NBA Western/Eastern Conference Finals Thread

[carey]

Cleveland is tearing up Tdot right now. Damn. Everything looks so easy.

[Gladiator]

Cleveland will absolutely cruise into the Finals. They'll be well rested and confident, but relatively untested in the playoffs. Is that the best preparation or the tougher road through the west?

[Mori Chu]

I think as long as the West winner is healthy, the rigor of their prior rounds will help them. But if the rigor bangs up their stars (Curry MCL tear? Bogut back problems? etc.), then it could be bad. I still like the West winner to get the title, but you can make a real case for Cleveland to take advantage of all their rest and spank the tired West champ.

[Cap]

Kevin Love has a career record of 13-0 in the playoffs.

[ShelC]

I still like the West winner to get the title, but you can make a real case for Cleveland to take advantage of all their rest and spank the tired West champ.

I think Cleveland will be in a much better position going into the Finals than OKC or GS. The West is going 6 games at least, Cavs will roll in 5 at most. Could play a big factor. Sucks that the east is so weak and LBJ cruises like that. If I'm Durant or a FA in the west, why not just go to an EC team?

[carey]

If I'm Durant or a FA in the west, why not just go to an EC team?

Just what Miami is banking on.

[ShelC]

Pretty much. Riley would pull that off and they have a lot of pieces already. I certainly don't think Washington is on his radar, though I'm sure they'll get a look because of Wall and Brooks. If Bledsoe were healthy and was panning out like we had orginally hopeed and we didn't have Knight, I'd think we'd be attractive for Durant. But alas...

[JCSunsfan]

Channing Frye has balanced that team and opened up the floor for everyone. He could end up getting Cleveland a championship.

[TOO]

Channing Frye has balanced that team and opened up the floor for everyone. He could end up getting Cleveland a championship.

I dont think Frye would be the reason they get a title, he's a nice add to open up space, but getting Love more involved was the best thing Lue did for that team. Being able to truly rely on 3 people to get a shot anytime now coupled with Frye spreading the floor has them playing as well as anyone.

[Mori Chu]

^ All of the above have helped a lot. The Cavs, like the Thunder, have an extremely talented roster, but in the past both teams have been held back by bad coaching and by superstars who don't want to get the other players involved. (Lebron does pass the ball unlike Westbrook/Durant, but he seems to oddly freeze out his teammates like Love.) Both teams seem to be making incremental improvements in both areas.

You get the sense that OKC and CLE are both title teams if they just completely maximized their talent up and down the roster. I still doubt that either one will do so this year, but I've been wrong before. All it takes for one of these two teams to get a title is one Steph Curry knee/ankle problem.

[Superbone]

You are trying your best to jinx Curry, Mori.

[Mori Chu]

You are trying your best to jinx Curry, Mori.

I told you I'm a Suns (not Warriors) fan at heart!

Side note: My head TA at Stanford mentioned Curry and the Warriors at our TA meeting the other day. I started talking about the playoffs and NBA. She said, "You like basketball?!" She was kind of shocked because (a) not a lot of random people seem to be big NBA fans any more, and (b) I'm a big nerd computer science teacher guy to her and she didn't think I would like sports, I guess. I was telling her how much I love the NBA and watching hoops and so on. Then I dropped the bombshell and said, "Yeah I actually made my own Phoenix Suns fan message board and I post there with a bunch of guys and we talk about the NBA and Suns and playoffs and ..." and she gave me this look as if I had just told her I buried multiple bodies after a homicide. But then she laughed and was like, "You're too much." (I decided not to tell her that I use a fake Asian user name, nor that I almost got another fan site shut down by posting a dildo.)

[Shabazz]

and by superstars who don't want to get the other players involved. (Lebron does pass the ball unlike Westbrook/Durant, but he seems to oddly freeze out his teammates like Love.)

You keep making this point, but it's way off base. You do know that Westbrook was 2nd in the league in assists, right? That doesn't mean everything, but it means something. Durant is one of the greatest scorers ever and a 50/40/90 guy, but he still averaged 5 assists a game (2nd among SFs to LeBron). Neither is a selfish player.

[Indy]

and by superstars who don't want to get the other players involved. (Lebron does pass the ball unlike Westbrook/Durant, but he seems to oddly freeze out his teammates like Love.)

You keep making this point, but it's way off base. You do know that Westbrook was 2nd in the league in assists, right? That doesn't mean everything, but it means something. Durant is one of the greatest scorers ever and a 50/40/90 guy, but he still averaged 5 assists a game (2nd among SFs to LeBron). Neither is a selfish player.

Thank you.

[Wally_West]

GS thrashed OKC pretty good.

Also, Curry's elbow. Yeesh.

[Superbone]

What's up with his elbow?

[carey]

What's up with his elbow?

Banged it going into the seats after a ball. Looks pretty gnarly. It happened before he went turbo mode last night though so not sure how much it'll effect him going forward.

[Mori Chu]

and by superstars who don't want to get the other players involved. (Lebron does pass the ball unlike Westbrook/Durant, but he seems to oddly freeze out his teammates like Love.)

You keep making this point, but it's way off base. You do know that Westbrook was 2nd in the league in assists, right? That doesn't mean everything, but it means something. Durant is one of the greatest scorers ever and a 50/40/90 guy, but he still averaged 5 assists a game (2nd among SFs to LeBron). Neither is a selfish player.

I don't think Durant is selfish, per se, though I do think he looks to shoot first. That's fine for him to do that because that's his role in the offense. But Westbrook? Yes, he does average a lot of assists. But I think the stats are deceiving. If you just watch, say, 10 OKC possessions where Westbrook is in the game, count the number of times he just runs down the floor, dribbles around, and then drives to the basket or jacks up a shot. He does this a ton. Doesn't even look for his teammates, doesn't try to spread the ball around at all, just holds the ball and shoots it. He definitely has gotten a little better about it than a few years ago; I will give him that. But he still does a ton of this. I think his assist stats just reflect the fact that when he is in the game, he has the ball on EVERY possession. If he does pass it at all, they give him an assist. And on fast-breaks he does often make the right pass if it's a 2-on-1 or 3-on-1. But I think the high assist total doesn't reflect what is really happening on the average possession.

[Cap]

What's with "Marty"?

[Mori Chu]

What's with "Marty"?

Marty is my real name. I have confessed such a few times on here a while ago. I'm just trying to be a little more real about who I am, rather than hiding behind my fake username handle. You can still refer to me as Mori if you like, or Marty.