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Just relentless and showing everyone that a million and one injuries haven't totally "sapped" his athleticism. 34 points on 19 shots? No threes made and only 8-15 free throws. If this guy had anything close to three point shot, he'd be the closest thing to Jordan (if he isn't already.)
He is the closest thing to Jordan, even without a three point shot (Jordan didn't really have a consistent three point shot for most of his career either... he just made them when it counted, somehow), but he still isn't close.
Lebron doesn't have a comp, in my opinion. No one has ever had that combination of physical gifts PLUS his ball-handling, court vision and passing acumen. He's like a weird...athletic young Ron Artest with some Shane Battier...kinda...with a little Magic
Scottie Pippen (who pretty much invented the point-forward position).
I still stand by it, I believe without Wade the Heat would be NOTHING!
Without Wade the Heat would just be the Cavs of the past two seasons.
the Heat play better team D than every other team in the league
THE BULLS?
I can't wait to see how the Bulls (I don't believe Atlanta makes it) handle the nightmare that is a slashing Wade and the dominance that surrounds James' play. They might even be able to handle the Heat's offence but I believe they get slaughtered by Miami's defence.
I am most worried about the Heat defense, but I'm confident that between Spoelstra not being a very good coach and Rose/Deng always playing statement games against Wade/LeBron, respectively (Wade dissed Rose last offseason so Rose dedicated his summer and this season to basically killing Wade, while Deng and LeBron have a rivalry going back to H.S. when Deng was the 2nd-highest rated player in their high school class after LeBron) the Bulls can win in 7.
I'm also hoping Boozer realizes that he can manhandle Bosh down in the post.
Sadly, both of the other teams left in the east are EXTREMELY flawed and probably don't stand a chance against the Heat.
The Bulls are arguably less flawed than the Heat from a team perspective--they have an elite point guard, good center, great coaching, great help defense, and a deep bench (Asik is one of the most underrated backup centers in the league right now, Gibson is good enough to start the 4 on most other NBA teams, and Watson is a serviceable backup PG). The Heat have one decent center (Anthony) who manages to be an offensive liability even with Wade and James on the floor, they don't really play help defense (somewhat masked by the fact that Wade and James are two of the best individual defenders in the game), they aren't coached very well, and they have a bench consisting of a bunch of three-point specialists and centers who are too old to do anything besides foul.
Both of these teams are flawed, to be sure (Bulls lack any consistent offensive option not named "Rose"), but to suggest that Bulls are "extremely" flawed and imply that Heat aren't just as flawed is a little silly.
For all their flaws the Bulls still match up really well vs the Heat. Bulls will dominate at the center position and Bibby/Chalmers will have a tough time keeping up with Rose. The Bulls bench is also better.
Yes, thank you, this is pretty much what I think as well.
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Yeah Pippen is a good comp and super obvious in retrospect. It has to be said that Lebron has the capacity to be better, even much better.
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On May 13 2011 05:59 slyboogie wrote:
Yeah Pippen is a good comp and super obvious in retrospect. It has to be said that Lebron has the capacity to be better, even much better.
LeBron is much different than Pippen... he can dominate a game in ways that Pippen never could. Pippen was a better defender, and he played much better off the ball than LeBron.
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On May 13 2011 06:11 Xeris wrote:Show nested quote +On May 13 2011 05:59 slyboogie wrote:
Yeah Pippen is a good comp and super obvious in retrospect. It has to be said that Lebron has the capacity to be better, even much better. LeBron is much different than Pippen... he can dominate a game in ways that Pippen never could. Pippen was a better defender, and he played much better off the ball than LeBron.
1995 Pippen dominated in every imaginable way. They have similar skills, ball handling, jumpability, shooting, passing. Lebron's just bigger, stronger, faster and more jumpable.
EDIT: 94-95
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I really dont see Bibby and Chalmer guarding Rose during crunch time, for some reason I think itll be Wade, with the heat using a bigger lineup of wade, jones, james, bosh and whoever, since whoever the bulls plug at SG should be guardable by jones.
