AbeVigodaLive wrote:Yuck. Isn't GSW the defending champ? They've lost any composure they once had. As mentioned before, Cleveland is a team that can start rolling downhill quickly. And right now, they're flying down it in a Ferrari.
JR Smith kept his composure better than every Warriors player not named Leonardo Barbosa. What? What???
I think GSW rebounds a bit to play a bit better in Game 7. (They can't play worse.) But how do they stop LeBron James at this point? Iguodala is injured. Barnes is playing terrible. And James has discovered his outside shot.
Damn it. Cavs have this. The Warriors are playing tight and I think Game 7 drama outweighs the home crowd.
Damn it again!
JR Smith has been a stunning surprise to me in this series. Yes, he's playing with poise and he's making big shots, but he's also playing terrific defense. With apologies to TT and his relentless rebounding, Smith is clearly the 3rd leg of the Cavs' Big Three in the finals.
Iggy's back will have a lot to do with the outcome of Game 7. He was clearly in a lot of pain in Game 6, but as monster said, back spasms can come and go. It's not inconceivable that he is close to 100% healthy after 3 days of electrical stimulation. If he's healthy, I think GS wins Game 7.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:Yuck. Isn't GSW the defending champ? They've lost any composure they once had. As mentioned before, Cleveland is a team that can start rolling downhill quickly. And right now, they're flying down it in a Ferrari.
JR Smith kept his composure better than every Warriors player not named Leonardo Barbosa. What? What???
I think GSW rebounds a bit to play a bit better in Game 7. (They can't play worse.) But how do they stop LeBron James at this point? Iguodala is injured. Barnes is playing terrible. And James has discovered his outside shot.
Damn it. Cavs have this. The Warriors are playing tight and I think Game 7 drama outweighs the home crowd.
Damn it again!
JR Smith has been a stunning surprise to me in this series. Yes, he's playing with poise and he's making big shots, but he's also playing terrific defense. With apologies to TT and his relentless rebounding, Smith is clearly the 3rd leg of the Cavs' Big Three in the finals.
Iggy's back will have a lot to do with the outcome of Game 7. He was clearly in a lot of pain in Game 6, but as monster said, back spasms can come and go. It's not inconceivable that he is close to 100% healthy after 3 days of electrical stimulation. If he's healthy, I think GS wins Game 7.
Good to hear about Iguodala. The Warriors are simply a much better team when he's out there.
As a guy who has gone through back issues, seeing him walk after getting fouled in the 3rd quarter brought back some painful memories.
[Note: I put Thompson ahead of Smith. His defense has been exceptional and brings energy every game. He's just one of those guys that "stays in his lane" and works hard. As a weird aside... his face annoys me for some reason though. Then again, so does JR Smith's face.]
AbeVigodaLive wrote:Yuck. Isn't GSW the defending champ? They've lost any composure they once had. As mentioned before, Cleveland is a team that can start rolling downhill quickly. And right now, they're flying down it in a Ferrari.
JR Smith kept his composure better than every Warriors player not named Leonardo Barbosa. What? What???
I think GSW rebounds a bit to play a bit better in Game 7. (They can't play worse.) But how do they stop LeBron James at this point? Iguodala is injured. Barnes is playing terrible. And James has discovered his outside shot.
Damn it. Cavs have this. The Warriors are playing tight and I think Game 7 drama outweighs the home crowd.
Damn it again!
JR Smith has been a stunning surprise to me in this series. Yes, he's playing with poise and he's making big shots, but he's also playing terrific defense. With apologies to TT and his relentless rebounding, Smith is clearly the 3rd leg of the Cavs' Big Three in the finals.
Iggy's back will have a lot to do with the outcome of Game 7. He was clearly in a lot of pain in Game 6, but as monster said, back spasms can come and go. It's not inconceivable that he is close to 100% healthy after 3 days of electrical stimulation. If he's healthy, I think GS wins Game 7.
Good to hear about Iguodala. The Warriors are simply a much better team when he's out there.
As a guy who has gone through back issues, seeing him walk after getting fouled in the 3rd quarter brought back some painful memories.
[Note: I put Thompson ahead of Smith. His defense has been exceptional and brings energy every game. He's just one of those guys that "stays in his lane" and works hard. As a weird aside... his face annoys me for some reason though. Then again, so does JR Smith's face.]
I've had those lower back issues also so I can relate.
Yep TT has gotten back to being a wrecking ball similar to what he did last finals and yes his face is annoying. To me GS needs to play Varejo as many minutes as he can handle he seems to be one of the few guys that matches TT in going after the ball. Heck maybe should play Barbosa a ton too he has been really good.
Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
To be fair, against a larger team, Love might have been replaced with Frye by now.
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
To be fair, against a larger team, Love might have been replaced with Frye by now.
Love played more minutes against the Raptors than Frye did by a large margin (154-85). They played against an all-star frontcourt against the Hawks and Love played more minutes (130-77). I don't think it's fair to say Frye might have replaced Love against a bigger team because it didn't happen the previous two rounds against big teams.
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
To be fair, against a larger team, Love might have been replaced with Frye by now.
Love played more minutes against the Raptors than Frye did by a large margin (154-85). They played against an all-star frontcourt against the Hawks and Love played more minutes (130-77). I don't think it's fair to say Frye might have replaced Love against a bigger team because it didn't happen the previous two rounds against big teams.
The Cavs weren't close to losing in either of those series. But wasn't Love taken out in the 4th quarters of some of those closer games?
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
So he's being paid 20mil + as a "top 25 player" in the league but he isn't playable in the seasons most important games? That sounds a bit off to me, but to each their own.
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
So he's being paid 20mil + as a "top 25 player" in the league but he isn't playable in the seasons most important games? That sounds a bit off to me, but to each their own.
The Mavs won a title with Dirk who couldn't defend or rebound. The Cavs are just choosing not to let Love earn his spot on the court in crunch time by dominating offensively because they won't give him the damn ball. Kyrie, Melo, Lillard, Westbrook, Harden, Griffin. I guess none of those guys are worth 20 million because they're all bad defenders, but great 1-way players. The only reason they stay on the court and Love doesn't is because their offensive production outweighs their defensive weakness and Love can't do that if they don't give him the ball.
khans2k5 wrote:Love still has a place on that team. They're just playing the one team that plays fantastic small ball. If they were playing the Spurs they'd be using Love a lot more against Duncan/Aldridge lineups. Or against OKC Adams/Ibaka lineups. Love can't guard small ball, but there's less than a handful of teams that play good small ball on both sides of the court so he still has a place if they want to keep him moving forward. I don't think you should build your team to take down 1 team. You build it to take down multiple types of teams and it just happens the team they're playing now requires less playing time for Love for them to win.
So he's being paid 20mil + as a "top 25 player" in the league but he isn't playable in the seasons most important games? That sounds a bit off to me, but to each their own.
No, if the Cavs are playing any of the other title contenders from the West -- Spurs, Thunder, Clippers -- Love would be playing a lot more than what he has. We tend to forget, or more so overlook, how important matchups are in the post-season. This is one of those matchups that are rough for a player like Love. It's even worse if you're not going to make him a big part of the offense.
