2015 nba finals: golden state warriors of oakland versus the cleveland cavaliers of cleveland

dubs in 5

has klay's ear stopped bleeding, yet?

gsw in 6

dubs in 4

dubs in 5

dubs in 5

doris burke for finals MVP 😍

bunch of finals n00bs this year minus lebron and a couple of his barnacles, seems kinda rare

yeah i like the warriors in 5

i feel that lebron can win 2 finals games more or less on his own but otherwise this isn't a contest

two rookie coaches too!

What are you talking about, Lebron's been in the league for years.

#blattjokes

lol

i feel that lebron can win 2 finals games more or less on his own but otherwise this isn't a contest

― call all destroyer, Thursday, May 28, 2015 12:06 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dubs have like 30% of the players in the league that cld reasonably be said to be cut out to guard bron worth considering

barnes and iggy are a perfect as you can get for the job outside of kawhi, and green and klay are prob better than most teams have

Klay, Dre, Dray, David Lee, who else? xp aargh too slow

one legged kyrie trying to guard steph pick and rolls should be fun

kyries health obvs a wildcard but i DO NOT like this matchup for cleveland

yeah kyrie is going to absolutely kill the cavs on d, i'm excited to watch curry pick him apart

other than bron is there a single matchup advantage cleveland has? and w's should even be able to slow him down a bit. it's an ugly situation for cleveland.

feel like the dubs can do major damage running on cleves big lineup

mozgov and thompson are not bad match ups for the cavs. tristan should be able to handle draymond's versatility better than many PFs.

ehhh idk

i think it will be interesting to see what the cavs do on defense when the game gets tight. the one thing about the warriors is they don't really have a (comparatively) scary wing weapon unless barnes gets hot for a quarter, so i wonder if we'll see them move lebron around to clamp down on steph or klay at any point

generally tho i don't see how cleveland guards nearly well enough on the perimeter

delladova is maybe the only guy on the roster who has a prayer of even staying in front of steph, i assume we'll be seeing a lot of him

i dont think bron can stay w steph, klay wld be interesting

yeah bron can't stay with steph but he could maybe give him a little trouble if he's really engaged

NBA on ESPN ‏@ESPNNBA 1m1 minute ago
Steph Curry will become 1st player NBA history to face each of other 4 members of 1st-team All-NBA in same playoffs.

kinda cool

oh i guess maybe shumpert could check him

in any event kyrie feels kinda like the weak link in this series bcuz i don't see how they hide him on defense

theyve been relying on jr for a lot of offense too and oh boy he will get lit up

both jr and thompson are due for some major regression tbh

Steph Curry will become 1st player NBA history to face each of other 4 members of 1st-team All-NBA in same playoffs.

*to face and defeat

one thing that is interesting about GS's wings is that both iggy and barnes can work with their back to the basket in a pinch so you can't automatically stick a guard on them to neutralize their shooting

yep

dubs ruthless abt exploiting that size mismatch too

Feel like shump can stay with STeph and they'll probably put Bron on him in tight situations

Did anybody else feel like Corey "Gumbo" Brewer did a good job pressuring Steph

gsw 4

cavs in 5

hope you hedged that bet snrub

Warriors in 6

Ezeli really impressed me this series; the last I remembered him (which, granted, was two seasons ago), he was a lumbering, uncoordinated giant, but he looks so much more comfortable now around the basket that all of JVG and MJax's talk about how he could start on a different (read: worse) NBA team didn't sound so implausible anymore.

yeah he was good they needed his size v dwight

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGG8Zj1WgAEZgnt.jpg

I was hesitant, but I finally voted gsw in 6. The alternative was in 5, but my more conservative side won out. I can't see the Cavs taking the championship, under any circumstances short of the sky falling.

Such as the Splash Bros. getting concussed, and Iguodala's shoulder popping out?

^ otm. a rash of injuries to key gsw players early in series could narrow the gap

hope you hedged that bet snrub

― k3vin k., Thursday, May 28, 2015 3:07 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope, no hedge. That's how confident I am! Also I'm about 2000 miles away from Vegas.

u cn do online

bovada has GSW -235!

i would strongly suggest hedging, or betting on individual games

What odds did they give you?

you guys need a betting thread.

I am sorely disappointed that the purity of pro sports is being sullied by talk of betting!

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/are-the-nba-playoffs-boring/

j0rdan give me some diagnostics on how the playoffs are faring under the current conference/division alignments...seriously, how's it goink?

Snrub you gotta hedge bro

take the money!

I remember when Auburn made the national title game a couple years ago and some guy who bet on them at 300-1 at the low point of their season decided not to hedge :0

yeah you gotta hedge, gsw are not gonna only win one game and the cavs are not gonna win sorry :(

j0rdan give me some diagnostics on how the playoffs are faring under the current conference/division alignments...seriously, how's it goink?

