2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

Thunder were bitching at each other the whole second half. Westbrook did his "it's me or nobody" act.

It's who they are, still, even if they hid it for a couple of weeks.

 

Oklahoma City faltering twice down the stretch was in keeping with how they were in the regular season. Warriors are like a good thorobred, give it a little opening and they're off to the races.

As much as they steamrolled through the East, and even at full strength, I can't see Cavs winning four.

 

I didn't think the Thunder would win 3.

As much firepower as Irving & Love supposedly bring, their D is downright awful. For the Cavs to lose 2 games to that Raptors team bodes well for the Warriors (all I saw the Raptors do was go high PNR early, then dribble and do their best Westbrook imitation.

 

Who do the Cavs put on Green? Thompson?

 

Lebron? Then stash Love on a center when one is playing and Thompson on a less threatening wing? LeBron on Green means you can switch the Green-Curry pick-and-roll with ease. That said, they're playing more than half the game in the playoffs without Thompson or a traditional big.

Cleveland is going to have to create a nightmare of cross-matches. Can you put Irving on Curry or Thompson? Can you hide him and Love on D? Is Frye a part of the rotation, or only against bench units?

 

Presuming there is a center to stash him on..

Wouldn't be surprised if the Warriors end up doing the same as in last year's Finals when they simply benched Bogut and went centerless and small virtually non-stop. Neutralize K-Love by just not playing anyone he can stay with defensively.

 

I think the Cavs will have to spend some time with LeBron at the 5 in this series.

 

Last night had the feel of Game 7 of the 1986 World Series or Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS. Even when the fading team held a lead for a while early, you just kind of knew the other shoe was going to drop at some point.

 

Also, of course, the Warriors look cooked.TM

 

I thought similar, especially when Curry was running around trying not to score, before he realized he had a wide open basket.

C-Webb -- who came into his own announcing these playoffs -- dropped the Rudy T "heart of a champion" line a couple of times in the past two games, and he was right. But it looked to me the Thunder has the "backbone of the defeated." Billy D in his postgame comments seemed to me like he was alluding to this, when he said the team needed this off-season and next pre-season to build on what they had learned to do right.

 

Also, a 73-win team beat a 55-win team and, likely, is better.

 

That's why I said when a center is playing.

I kind of imagine they'll dabble with centers, both to see if they could use extra rim protection against James and to keep Green fresh. He needs to play center in their various death lineups and that takes a lot of energy. That said, we could see the small group a ton (30+ minutes)