NBA Thread

[drayer54]

Sorry to offend the LeBron fan club, but 31 of those 40 came in the first half. He had 9 in the second and was 1-6 in the 4th quarter when it mattered most. He couldn’t get a shot off to tie the game. Those aren’t stats I made up because I’m a hater. You guys can double check if you think I’m wrong. It’s also not all on him. Nobody else stepped up in the second half either. They got outplayed, outcoached, and outhustled. The Lakers were ND vs Oklahoma State last night.

LeBron ran out of gas. Jokic is also a 1 of a kind talent.

 

[GATTACA!]

LeBron ran out of gas. Jokic is also a 1 of a kind talent.

Some of the 3s he hit were absolutely absurd.

 

[Irish#1]

I played a fair amount of BBall. I played with some guys who did all they could to win a game. Some went out as fast as they could, and gassed in the end. I never blamed nor criticized them (I saw one guy make such an effort that he had to leave the game to barf all over the place.) . I admired what James tried to do last game. He just couldn't do it, but he tried his dammednest. The loss was on his teammates not on him, in my opinion. I saw a fabulous athlete who is just too near the end of his playing days to go all four quarters. Once upon a time he might have pulled it off --- almost did anyway.

This is it right here. Father Time is undefeated. James is still a solid player, but age has caught up with him. He showed it through most of the series. Can't do it by himself like he use to.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Never let 40/10/9 in 47 minutes at 38 years old in the conference finals spoil your narrative.

 

[Irish#1]

Never let 40/10/9 in 47 minutes at 38 years old in the conference finals spoil your narrative.

Nothing wrong with his stats and nothing wrong with stating the obvious. He's 38 and was spent after a great first half. It doesn't take away from his accomplishments and where he ranks in the "all time" discussions.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Nothing wrong with his stats and nothing wrong with stating the obvious. He's 38 and was spent after a great first half. It doesn't take away from his accomplishments and where he ranks in the "all time" discussions.

What's wrong is the lack of objectivity whenever discussing anything about the athlete in question.

Here is what is obvious: he's 38, not fading beyond being recognizable and is still owed $97.5 million.

If he's so much about himself and just wants attention, he's not going to retire without a farewell tour right? A farewell tour sounds like something a selfish egotistical who is all about himself is going to do. Every road game would sell out. The NBA loves farewell tours too.

 

[greyhammer90]

Nothing wrong with his stats and nothing wrong with stating the obvious. He's 38 and was spent after a great first half. It doesn't take away from his accomplishments and where he ranks in the "all time" discussions.

I think the disagreement is not from saying he was gassed (everyone agrees) and had largely emptied his clip in the first half. The disagreement comes from implications that he's washed or Nuke saying he "came up short when it mattered." Nobody says that stuff about anybody else when they have a 40/10/9 night. Anyone else in the league giving that statline in an elimination game would be viewed as having given a heroic effort and the narrative would be "Curry/Jimmy/Jokic/Giannis can't win with these cats."

 

[Irish#1]

What's wrong is the lack of objectivity whenever discussing anything about the athlete in question.

Here is what is obvious: he's 38, not fading beyond being recognizable and is still owed $97.5 million.

If he's so much about himself and just wants attention, he's not going to retire without a farewell tour right? A farewell tour sounds like something a selfish egotistical who is all about himself is going to do. Every road game would sell out. The NBA loves farewell tours too.

I'm not sure what his pay or still being one of the most recognizable athletes in the world has to do with game 4. I think he returns next year. There will be sellouts whether he says it's his last year or not as fans will know there won't be many more times to see him.

 

[NDRock]

I think the disagreement is not from saying he was gassed (everyone agrees) and had largely emptied his clip in the first half. The disagreement comes from implications that he's washed or Nuke saying he "came up short when it mattered." Nobody says that stuff about anybody else when they have a 40/10/9 night. Anyone else in the league giving that statline in an elimination game would be viewed as having given a heroic effort and the narrative would be "Curry/Jimmy/Jokic/Giannis can't win with these cats."

The reason nobody says this stuff about the guys you listed is that Lebron is measured differently. By his own accord he's the greatest that's ever played.

"That one right there made me the greatest player of all time ... that's what I felt,"

Sorry but he's judged against the top 5 guys of all time, not the top 5 today. Same thing with Tom Brady. People argue all the time about Brady. They don't argue about whether he was great, they argue about whether he's the GOAT. Different standards.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

I'm not sure what his pay or still being one of the most recognizable athletes in the world has to do with game 4. I think he returns next year. There will be sellouts whether he says it's his last year or not as fans will know there won't be many more times to see him.

His talent level is not fading beyond being recognizable, not his face recognition.

He has money and years left on his contract. That's a motivator for anyone even if they have cemented their playing legacy and already have billions of dollars. This is undoubtedly where load management comes into play. These playoffs have not gone according to plan whatsoever as far as the seeding went with regular season results.

 

[Irish#1]

His talent level is not fading beyond being recognizable, not his face recognition.

He has money and years left on his contract. That's a motivator for anyone even if they have cemented their playing legacy and already have billions of dollars. This is undoubtedly where load management comes into play. These playoffs have not gone according to plan whatsoever as far as the seeding went with regular season results.