― k3vin k., Thursday, May 28, 2015 5:21 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i haven't read that article so i dunno what his arguments are but i'm not sure what a 1-16 bracket would have changed. would it have prevented the clippers from choking? the hawks from bottoming out? the rockets from being less uninspiring?

why is everyone hating on the rockets, they were fun

JVG's Ezeli starter stuff is still dumb imo

sure he could start for somebody but so can Alexey Shved

why is everyone hating on the rockets, they were fun

― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, May 28, 2015 7:41 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because theyre hateful

Rockets have to be satisfied with their decisions this year, just unlucky with those injuries. Sucks that the pelicans made the playoffs and worsened that draft pick

i def like the rockets more than most, love the small ball lineup too. dwight had another really solid postseason too.

their good postseason games made me appreciate their style in a way i didn't before for sure, not that it was particularly different but idk it clicked. the bad ones were like...jesus christ

Snrub you really ought to reconsider your prediction.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/12964944/lil-b-calls-lebron-james-arrogant-warns-next-based-god-curse

feel like its kinda unfair how hes just cursing pol who r playing his local team they didnt even do anything to him

Pffft stealing his cooking dance without crediting the source is curse-worthy crime.

tbf he stole it from raekwon

whole thing is kinda sad but mostly lol

SportsCenterVerified account
‏@SportsCenter
THIS JUST IN: Klay Thompson is diagnosed with a concussion and will not return to the court until he is cleared.

My god ariza

hes a menace

hmm. could be a major tip for the series

one wld think hell be cleared and ready to go by game one i mean he didnt even get knocked out

yeah i sort of wonder if this is just a peace offering to people who were like "uhh the guy was bleeding from the ear he was obviously concussed come on" since as goon says they can just keep him secluded for a week and then clear him

he did say he was dizzy in the post game interview fwiw

I'd imagine 7-10 days but idk

wonder if speights will be ready to go by then too

lil b making himself into a sideshow starting to be nagl

its p good imo, it is his way

I mean sure it's what he does and dude is a clown but idk I guess it's that moment when a joke like this is on the lebatard show it goes from cool funny joke to my dad asking me abt lil b next week and I gotta be done

i celebrate lil b going mainstream also maybe he is a real witch?

hey if what we get out of this is either unveiling themselves and magic being real I withdraw my objection

*witches unveiling

im loving the whole lil b thing, im happy for him

i like his outfit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGEAjWMVAAAccf2.jpg

I def love lil b's college town weed dealer aesthetic

Cmon that's totally how a sorcerer would dress if magic were real which obviously it is given the 100% effective rate of based god curses

Klay will totally be ready with a week off Wes welker p much regularly gets blasted into space and is ready to go a week later

http://www.babooncreation.com/nba-toons-illustrations/

while we pass the time....

Klay will totally be ready with a week off Wes welker p much regularly gets blasted into space and is ready to go a week later

― juice college (agent hibachi), Friday, May 29, 2015 5:52 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he doesn't feel it, he's on mdma

yeah i sort of wonder if this is just a peace offering to people who were like "uhh the guy was bleeding from the ear he was obviously concussed come on" since as goon says they can just keep him secluded for a week and then clear him

He puked twice when he got home, according to his dad.

omg the Bull is Porky Pigging it so much it hurts.

Brandon is beautiful

_yeah i sort of wonder if this is just a peace offering to people who were like "uhh the guy was bleeding from the ear he was obviously concussed come on" since as goon says they can just keep him secluded for a week and then clear him_

He puked twice when he got home, according to his dad.

oh i think he's concussed. but the warriors were adamant that he wasn't, but now they admitted he is. but why? prob bcuz they have enough time to still clear him.

think they said he didn't show the symptoms til after the game?

passed the test

which means the test is whack

omg this Boguts-Mjax feud never ends: https://twitter.com/Jimmy_Durkin/status/604396125987069952

And yes, the concussion test is whack.

there need to be neutral doctors to assess this, at least for the playoffs. same thing happened to pg last year.

Haha bogut

yeah that's a pretty solid burn

i promise this is the last gambling-related post i'll make until the finals start, but the warriors are at -180 right now to win the series, which is crazy

no nba for a week is some bullshit

the warriors are at -180 right now to win the series, which is crazy

the people have spoken with a united voice

What does that mean?

it means not enough money has been bet on the cavs to win the series to have moved the odds very far in the direction of even money

no it's the opposite!

the line was -235 a couple of days ago (meaning you needed to bet $235 to win $100). the fact that it's moved to -180 (meaning you win $100 on a bet of $180) means a lot of people were liking the cavs' odds (which were something in the neighborhood of +200, or bet $100 to win $200). personally i thought the warriors at -235 was a steal, so -180 is even better

maybe the uncertainty around klay is contributing to it

i would basically put my life savings on warriors @ -180

lol you guys really don't believe in the bron

i believe he will have similar results as last time he carried a weak cavs team on his back to the finals against a much stronger western conf champ

i don't think they'll win either, but this Cavs team is a stronger than the last one, especially if Kyrie is healthy

replace especially with maybe in that sentence then maybe

no nba for a week is some bullshit
--Clay

otm

Thanks for explanation. All kinda nba fan friends asking me this week "so do you think the warriors have a chance?"

yeah everybody I've asked who they've got they're like "well the cavs have lebron and he is good"

I'm def not as confident in the warriors winning as you all but that is 100% based on the fact that I've been following this team for 25+ years and there's still too much pessimism left over from years and years of underperforming. I just can't let my expectations run wild. I still can't believe they've made it this far I don't know how to act. it's like I'm just waiting for Adonal Foyle to suit up in boguts place or something.

