2018 NBA playoff's

[JEDI]

you're sick of him? imagine how the rest of the East feels

that's what makes it so hilarious to me. All those teams, just knowing that no matter how much they struggle, how much they accomplish, they have zero chance of even making it to the finals

the way one man has been able to lock down an entire conference for nearly a decade is just fantastic

Celtics ruled 1960s
Chicago Bulls ruled 1990s
LeBron rules 2010s

only thing better to his legacy if he had the finals % win like the 2 entries above him.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm no sure how you could be sick of LBJ but not the Warriors. This will be the 4th time in a row they are both in the finals. Is 5 the magic number that makes you sick of someone or something?

At least LBJ does it all himself. The Warriors have 3-4 all stars on their team.

 

[tynopik]

I'm no sure how you could be sick of LBJ but not the Warriors. This will be the 4th time in a row they are both in the finals. Is 5 the magic number that makes you sick of someone or something?

9 is more than twice as much as 4

just sayin

 

[purbeast0]

9 is more than twice as much as 4

just sayin

I know I'm just wondering what the magic number is.

 

[tynopik]

I know I'm just wondering what the magic number is.

if you don't like repetition, you go for the one that has half as many repetitions as the other, whatever the actual numbers are

 

[chitwood]

Call me a LBJ hater, but I am just sick of seeing him in the play offs. Maybe that's a testament to how good he is, (then again, he is in the East), but I'm just tired of seeing his mug in the finals.

Rootin' for GSW to win again.

Can you imagine what these Finals would look like if it wasn't Lebron? Pick another east team. Celtics? Raptors? against Golden state? It would be idiotic. 4 straight blowouts.

 

[manly]

Man the Cavs have some terrible salaries - outside of James vs Curry, the Warriors have massively superior players at similar costs.

I think the Warriors show up and sweep in 4 because they want to finally put a stamp on the year.

James $33,285,709
Kevin Love $22,642,350
George Hill $20,000,000
Tristan Thompson $16,400,000
J.R. Smith $13,760,000
Jordan Clarkson $11,562,500

Stephen Curry $34,682,550
Kevin Durant $25,000,000
Klay Thompson $17,826,150
Draymond Green $16,400,000
Andre Iguodala $14,814,815
Shaun Livingston $7,692,308

Hindsight is 20/20. While the Cavs luxury tax picture is indeed awful, you can't really compare contracts side by side. The Kevin Love contract was signed when he was a perennial All-Star. While there was a lot of doubt about his true value, Love put up Larry Bird level stats in Minnesota. Arguably he's underperformed in his years as a Cav but that contract is still pre- cap spike so it's not that bad.

You could tell in advance the bad contracts would be Tristan Thompson and JR Smith. Thompson was massively overpaid, partly because LeBron more or less made it clear he wanted to run the same team back after the title. At the time, the Smith deal didn't look egregious. Not only has he been a productive (albeit streaker) shooter most of his career, he added some lock down defense in the 2016 title run. That version of Smith was worth $14M per season. The problem though is Smith has also been a basket case often in his career, so he's always been somewhat modestly paid compared to actual performance. Sure enough, he's reverted to frustrating stretches of mediocre basketball since signing the new deal.

The George Hill and Jordan Clarkson contracts look too high, but they were fallout from the Kyrie Irving trade demand.

As for the Warriors, they will hit luxury tax hell in a couple years. Rumors are that KD wants to get paid soon, and realistically speaking, they won't be able to afford 4 max salary stars. Klay Thompson has publicly stated he wants to stay in the Bay Area, but how much money is he willing to leave on the table?

 

[brianmanahan]

sounds like iguodala is out the first game, and maybe more

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

And Love is still in the concussion protocol. Might miss tomorrow.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I'm no sure how you could be sick of LBJ but not the Warriors. This will be the 4th time in a row they are both in the finals. Is 5 the magic number that makes you sick of someone or something?

At least LBJ does it all himself. The Warriors have 3-4 all stars on their team.

LBJ has been in the finals 8 times in a row. Now 9 in a row. That's what I'm kind of sick of.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Can you imagine what these Finals would look like if it wasn't Lebron? Pick another east team. Celtics? Raptors? against Golden state? It would be idiotic. 4 straight blowouts.

Honestly, it would have been fun to watch the celtics vs gsw with a Kyrie and Hayward back.

 

[tynopik]

LBJ has been in the finals 8 times in a row. Now 9 in a row. That's what I'm kind of sick of.

this is the 9th total but only 8th in a row

2007 Cavs - Spurs
2011-2014 Heat - Mavericks, Thunder, Spurs, Spurs
2015-2018 Cavs - Warriors, Warriors, Warriors, Warriors

 

[Muse]

it's all about the Ring.

KD's having a lot more fun. He doesn't have to eat crow when his team loses in the playoffs. I'm sure he prefers living in the Bay Area to Oklahoma City. The ring isn't all but it's a big part of it. I'm sure he's thrilled to have one, would like more.