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Even if Miami beats the Bulls, the Mavs will crush em in the Finals. Look at the Reg. Season... in both games Miami had absolutly no chance against the mavs.
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Miami and Chicago match up well in but not traditionally. Chicago's biggest advantage vs Miami is their bench and rebounding. Miami's biggest advantage is that they have the 2 best players in the league and don't play their bench exclusively.
Both teams are top defenses (Chicago is better) but Miami is better offensively.
I really don't think Miami is concerned about Derrick Rose as much as people think. It's the other way around because stopping Wade and James in the same game, nevertheless in a series hasn't been accomplished yet. Miami has lost all 3 games due to "excuses" (1st game) or 1 possession (last 2 games).
Chicago has been playing terrible and really thats the only thing that has me worried about them. Between the Indiana and Atlanta series they just haven't looked like a championship team at all. Add in Boozer's unfortunate injury and Miami is the clear favorite if Chicago advances.
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On May 13 2011 06:32 Lori_ftw wrote:
Even if Miami beats the Bulls, the Mavs will crush em in the Finals. Look at the Reg. Season... in both games Miami had absolutly no chance against the mavs.
Except it's going to be the thunder in the finals goddamnit, as per my pre-playoff predictions(plzplzplzplzplz)
and miami would beat the mavs anyways
we will see I guess
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On May 13 2011 06:24 Holcan wrote:
I really dont see Bibby and Chalmer guarding Rose during crunch time, for some reason I think itll be Wade, with the heat using a bigger lineup of wade, jones, james, bosh and whoever, since whoever the bulls plug at SG should be guardable by jones.
So far it seems like Rose and Wade have been guarding each other in crunch time, although sometimes the Bulls put Brewer or Bogans on him I think Rose sees stopping Wade as his own personal mission.
Wade/James/Bosh/Jones/Anthony is the Heat's best crunch time lineup against the Bulls. Anthony's offensive woes are less of a factor against the Bulls and honestly if the Heat center is touching the ball in crunch time they're doing something wrong; you need him to protect the rim against Rose penetration.
@travis: sorry buddy the Thunder aren't getting past my boy Dirk 
LeBron is much different than Pippen... he can dominate a game in ways that Pippen never could. Pippen was a better defender, and he played much better off the ball than LeBron.
oO Pippen could dominate games you just didn't see it as often because he had Jordan dominating them for him. In the season he played without Jordan (93-94) he averaged a 23-5-8 with 2+ steals in the playoffs. They're roughly the same height and length but LeBron has around 60 pounds on him. The NBA called fewer fouls back then so driving to the rim was less productive; one of LeBron's biggest helpers in terms of scoring is the fact that his size and strength let him finish even when he's getting """"fouled"""" (more " for more sarcasm).
LeBron is pretty much a "better" Pippen except his mindset is a little bit different.
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On May 13 2011 06:32 Lori_ftw wrote:
Even if Miami beats the Bulls, the Mavs will crush em in the Finals. Look at the Reg. Season... in both games Miami had absolutly no chance against the mavs.
I don't know if that's the regular season is that strong of an indicator. The Lakers pretty much slaughtered the Mavs during the regular season and the Celtics definitely had the Heat's number. The playoffs didn't work out that way this season.
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i would choose wade over lebron simply because of his decision making. i feel like lebron doesnt make good decisions in a team setting where hes not going to always be the focal point
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On May 13 2011 07:11 slyboogie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 13 2011 06:32 Lori_ftw wrote:
Even if Miami beats the Bulls, the Mavs will crush em in the Finals. Look at the Reg. Season... in both games Miami had absolutly no chance against the mavs. I don't know if that's the regular season is that strong of an indicator. The Lakers pretty much slaughtered the Mavs during the regular season and the Celtics definitely had the Heat's number. The playoffs didn't work out that way this season.
