NBA Season 2015-16

[pk500]

Not the start the Cavs and LeBron were hoping for. Neither Steph or Klay had big games and they still lost by 15. The Warriors bench came thru.

The weak competition in the East showed last night for the Cavs.

Toronto's offense was a mess of DeRozan-Lowry isolation in the games the Cavs won. The price of poker went WAY up starting last night, and the Cavs and Tyronn Lue looked ill-equipped to handle the stiffer competition and pace and space of the Warriors.

It's funny: Everyone analyzed the starting lineups to try to determine an edge before this series started. Almost everyone forgot the benches. I know I did. Golden State's bench is FAR superior to the Cavs. Hell, Golden State's second five probably could beat the Sixers, Nets, Knicks, Lakers and Suns on a regular basis.

I also think Ty Lue's inexperience and lack of tactical nous will doom Cleveland. He definitely had the "deer in the headlights" look at some points last night, much like his derided predecessor, Blatt. But Lue gets nowhere near the media criticism as Blatt because Lue is LeBron's buddy. Media are terrified to be frozen out of access by LeBron, so they kiss Lue's ass.

[Rodster]

CBS Sports is already calling out Kyrie Irving saying he has to play better. If he's going to play ISO ball then he better put up 40-50 pts per game because the Warriors defense thrives on ISO ball. The Cavs should've watched the WCF to see why the Thunder were so successful against the Dubs.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Going to Game 4 in Cleveland with 2 pals. Can't wait.

[pk500]

Guess I'm not the only one saying the Cavs will lose because Kyrie and Love can't play defense worth a sh*t. The numbers shown by 538.com bear this out: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kev ... -warriors/

[Rodster]

Series is OVER 110-77

[Brando70]

Series is OVER 110-77

I am not surprised the Cavs are down 2-0, but to get pantsed like that after dominating the Eastern playoffs is surprising. All their cohesion has been stripped away in two games.

[dbdynsty25]

Series is OVER 110-77

I am not surprised the Cavs are down 2-0, but to get pantsed like that after dominating the Eastern playoffs is surprising. All their cohesion has been stripped away in two games.

Many said the same about the Warriors after games 3 and 4 last series...so teams can turn it around. Certainly not the Cavs, but you can be humiliated a few times and get motivated.

[pk500]

Series is OVER 110-77

I am not surprised the Cavs are down 2-0, but to get pantsed like that after dominating the Eastern playoffs is surprising. All their cohesion has been stripped away in two games.

Three elements at work behind the routs in the first two games.

One, the Eastern Conference is the JV to the West's varsity. Golden State already is a great team, but it was forced to dig deeper than ever and discover even more skill and heart to beat OKC. Cleveland didn't need to push nearly as hard to beat a mediocre Toronto team.

It was a HUGE shock to the Cavs' system to play a team of the quality of Golden State in Game 1, especially defensively. Cleveland won't recover from that.

Two, Cleveland is not a good defensive team. At all. Love and Irving are embarrassing defenders, and the Cavs can't afford that against Golden State. This is not a facetious statement: Cleveland is a far better defensive team with Dellavedova and Mozgov on the floor instead of Irving and Love. But the Cavs can't give up the offense those two starters provide. So they're f*cked if they do, f*cked if they don't.

Three, Cleveland is not a well-built team, from the bench to the floor. LeBron is the GM of the team; he has built this lineup and got Blatt fired and replaced by Ty Lue. The Cavs' bench is very weak and filled with aging stiffs like James Jones and Richard Jefferson. And Ty Lue is not a very good coach.

Cleveland will win one game at the Q. This series is mercifully over in five.

[wco81]

I think the OKC series helped the Warriors bear down. Plus the momentum of having to win 3 straight in the WCF before heading into the Finals.

They didn't seem to mind only having a couple of days between game 7 of the WCF and the first game of the Finals.

Curry's injury also forced the rest of the team to play bigger roles. If the Warriors didn't face adversity reaching the Finals, maybe the Cavs could have surprised them in the first game.


But Cavs could dominate in games 3 and 4 and we could forget all this premature talk about the Cavs needing to be rebuilt.

[Rodster]

The thing is, this is LeBron's team, handpicked including the Head Coach. So if he loses this series, what changes will he make? How's that Wiggins for Love trade working out now?

[dbdynsty25]

How's that Wiggins for Love trade working out now?

Last I checked Minnesota didn't make the playoffs. And Love is still better than Wiggins. For a couple more years anyway, he's just a piss poor fit in Cleveland. Not that Wiggins would be any better. The Suns need Love in Phoenix, he'd fit absolutely perfectly. If they get swept out of the finals, then it's a possibility.

