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NBA Playoffs 2013

260K views 9K replies 172 participants last post by  pryme tyme 
#1 ·
East
1. Heat vs 8. Bucks
4. Nets vs 5. Bulls
3. Pacers vs 6. Hawks
2. Knicks vs 7. Celtics

West
1. Thunder vs 8. Rockets
4. Clippers vs 5. Grizzlies
3. Nuggets vs 6. Warriors
2. Spurs vs 7. Lakers
 
#6,313 ·
The Miami Heat can't adjust. They play one way, especially now that Wade is supposedly injured (and mainly being defeated by Father Time) and Bosh is intimidated by Tim Duncan.

Basketball is like a game of chess, and Gregg Popovich plays it better than every coach in the league right now.

People are going to assume that the Heat adjusted for Game 2, but they didn't. They just hit their shots, and the small adjustment that the Spurs made gave Chalmers an open window to take advantage of the different P&R strategy.

In Game 3, Popovich made other adjustments, and he realized that the Heat are playing on tired legs. Tired legs lessen a team's ability to get back out on open shooters, and that tortured the Heat tonight. It's incredibly difficult to close out on shooters for a full 48 minutes if you're coming off of one night's rest, a big series against Indiana, and a Game 2 that required a lot of effort for 3 1/2 quarters.

At this point, the Spurs are going to go under screens, and let LeBron fire away. There's no reason not to. But, not enough is being said about Tim Duncan's role in defending LeBron, either.

Basketball isn't always a simple game, even though a guy like Duncan makes it seem that way. He's a basic player (fundamentally) that's anchoring a complicated defensive system...but, when you have the entire team buying into it, you shut down superstars, and that's what the Spurs are able to do. A simple way to explain it, though, is to push LeBron baseline, into the anchor, and there's no need to collapse all five players on the court...so when James chooses to kick the ball out, their shooters are covered, Bron comes back out to reset, and there's not enough time on the clock to draw an ISO. Do that, and it becomes Leonard or Green, with Duncan's help, versus LeBron...and Bron is forced into the jumper he really doesn't want to take.

Now, any coach would choose to post up their star player, or someone. Bosh can't post up Duncan. LeBron wears down in the post, even though that's clearly where he needs to be. Will James rely on his teammates more than he has in the first three games? He will have to, if he plays in the post for most of the game...and something tells me he wants to conserve energy for the 4th quarters of every game.

You can also see the struggle on the glass. The Spurs position themselves very well for rebounds, and most of their players aren't dragging their feet to get there. Players like Duncan and Splitter have the length, but a guy like Leonard is crashing boards similar to that of James. Difference is, Leonard is young, not carrying that big of a role offensively, and he's reaching the peak of his vertical on those offensive boards.

One night, and we have Game 4 on Thursday. The Spurs, once again, pulled their trio out before Miami, despite the blowout. The big three in Miami played the leading role, once again, when it came to making plays and taking shots (not necessarily making them)...but it was Green, Neal, and Leonard, for the Spurs, who took initiative tonight. It makes Duncan and Parker (and Manu, but I don't want to go too far with that, because he's a big question mark) FEEL like role players on the offensive end, and role players are usually refreshed by the next game.

Pop answered the LeBron/Chalmers P&R (Chalmers going from leading scorer, with 19, to zero points the following game, tells a story here). He answered Bosh trying to stretch the floor. He answered LeBron getting to the rim, Birdman getting easy buckets off cuts, he answered Allen coming off screens and getting open looks. He showed Spoelstra that the Spurs can drop the ball into Duncan, that they can win with heavy Duncan/Parker P&R, that they can win with perimeter shooting, and that they can hold a three-star team containing at least 6-7 capable shooters to just 77 points in an NBA Finals game.

The Spurs have it made. Pending a Parker injury that shuts him down, I'm not sure how they can lose this. LeBron is faced with what ailed him back in 2011, against a Dallas Mavericks team that threw Shawn Marion/Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler at him, while being able to stretch the floor back on offense with a plethora of shooters AND go into a big man when needed. It seems history is trying to repeat itself.
 