Sorry, misunderstood. His talent is recognizable as evident by the first half. He's still a top talent in the NBA whether it's top 10, 15, or 20, I don't know and he still impacts a game. I think the point of other posters and my comment about father time is that while he's good, it was obvious that he couldn't do in the fourth quarter what he's done so many other times in the fourth quarter. That's not to take away from what he did in the first half, but players are judged a lot by how they perform in crunch time and not what they did in the first half.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Sorry, misunderstood. His talent is recognizable as evident by the first half. He's still a top talent in the NBA whether it's top 10, 15, or 20, I don't know and he still impacts a game. I think the point of other posters and my comment about father time is that while he's good, it was obvious that he couldn't do in the fourth quarter what he's done so many other times in the fourth quarter. That's not to take away from what he did in the first half, but players are judged a lot by how they perform in crunch time and not what they did in the first half.

I suppose one seeded Denver may have had something to do with what he did and didn't do in the second half, particularly outscoring the Lakers 36-16 in the third quarter. That was an absolute romp. Yes, when you're 38 you can't do what you did when you were 28 unless you're pumping steroids into yourself at a high rate. This was still a 7th seed that knocked out the 2 and 3 seed before being defeated by the one seed in the conference final.

Nobody on that Laker team really outperformed their regular season numbers in terms of scoring. Including James. They were all bad in games 1, 3 and 4.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

WTF was Boston doing for three games?

 

[NDRock]

WTF was Boston doing for three games?

Missing 3s. Shot over 40% the last two games.

 

[stlnd01]

Missing 3s. Shot over 40% the last two games.

Also playing crappy defense, which they have rectified the last two games.

 

[Irish#1]

Tough to win 4 in a row.

 

[stlnd01]

Tough to win 4 in a row.

Well yes. If it was easy someone would have done it by now.

 

[NDRock]

Well yes. If it was easy someone would have done it by now.

Not that hard, Denver just did

 

[Irish#1]

Winning four in a row was in reference to being down 3-0. Crazy finish last night, but it looks like Boston might pull it off.

 

[phillyirish]

I hate Boston and Boston sports so much. I have a cousin who as a grown man, decided he was going to be a Boston sports fan. I mean at like 17-18 years old, decided he was going to root for the entire Boston sports enterprise. He's such a fake fan too, and basically does it to be a troll to all the die hard Philly fans in his life. He posted on social media at halftime of the Super bowl against the Falcons that he was going to bed and the game was over, only to come back on at the end of the 4th qtr, deleting his old post saying he always believed and the Pats are the greatest. Likewise he was silent during all this series, even after the game 2 win, but now thats its all tied up hes yelling about the Celtics louder than anyone. Of course, he was all over the Bruins during their historic regular season, but hasnt said a word about them since the Playoffs began. Basically epitomizes all non-NE based Boston fans.

Miami please win game 7.

 

[stlnd01]

I hate Boston and Boston sports so much. I have a cousin who as a grown man, decided he was going to be a Boston sports fan. I mean at like 17-18 years old, decided he was going to root for the entire Boston sports enterprise. He's such a fake fan too, and basically does it to be a troll to all the die hard Philly fans in his life. He posted on social media at halftime of the Super bowl against the Falcons that he was going to bed and the game was over, only to come back on at the end of the 4th qtr, deleting his old post saying he always believed and the Pats are the greatest. Likewise he was silent during all this series, even after the game 2 win, but now thats its all tied up hes yelling about the Celtics louder than anyone. Of course, he was all over the Bruins during their historic regular season, but hasnt said a word about them since the Playoffs began. Basically epitomizes all non-NE based Boston fans.

Miami please win game 7.

Your cousin sounds like a tool. But whatever. Go Celts.

 

[NDRock]

I hate Boston and Boston sports so much. I have a cousin who as a grown man, decided he was going to be a Boston sports fan. I mean at like 17-18 years old, decided he was going to root for the entire Boston sports enterprise. He's such a fake fan too, and basically does it to be a troll to all the die hard Philly fans in his life. He posted on social media at halftime of the Super bowl against the Falcons that he was going to bed and the game was over, only to come back on at the end of the 4th qtr, deleting his old post saying he always believed and the Pats are the greatest. Likewise he was silent during all this series, even after the game 2 win, but now thats its all tied up hes yelling about the Celtics louder than anyone. Of course, he was all over the Bruins during their historic regular season, but hasnt said a word about them since the Playoffs began. Basically epitomizes all non-NE based Boston fans.

Miami please win game 7.

Cut your cousin some slack, he’s from Philly so he’s not too bright.

 

[NDRock]

Embarrassing start by Boston. Can’t see either of these teams beating Denver.

 

[Irish#1]

The way Boston played throughout the playoffs it was eventually going to catch up with them.

 

[arrowryan]

The Celtics have a really, really shitty coach

 

[stlnd01]

The Celtics have a really, really shitty coach

You feel for the guy because he was shoved into the job when they canned Udoka right before the season. But yes. Absolutely.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The Celtics and Bruins both lost Game 7 to an 8th seed this season.

Life is truly good.

 

[Irish#1]

A snippet from The Athletic

Erik Spoelstra now has 108 career playoff wins, three shy of tying Doc Rivers for fourth all-time. The guy LeBron tried to fire all those years ago is certifiably one of the best coaches in NBA history. Wild.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[greyhammer90]

Crazy that LeBron paid that Athletic writer to bring his name up in an unrelated story. Dude is just addicted to the attention.