playoffs start in round 2

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

He dribbled into traffic like he always does in those spots. The pass was embarrassing. He should study Durant.

Seriously, about what he should do...ANYTHING different than the last 20 times he has been in that spot. I don't give him nearly as much credit for hitting a WIDE OPEN three. He is supposed to make that.

You have the ball 8 feet behind the three point line with 8 seconds to go. You are defended at the line. Behind that defender is KG looking to be the help defender. At the foul line are two other defenders. The clock is running out. Wade has run out of bounds on the baseline. Battier is a statue. Haslem has faded right to get out of the way. Chalmers is running at you. What exactly are you supposed to do? Shoot a 30 footer? So that you can say that he should have driven?

When the guy makes a shot he is supposed to. When he doesnt he sucks.

[Cannon Shell]

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=320603002

Stop the video at 1:30

You tell me what anybody could do there.

The tell me what an NBA team is doing in a situation like that with a "play" like that.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

When the guy makes a shot he is supposed to. When he doesnt he sucks.

I've never said he sucks, ever. I've called him the best player in the world until very recently. We can drum up all the excuses we want to drum up, but the guy doesn't want to take the big shots at the end. He has proven it time and time and time and time and time again. The one big one I remember him hitting to beat Orlando he had no time to pass. It was an inbound and a heave.

Simple question...does Kobe, Durant, Jordan, Wade, or Bird get a shot off there? If you say no, you are kidding yourself. He is bigger and stronger than all those guys. There were a ton of different things he could do, like posting up instead of getting the ball a mile from the basket. He could drive hard and pull up, which is pretty much unstoppable given his speed and strength. Some of the blame, I guess, should go to the coach, but we all know this is a players league and Lebron has carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

[cmorioles]

Lets not forget this guy brought this all on himself with the smoke machines and the "not four, not five, not six..." bullsh!t. He is a fabulous player, but not nearly as good as he thinks he is.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I've never said he sucks, ever. I've called him the best player in the world until very recently. We can drum up all the excuses we want to drum up, but the guy doesn't want to take the big shots at the end. He has proven it time and time and time and time and time again. The one big one I remember him hitting to beat Orlando he had no time to pass. It was an inbound and a heave.

Simple question...does Kobe, Durant, Jordan, Wade, or Bird get a shot off there? If you say no, you are kidding yourself. He is bigger and stronger than all those guys. There were a ton of different things he could do, like posting up instead of getting the ball a mile from the basket. He could drive hard and pull up, which is pretty much unstoppable given his speed and strength. Some of the blame, I guess, should go to the coach, but we all know this is a players league and Lebron has carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

The idea that other players would have gotten off a good shot with the entire team between him and the basket is laughable. If you want to question the wisdom of Miami seemingly having no set play at the end of the game fine. if you want to say that James should post you'd be wrong but at least that is a semi-defensible position(They would just switch KG on him and double down and James is far better facing the basket).

From the postion he received the ball last night there was almost nothing anyone could have done alone. No picks set, no one rolling to the basket, no logical off the ball movement.

Funny for a guy that supposedly doesnt want to take the last shot, etc the opposing coaches don't seem that willing to play him straight up on defense like they do with Durant.

[Antitrust32]

I've always thought that when you are being triple teamed, the best basketball move to make is to pass the ball. Granted, he did make a piss poor pass.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

Lets not forget this guy brought this all on himself with the smoke machines and the "not four, not five, not six..." bullsh!t. He is a fabulous player, but not nearly as good as he thinks he is.

He is probably better than he thinks he is if you use the Lebron James haters logic. If he thought he was better than he actually is he would be taking all these ill-advised shots while defended by 4 guys no?

And what does that really matter? Kobe can take terrible shots, play selfishly, not try on defense and because he has been fortunate enough to play on good teams that have won championships it is ok. But James makes a poor choice in ANNOUNCING where he is going to play and then shows up a team sponsored pep rally and everyone hates him. The fact is that he is a good teammate, good passer, good rebounder, superior defender almost all of the time who hasnt had any off the court issues for anyone to complain about and he is hated and denigrated.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

I've always thought that when you are being triple teamed, the best basketball move to make is to pass the ball. Granted, he did make a piss poor pass.