And edit a few hours after my post:

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2016/ ... -cavaliers

Clearly I'm not the only one that wants/needs KLove in Phoenix.

[Rodster]

Ha, CBS Sports asked the same question I did. What if Wiggins was never traded? Good read and more impressively how Jerry West who threatened to quit his job if Klay Thompson was traded for Love, had figured out why Love was never going to be a good fit for Golden State.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kevin ... ba-finals/

[wco81]

Love fills up the stat sheets but he wasn't enough to take the Wolves to the playoffs when he was the main guy there.

He needs good players around him, as does everyone.

[pk500]

Love fills up the stat sheets but he wasn't enough to take the Wolves to the playoffs when he was the main guy there.

He needs good players around him, as does everyone.

Love needs a rim protector/big defender because he's a lousy defensive player.

[Rodster]

Love fills up the stat sheets but he wasn't enough to take the Wolves to the playoffs when he was the main guy there.

He needs good players around him, as does everyone.

Love needs a rim protector/big defender because he's a lousy defensive player.

That's what the CBS article mentioned that he's a huge defensive liability and he doesn't fit in the Cavs system whereas Wiggins would have been fit because he's a much better defender and had a higher PPG avg than Love.

[wco81]

Wiggins had a big rookie year, improving towards the end.

He didn't improve as much in his second year.

But the one game where the Wolves beat the Warriors in Oakland, he was almost unstoppable.

Well actually him and some bench guy named Muhammed.

I mean Wiggins was suppose to be the greatest prospect since Lebron, wasn't he? Didn't Philly tank for him but then ended up drafting Embiid?

[Brando70]

Love's not a good defensive player and neither is Kyrie, but the Cavs were a strong defensive team all year -- top 5 in PPGA. It's a testament to LeBron and the other players. But they have looked completely helpless these first two games. The Warriors are such good shots they can give anyone fits, but Cleveland looks like they forgot how to play together after the Toronto series.

[pk500]

Love's not a good defensive player and neither is Kyrie, but the Cavs were a strong defensive team all year -- top 5 in PPGA. It's a testament to LeBron and the other players.

It's also a testament to playing in the East. There's no way Cleveland would have those kind of defensive stats playing against a steady stream of Western Conference teams.

LeBron and Thompson are the only capable defenders in Cleveland's starting lineup. Maybe a touch of Shumpert.

But Kyrie is atrocious. One of the worst-defending guards in the NBA. He doesn't even try, doesn't even care.

[dbdynsty25]

Love's not a good defensive player and neither is Kyrie, but the Cavs were a strong defensive team all year -- top 5 in PPGA. It's a testament to LeBron and the other players.

It's also a testament to playing in the East. There's no way Cleveland would have those kind of defensive stats playing against a steady stream of Western Conference teams.

Thanks, didn't want to type that myself, lol. Everyone was saying the east was so improved, but that just wasn't true, they were just as bad as the last few years. In fact, they may have been even worse.

[Diablo25]

Wiggins had a big rookie year, improving towards the end.

He didn't improve as much in his second year.

But the one game where the Wolves beat the Warriors in Oakland, he was almost unstoppable.

Well actually him and some bench guy named Muhammed.

I mean Wiggins was suppose to be the greatest prospect since Lebron, wasn't he? Didn't Philly tank for him but then ended up drafting Embiid?

Sixers would've drafted him if they got the 1st pick. They slid to 3 so Embiid it was.

[Brando70]

Well that made things interesting again. I wonder if we'll have a game in this series where the win isn't a brutal beating.

[dbdynsty25]

Well that made things interesting again. I wonder if we'll have a game in this series where the win isn't a brutal beating.

This whole playoffs has been a bunch of terrible games. Makes me miss the mediocrity of the NCAA Tourney.

[dbdynsty25]

Well that made things interesting again. I wonder if we'll have a game in this series where the win isn't a brutal beating.

This whole playoffs has been a bunch of terrible games. Makes me miss the mediocrity of the NCAA Tourney.

Finally a decent, albeit sloppy, game. The Cavs really just shut it down with about 7-8 min left in the 4th. They turned to ISO ball and just started jacking bad shots...Kyrie in particular. Series over.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Had a blast in Game 4.

Being in a NBA Finals game was quite the experience.

If the Celts ever get there, I'll be back!

Enjoy....

[dbdynsty25]

Eeesh, those cheerleaders are the Midwest and Cleveland in a nutshell. However, the one on the left can get it.