Y'all, this is as close to a lock of a finals pick a you're gonna get. It'll go 5 if the Warriors are feeling generous.

since everybody is taking the warriors: cavs in 7.

liz says "heat sweep in 4"

since everybody is taking the warriors: cavs in 7.

liz says "heat in 4"

really need to fix that weird ilx 405 bug

allen u crazy but I admire your boldness

Like at least 10 more people today asking me if I think the warriors have a chance. "But they're gonna put lebron on curry!"

what is wrong with such ppl, like obvs lebron and kyrie can win one maybe 2 games by themselves but beyond that, jeez

Holy shit

http://twitter.com/mrclarkinc/status/605187824871030784/photo/1

what am i looking at there

seriously does not compute

hahaha A+ analysis there

like lebron best clutch player i could buy maybe though i'd agree to disagree. the others are fucking insane.

lmao amazing

the sad thing is no one will ever pay for making dellavedova a thing, they will just forget

i remember the halcyon days of lolling at what a shitty player he was early in the season

the sad thing is no one will ever pay for making dellavedova a thing, they will just forget
--lag∞n

feel like we should make all of australia pay perhaps maybe with a war

reasonable

what a lovely day

lol at 'dova over bogues. and everything else on that graph. good stuff.

guess it's in ESPN's interest to pretend the cavs aren't going to be humiliated out there and got some reason nobody ever gets fired for being hilariously wrong about sports or politics

I think it can be argued Charley Rosen's career was pretty much destroyed by his LeBron James predictions tho.

warriors in 5

I'd guess a lot of this straight rongness is cause after 5 straight trips to the finals some people would find it perverse to have Lebron cast as the underdog. Talking heads are more invested in a narrative that hypes him up, making the series look like a contest going in, then takes a hatchet to his legacy when he inevitably falls short.

yeah. even Lebron said in the last series he could never see any team with himself on it as the underdog, and it didn't even sound arrogant tbh

when you're 2-3 in the finals you're basically unbeatable

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 12s12 seconds ago
Kevin Love aggravated shoulder injury in Eastern Conference-champion celebration

lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGXEIsIUkAA9wtM.jpg:large

hahaha

Lebron said in the last series he could never see any team with himself on it as the underdog

The Warriors have been straight fire as a team that fits all its pieces together and maximizes their abilities into a whole greater than its parts. The Cavs have been a mess that constantly falls back on playing hero ball. I don't care whether LBJ is the best basketball player ever (a debatable proposition), hoops is still a team sport.

Sorry, bron. The Cavs are properly seen as the underdog. Doesn't mean they can't win, but it means you will be running uphill the whole time, carrying the whole team on your shoulders. Good luck with that.

My prediction that Kevin Love could get a ring this year is looking pretty good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the official prediction from mount lowe is warriors in 6
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/seven-questions-that-will-shape-the-nba-finals/

playin it safe

I've always wondered if it was a mistake for cleveland to dump Miles and Davis over concerns they'd be a bad influence on LBJ.

a mistake for sure miles davis was one of the alltime greats

lol

Diamond Leung ‏@diamond83 12m12 minutes ago
Stephen Curry: "We went to Toys 'R' Us the other day and little girls asking their dad can they talk to Riley."

lol man wagner-davis-bron-miles-boozer is completely looney

incredible

another time truly

i don't really understand that tweet

Little girls were asking their dads if they could talk to Riley.

prob its just a joke tho

Diamond Leung is a Warriors beat guy, and Steph is too ~perfect~ to tell lies.

oh riley is the son, i thought it was the mom

riley is a girl

http://i.imgur.com/uR6stc1.jpg

kev did u have finals or something

:|

btw dont recommend image searching riley curry unless u want to see some very cute stuff

is this all Tim Duncan's fault? at least he waited until they won the championship

i remember it was a thing to bring yr kid to the presser like 10-15 years ago for a while, just recall antione walker with a child who was much to old for the schtick, he had a like a ten year old on his lap

gsw in 7

kyrie supposedly isn't practicing much. might be a sweep if he isn't close to 100%

dubs with better odds to win in 5 than the cavs have to win in any number of games

http://i.imgur.com/8FE6CW2.png

kyrie supposedly isn't practicing much. might be a sweep if he isn't close to 100%

― Spottie, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 2:05 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

knee tendonitis is very tricky based on the fact that it was bad enough that he cldnt play in the atl series id say the chances are hes nowhere near 100% or if he is at the beginning of the series hes not by the end

Yeah I can't imagine chasing Steph for long is going to work with a bum knee, though they probably won't let him do it for long anyway, though I have trouble figuring out where you hide Kyrie on d

lowe suggested putting him on barnes then doubling if he attempts to post, also cld try to stagger his minutes as much as possible so hes playing against the bench

yeah, the wizards don't have a hider. even livingston would eat kyrie's lunch in the post.

yeah i feel like they more or less will have no choice but to stick him on iggy/barnes and just hope that they shoot like 2/7 out of the post or something

uh, the warriors*

Flag Post Permalink

i remember it was a thing to bring yr kid to the presser like 10-15 years ago for a while, just recall antione walker with a child who was much to old for the schtick, he had a like a ten year old on his lap

― lag∞n, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 2:00 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

I think abt this tweet a lot

https://twitter.com/DragonflyJonez/status/601054335150206976

ya iggy and barnes cld both easily go cold for a series

i don't see how doubling in the post vs a team that passes as well as the warriors would work tho. feel like that would lead to a deluge of wide open threes.