"Pretty much slaughtered"? In the regular season the Lakers won 2-1, with only one of the games being a blowout. Hardly a slaughter, that's as close as you can get with 3 games played.
However, I agree that the Mavs-Heat regular season games won't mean too much because they were both played early on. (Assuming these two teams were to meet in the finals).
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On May 13 2011 07:22 duncan.mc wrote:Show nested quote +On May 13 2011 07:11 slyboogie wrote:On May 13 2011 06:32 Lori_ftw wrote:
Even if Miami beats the Bulls, the Mavs will crush em in the Finals. Look at the Reg. Season... in both games Miami had absolutly no chance against the mavs. I don't know if that's the regular season is that strong of an indicator. The Lakers pretty much slaughtered the Mavs during the regular season and the Celtics definitely had the Heat's number. The playoffs didn't work out that way this season. "Pretty much slaughtered"? In the regular season the Lakers won 2-1, with only one of the games being a blowout. Hardly a slaughter, that's as close as you can get with 3 games played. However, I agree that the Mavs-Heat regular season games won't mean too much because they were both played early on. (Assuming these two teams were to meet in the finals).
When they played on March 12th and March 31, the Lakers won and won convincingly. The game on the 12th looks closer than it was but the Lakers were never behind and led by around 10 for most of the 4th. I don't even want to talk about the 31st, that was more than slaughter. Veal is prepared in more merciful ways.
But ok, regular season was 2-1.
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Be wary about the Mavs, both the Grizzlies and the Thunder give them very troubling matchups. Assuming the Thunder advance, when you go position by position, the Thunder probably are favored based on the number of favorable matchups. Lets remember that the Lakers were probably the Mav's most favorable matchup since
1) Kidd didn't have to guard a speed guard, which he now struggles mightily at.
2) The Lakers had probably the worst possible combination of defenders for Dirk
3) The Lakers rely on their size, which was negated by the Mav's own big men.
In this matchup, I would expect Westbrook to dominate the matchup and for Dirk to be far less with Ibaka/Durant guarding him. Assuming that the Thunder play defense like they have shown flashes of during the year with their big man, I'd expect a very close matchup with the winner decided by how efficient Westbrook is playing.
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Mavs-Heat 4:3 Finals Prediction!
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On May 13 2011 08:04 Durantula wrote:
Be wary about the Mavs, both the Grizzlies and the Thunder give them very troubling matchups. Assuming the Thunder advance, when you go position by position, the Thunder probably are favored based on the number of favorable matchups. Lets remember that the Lakers were probably the Mav's most favorable matchup since
1) Kidd didn't have to guard a speed guard, which he now struggles mightily at.
2) The Lakers had probably the worst possible combination of defenders for Dirk
3) The Lakers rely on their size, which was negated by the Mav's own big men.
In this matchup, I would expect Westbrook to dominate the matchup and for Dirk to be far less with Ibaka/Durant guarding him. Assuming that the Thunder play defense like they have shown flashes of during the year with their big man, I'd expect a very close matchup with the winner decided by how efficient Westbrook is playing.
Ibaka nor Durant can check Dirk. You're asking a lot from them. Dallas also has a couple of wing defenders on their roster good enough to slow down Durant. OKC would be underdogs vs Dallas due to Dallas being better on both sides of the ball.
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I agree with what Barkley said about Dirk. No one can guard him. You have to try and get more from the other matchups. Dirk is 7 foot. Has a high release and does fade-aways. You cannot block that, he will get any shot he wants.
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So yeah, the Bulls are gonna make the Eastern Conference Finals! :D
.. can't see the Hawks getting close with the way Bulls are playing D (and getting Boozer going on offense!!! SIIICK)
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I can not tell if the Hawks are actually decent or if Chicago just makes them look better than they are.
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On May 13 2011 10:01 slyboogie wrote:
I can not tell if the Hawks are actually decent or if Chicago just makes them look better than they are.
Are you saying you're impressed by their 3 airballs in a row from range?
.. or was it the static offense that made you gasp?
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EPT