It was deflected by Chalmers man who was coming at him from the right side. But it is James and he alone gets blame, no credit can be given to any others when he is on the floor.

Was it a great basketball play? Of course not but he was trying to make something happen and there are 4 others guys standing around watching. I can't understand why Miller wasn't in the game to spread the court. KG didn't even consider guarding Haslem till the ball went his way. At least with Miller in there you have to respect his shot.

And funny how Wade who has been awful for a lot of the playoffs gets off despite just flipping the ball to James and running out of bounds on the baseline. Or not drawing the foul on Daniels on the last shot in OT

[Cannon Shell]

http://deadspin.com/5915527/maine-tv...ium=socialflow

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

It was deflected by Chalmers man who was coming at him from the right side. But it is James and he alone gets blame, no credit can be given to any others when he is on the floor.

Was it a great basketball play? Of course not but he was trying to make something happen and there are 4 others guys standing around watching. I can't understand why Miller wasn't in the game to spread the court. KG didn't even consider guarding Haslem till the ball went his way. At least with Miller in there you have to respect his shot.

And funny how Wade who has been awful for a lot of the playoffs gets off despite just flipping the ball to James and running out of bounds on the baseline. Or not drawing the foul on Daniels on the last shot in OT

Wade gets no pass with me, he stunk the entire game. Maybe he was irritated the play wasn't called for him, I don't know.

Like I said, James is a fabulous player, he just doesn't want that last shot. Why did he drive right? Left was clearly the better option. You didn't answer, any of those other guys getting that shot off? He passed to a guy that had no prayer of making the shot, so anything James would have taken was better than the option he chose.

Yes, passing to an OPEN teammate when doubled is the best move but you can't do it with no time and the guy isn't open. A 30 footer was a MUCH better option than what he did.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

Wade gets no pass with me, he stunk the entire game. Maybe he was irritated the play wasn't called for him, I don't know.

Like I said, James is a fabulous player, he just doesn't want that last shot. Why did he drive right? Left was clearly the better option. You didn't answer, any of those other guys getting that shot off? He passed to a guy that had no prayer of making the shot, so anything James would have taken was better than the option he chose.

Yes, passing to an OPEN teammate when doubled is the best move but you can't do it with no time and the guy isn't open. A 30 footer was a MUCH better option than what he did.

If he goes left than KG forces him awy from the basket toward the corner which gives him no chance of finding anyone. Like I said it wasnt a great play as he left his feet and was forced to throw a defended pass to the only guy plausibly open. But arguing that a contested falling away 26 foot shot is a better option than what else can I say. His chance of success doing that was about 2% versus the pass which was about the same chance. There isnt a player in league history who gets grief about that play except maybe Kobe who would have shocked everyone by passing.

The real fault should be with the coach. You have 20 seconds to go in a tie game and you come up with that as a play? Watch the shot Durant makes to beat the lakers and you see a design that at least allowed Durant to be isolated far away enough from help to not be doubled. Why they didn't put Jones or Miller or both in to at least make Boston spread the defense? Or give the ball to james at the point and set a pick for him and set up Miller, Wade, Chalmers, Jones, Battier at the three point line to allow someone to be open on the double or help? Make KG defend outside the paint. While James didn't make an effective basketball move the play was doomed from the start unless a Boston defender fell over.

Who knows maybe they had a great play set and they ignored or screwed it up. But the fact that Battier was a statue, Haslem was flaring out away from the basket and Chalmers was cutting towards james while Wade was behind the backboard makes me wonder what the hell they were trying to do?

[cmorioles]

The only thing I'll add is that dribbling away 3.5 seconds doing nothing didn't help.

His teammates suck, but what did these guys think was going to happen with three veterans all making close to the max? They thought it wouldn't matter, but they were wrong. They'll be stuck picking up old guys looking for a title like Battier (I still can't believe Durant wanted this guy on the Thunder) and Juwan Howard.