better off just hoping barnes & iggy can't score

prob true

iggy has been bad at shooting

iggy has been p bad at offense, curious to see how much burn hell get on james, theoretically imo hes the best defender the warriors have for him but the drop off to barnes and dray might not be enough to warrant giving him a bump, also if bron continues to not be able to shoot and relies on his post game more dray and barnes might actually be better

i think draymond is their best option, i think he can mostly sag off bron a bit and stay in front of him

the only prob is that leaves tristan vs a smaller player on the offensive boards which might not be tenable

tho if bron catches them in the high post then faces up do they have the foot speed to stay with him idk

iggy already can't score and barnes had a bad series minus game 5

one thing lowe pointed out re the cavs offensive rebounding rampage is that it cld easily play into the dubs fastbreak game if they hit the offensive glass too hard

yeah

will "tristan thompson" and "matthew dellavedova" still be a thing by the end of this series?
yes +10000
no -12000

dova will only if he goes leg hunting again

lets not talk about that it makes me angry and scared

literal nightmares every night for the last week

cold sweat

feel like maybe there has been enough media coverage of his barbaric behavior thatll itll give him pause re doing it again

if he fucks w steph theres not a court in the land that wld convict ognjen kuzmic of murdering him on court before thousands of cheering fans

lol is that what Ognjen is for.

yeah but if the Cavs REALLY want to win it's wabbit season on kneecaps

tbh i had never heard of him before just googling the warriors roster and making a least essential/best at murdering matrix and he is a huge man from the balkans who never plays so

He is such a prototypical big, uncoordinated white stiff that that is the only explanation.

slavic third-string centers are always yr designated murderers on the roster, they're pretty good at murdering

http://i.imgur.com/xy28HSS.jpg

thinking abt murder

tbh hes a lil goofy and skinny for the role but this is the nice guy warriors what u want

I'm volunteering to hide Ognjen at my house while he waits for the heat to cool

put him in a sorta shapeless black leather jacket and put a knockoff gold chain around his neck and you've got yourself a central casting slavic murderer

maybe a tracksuit if he's feelin casual

http://i.imgur.com/3MkdX3N.jpg

oooooo

Fact: This is the most anyone's ever talked about Ognjen Kuzmic.

hey man the wait for the finals has been really agonizing it's ruff out there

maybe a tracksuit if he's feelin casual

― dellevadova depression beard (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, June 2, 2015 3:05 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

knockoff Adidas tracksuit for sure

feeling more some italian brand unfamiliar to americans but instantly culturally meaningful to europeans

looking at Bron's shooting numbers this postseason and they are....not good, outside of the paint, he's been awful. good luck to him.

17.6 percent from 3 and 33 on jumpers

yeah he has been incredibly awful at shooting

ppl acting like hes been the same old dominant bron r not paying attention

it's equally as foolish to believe that lebron is going to continue to shoot that poorly though

he cld shoot... worse

I'm sure his numbers will rise in the area a little but JR's numbers should take a nice dip

bron could shoot worse he could also sprout a third arm who knows

i would not bet on either though

he actually cldnt sprout a third arm thats impossible

he'll probably get slightly better, sure. but no, he's not gonna suddenly shoot the lights out from every part of the field and win this series for cleve on his own

i distinctly recall a lot of people thinking that would happen against last year's spurs and then it sorta did...and the heat still lost,

he cld shoot lights out this series who knows if he keeps shooting like he has its prob dubs in 4 if he goes nuts cavs cld take a couple i guess

im not talking about anyone shooting the lights out. i'm just saying that he's much more likely to bounce back to his career norms than shoot like he has been recently.

alts soft insides let him get his even when he cldnt hit a barn, thats not gonna happen with the dubs

basically - he can almost definitely win one game by himself (like game 2 against the spurs last year, which also had some v timely bosh 3s iirc), if kyrie is 75-85 percent and doesnt get shut down maybe 2. to win more would require dubs injury or dellevadova attack

which is ultimately the same thing i s'pose

‏@SportsCenter
THIS JUST IN: Klay Thompson, who was diagnosed with concussion, has been cleared to play in Game 1 of NBA Finals.

a stunning development

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/2/8705035/warriors-give-free-game-1-tickets-to-105-year-old-fan-named-sweetie

Amazing that she lasted through the Cohan years.

front row dubs tickets for game 7 are going for like 80k each on stubhub

thats gonna be a crazy celebrity row the guys from google the guys from facebook the guys from apple talk abt star power!

nah none of them care.

still want to know who that guy is that sits in the jack nicholson seats tho. Young dude with a beard and the big foam three-fingers and hat. Had an A-Klay 37 shirt on last game
http://store.unofish.com/products/a-klay-37

hes from linkedin

sucks mac dre isn't around to see this

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

who other than snrub voted cavs in 5?

Me.

