14-15 NBA Playoffs Thread

[EagleFan]

Since Lebron's penis made its television debut they have not won.

[stevew]

I'm pretty upset I allowed myself to believe we had a chance

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

How does JR Smith draw a paycheck

I can't wait to see JR's shot chart. It just seemed like he was terrified to shoot in the second half.

[miami_fan]

Stealing from the MLB thread, can we get a rule change to allow for designated free throw shooters?

[Neon_Chaos]

Steph's handles are unbelievable. The ball is a yoyo in his hands.

[Brian Swartz]

I think what annoys me the most about these finals is the reaction on the part of many to the Cavs fortunes. They win? LeBron is awesome. They lose? David Blatt shouldn't be an NBA coach. It's so silly. If he gets the blame when they lose then he has to get credit when they win. Can't have it both ways.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I think what annoys me the most about these finals is the reaction on the part of many to the Cavs fortunes. They win? LeBron is awesome. They lose? David Blatt shouldn't be an NBA coach. It's so silly. If he gets the blame when they lose then he has to get credit when they win. Can't have it both ways.

LeBron has been awesome win or lose. I don't know if Blatt should be an NBA coach any more than I knew Mike Brown was an NBA coach during the 07 finals. I am not blaming Blatt for the losses. They are losing to a better team.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Cleveland is -43 in the 4th quarter and beyond in the Finals. The combination of the Warriors' defense and deeper bench is just too much.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

LeBron has been awesome win or lose. I don't know if Blatt should be an NBA coach any more than I knew Mike Brown was an NBA coach during the 07 finals. I am not blaming Blatt for the losses. They are losing to a better team.

Agreed. Kerr has had his moments but his game four line up change two all "smells" was smart and game five Blatts decision to not play Mozsgov in Game five after scoring 28 in game for 4 was dumb.

[whomario]

that was really weird. Mozgov not only scored 28 but was only a -5 in +-, by far the best of all Cavs rotation guys. And a -4 yesterday in 10 minutes, was not like GS was running away with him on the court.

[nol]

Originally Posted by whomario

that was really weird. Mozgov not only scored 28 but was only a -5 in +-, by far the best of all Cavs rotation guys. And a -4 yesterday in 10 minutes, was not like GS was running away with him on the court.

They were threatening to at the beginning when they started doubling Mozgov in the post and he was absolutely unable to handle it. Did not see a big issue with sitting him.

[Young Drachma]

If the Cavs lose Game 6 at home and Lebron has another performance like last night, he wins the Finals MVP. If they end up going 7, winning team's guy gets it.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by nol

They were threatening to at the beginning when they started doubling Mozgov in the post and he was absolutely unable to handle it. Did not see a big issue with sitting him.

They are by far the less talented team and have a frighteningly thin rotation anyway. "threatening to" is not exactly cutting it for me in this particular situation.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by nol

They were threatening to at the beginning when they started doubling Mozgov in the post and he was absolutely unable to handle it. Did not see a big issue with sitting him.

I don't have great heartburn with benching Mozgov. I have a problem with benching Mozgov for 40 minutes of Tristan Thompson, 37 minutes of Iman Shumpert, 32 minutes combined of Mike Miller and James Jones and 36 minutes of JR Smith.

[nol]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I don't have great heartburn with benching Mozgov. I have a problem with benching Mozgov for 40 minutes of Tristan Thompson, 37 minutes of Iman Shumpert, 32 minutes combined of Mike Miller and James Jones and 36 minutes of JR Smith.

The Cavs had a major problem scoring when Mozgov was in the game (his calculated offensive rating was 0!), and the Warriors were using his presence to speed up possessions, which is the opposite of what Cleveland was trying to do. The other options are not good either, but I can understand the thinking.

[Groundhog]

I don't think Mozgov has seen a double team since under 18s. IMO they should hope GSW do it again and work on some easy outs for him to get the Cavs easy looks.

[nol]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I don't think Mozgov has seen a double team since under 18s. IMO they should hope GSW do it again and work on some easy outs for him to get the Cavs easy looks.

