NSR: Basketball 2.0

Good effor from the Pacers footy, but my 6 game prediciiton was spot on.

 

Is this rough play philosophy a product of Bird?

 

I like the rough stuff too, as long as it's not overly violent which it hasn't been. So rare to see an intense atmosphere like that on the court these days.

 

No, but I enjoyed the best player in the world dismantle the Pacers despite not having Bosh and dealing with a supporting cast as bad as he ever had in Cleveland. LeBron's amazing, the Pacers attempts to ******** with him failed pretty spectacularly. Move along, nothing to see here, basically. Not quite sure where the Pacers go from here. They're not quite as young as people think (Granger's about to be 28, I think), and the likelihood of attracting a top tier free agent is still pretty remote; there just aren't many out there. Meanwhile, they have a lot of talent, but the bench isn't very good (the Hansbrough Amundson combo is terrible) and the Pacers have a lot of players who like to iso and then shoot. That works when LeBron does it, but less so when Granger does.
Still, I don't expect the Heat to win the title this year, unless Bosh makes a fast recovery. And even then, I think they're underdogs against either the Spurs or the Thunder.

 

It's so obvious Lebron watches soccer, lol.

 

Who else found it amusing when Garnett tried his act and LeBron just laughed at him?

 

Boston now up 3-2, amazing effort from the veteran Celtics. Miami's execution in the last few minutes leaves a lot to be desired, and LeBron still refuses to dominate at the end of the game. They may be done.

 

LeBron deserves great coaching and a good big to help him out. He hasn't had it at all in his entire career. Gets coached by Mike Brown (He's not bad, but I don't think he's great either) and Erik Spoelstra and he has Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Joel Anthony, and Ronny Turiaf. It's an impossibility that Riley will hire Jackson, but he'd be great for LeBron.

Also, credit to Bosh playing despite what happened in his home.

 

Considering that Durant is my favorite non-Pacers player in the league and Lebron is douche, I think it's obvious who I will be rooting for here.

Talking to people, it sounds like I'm not the only one with that opinion.

 

Ahem. Write LeBron off at your peril. The amazing thing about him is that he has basically had 4 bad playoff games in his entire career, yet his detractors want to make that the sum of his resume. He played poorly the last two games against the Mavs, yes, and against the Celtics the year before. Otherwise his playoff resume is absolutely sterling; even when he lost, like in the Orlando series, he put up amazing numbers - the rest of the team killed him. I'm rooting for LeBron actually, because he's a one time in a generation talent who's totally unique with his skill set. We've never seen anyone like him before. Durant is a great scorer, yes, but he's an updated version of Gervin. There's no LeBron comparison and I'd like for him to win so that we don't have to listen to all the ********ing stories about how he can't do it. You'd think he's the first great athlete not to win a title.

 

I'm with you, I want Lebron to win too. Purely because I respect his game btw, nothing to do with the legions of irrational haters.

 

Oh, I don't particularly care about the "haters", I'm just tired of the insane amount of words wasted on LeBron's "inability to win", or whatever else is talked about. Maybe ESPN can show more football with the 3 hours they'd have free.

 

So you basically decide who you like based on what ESPN does?

 

Do you actually read my posts?

 

and I'd like for him to win so that we don't have to listen to all the ********ing stories about how he can't do it.

I'm just tired of the insane amount of words wasted on LeBron's "inability to win", or whatever else is talked about.

 

Great 4th quarter battle between 2 superstars, just what you want in the NBA Finals.

Durant calling for the ball v. Westbrook shooting it.

Durant wins a tight battle.

 

Right, the and there is pretty important. It suggests there was stuff PRIOR to what you quoted.

Like, for instance: "I'm rooting for LeBron actually, because he's a one time in a generation talent who's totally unique with his skill set. We've never seen anyone like him before. Durant is a great scorer, yes, but he's an updated version of Gervin. There's no LeBron comparison"

 

Hate to see it, bit Lebron did his thing.

Enjoy your store bought championship Miami

 

I'm glad we've finally settled who the consensus best player of his generation is.

 

I'm sure Kevin Durant will have something to say about that

 

You're right, an OKC win would have been far more romantic - a city that hijacked a team from another city then intentionally tanked for 2 years just to get draft picks, even keeping an awful coach to make sure that it would, and featuring far and away the worst flopper in basketball today. If that's the alternative to a "store bought championship", I'll take the purchase every time.
Meanwhile, the "store bought" nonsense is really stupid in this context. Miami did what about 5 other teams were hoping to do, they just did it better. Beyond which, the big 3 all took less money to allow the Heat to get players around them and sacrificed their own stats for the good of the team. They've basically done everything we generally claim modern athletes don't, yet because it's LeBron there has to be an irrational element of hatred involved. Why is winning ping pong balls somehow better than signing free agents? Chicago completely lucked into Derrick Rose given that they had the 9th worst record in the league, but won the lottery (and would have landed a stiff like Jerryd Bayless or DJ Augustin if they picked 9th). Building a team. FFS.

 

Yes, I'm sure he'll say that LeBron James is the best player of his generation.

 

Kobe Bryant?