Nah jks, I didn't vote, too much to choose from.

dear cavs in 5 voters: the warriors are 46-3 at home this year

i respect the cavs in five voters more than the dubs in six voters at least they stand for something

what about dubs in 5

dubs in five is a respectable vote imo

whoo!

will have to research last year's finals thread, curious what the picks were

voted spurs in 7 iirc

wow j0rdan's logic re the heat is disturbingly similar to that of those picking the cavs (and not just the having lebron part)

tbf it's not bad logic in a vacuum

link

oh fuck snrub was the only one who was right

shit

lmao nice

lol i forgot abt "glazed donut face off"

voted spurs in 7 iirc

― lag∞n, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:23 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spurs, 6

― lag∞n, Monday, June 2, 2014 11:39 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually

THE GLAZED DONUT FACE-OFF -- spurs! heat! it's the nba finals 2014, where little fatasses happen

had I been here my pick would've been the safe spurs in 7, bet this against my boss who had heat in 5. it was quite something to see his astonishment

lol i forgot abt "glazed donut face off"

― Clay, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:27 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol its good stuff

glazed donut ass face

it's still fairly mind boggling how thoroughly the heat got hit with a fucking freight train in those finals after basically coasting through the 'offs, only the two pauls of the east ever smacked them down during that time

and obv game 1 was mostly lost due to crampgate but 3 through 5 daaaaaamn

jordan not looking too prescient in that thread! lol

this thread title is as close as melo will ever get to the finals

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, June 3, 2014 9:45 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think this will hold up

almost definitely yea

playing a game in a sauna is innovative

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Thursday, June 5, 2014 11:00 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

forgot abt the broken ac!

i do wonder what would the series would have been like had the heat won game 1. oh well.

spurs wldve won in 6

i respect the cavs in five voters more than the dubs in six voters at least they stand for something

maybe it'll turn out they stand for being correct instead of wrong. only time will tell.

u shd prob just wait and see

why isn't it thursday this sucks

my work schedule lines up very nicely with the finals schedule, the basketball gods smile down on me

Bless

I think I voted gsw in 6 because it just seems like the most statistically likely outcome but I forgot to post my pick so I'm not sure. I know I think Lebron will straight up win one game with a berserk stat line but then...I can't figure how they win another game so I guess I should have voted gsw in 5!

I remembered the broken ac game the other day and the firestorm of media dumbness that followed

Dubs 5 dont remember if i actually voted so here's my vote thx

that said i dont care who wins. my great grandpa played ball on a team in some shithole cleveland area berg in the 20s as like a 6' center so i feel like i have a spiritual connect to the cavs but ultimately i just want a decent series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGQID66agH4

my ability to forgive steph for being the biggest dork in the world is limitless

wow

Steph is pure

Steph was born Akron IIRC.

ha what him and bron thats crazy

steph's 27, he seems so much younger

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/12993098/nba-35-year-war-3-pointer

honestly a little surprised pop hates the 3 so much

omg the nba wld be so terrible w/o the three, every game wld be like 86-82

well played at the pace it's currently played at, yes. back in the 80s they used to push the ball every possession so it was watchable

in the 80s they had the 3pt shot

yeah but it was rarely used

relatively speaking

it mattered tho obvs not nearly to the extent that it does now, anyway the league has changed so much since then, if u took away the three from todays nba it wld look nothing like the pre 3pt shot nba

midrange j wld prob be the most important shot in the game

yeah and my point was that this is mainly due to the slow pace of play of the current NBA! xp

anyway i didn't know about pitino's history as an early 3-point evangelist, good article

naw the slow pace is an effect of the changes not a cause, defense is just like one million times better m/l to break it down

i mean u cld run the ball up and down the court but if the defense is still getting back and clogging up the lane its not gonna change anything

Under Popovich, the Spurs have taken 1,000 more corner 3s than any other franchise since the NBA began tracking the shot in 1997 (9,282) and they are the only team to convert over 40 percent of them over that time.

"Today, there's too much emphasis on the 3-point shot," says Riley, the Heat president. "Erik [Spoelstra] and I talk about this all the time, because my style of basketball is '3 yards and a cloud of dust.' That's how I was raised. That's how I was coached. I'm not really part of this craziness. Just layups and 3s. The whole midrange is dying. This is all borne out of what people call analytics."

if riley didn't have the good fortune of being the GM of a franchise in a destination city, he'd be out of the league by now

tbf it hasnt stopped riley from hiring coaches who use the three/analytics, i mean that rant is m/l what pop said too

tho of course rileys true inexcusable regressiveness is his hatered for forign players

being old-school in another sport would mean actively working against something like the three, being old-school in basketball means grumbling and accepting it.

if riley didn't have the good fortune of being the GM of a franchise in a destination city, he'd be out of the league by now

― k3vin k., Wednesday, June 3, 2015 1:04 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is not exactly "fortune"

I think I voted gsw in 6 because it just seems like the most statistically likely outcome

Yeah. When a team wins a series 4-2, it means they won twice as many games as the other team, so it isn't like this is some crazy hedging to think it might happen.

sixth game is on the road for gs something worth considering

i mean u cn have a very close six game series and u cn have a not that close six game series, if ur thinking this series is a blowout better of voting for one of the true blowout scenarios, voting for six is basically saying i think it will be at least a lil close

i don't think the warriors are going to have a particularly hard time winning in cleveland

its just a factor is alls im saying

they clinched in the grindhouse

omg i know its possible to clinch on the road its just somewhat less likely

reasonable course of action:

Ethan J. Skolnick ‏@EthanJSkolnick
Steph Curry's big plans for today: "I'm gonna get a haircut."

after watching that davidson video I'm considering rooting for the cavs

Whoa poly

hes on record as saying it was one of the coolest things hes ever done B-) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/sports/basketball/stephen-curry-gave-davidson-good-publicity-and-a-bad-rap.html

I like that he's a dork.

steph is pure

he had never had a thought that was mean or low

He threw his mouth guard that one time.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGnmva7VIAAUaXc.jpg

he made it to the final boss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L37akjnYUzY

how has this not started yet

basketball tonight!!

its good i am excited

you guys should get into hockey

ew

smh

is hockey even a thing?