#8,265 ·
#1,759 ·
Re: NBA PLAYOFFS 2013 #CurryDon'tLikeItRough

The fact that people are defending a healthy player not playing is terrible. "Oh it's a long road to be mentally ready" get to fuck out. Get to fuck out right now. It's been done by many athletes. Fuck, it's been done by athletes that are playing in this very NBA league. If you want to defend him, go ahead, but then you cannot deny that he is a mental midget.

Can't throw him into the Playoffs? He had more than 20 games from the time he was medically clear in the regular season to be eased in and gain this fucking confidence that all you guys defending him seem to harp on about all the damn time.

This defence of him is absolutely sickening when you see the rest of the Bulls players dying out there on the court for Derrick Rose's city. What the fuck is this shit? Seriously...

He is hopping on the bench on his supposedly bad leg in a suit while his teammates probably shorten their careers. But it's fine, because this injury takes a long time to get over. Give me a break...

This isn't a case of bandwagons. This is a case of what is right and what is wrong. And what we are seeing is so wrong. It is so wrong.
 
#1,869 ·
Re: NBA PLAYOFFS 2013 #CurryDon'tLikeItRough

The fact that people are defending a healthy player not playing is terrible. "Oh it's a long road to be mentally ready" get to fuck out. Get to fuck out right now. It's been done by many athletes. Fuck, it's been done by athletes that are playing in this very NBA league. If you want to defend him, go ahead, but then you cannot deny that he is a mental midget.

Can't throw him into the Playoffs? He had more than 20 games from the time he was medically clear in the regular season to be eased in and gain this fucking confidence that all you guys defending him seem to harp on about all the damn time.

This defence of him is absolutely sickening when you see the rest of the Bulls players dying out there on the court for Derrick Rose's city. What the fuck is this shit? Seriously...

He is hopping on the bench on his supposedly bad leg in a suit while his teammates probably shorten their careers. But it's fine, because this injury takes a long time to get over. Give me a break...

This isn't a case of bandwagons. This is a case of what is right and what is wrong. And what we are seeing is so wrong. It is so wrong.
I completely agree. His teammates are vomiting on the sidelines and banged up and he's eating candy in his suit when he was cleared to play weeks ago. His "muscle memory" statement and his comment about God are what did it for me. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but he keeps making asinine statements and hurting his reputation.
 
#2,837 ·
Re: #AnyoneButHeat

MJ quotes from "The Jordan Rules" I think.

Quote:
........................"We're beating a lot of poor teams. So what? We won a lot of games last year, too. Will Horace and Bill still be playing at this level in the playoffs...Can Pip keep it up?"

Quote:
"I hate being out there with those garbagemen. They don't get you the ball."

Quote:
"They've got no idea what it's all about. The white guys, they work hard, but they don't have the talent. And the rest of them? Who knows what to expect? They're not good for much of anything."

Quote:
"I know what's gonna happen. We'll wait until the last minute and then they'll say something like they couldn't get a deal done because of the cap or somebody pulled out at the last minute. It happens here all the time. I don't know why I'm surprised every year."

Quote:
"He can't do anything with the ball. Don't give it to him." - Michael yelling at Paxson who passed the ball to Perdue

Quote:
"You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can't get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the damn court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound. Can't even stick his ass into people and get more than that...Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward." - Michael ripping Stacey King a new one

Quote:
"He was scared in there and panicking. He just lost it when Stockton scored." - Michael on B.J. Armstrong's mental fragility

Quote:
I'll let them stand up and take responsibility for themselves."

Quote:
"We have to do some things. We need to make some changes."

Quote:
"...I call them 'the Looney Tunes.' Physically, they were the best. Mentally, they weren't even close."

Quote:
"He's scared. He's got no heart...Nobody told me that. If I had spoken up, he wouldn't have been here."

Quote:
"I know I can recognize what to do, but I'm not sure they can."

Quote:
"It's a hell of a lot easier to make Earl Monroe look good than it is Brad Sellers."

