*** Official 2014-2015 NBA Playoff thread ***

[lupi]

no one got hot to give them a comfortable win, and james had to work almost a full game to overcome some mediocre shooting to get the game started but ends with a massive sat line and the 3-0 lead.

would be a good series against the warriors if everyone was healthy and a little love wouldn't hurt either.

 

[QueBert]

I hope Golden State mops the floor with the Cavs

With Love out and Irving's return up in the air that's a real possibility. But, it's the only way they beat the Cavs. GS has an amazing team but if the Cavs have James, Irving & Smith on their game it will still be a definite toss up imho. Without Love they were suppose to get spanked by the Bulls, that didn't exactly work out well for Chicago though. If Irving's back I predict Cavs in 6.

 

[IAteYourMother]

The East sucks. I think the Cavs are a good team, but the fact that they can dominate teh ECF without Kyrie/Love really makes me wonder how much of that is due to the fact that the East just blows. Bulls are perennially overrated, Atlanta for some reason plays hero ball even though they don't have any heroes. And the rest of the conference isn't even worth mentioning

 

[KLin]

Warriors are fucked if Curry is done. That looked bad.

 

[KLin]

http://tinypic.com/r/2gw9piq/8

In case anyone missed the 80 footer Harden sunk but didn't count.

 

[lupi]

just saw that hit, looks like for a moment he was lights out.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

How on Earth did Howard not get ejected for that? I mean, I get that Bogut is a giant asshole, and if anyone deserves a sharp smack across the face, it's him, but that's still a flagrant 2. Wind up, smack in the face... let's keep him in because ratings. Fucking bullshit.

These are the worst conference finals I've ever seen. Actually, these are just the worst NBA playoffs I've ever seen, full stop. Boring 1st round, meh 2nd round, terrible 3rd round... This will go down as the worst playoffs in NBA history. It doesn't help that basically every team besides the Warriors has been hit with major injuries across the board. How many superstars have we lost to injury? The Thunder aren't even in the playoffs because Durant and Westbrook spent so much time injured, and beyond that you have Irving, Love, Wall, Conley, Allen, Parker, Howard, Paul, Korver and Matthews missing significant portions of the postseason from injury. It's been fucking awful, and it makes for terrible, terrible games. It's a shame, because the Warriors have been legitimately great all season, but this postseason gets a gigantic asterisk in the history books because everyone got hurt simultaneously.

 

[KLin]

If they upgrade it to a flagrant 2 tomorrow, Howard is suspended. He's got 3 flagrant points in the playoffs. 4 gets you a 1 game suspension.

 

[lupi]

given the new connected to home office system, don't think it's likely to see any upgrades like that.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

How on Earth did Howard not get ejected for that? I mean, I get that Bogut is a giant asshole, and if anyone deserves a sharp smack across the face, it's him, but that's still a flagrant 2. Wind up, smack in the face... let's keep him in because ratings. Fucking bullshit

Pretty much that. They aren't going to suspend their star player.

 

[zerocool84]

How on Earth did Howard not get ejected for that? I mean, I get that Bogut is a giant asshole, and if anyone deserves a sharp smack across the face, it's him, but that's still a flagrant 2. Wind up, smack in the face... let's keep him in because ratings. Fucking bullshit.

These are the worst conference finals I've ever seen. Actually, these are just the worst NBA playoffs I've ever seen, full stop. Boring 1st round, meh 2nd round, terrible 3rd round... This will go down as the worst playoffs in NBA history. It doesn't help that basically every team besides the Warriors has been hit with major injuries across the board. How many superstars have we lost to injury? The Thunder aren't even in the playoffs because Durant and Westbrook spent so much time injured, and beyond that you have Irving, Love, Wall, Conley, Allen, Parker, Howard, Paul, Korver and Matthews missing significant portions of the postseason from injury. It's been fucking awful, and it makes for terrible, terrible games. It's a shame, because the Warriors have been legitimately great all season, but this postseason gets a gigantic asterisk in the history books because everyone got hurt simultaneously.

Wtf are you talking about, the first round of the East and West playoffs was awesome.

Yes there's a ton of injuries but the first round was great. Second round was pretty good too.

 

[Oceanas]

Houston is flooding all over right now. There are still a couple of hundred fans stuck in Toyota Center because of it. They were showing Dwight still there talking with the fans a little bit ago.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Wtf are you talking about, the first round of the East and West playoffs was awesome.

Yes there's a ton of injuries but the first round was great. Second round was pretty good too.

The first round was awesome? Clippers-Spurs was awesome, I'll grant you that. But which of these other series was awesome? Warriors-Pelicans (4-0), Wizards-Raptors (4-0), Cavs-Celtics (4-0), Grizzlies-Blazers (4-1), Rockets-Mavericks (4-1), Hawks-Nets (4-2) or Bulls-Bucks (4-2)? You had five series where the losers won a combined two games. That's not terribly exciting.

The second round was actually better than I remember. Rockets-Clippers was amazing, and wholly unbelievable, but somewhat sullied by Paul getting hurt. Bulls-Cavs? Pretty good. A couple of great game-winners, but the Bulls just rolled over in the last game. Warriors-Grizzlies? Interesting until Game 4 when the Warriors started looking like the Warriors again and Allen went down. Hawks-Wizards? I only got to see a little bit of this series; apparently the games were quite close. But again, spoiled by Wall being injured.