Back in the grimy and dangerous days of ILX, I got yellowcarded for mentioning hockey, so you kids should count yourselves lucky.

lol

it really isn't in most areas of the country, although don't tell mookieproof that

hockey is great. We have HD TVS now.

is it broadcast in GRITvision so you can see the dumb drop the gloves/put your dukes up hypermacho bullshit in crystal clarity or wut

blackhawks have been great for awhile now and lots of people I know from back home are really really into them (they are def more popular than the Bulls locally) and I've tried to will myself into digging hockey but just can't do it

the sport itself is pretty boring but it doesn't help that typical BHawks fan as far as I can tell is a racist mook

i like hockey but have to pick my poison with the wife.

the Taiwanese animated video for this series is incredible (as they always are)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQI3Bd7hhAo

laughed pretty hard at the Tristan Thomas reference

Adam Lauridsen sums up how I feel today:

I’m just happy to be here. Who wouldn’t be after the last 40 years? Whether it’s Chris Cohan and Robert Rowell, Latrell Sprewell and PJ Carlesimo, Chris Washburn and Chris Porter, Chris Webber and Don Nelson, Monta Ellis and the moped, Byron Houston and Jason Caffey, or Todd Fuller and Patrick O’Bryant, this fanbase has suffered through enough trauma for even the most masochistic sports fan. Making it to the Finals isn’t a dream come true, because my dreams as a Warriors fan didn’t even extend this far until very recently. When Game 1 of the NBA Finals tips off on Thursday, it will all be surreal, and this season will be an unqualified success no matter what happens next. Fortunately, unlike me, the Warriors players aren’t just happy to be here.

I’m not one for drawing lines between old and new fans of sports teams — we all have to start our love of a team somewhere, at some special moment — but there has been one telltale sign I’ve noticed between recent converts to the Warriors’ winning ways and those who have been dragged to this point by years of thankless loyalty. The newer fans celebrate the Warriors’ advancement to the Finals with giddy excitement. The dominant emotion among long-suffering fans is dazed bewilderment. This team — with the NBA’s best record, the MVP, the Executive of the Year and nearly the Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year — is unrecognizable. They’ve inverted all the typical Warriors’ faults — poor drafting, me-first hero ball, rigid coaching, matador defense — and excelled at doing things the right way. I have years’ worth of muscle memory trained to expect the worst, but with this team, the breaks (so far) have almost all gone our way. I alternate between incredulity and euphoria.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2015/06/04/universal-themes-the-warriors-their-fans-and-the-dream-of-the-finals/

:) happy 4 u

gettin pumped for the game tonight

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGsCsKqUcAAeeuc.jpg

this is really exciting, I can only imagine how much so that's the case for spottie and leee

i'm hosting a party tonight and also i am making pizzas :)

That sounds awesome poly, I'll be watching it alone on my laptop. #swag

Eating leftover veggie pupusas.

that does sound swag

can't start the game til the kids go down :(

i'm hosting a party tonight and also i am making pizzas :)

― polyphonic, Thursday, June 4, 2015 7:23 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yesss these are the best parties

spottie I think ILH needs to do an intervention with your wife

otm

oh jeez d-wade is gonna be on NBA countdown

Kev yes please.

HERE WE GO!!!

let's do this

Let's gooooooooo!!!!

boaguts already smacking shit down nice

http://p.o0bc.com/rf/image_700w/Boston/2011-2020/2015/06/03/Boston.com/BCOM/Images/10658906_10205099467782265_1281802178110841735_o%20(1).jpg

Snrub otm

cavs already dominating the glass

...did kyrie just block steph

that's what my eyes tell me

but how

draymondo gotta be really careful if he's gonna be cursing out refs

Ten point lead!!!!!

once again, curry's shots in the first game are not great bob

the warriors look AWFUL

who is this dude with the afro

not surprised that they're tight

warriors def seem hella shakey

xxp think they said he has something to do with the clock

kyrie is playing the best defense i've ever seen him play

kyrie being in the finals is the best representation New Jersey has in sports, I can deal with that even tho I'm rooting warriors

kyrie is playing the best defense i've ever seen him play

― k3vin k., Thursday, June 4, 2015 9:54 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Otm he's really spry looking and anticipating nicely

mo buckets indeed

lol they backed off bron and let him step into a three which he promptly airballed

and we were worried about the warriors because...