If they Heat were smart, they would jettison Wade in a heartbeat. He is clearly falling off in a hurry. Sure, he has flashes, but so did Jordan with the Wiz. He isn't near the player he once was.

[King Glorious]

It wasn't a last five minutes situation. It was a last 48 minute situation. I thought James was pretty clutch tonight. I know, he should have scored 50 but I'll take 45 and 15 boards in a road elimination game anytime. Yep. Not clutch at all. This was even better than the last time he faced elimination in Boston when he also scored 45 even though the Cavs lost. Guess that one was his fault.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

It wasn't a last five minutes situation. It was a last 48 minute situation. I thought James was pretty clutch tonight. I know, he should have scored 50 but I'll take 45 and 15 boards in a road elimination game anytime. Yep. Not clutch at all. This was even better than the last time he faced elimination in Boston when he also scored 45 even though the Cavs lost. Guess that one was his fault.

Best player in the world, by far. Harden will be a big issue for Miami in the Finals. Either way its going to be great after Miami takes Boston out on Saturday night.

[King Glorious]

Everyone raves about Durant and he's a great player. But really, why is there any question about James being the best player in the world? Every basketball analyst says it, especially the former players. Durant has won the last three scoring titles ONLY because James let him. Each of those years, Durant took more shots than James and he's outscored him by 0.4, 1.0, and 0.9 points a game during those three seasons. At the same time, James has averaged 2-3x more assists per game (in 2010, it was 8.6 to 2.8) than Durant. If James wanted to be just a little more unselfish, he could easily score more. The first of Durant's scoring title years, James ranked 6th in the league in assists (he's been top 10 four times) and his 8.6 per game set an NBA record for a forward. At the same time, James rebounds just as much as Durant does and is a much better defender. I will give you that Durant is looking like the better player when it comes to final possessions and being more clutch. I will concede that James is not even in the top five of that category. I'd put Chris Paul on top followed by Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, and Durant. But the game is 48 minutes long, not just the last five. There is nobody that comes close to being as productive in all areas in a 48 minute game, night in and night out.

[RockHardTen1985]

People on ESPN say durant is better. For me its not even close. I do believe OKC matches up favorably with Miami though. Should be an amazing series.

Originally Posted by King Glorious

It wasn't a last five minutes situation. It was a last 48 minute situation. I thought James was pretty clutch tonight. I know, he should have scored 50 but I'll take 45 and 15 boards in a road elimination game anytime. Yep. Not clutch at all. This was even better than the last time he faced elimination in Boston when he also scored 45 even though the Cavs lost. Guess that one was his fault.

How does the end of his shaft taste? Contain your fandom, dude. It was an elimination game...not game 7 for the 'ship.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

How does the end of his shaft taste? Contain your fandom, dude. It was an elimination game...not game 7 for the 'ship.

Have some respect. It was an all time great performance... per Magic and Stephen A. That's 2 now just in this playoff run.

Originally Posted by RockHardTen1985

Have some respect. It was an all time great performance... per Magic and Stephen A. That's 2 now just in this playoff run.

No disrespect to Magic but Screamin A is a certified racist and LeBron ball licker. I give a f.uck what he says.

F.uck respect. I don't respect a guy who starts games by imitating Ashy Larry from the Chappelle Show. And furthermore this is a team they should have already closed out. Celtics are old as f.uck.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

It wasn't a last five minutes situation. It was a last 48 minute situation. I thought James was pretty clutch tonight. I know, he should have scored 50 but I'll take 45 and 15 boards in a road elimination game anytime. Yep. Not clutch at all. This was even better than the last time he faced elimination in Boston when he also scored 45 even though the Cavs lost. Guess that one was his fault.

Obviously he played great last night. Let's see what happens in game 7 and if they make it to the finals.

You have a pretty short memory. Last year you were beating the same drum and I recall even you admitting he disappeared in the finals.

Hey, at least PG1985 agrees with you. He's known for his strong opinion on virtually everything.