Quote:
"I hope there's a jumpshot in there." - Michael to Stacey King who was walking into the locker room with a box

Quote:
"They don't need a ticket to watch you sitting on the bench. They can go to your house for that." - Michael to Charles Davis who was sorting through his tickets for his family and friends

Quote:
"Give me the fu*king ball." - Michael to Doug Collins who drew up a play for Dave Corzine

Quote:
"I hate when I have to read that in the papers the next day, that I couldn't do something. It wasn't my fault."

Quote:
"You're an idiot. You've screwed up every play we ever ran. You're too stupid to even remember the plays. We ought to get rid of you." - Michael to Horace Grant

Quote:
"If you [pass the ball to Bill Cartwright], you'll never get the ball from me."

Quote:
"We're not winning because of talent. We're just beating bad teams."

Quote:
"Headache tonight, Scottie?" - Michael asks Scottie, while showing him his 2-for-16 line

Quote:
"It's probably a twelve-day. He needs two days to wake up." - Michael on a ten-day contract teammate

Quote:
"Five more years and I'm out of here. I'm marking these days on a calendar, like I'm in jail. I'm tired of being used by this organization, by the league, by the writers, by everyone."

Quote:
"They're not interested in winning. They just want to sell tickets, which they can do because of me. They won't make any deals to make us better. And this Kukoc thing. I hate that. They're spending all their time chasing this guy."

Quote:
"If I were a general manager, we'd be a better team."

Quote:
"Will Vanderbilt. He doesn't deserve to be named after a Big Ten school." - Michael on Will Perdue - AWESOME!

Quote:
"I want to prove the critics wrong...I want to see some serious moves from management, which I really haven't seen that much of yet, and I want to see more serious attitudes from my teammates this year when it comes to the playoffs. In the past, it's been more or less a joking thing, sort of a 'Well, we're here, so let's have a good time.'"..........

Quote:
"I'm sure everything will be fine if we win, but if we start losing, I'm shooting."

Quote:
"I know what I would do if I were coach. I'd determine our strengths and weaknesses and utilize them. And it's pretty clear what our strength is."

Quote:
"Your boy doesn't want to play. I'm tired of bailing his ass out." - Michael yelling at Jim Cleamons about Dennis Hopson

Quote:
"I don't know about trading a 24 year-old guy for a 34 year-old guy." - Michael questioning the Oakley trade

Quote:
"He's causing me too many turnovers." - Michael on Cartwright's inability to catch

Quote:
"Why the hell don't you ever set a pick like that in a game?" - Michael yelling at Perdue after also hitting Perdue upside his head (led to the institution of the private curtain for practices)
The best was clearly "If I were a general manager, we'd be a better team." :lmao
 
#2,841 · (Edited)
Re: #AnyoneButHeat

Quote:
"I hope there's a jumpshot in there." - Michael to Stacey King who was walking into the locker room with a box"

That's my all time favorite quote from Jordan. :lmao

The best was clearly "If I were a general manager, we'd be a better team." :lmao
Yeah. That one is too ironic right now.
 
#3,832 ·
#4,208 · (Edited)
Oh give me a fucking break about this losing respect for leaving Cleveland. They're lucky he stayed with that franchise as long as he did. His second best player for all those years was Mo Freaking Williams. Good fucking lord, it's not like he coasted in Miami, he's easily been the best player in Miami. And all this loyalty bullshit talk in a freaking league were players are traded all the fucking time without their consent. Yeah he looked out for himself, it's what he should do. If Cleveland's front office wasn't so incompetent then he would probably still be there. But why the fuck would he waste his career for those incompetent people?

I respect Lebron for being the best player in the league. I respect him for been the unselfish superstar who plays for the team and not just for his numbers. I respect him for playing to his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses. I respect him for giving his all when he's on the court, not only on offense but on defense. I don't give a damn about people not respecting him for wasting his career in Cleveland or what fucking teams he roots for.
 
#4,744 · (Edited)
I don't think you can talk about bad fouls because Crawford called the game tighter than a nun's cunt and there were almost 50 fouls
in that game. Probably 20 of them shouldn't have happened.

Complain about the NBA being the worst-officiated major league sport in the U.S. and I'm with you. Say that this game
had 20 fouls that shouldn't have been called in a Finals game if at all I'm with you. But to whine about "bad calls" on James is just sad.
There were two back to back horrible calls against Indiana that gave the Heat the bonus with 8 minutes left in the 4th.