And now we've got two Conference Finals where teams went up 3-0, so barring an unprecedented comeback, this round is done as well. I appreciate the drama of LeBron playing himself to exhaustion, but did you actually watch that game? That was some pretty atrocious basketball all around (including LeBron putting up approximately 347 shots because without Kyrie and Love, no one else on that team can score). And now LeBron can drag Cleveland back to the Finals to get swept again. Yay. So much excitement.

 

[smackababy]

The playoffs have certainly been pretty good. Even the 4-2s have been good (most of the Bulls games were close) and the 4-0 Warriors - Pelicans doesn't tell the whole story of how that actually went down. Plus, sprinkled in that, we get some amazing series (and games) like the Spurs-Clippers and then Rockets-Clippers. Then, you have Lebron averaging a triple double with Thompson and Shumpert trying to play beyond their abilities to help him out.

 

[lupi]

so dam tired I passed out half an hour before the game and woke up to see it was a drubbing. somewhat wish they would have let irving rest as him being near 100% probably only chance they have of winning next series, but at least hope this means the rest he did get has him feeling much better.

At least with warriors losing one it makes it harder for them to reschedule the finals start time so cavs should get plenty more rest.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

At least with warriors losing one it makes it harder for them to reschedule the finals start time so cavs should get plenty more rest.

They already announced they wouldn't be rescheduling the Finals, regardless of what happens in the next game(s). They will start on June 4th no matter what.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Kirk Goldsberry using math to argue (as I have) that these playoffs have been boring. If the Finals end in a sweep, these playoffs will tie with 2007 for the fewest games in postseason history, a measure of how one-sided so many of these contests have been. Doesn't help that Harden has utterly shit the bed this game. I don't like Harden as a general rule, but he's so much better than this.

 

[smackababy]

Kirk Goldsberry using math to argue (as I have) that these playoffs have been boring. If the Finals end in a sweep, these playoffs will tie with 2007 for the fewest games in postseason history, a measure of how one-sided so many of these contests have been. Doesn't help that Harden has utterly shit the bed this game. I don't like Harden as a general rule, but he's so much better than this.

The amount of games doesn't determine how one sided it is. If two teams go at it and it is a sweep, but one team wins by 1 or 2 every game, how is that boring?

And wtf is up with Harden. Perhaps, he is only a great 6 man. His consistency has been all kinds of awful, especially against Golden State.

Klay Thompson claimed to be dizzy in a post game interview. Concussion symptom lied about in the locker room, maybe?

I think Cleveland is going to take the finals. They have more big game experience and Lebron James. I think Lebron is going to do everything in his power, including sacrificing his body, to win this year and the supporting cast is peaking enough to do enough to let him.

 

[edro]

I don't see why Golden State is the heavy favorite.
I am picking Cleveland in 6.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I don't see why Golden State is the heavy favorite.
I am picking Cleveland in 6.

Depth. LeBron is the best player and he's been at the top of his game for the past few weeks, no question. But behind LeBron, Love is out, Kyrie has been hurt, and the Cavs are relying on big games from guys like Tristan Thompson, Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith and Matthew Dellavedova. Those guys have as much experience in the Finals as anyone on the Warriors, and considerably less talent. If it ends up being LeBron playing 1v5, the Cavs are in serious trouble.

Still, at the beginning of the playoffs I was confident that the Warriors would easily run away with the whole thing. And they did just get to the Finals going 12-3 in the first 3 rounds. But they've looked beatable at home (something they weren't all year), Steph Curry is looking increasingly unsure of himself, Klay Thompson just got kicked in the head, and it seems like most everyone on that team has forgotten how to shoot. I don't know that anyone in the league can contain LeBron right now, and if Kyrie is playing well to boot, the Warriors could definitely lose this. I picked them at the beginning and I'm sticking with that, but I'm less confident now than I have been at any point this year. That, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a great series so that Clippers/Spurs doesn't end up being the only great series to come out of this postseason. Warriors in 7. And like 8 overtimes. Entertain me, dammit.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I don't see why Golden State is the heavy favorite.
I am picking Cleveland in 6.

its the narrative of the West being so much better than the East, even though LeBron has been able to lead an East team to victory in 2 of the last 4 Finals.

although you can kind of tell that the analysts aren't so confident, partly because of that fact, the unknown is just how legitimate is LeBron's supporting cast? Will they be able to step up and keep playing at such a high level?

 

[smackababy]

I think a big part of Golden State's success is Steve Kerr. I know he is a rookie couch, but he was a great bench player and won 5 rings (3 with Chicago and 2 with San Antonio).

I still don't see the Warriors getting past Lebron. Who is going to even slow him down? Their best bet is to just let him do his thing and disrupt everyone else. Unfortunately for the Warriors, all the back up players look to be playing in stride. Eraserhead, Michael B. Jordan, and the Aussie are playing very well.

 

[smackababy]

So, this is still the playoffs, but some other things are happening in the NBA. Bulls fire Thib and absorb the rest of his contract.

 

[darkewaffle]

Thibs is a very good technique/scheme guy but damn it would be hard for me to really want him knowing he's the kind of coach who is wants to play the starting five for 40+ minutes every night.

 

[smackababy]

I don't think he will have an issue landing another job, honestly. He just didn't do much with the talent Chicago had. Their offense (especially this year) was mediocre at best.