Cleveland's struggle this series is a good example of how hard it is to beat a great team when your biggest star is a player/coach.
Cleveland's struggle this series is a good example of how hard it is to beat a great team when your biggest star is a player/coach.
Stick a fork in 'em. They don't have hime court, and they're not gonna steal a game at GSW. The difference too has been how deep GS's bench is compared to Cleveland.
Home not hime.....
Frankly, the difference has been how much better GS's bench is compared to Cleveland's starters.Originally Posted by Vic2012
^yep
I almost choked on my chewing gum reading that. LOL.My highly thought out and scientific answer for that is that some NBA players know how to shoot better than others.
I personally believe that tonight is the Cavs game 7 already.
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
"And this is the chorus.....or perhaps it's a bridge...."
This Finals schedule is ridiculous. They're giving too much time between games.
Game 1 - June 2 - Thursday
Game 2 - June 5 - Sunday
Game 3 - June 8 - Wednesday
Game 4 - June 10 - Friday
Game 5* - June 13 - Monday
Game 6* - June 16 - Thursday
Game 7* - June 19 - Sunday
If it were to go to the full 7 games, that means the Finals will have lasted 18 days of June.
I understand they have travel days and the rotating schedule of 2-2-1-1-1, but c'mon!
I wrote this on March 1st.
That's the way that the Cavaliers played in the regular season, and I had no hope. In the playoffs, there was ball movement, open 3s, high caliber basketball.
In this series against Golden St, they've reverted wholly to their stagnant regular season ways. Their approach seems to be, pick and roll, drive the ball to the hoop, where it's either blocked by Bogut, stripped by Iguodala, or fouled (not called) by Green. In the earlier rounds, when they were hummin', the drives were done to kick the ball to guys for open 3s.
Above I said that the Cavaliers had 3 playoff games where they looked like a juggernaut. They haven't even remotely approached that. I don't know whether to blame the game plan on Lue or LeBron, (sad that I don't, because it ought to be on Lue,) but they aren't playing in the style that gives them a chance to win. That stagnant offense is a ticket to oblivion. If you match up Cleveland with Golden St player by player, this is not a mismatch. If you look at the sharing game the Cavaliers were playing against Atlanta, you have to be amazed at what is happening in this finals. So how do we get to a 2-0 blowout lead? It isn't talent, it's scheme and approach, and maybe heart. (The latter being the most talked about thing on Cleveland Sports Talk Radio this week.)
The league wants both teams to be rested and at their best. I fully understand why they do the schedule this way.
Not loving it either. Be that as it may, if Cleveland can't come up with a game plan and make this a competitive series with that much time between games, they deserve the derision they'll get. However, if I'm the Warriors, I want to strike while the iron is hot. Who knows, maybe Kevin Love will stop be useless all of a sudden... or maybe Warriors Currey and Thompson will catch fire, something they haven't done this series and something GS hasn't needed
Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that
Win or lose, the Cavs need to bloody the Warriors noses tonight. Make it grimey.
They have - for a quarter, anyway.
Still time left, but so far Cavs have fought off a run that cut it to 8 from 20 & now are back up by 22.
Last edited by progeezer; 06-13-2016 at 09:40 AM.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
The Warriors will win the series. They can lose game 4 too. They have home court.
The biggest reasons for the victory tonight was that the Cavaliers played with much greater effort, and they made their shots, for the most part. The ball movement was better, but still not at the level they were doing in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. They need that kind of ball movement to win this series. However, winning by the margin they did was huge from a psychological standpoint. It showed them that not only can they beat this team, they can beat them as decisively as they've been beaten. I'm not about to crow or make predictions, but we at least appear to have a series.
Agreed, but I've come to the realization that the big losses that the Warriors have suffered in the playoffs are red herrings. When a team lives and dies by the mid-range jumper and the three point shot, the deaths can get ugly, but the margins don't necessarily mean anything in and of themselves. GS is so unlike other great teams in the regard that they have only one way to play, that it's made some balk at considering them a truly great team in general. GS loses by one or 35, it makes no difference to them. It doesn't mean anything insofar as having them "figured out," or anything like that. It just means that they didn't make their shots. OKC had a mix on offense that really bothered GS matchups-wise, and that's why they won 3 games against them. Cleveland doesn't have that mix. When they're on their game and GS is missing shots, Cleveland is a good enough team to not just beat them, but blow their doors off, as we saw today. Could these two things have a confluence again in game 4? Maybe - but probably not likely. Is there any chance at all that GS will have a bad shooting game in Oakland? Based on the numbers from this year, I would say that those chances are incredibly slim.
I didn't hear anyone else comment on it, but what I observed was that OKC played a wide open, haphazard style which GS was sucked into, which resulted in multiple turnovers for both sides, but which leveled the playing field and gave OKC a chance to win. They took the Warriors out of their game. Obviously, Cleveland won't do it in the same way, but making the Warriors play a different game than they are accustomed to has to be their goal.
Cleveland's defense was much better tonight. GS had way less uncontested shots, and the Cavaliers were playing the passing lanes and Thompson was dominating the boards. If they can play that way the rest of the way, they have a chance. They still haven't played their best.
Good things happen when the ball goes through the net
What a snooze-fest of a game.
Winning or losing, Cleveland is not exciting to watch.
I tried to watch some of the fourth quarter and couldn't last more than two minutes. I've seen less contact in a hockey game. This isn't basketball, it's just a hood mugfest.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Not enough offense when the Cavs needed it and not enough defense when they needed it. Another no-show by Kevin Love in a big spot.
I might've watch about 1 quarter. From the little I saw it just looked to me that the Cavs are outclassed. The Ws make their jumpers, and play great defense. So what happens now? Does Lebron take his ball and leave Cleveland again?
I couldn't help thinking through game 3 that the Ws were just taking a night off. They could've swept the series but didn't want to embarrass the Cavs (or the league). I really wanted to believe the Cavs had a fighting chance in this series. I'll eat my words if the Cavs pull a win outta their asses in Game 5 (at the Ws).
Last edited by Vic2012; 06-11-2016 at 08:50 AM.
Common sentiment around here, Warrior's country, is that the dubs run 11-12 deep every game and most other teams can't keep up with that. We win games in the fourth quarter when most teams' starters are on their 30+ minutes the Dubs starters are still in the 20's. This makes a huge difference.
I have to echo Ed's comments about the contact. Way too much "non-basketball" contact, like Green and LeBron getting tangled up. The first of that contact should've been whistled, but since they didn't it escalated into an uglier non-basketball play contact.
Duncan's going to make a Horns Emoticon!!!
I don't think that's being fair to Cleveland. GS is a jump-shooting team, not a team that overpowers opponents with physicality (the latter being much more of a candidate for "taking the night off"). The shots weren't falling and Cleveland's backs were to the wall on their home court. Cleveland gave a huge mental and physical effort and, the shots weren't going in for GS, and once Cleveland got big 2nd half lead I think the air went out of GS on defense. But I do think that Cleveland's superlative play is what made all of that happen, not GS taking a night off.
Per one of my earlier posts, though, the confluence of GS missing shots and Cleveland giving maximum effort wasn't likely to happen very often. The Cavs are capable of toughing out a win under less than perfect circumstances on their home court (though they didn't last night) but much less so in Oakland.
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