EPTNBA Playoffs + Finals 2018 - Page 56
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
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Starlightsun
United States1405 Posts
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
Durant can bring home games when no other star shows up. Curry can get you an occasional blow out when everybody else is also torching the defense. That's nice, I guess. Still a shame that Durant chose to go to GS, he could have gone to the finals and compete with quite a number of other teams. Edit: KD going off notwithstanding, I felt like the Cavs' defense got looser at some point in the second half, for some unknown reason, and that's why they lost. KD can make all the jumpshots he wants, you have to prevent the other guys from getting free open layups like this. The Warriors were fielding lineups with pairs of Green/Livingston/Bell/McGee, and nobody helps on drives or cuts, that's not good defense. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
I'll also be sour grapes and say that this Warriors team is not particularly great considering how much talent they have. There are just so many competing and contradictory narratives. Something has to give. | ||
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
Well I don't know, he's still filling up the stat sheet, but he doesn't seem to play with the same intensity as in Game 1. | ||
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Starlightsun
United States1405 Posts
On June 07 2018 16:25 ZenithM wrote: Also maybe I'm imagining things but I don't think Lebron is at 100% anymore in this series. Maybe it's mental: he was clearly crushed after Game 1's regulation. Maybe it's physical: as much as I like the idea of LeCyborg, that red eye can't be helping him. Well I don't know, he's still filling up the stat sheet, but he doesn't seem to play with the same intensity as in Game 1. I think he has to be physically exhausted. He's 33 and is playing more minutes than anyone in the league: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/8mjm6c/if_lebron_plays_just_38_minutes_tonight_hell_have/ But yeah mentally it must be hard to push yourself beyond your physical limits and still lose due to being on a far worse team. | ||
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cLutZ
United States19574 Posts
On June 07 2018 16:44 Starlightsun wrote: I think he has to be physically exhausted. He's 33 and is playing more minutes than anyone in the league: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/8mjm6c/if_lebron_plays_just_38_minutes_tonight_hell_have/ But yeah mentally it must be hard to push yourself beyond your physical limits and still lose due to being on a far worse team. Its definitely a significant % LeBron's fatigue. They had so many holes because they weren't rotating properly and part of that is that LeBron can't guard anyone but Green/Iggy without using lots of energy. Which he can't do because he wants to play all the minutes. IMO this is a mistake. He should at least be doing the classic "sit at the end of the 1st & 3rd so he has some juice. | ||
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
On June 07 2018 14:03 Starlightsun wrote: This is probably histrionic but I feel like KD going to GSW just ruins the NBA finals. Their team is just too stacked. It was a perfect storm of things coming together: GSW losing, NBA supermax deals, Lebron paving the way to superteams, Durant being discontented with OKC, players taking a discount, etc. etc. We cannot change what has happened, so I think we have to wait for the next super team? Also, Lebron and the Cavs making the series closer than they have any business doing needs to be mentioned. | ||
Seeker
Where dat snitch at?37043 Posts
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
He's now 18-30 in the Finals, that doesn't look good no matter the circumstances, if the standard you set for yourself is Michael Jordan. One might argue that with the amount of team switching/building he did (and will continue to do), he should have had more success. I think he was quite close to beating Jordan to #1 (and being almost universally accepted for it), but he's now drifting away from that, not getting closer. Hill making his FT or fucking JR not forgetting the score would have helped, for example ;D. Imagine Lebron carrying this team this year to a Finals win, behind a 51 point Game 1 and some other statistical ridiculousness in the other wins? Now that's some GOAT shit. Instead he's getting swept. Quite unGOATlike. Carrying bad teams does more for his legacy then Durrant winning with a great team. For me Durant has relinquished his rights to whatever conversation Lebron is in. And I say this with the utmost respect of Durant's skill. It was so funny last year when Durant was like "See I won Finals MVP! Fuck the haters, I knew I was good at basketball!". Like, dude, how good you are is exactly why people were disappointed. Now I realize it's not entirely on him, it was just the perfect storm of his free agency coinciding with the huge cap jump. Still, does any top player make that FA move in his shoes? | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
In fact, Lebron is much farther away from reaching MJ status than Durant is from reaching Lebron's. I know this is controversial and seems bad with the current emotions of the fans, but history will redeem Durant. If he wins another with the Warriors, and wins another with Seatle/OKC/Wizards or whatever his next team is as the main man, then he would have surpassed Lebron (given it's downhill for Lebron from here onwards). In fact let me say this as well, during the Celtics series it was tempting to think otherwise, but KD is the best player in the league now, since last year! | ||
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
This is what I didn't realize when I was first "reacting" to Durant's FA. When I play a team-based video game, I don't want to be in a team that will make me win incredibly easily every time, I want to win with some idea of "fairness". But obviously that's because that's not my job. A pro-gamer would think differently, a pro baller too, their livelihood and legacies are on the line. So I came reluctantly to respect Durant's decision :D. But I disagree that he will come close to Lebron, unless he goes to win somewhere else in a team that was not previously the best regular season team of all time... Lebron has always been the main driving force behind his teams. Durant is currently a glorified safety net, and not even getting the proper respect for it. | ||
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
But lets start on the play before this one. KD claps on Klay demanding the ball. When I saw this, goosebumps. KD came to I have 2 questions regarding Lebron.
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
On June 07 2018 23:16 ZenithM wrote: But I disagree that he will come close to Lebron, unless he goes to win somewhere else in a team that was not previously the best regular season team of all time... That's the condition I mentioned in him getting a shot at Lebron legacy-wise. | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Twinkle Toes
United States3605 Posts
On June 07 2018 22:15 JimmiC wrote: On the plus side for him. Carrying bad teams does more for his legacy then Durrant winning with a great team. This year has done 10x his GOAT status compared to winning with the Heatles. So true. In the Ringer article above, Doris, JVG, and Jackson foreshadowed this. Lebron carrying the team is a greater achievement that winning a title. If this is the best we see of Lebron, I think his career will be somewhat tragic. He was unlucky to be drafted in a garbage team with incompetent management who didn't give him another superstar to better the odds at winning, yet he brings them to the finals. He takes fate at his own hands and is vilified for it. He returns home and becomes the prodigal son and wins an miraculous emotional one. But along the way, his monsters have all com back to haunt him late in his career, his league-disrupting free agency decision and his obsession with MJ and greatness, and he may not have enough anymore to fight the inevitable. I think he is at peace as well, as he should be. He has more than lived up to the hype. He has had a good career offcourt-wise. He has enjoyed his potential and even won one for his hometown. Everything else from now on is cherry on top. The other side of this of course is that, on top of his skills and acievements, Lebron, other then MJ, is perhaps the most well-managed reputation by Nike and the NBA. | ||
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
On June 07 2018 23:23 Twinkle Toes wrote: That's the condition I mentioned in him getting a shot at Lebron legacy-wise. I know, I just don't think he will do it ;D. | ||
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