(tbf I was too mostly kidding but wow wow wow)

MIN   FG%   REB   AST   BLK   STL   PF  PTS
19    .444  4     3     1     2     1   9

We might have a series! :D

That was a phenomenally entertaining half.

kinda flying through first half on dvr, just saw the curry steal --> step-back 3 for the lead. seeen him do it a hundred times but it's never less than breathtaking

canonincal curry

Man if bogut's elbow still worked he'd have like ten points on short jumpers by now

lebron is good at basketball

the warriors are going to need to do something about the offensive rebounding thing. it's probably the main reason the cavs are leading

incredible.

a lot of these offensive rebounds the cavs are getting is just laziness on the warriors part. need to box out

tristan thompson is getting a lot on just hustle this game for sure

Lebron is going buck wild with his off arm all game, should have like four offensive fouls by now

tristan thompson gonna get so paid

i'd let bron take iso fadeaways every possession

iguodala is having one hell of a game

iggy igzuodala

cavs without lebron are no bueno

what's w/ the resurrected iggy

barbosa has been a train wreck, my lord

not very championship

speights has been v v championship

especially since he hasn't played the last several games. hot fire right now

dubs are letting cavs get away with a lot of dumb shit that shouldn't work but is working, nagl

wow leborn has scored a lotta points, dont feel like he can do that every night. kinda feel like warriors got first big game jitters theyll work out. plus, last few years, lebron heat teams start g1 amazing and fluctuate from there

it is insane how far cleveland is getting w this offense rn iso after iso

like letting the offensive boards thing happen is one thing, ok, but ffs dubs defense should lock down on this one way ticket to isoville bullshit

exactly what i keep thinking on every possession xp to art

wow leborn has scored a lotta points, dont feel like he can do that every night. kinda feel like warriors got first big game jitters theyll work out. plus, last few years, lebron heat teams start g1 amazing and fluctuate from there

― not a garbageman, i am garbage, man (m bison), Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:11 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree

that train should in a vacuum run out of track but if you allow it it will keep going if said train's conductor is leborn jams

the shots lebron is hitting...

iggy only has 14, but every make has been like an exclamation point

wow bullshit call

also gonna be harder for the cavs to make game to game adjustments when their only real strategy is "lebron is good"

this has been fun as hell game to watch btw

oh ffs how are they not getting second chance points at all can we be honest and say tristan fucking thompson really isn't that good

the dubs have no idea what to do with the lebron/irving pick and roll

it seems like the warriors are losing by 10 but they're up 1

man when the cavs get lost on d they get loooooooost

thompson isn't very good at all but he has a distinct purpose on this cleveland team

dubs are taking some really dumb shots

bogut isn't even trying to go up for these rebs

yeah he got like a couple early blocks and dead on the glass since then more or less like c'mon man

and on cue lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6xzB1JCUAAU1V2.png

just feel like postin this

this has been a pretty good game but the dubs really are better than this, they just plain are

I feel like they're buying into the bullshit playoff inexperience thing albeit subconsciously

OH COME THE FUCK ON

wowww

wow glad i put $10 on the 10000:1 prop on kyrie having a game-saving block

have cavaliers not named bron or kyrie done a whole lot in this game?

mozgov has been legit tbh

holy shit shump almost made that

i thought that shump putback was good for sure

those three are about it tho

k warriors you can start crushing it again

warriors got probably exactly the shot they wanted out of bron there

quite a game

lebron runnin out of juice (he, he)

kyrie out there screaming FIRST TEAM ALL DEFENSE

warriors have had a number of out of control drives to the basket, gotta rein that shit in

yeah barely playing with their heads screwed on

curry back to back drawing fouls on headfakes, thats some gambling man shit right there

honestly curry should go harden and just start flailing for contact it's a dirty job but you do what you gotta

barnes!

yessssssss

warriors bein warriors right now

huge confidence game for the dubs

welp

a whole lot of mean regression happening on both ends

a whole lot of mean regression happening on both ends

― k3vin k., Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:44 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah cavs have played brilliantly within an inefficient system, warriors have played awful within an efficient system but are going to pull this out i think

disastrous overtime for cleve

curry pumped, feeling it

irving looks hella injured

wow wack block call

kyrie looking like barbaro

yeah kyrie was legit hobbled

this OT seriously could not be worse for the cavs what a nightmare

i feel bad for kyrie, great night for him.

also when i looked up he was walking back to the locker room and appeared to be wearing a sports bra, i had to rewind to see that he had been wearing a tank top which he pulled up into a bra-like configuration for some reason.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

sorry snrub :(

have they said what the injury to kyrie was? did he reaggravate his knee?

they have not said, it was a very weird fall that i am assuming aggravated the knee

i think cleveland just missed their chance to make this interesting

so bron's gonna have to have 4 games where he plays better than this and jr smith is gonna have to be not soaked garbage and kyrie has to be not hurt and dubs can't figure out the rebounding thing by game 3 or it's already over

goddammit if only shumpert had made that jumper at the end of regulation. kyrie's knee wouldn't have exploded.

xp yes that is correct

xp clay 1 or 2 of those things could happen but def not all of them no way

yeah and all of them would have to happen for this not the be over imo

on nbatv they said it's kyrie's right ankle i believe, but idk that limp he had it just looked like his whole leg was completely janked

god rihanna is such a troll lol https://twitter.com/spearsnbayahoo/status/606671035547525121

<3 riri

as JR goes so goes the sublime Cavs

do you riri drunkenly troll lebron although honestly that's surprising she seems like a follower of conventional wisdom teams and I figure she'd be rooting cavs

Have I mentioned how much I fucking hate being a fan of this godforsaken cursed shithole of a city?

then again maybe she just mad at him

Have I mentioned how much I fucking hate being a fan of this godforsaken cursed shithole of a city?
--Mr. Snrub

if it makes you feel any better multiple outlets predicted the indians to win the World Series corey kluber is a bad bad man

@actioncookbook: hi, are you new to Cleveland sports? so that moment where we believed that's essential to what comes right after it

it is well to remember that the cavs came as close to stealing this one as that schumpert miss with 0.5 sec left. the warriors know they almost blew it, but the cavs for sure will have a hard time now taking either of the next two with kyrie out, so that overtime was probably their waterloo.