 

[Muse]

you're sick of him? imagine how the rest of the East feels

that's what makes it so hilarious to me. All those teams, just knowing that no matter how much they struggle, how much they accomplish, they have zero chance of even making it to the finals

the way one man has been able to lock down an entire conference for nearly a decade is just fantastic

That's ridiculous. No way the East thought they had no chance of beating the Cavs. Toronto was supposed to beat them. Then Indiana, Then Boston. They were all favored. The Cavs being in the finals was highly unlikely.

 

[Majes]

Can you imagine what these Finals would look like if it wasn't Lebron? Pick another east team. Celtics? Raptors? against Golden state? It would be idiotic. 4 straight blowouts.

I think Celtics-Warriors would have been an awesome series. The Celtics play fantastic defense and are streaky shooters. They would have won a game or two. The Raptors were also an excellent team this year and played the Warriors close twice. It's just a shame that Lebron owns them.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

That's ridiculous. No way the East thought they had no chance of beating the Cavs. Toronto was supposed to beat them. Then Indiana, Then Boston. They were all favored. The Cavs being in the finals was highly unlikely.

Indiana and Boston were never favored. Indiana was completely overlooked and took Cavs to a 7 game series. Toronto was supposed to not shit the bed. Boston was never expected to win with a team of rookies and missing their 2 best players.

 

[Muse]

Indiana and Boston were never favored. Indiana was completely overlooked and took Cavs to a 7 game series. Toronto was supposed to not shit the bed. Boston was never expected to win with a team of rookies and missing their 2 best players.

I didn't get the odds but I saw a story in the paper about Indiana having the upper hand and should win. Then I saw stuff about how Boston was undefeated at home in the playoffs and had home court advantage. You extrapolate to Cavs losing. It didn't happen either time.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I didn't get the odds but I saw a story in the paper about Indiana having the upper hand and should win. Then I saw stuff about how Boston was undefeated at home in the playoffs and had home court advantage. You extrapolate to Cavs losing. It didn't happen either time.

It's the fickleness of sports reporting these days.

Warriors win G1 vs. Rockets and all of the stories the next day were "Rockets gonna get swept". "LOL Warriors in 3". "No competition".
Rockets win G2 vs Warriors and stories were "Is Steph Curry still hurt?" "Warriors vulnerable with Steph being injured". "What's wrong with Steph, horrible shots, inefficient".
Warriors win G3 with a blowout, Steph Curry goes off "Steph MVP" "Steph one of the greatest players". "Steph dominating". "Warriors 4-1"

You get the idea.

 

[pete6032]

In the 90s I was sick of Jordan and co. in the playoffs. In the 2000s I was sick of Kobi and friends, and then Duncan and friends. Now I'm sick of Golden State and Cleveland.They're all amazing players, but the league is just too stagnant and dominated by a handful of stars.

 

[manly]

I didn't get the odds but I saw a story in the paper about Indiana having the upper hand and should win. Then I saw stuff about how Boston was undefeated at home in the playoffs and had home court advantage. You extrapolate to Cavs losing. It didn't happen either time.

Nobody was scared of the Pacers, but they actually took the season series 3-1 and they were not a team to roll over to the Cavs. Although I thought the Cavs would prevail, I expected a long series (6 or 7 games). Lance Stephenson has generally performed well when facing LeBron. Taking that series as a whole as opposed to game by game, the Pacers dominated but lost too many nail biters.

I don't think you're referring to in-series odds, but both the Pacers and Celtics were in good shape up 2-1. Actually the Celtics were in great shape up 2-0 and 3-2 and I didn't expect the Cavs to steal game 7 at the Garden.

This is clearly LeBron's toughest road to the Finals and the Vegas odds seem about right. The only thing they haven't adjusted thee odds to is Iguodala's injury.

 

[Muse]

It's the fickleness of sports reporting these days.

Warriors win G1 vs. Rockets and all of the stories the next day were "Rockets gonna get swept". "LOL Warriors in 3". "No competition".
Rockets win G2 vs Warriors and stories were "Is Steph Curry still hurt?" "Warriors vulnerable with Steph being injured". "What's wrong with Steph, horrible shots, inefficient".
Warriors win G3 with a blowout, Steph Curry goes off "Steph MVP" "Steph one of the greatest players". "Steph dominating". "Warriors 4-1"

You get the idea.

You are so right. It makes me wonder if I should watch the games with the sound turned off. I can see what's happening. Do I really need the announcers? They're OK sometimes, but a lot of the time I hate them. I sometimes do turn off the sound, especially when the announcers start teasing each other and ignore the action entirely. I hate that.

 

[purbeast0]

Van Gundy is a great announcer. He keeps it real with his analysis and will criticize anything that deserves criticizing.

 

[Chaotic42]

That last shot from Curry was just sick. I wasn't sure if I was going to watch the finals, but it's not like I'm doing anything else.

 

[purbeast0]

Lebron: "OH HAI I'M JUST SETTING PERSONAL POINTS RECORDS IN GAME 1 OF THE NBA FINALS!"

 

[Chaotic42]

And OT.