Official 2017-2018 NBA Playoffs thread!

[Al Bundy]

We'll see if the Warriors recover from the end of the season stretch of stinkers.

[UChieffyBugger]

Originally Posted by banecat

They look like the team to beat in the East right now

And

Originally Posted by TEX

IMO they will. I bet they win in 6 or less.

Cheers guys. I'm a little nervous because they have the same youthful exuberance as we do, but I think with them not having Kyrie and Howard we should have the edge where the vets are concerned. No doubt though this is just the beginning of a major battle between the two teams that is gonna last a fair few years as both have good young talent on their respective rosters. Whoever gets through this round will have invaluable experience going forward.

[banecat]

Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger

And




Cheers guys. I'm a little nervous because they have the same youthful exuberance as we do, but I think with them not having Kyrie and Howard we should have the edge where the vets are concerned. No doubt though this is just the beginning of a major battle between the two teams that is gonna last a fair few years as both have good young talent on their respective rosters. Whoever gets through this round will have invaluable experience going forward.

The sixers can only beat themselves in this series. Boston does have a lot of depth, and young talent. I have to doubt that it's enough. I'm looking forward to a cavs/sixers ECF. I hear on paper it looks like the sixers should give the cavs fits. But they still have to play the games, and a lot of them yet for this to happen

[KC_Connection]

Yes, it's still Round 1. And yes, he might even lose the series. And yes, this is coming against a 48-win Pacers team. But there’s a stat that helps capture not only how dominant James has been but also how little help he’s received.

Game score takes into account everything that goes into a basic box score, factoring in total production, turnovers and efficiency; it's a stat that holds up well with smaller sample sizes. Through the first five games, James delivered an average game score of 30.8, which not only would have been his best ever in a series but also -- as duly noted by Mike Lynch of Basketball-Reference.com -- would have been better than anyone other than Michael Jordan has posted in a best-of-seven series under the current playoff format. After James finished with a game score of 17.2 in Game 6 (essentially an average playoff game for Tim Duncan or Clyde Drexler), that average slid down to 28.6, still one of his best ever but no longer on top.

However, nobody else on Cleveland is consistently giving LeBron much help. By average game score, the Cavs' second-best player in this series has been Kyle Korver, who “passed” Kevin Love in Game 6. Korver has an average game score of 6.7 entering Game 7. That would be the worst of any second fiddle in any series of LeBron’s career. And we’re not trying to pick on Korver. He’s been just as productive as he was in the regular season, and he was instrumental in each of Cleveland’s three wins. But in his 15th season, the 37-year-old specialist shouldn’t be the second-best player on a team with serious Finals aspirations.

http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/sto...ff-series-ever

So good.

[BigCatDaddy]

Lebronies remind me so much of the Alexsexuals it is scary.

[tk13]

This isn't a very good team around James for sure. That's part of the problem of their relationship though. He may just be too powerful in Cleveland for the relationship to ever work. They bend over backward to appease him and keep him there because they're so afraid he'll leave, and he has all the power. In the process they've tried too hard to make him happy with personnel moves, coaches... and most of it hasn't worked. They need a strong GM or someone like Pat Riley in the organization who can do his own thing and can tell LeBron no. Of course LeBron left Miami too, so who knows if that'd work either.

Even though it eventually caved in because of all the egos, that's one advantage Jordan had over LeBron. Jordan had a GM who wouldn't take crap and a coach who knew how to deal with personalities and wouldn't be intimidated by someone like Jordan or LeBron.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

LeBron must be tanking games to pad his playoff stat records.

[-King-]

Even though the Pacers have come back before, I don't see it this game. They've just been too flat that even Tristan Thompson is dominating.
Posted via Mobile Device

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

Lebronies remind me so much of the Alexsexuals it is scary.

Love the comparisons, though one thing the Lebronies almost never bring up is that the East has been by far the weaker conference during LeBrons career while during Jordan's career the East was quite strong, stronger than the West.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

Lebronies remind me so much of the Alexsexuals it is scary.

The funny thing is that even if the Cavs lose this game (they almost certainly won't), I still win as the Raptors likely make the Finals instead and LeBron gets to go somewhere next year where they might actually have a chance to compete with the Warriors.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

Love the comparisons, though one thing the Lebronies almost never bring up is that the East has been by far the weaker conference during LeBrons career while during Jordan's career the East was quite strong, stronger than the West.

Don't care how you slice it. GOAT

Career Playoff points- 1st
Career Playoff assists- 3rd
Career Playoff steals- 1st
Career Playoff rebounds- 7th
Career Playoff blocks-19th
Career Playoff VORP- 1st
Career Playoff Win Shares- 1st
Career Playoff PER- 3rd (Jordan 1st)
Career Playoff BPM- 1st
Career defensive rating- 50th (Jordan 93rd)
Career offensive rating- 35th (Jordan 14th)

Career rings over superteam-
LeBron- 1
MJ- 0

[ChiliConCarnage]

Bron is manhandling.

[KC_Connection]

This guy is so much better than anybody who ever played this game. What a privilege it is to watch him play at this level still.

[ChiefsCountry]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

Jordan's career the East was quite strong, stronger than the West.

Hmm not really. You basically just had the Knicks and Shaq's very short career in Orlando.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Hmm not really. You basically just had the Knicks and Shaq's very short career in Orlando.

You really don't think the Celtics or Pistons were great teams the first half of Jordan's career?

[TEX]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

This guy is so much better than anybody who ever played this game. What a privilege it is to watch him play at this level still.

He really isn't. Jordan and Chamberlin were arguably both better. Did you every see them play? Or do you just favor LeBron because he's of your generation?