LeBron James' 38 FGA sets a new career-high (regular season + playoffs), eclipsing 37 from ECF Game 3 vs. Hawks.

kerr telling the media everyone on the bench thought schump's putback was going in

blatt is not a poor speaker per se for a guy oft pegged awkward but that does not equate to a great answer-er of questions

*pegged as

For comparison purposes, Wilt took 63 FGA in his 100 point game.

ESPN is also really bad at bleeping shit like kyrie's FUCK as he was walked off the court

@lilbthebasedgod LOL at lebron and jr smith that's what happen when you flick your wrist u loose games Lil B cooking dance for champions ask harden - Lil B

that was a weird game. it didn't feel like the warriors defense was really bothering the cavs much, though maybe that was just because lebron was backing people down and making incredible shots. thought the game looked much easier for the cavs most of the game, though that obv doesn't matter much now.

the warriors were def shook for a lot of that game. they were playing incredibly disjointed in the halfcourt, draymond was a mess all game, even kerr seemed weirdly detached i thought for most of the game. like he didn't really try much to jolt the offense, although that bad 4 bench players + barnes lineup he played in the fourth sort of revved things up cuz iggy went beast mode.

fuck, what a bummer. I didn't want the cavs to lose bc of injury reasons.

@lilbthebasedgod LOL at lebron and jr smith that's what happen when you flick your wrist u loose games Lil B cooking dance for champions ask harden - Lil B
--Clay

don't go there man plz

The pupusas were ok.

still mostly feel like on most nights bron can counter kyrie, tristan can work draymond, even JR and shumpert can outplay klay for stretches but i dunno if the cavs have are gonna have random iggy-type performances popping out of the woodwork from random dudes in this series, though maybe mozgov had one tonight

bron can counter steph**

warriors bench was +23 tonight, cavs bench -32

And if I were a betting man I'd say that it was Kyrie's knee that got hurt, because you can see that Klay's knee bumped into his. Such a terrible way to lose, he was on fire.

injuries will give the cavs nice cover for a series they weren't going to win anyway

k warriors you can start crushing it again

― not a garbageman, i am garbage, man (m bison), Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lebron runnin out of juice (he, he)

― not a garbageman, i am garbage, man (m bison), Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bise clutch in ot

injuries will give the cavs nice cover for a series they weren't going to win anyway

― J0rdan S., Friday, June 5, 2015 12:35 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^

god rihanna is such a troll lol https://twitter.com/spearsnbayahoo/status/606671035547525121

― dellevadova depression beard (slothroprhymes), Thursday, June 4, 2015 11:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

riri just wandering the halls of the oracle yelling shit lol?

bron ran out of gas w 5mins left in regulation and just started launching threes, as insane as he was you need more than bron every possession in the post, you need more

having said that warriors shd maybe consider doubling bron in the post a lil more

they tried a little but lbj caught mozgov for a dunk like 8 times cos of that.

it doesnt have to end like that

kyrie is playing the best defense i've ever seen him play

― k3vin k., Thursday, June 4, 2015 6:54 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm he was insane

also like if hes just gonna post up maybe try dray on him idk at least in the second half if he doesnt have too many fouls

they tried everyone he was just absolutely bananas

almost entirely barnes and iggy

he just overpowered barnes and iggy did p good

felt like curry had a bad game but he still shot 50% and had some key plays.

yeah i think they wanted to keep dray trying to box out thompson tho

prob more important to stop the guy putting up 40

prob

klay has been such a weird player since the all star break

iggy was great tho overall prob see more of him, obvs if kyrie cant go its irrelevant

iggy gets the game ball easily

that shoeless three!

too bad if kyries injured wld like to see stephs adjustments

five years ago when miami lost to the mavs everyone was talking abt how bron needed to work on his post game and tonight he scored all his points there guess he listened

Tom Haberstroh ‏@tomhaberstroh 3m3 minutes ago
LeBron on Kyrie: "Seeing him walk out of the locker room on crutches just now, that's a tough blow for our team."

he hit so many hard shots

also crazy the dubs out rebounded the cavs felt like the got slaughtered on that front

bron scores 44 and the game goes into ot its prob not happening for you regardless kyrie plays or not, hope plays tho

he didn't even try to post in OT

ya he stopped posting w 5 to go in regulation, thats hard to do for a whole game

Considering sending Bogut hate mail for not smashing that oop and instead kicking out to a corner three dude wtf

that was odd, feel like there were a few possessions where gs players were hearing footsteps but from who, and then that one play where step shdve been hearing footsteps and cldve easily avioded what was admittedly a very incredible kyrie block

step shdve been hearing footsteps

lol

Come on Spot, the eventually got a 3 it of that.