Right. It's not like he should sit the rest of the series, but they absolutely could not have afforded to have him try to figure it out in-game.

[nol]

It's an unstoppable force against an immovable object tonight - is LeBron gonna force a game 7 or is Scott Foster going to secure the unbelievable playoff run of the home team going 1-13 when he referees?

[kingfc22]

Too much talent on GS.

[Vince, Pt. II]

This is not even close to a flagrant. I feel like the announcers are doing Schumpert a huge disservice by even comparing this to Smith's foul last game.

[nol]

As each game passes, it becomes clear that Mozgov and Thompson's ability to score on putbacks makes the Cavs' offensive rebounding advantage much less of an issue than it looks based on rebounding margins.

[EagleFan]

Saw someone with a sign that said "Reverse the Curse"

What curse is that? The Curse of Lebron's Penis?

[Vince, Pt. II]

Things that confuse me:

Based upon very limited appraisal (literally only the finals), Mozgov appears to be better than Tristan Thompson at literally EVERYTHING. Why in the world didn't Blatt play Mozgov at all in game 5?

[Vince, Pt. II]

If the Warriors just hit the open shots, this will be a rout in about ten minutes of game time.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by nol

It's an unstoppable force against an immovable object tonight - is LeBron gonna force a game 7 or is Scott Foster going to secure the unbelievable playoff run of the home team going 1-13 when he referees?

Heard this on Lebatard earlier and was like "aah the NBA..."

[nol]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Things that confuse me:

Based upon very limited appraisal (literally only the finals), Mozgov appears to be better than Tristan Thompson at literally EVERYTHING. Why in the world didn't Blatt play Mozgov at all in game 5?

I don't know if I posted it on this page or last, but Golden State double teamed him and he had literally zero clue of what to do. He touched the ball like 3 times and turned it over twice. Also Thompson is better at staying with guys on the perimeter; Mozgov's effectiveness against this lineup is pretty dependent on Iguodala missing wide-open jumpers.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Things that confuse me:

Based upon very limited appraisal (literally only the finals), Mozgov appears to be better than Tristan Thompson at literally EVERYTHING. Why in the world didn't Blatt play Mozgov at all in game 5?

I think that Mozgov is too slow laterally to defend against Green and/or Iguodala, specially off high pick and rolls.

And that Blatt wanted to try and go small ball against GSW in Game 5 (which almost worked. They were up by 1 point with 7 minutes left in the game)

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Things that confuse me:

Based upon very limited appraisal (literally only the finals), Mozgov appears to be better than Tristan Thompson at literally EVERYTHING. Why in the world didn't Blatt play Mozgov at all in game 5?

I am trying to figure out when the Cavs decided to switch from a iso offense with a bit of pick and roll to a post up offense.

[Groundhog]

Yep, Moz just can't recover on those pick and pops, and Iggy and Draymond milked it that 1st half.

[miked]

I'm only a casual watcher, but when did the NBA allow moving picks. It seems like these guys shuffle their feet and move every pick.

[Groundhog]

If you aren't 30lbs heavier than the guy you are screening and keep your arms down, they just dont call it.

[nol]

Originally Posted by miked

I'm only a casual watcher, but when did the NBA allow moving picks. It seems like these guys shuffle their feet and move every pick.

I'd lean towards 'forever.' It's the equivalent of offensive holding in the NFL where you could call it on every play.

[Groundhog]

Shump is a passable defender, but offensively he's graded out to 'wretched' so far these finals.

[kingfc22]

Throw it down big fella!

[bhlloy]

Really feel like Delly's breakout game might have damned the Cavs into thinking he's a viable offensive option, he's been an absolute black hole since. Also this series can be entirely summed up by Lebron hitting Thompson under the basket with an absolute dime and Thompson bricks the hook from a couple of feet out. I'm still amazed they got this one to six.

[bhlloy]

DOLA - Shawn Marion might not be a good player any more but I can't believe he hasn't made it off the bench given how terrible some of the other rotation players have been.

