" I don't know, man, I know a few people I think you missed.

And "everything went right for you last night?" Who's "you?" Gotta tell ya, bro, I was here on my couch in Rochester, not at the game, not on the floor. No room in the NBA for 67-year-old, 5-4 guys unless it's as ballboys or owners.

You know I think highly of you from little I've been able to glean from our personal "conversations," but I sit back and actually feel bad for you and wonder how bad your experience was in NE Ohio that you feel the need to fill threads such as these with your disdain for LeBron and all the annoying big fat fairweather fans who use terms like "we" and "us" as if they were setting picks for JR.

My rooting interests aside, I saw a thing or two the Cavs did that a basketball fan, even one who hates all things NE Ohio, might mention just for balance. Kyrie, for example, not bad. Defense, not bad. Young first-time head coach who came into a tough, tough situation showing why he was always at Doc Rivers' side as his primary game consigliere.

I lived in Ohio, on my own, first time away from the 14620 ever, from the age of 17 to 27. Some great experiences, a lotta bad ones, painful ones still with me today. I have no love for Cleveland, Akron, Kent, Youngstown, went back for a visit 2 years ago, that mighta been it. I am torn, 'cause if I'm pulling for a people and areas, I'm GS all day. F Cleveland, Love my cousins in Oakland and SF, big fan of the Bay Area. Been in phone and email communication quite a bit this past week with a female sports agent for magazine article, she reps Luke Walton, her father is a Bay Area legend, sports columnist since 1979, our paths crossed in my Ohio sports scribe period.

NE Ohio. blow it up and start over. Take out Chief Wahoo first. He alone is reason enough to dislike Cleveland. And, for me, throw in the National Guard, Gov. Rhodes, Woody Hayes, Bobby Knight, and Bobby Knight's mother (unpleasant interview).

But Cavs a pretty good team, the first game wasn't a blowout, although it was, what, 15 points at the end. It was competitive late. I'm glad we're gonna have at least 5 games, more, I'd hope.

Richie, as you know I have mad respect for you. This is just our annual dance, where we're on opposite rooting sides. We seem to agree on many [most?] topics, this is just the one point of divergence where we aren't on the same page.

 

[longislandcuse]

How did everything go right for Cleveland? They had to start Richard Jefferson, unplanned.

Granted, they may be better without Love in this series, but it's not like Ty Lue had planned on benching him for RJ.

It's amazing how much scrutiny LBJ and his team gets. If Bron had the game that Steph had (crapping the bed on offense, basically being put into every action on defense because CLE wanted him guarding the ball), there would be twenty ESPN articles about it.

Instead, it's just assumed that GSW just had a bad game.

GSW is the better team. But they aren't that much better and LBJ is still the best player in the game.

And, look at this dunk!

It works both ways though. Steph and GSW get hated on a lot for how good he/they are. I absolutely guarantee you that Steph/GSW would get more credibilty/scrutiny if Steph wasn't a light skinned skinny dude.

That said. Steph has been bizarrely bad. Random eruptions for a few minutes here and there but mainly he's been totally bla.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It works both ways though. Steph and GSW get hated on a lot for how good he/they are. I absolutely guarantee you that Steph/GSW would get more credibilty/scrutiny if Steph wasn't a light skinned skinny dude.

That said. Steph has been bizarrely bad. Random eruptions for a few minutes here and there but mainly he's been totally bla.

I think he started to figure it out late, which I don't think is great for Cleveland.

 

[Knicks411]

It works both ways though. Steph and GSW get hated on a lot for how good he/they are. I absolutely guarantee you that Steph/GSW would get more credibilty/scrutiny if Steph wasn't a light skinned skinny dude.

That said. Steph has been bizarrely bad. Random eruptions for a few minutes here and there but mainly he's been totally bla.

I wonder if he's hurt more than they're letting on? Then again the guy was incredible the last 3 games of the last series

 

[Alsacs]

This series has been garbage and to be fair the entire playoffs have been poor. These games haven't been competitive.
Golden State-OKC had 2 tight games, OKC-San Antonio had 2 close games, and Atlanta-Cleveland game 4. I can't remember many more good games.

Not many good games sucks. Their hasn't been a competitive 4th quarter in the Finals and the last round only had a couple of close games even with the West going 7.

The tops teams are going to have to construct their rosters this offseason to beat the Warriors. Spurs/Cavs/Thunder/Clippers.

 

[Ward]

I thought a big piece was what some on here talked about after Game 1 - role players play better at home.

Thompson and Smith played real well and gave Cleveland a big boost. Frye was much better defensively and was active on the glass. On the other side, Livingston wasn't giving GSW 20, Barbosa wasn't 5-5 from the field, and Bogut wasn't blocking 4 shots in the first 10 minutes or scoring close to his playoff career high.

Not surprising Cavs defense picked up as well. They looked to be feeding off the home crowd atmosphere in the first quarter. Also, anyone who's played can tell you that when you're making shots on one end you get an extra jump in your step and it carries over to playing more energized and confident defensively. Cleveland had a better flow offensively and it kept their morale and energy up on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[RF2044]

I thought a big piece was what some on here talked about after Game 1 - role players play better at home.

Thompson and Smith played real well and gave Cleveland a big boost. Frye was much better defensively and was active on the glass. On the other side, Livingston wasn't giving GSW 20, Barbosa wasn't 5-5 from the field, and Bogut wasn't blocking 4 shots in the first 10 minutes or scoring close to his playoff career high.

Not surprising Cavs defense picked up as well. They looked to be feeding off the home crowd atmosphere in the first quarter. Also, anyone who's played can tell you that when you're making shots on one end you get an extra jump in your step and it carries over to playing more energized and confident defensively. Cleveland had a better flow offensively and it kept their morale and energy up on the defensive side of the ball.

Agreed. And role players tend to shoot much better at home, which is what happened.

 

[longislandcuse]

It's insane how big of a deal home court is in the NBA. Absolutely incredible when you compare it to other major sports.

 

[Ghost]

The funny thing that occurred to me at one point was just how quick Cleveland could have lost that 20 point lead - and that was with GSW still playing pretty awful outside of a couple Harrison Barnes makes.

Cleveland was pretty much perfect and fairly early in the second quarter, if Golden State wasn't missing free throws like it was their job, would have been within probably a possession, maybe two, of being able to tie it up. It's hard to say, but it felt a bit like a perfect storm for Cleveland, if GSW has their offense clicking at even 75%, they probably demoralize Cleveland by taking back the lead halfway through the second quarter...and run away with it. A lot of the game is about stopping runs though, and Cleveland managed to weather that brief storm - so, hats off to them.

Who knows...Cavs may have another win in them, I wouldn't doubt it at all, but I doubt we see them take it to 7. Will be interesting to see the next game and how it plays out - maybe ditching Love was the key!