[kingfc22]

Dubs up 15. They're 57-0 this season when they reach the 15 point margin during a game.

[stevew]

Congrats, wish it woulda worked out better for us with injuries but even at full strength outcome would have been similar.

It's a tough one to take.

[nol]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Really feel like Delly's breakout game might have damned the Cavs into thinking he's a viable offensive option, he's been an absolute black hole since. Also this series can be entirely summed up by Lebron hitting Thompson under the basket with an absolute dime and Thompson bricks the hook from a couple of feet out. I'm still amazed they got this one to six.

I don't think that damned them as much as injuries did. LeBron is equal opportunity enough with his passing that it's not like they went to Delly any more in this series than they went to someone like Shumpert (who just missed a lot of high-quality looks) this game.

This chart is basically what you just described in a less anecdotal form:

[nol]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Dubs up 15. They're 57-0 this season when they reach the 15 point margin during a game.

They reached that way back in the first quarter

[stevew]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

DOLA - Shawn Marion might not be a good player any more but I can't believe he hasn't made it off the bench given how terrible some of the other rotation players have been.

He's really bad. He helped to slow down our bleeding in the first half of the season, but Miller/Jones/Marion/Heywood/Perkins/ are all useless vs a competent young team.

[stevew]

And if I could instantly heal one Cavs player or would probably be Andy over Love or Kyrie. Or I'd be tempted to anyways. He would have been nice to have to defend the pick and roll game.

[kingfc22]

Raining 3's

[stevew]

Should be hacking iggy every possession

[nol]

Originally Posted by stevew

He's really bad. He helped to slow down our bleeding in the first half of the season, but Miller/Jones/Marion/Heywood/Perkins/ are all useless vs a competent young team.

I wish I could find the graph, but there was some sabremetric thing that plotted stuff like minutes per game with some efficiency stat like win shares/48 that made me realize how efficient the NBA as a whole was with playing the right people, which made me more likely to side with coaches on everything but the most blatant "why isn't this guy playing?" stuff that tends to turn up.

[murrayyyyy]

4-21 between the guards and James Jones with 4 mins left.

I'm shocked the Cavs have it this close right now.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by nol

I wish I could find the graph, but there was some sabremetric thing that plotted stuff like minutes per game with some efficiency stat like win shares/48 that made me realize how efficient the NBA as a whole with playing the right people, which made me more likely to side with coaches on the whole "why isn't this guy playing?" thing that tends to turn up.

They were talking about him messing up his calf getting tangled up with Mack in the ATL series the other day so I'm wondering if he could have guarded anyone.

[nol]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

They were talking about him messing up his calf getting tangled up with Mack in the ATL series the other day so I'm wondering if he could have guarded anyone.

Exactly. Given how shitty everyone else has been, I'm positive that Marion has demonstrably proven himself through practice that he would have been a disaster if subbed in.

[stevew]

Is Joe Harris active?

I'd have gone to him over Marion, probably Jones and Miller. At least in that "heat check" sorta way.

[nol]

Originally Posted by stevew

Is Joe Harris active?

I'd have gone to him over Marion, probably Jones and Miller. At least in that "heat check" sorta way.

When you're talking about yet another player with no pedigree (I remember seeing a graphic earlier this series where Dellevadova and Mozgov were 2 of 4 undrafted players to score 20+ points in a Finals game) possibly making a difference on this type of stage against this caliber of team, it's deck chairs on the Titanic.

At the very least, it's great for the game that the allegedly soft, jump-shooting team kicked ass and took names for the entire season. I predicted Warriors in 6 before the series, but that was assuming a less astounding LeBron performance and a less craptastic one from the supporting cast (and no Kyrie injury), so the Finals definitely delivered and then some.

final edit: as great as it is to see Iggy get his due in a broader NBA sense, it's pretty insulting for the last two Finals MVPs to be guys who were the 4th-5th scoring options on their teams who did not demonstrably slow LeBron James down. I would have been more accepting of a Steph Curry MVP or even some Atlanta Hawks-style MVP given out to the entire starting 5.