Also, NOW we have people getting butthurt that James fouled out when he's only done it twice in 7 years, including playoffs appearances
where he's been to the championship series repeatedly. Now THAT is 7 year's worth of "bad calls." In a 7 year time span, the announcer
Reggie Miller was ejected 11 times and his game was nowhere near as aggressive and physical as that of a 6'8'', 250+ pounder
power forward.

Or this:
Lebron James went 254 on court minutes without a foul. 254! That is roughly equivalent to playing every single minute
in 5 straight games without a foul. Do you really not see how the Heat, but specifically Lebron James, get preferential treatment?
 
#4,954 · (Edited)
How was Pedo-Birdman not ejected? Dirty shot away from the ball, Hansbrough stands up for himself and get's another blatant shove, then on top of that he has to be restrained by refs and coaches and he's STILL jaw jacking with the pacers. That's straight biased bullshit, no room for that kind of behavior on the court and he should've been ejected. Nazr Muhammad got ejected for a push like that and he didn't even act as thuggish as Pedo-Birdman was, what classic Heat politics with the refs. It's all on the Spurs to blow up the Death Star now.

 
#5,298 ·
So I guess the narrative the ESPN & the rest of the national sports media is gonna run with is ...

The Heat win - Lebron came through & is without a doubt the undisputed modern GOAT.

The Heat lose - Lebron came through & is without a doubt the undisputed modern GOAT, but his supporting cast sucks.


So apparently, every other team except the handful of favorites always play at their peak performance - while the really great teams have a handful of reasons/excuses why they falter. It couldn't just be that their outplayed, no that couldn't be it. But if Indiana loses, nobody is gonna write an article saying "Paul George didn't play to his potential, Hibbert etc." - It'll just be because Miami is better. But Miami loses and we'll have every excuse in the book to somehow take away from Indiana's victory.

Miami's a really great team & they have the best player in basketball - but that doesn't mean their unstoppable. The history of the NBA shows you that, they always have to have a story to sell though. I'm sorry, but with the squad Miami has & the way they performed for the past 3 years - nobody is gonna make me cry tears of sadness for Lebron James & the rest of his clique.

And what's funny is Miami still has a more then realistic chance to win another title - and when they do nobody would even bring up the bumps in the road. So the national media making all these lame storylines is laughable, because in a month they would sweep it all under the rug if Miami goes back-to-back. I love Lebron, but the circus of assholes he attracts makes me want to gouge my eyes out. :lol
 
#5,299 ·
That's how the mainstream sports media has always worked. When the media favorites don't win (Lakers, Heat, etc.) the media talks about why they lost instead of how the other team won.
 
#6,315 ·
I have no shame in saying when I'm wrong. So I have no problem admitting that I made the fatal mistake of underestimating the Spurs. I dont hate the Spurs, I love watching the Spurs play and theres not a single player on their team I can say that I don't like. Don't let my chatbox posts fool you, I'm joking/trolling on the majority of those. I don't mind either team winning. But I still stick with this series ending in 6 or 7. As for what team wins, I really don't know at this point. I've never seen LeBron play this bad in a playoff series before. You can argue he was worse in 2011 and that's fine but difference in 2011 and now...Wade and Bosh, especially Wade, were much more reliable. And Danny Green might be right when he said that LeBron was stopping himself.

LeBron-Jordan comparisons were/are ridiculous and anyone with any ounce of credibility knows that Jordan was the vastly superior player. And if the Heat lose this series and LeBron continues playing this way, he falls out of my top 10 all time. No excuse.

Furthermore, if the Heat lose this series they need to break up the Big 3. Wade is on his farewell tour and Bosh has become too soft. The Big 3 Heat will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in NBA history if they only win one title.
 
#6,338 ·
JIM needs to admit he's a fucking retard too. Still one of the most laughable things I've seen in this sports section when he said the Heat will win this year because they have to and have no other choice. That is worse than tjchurch levels. SRS.



Will you finally admit that the Spurs DEFENSE has actually made a huge difference in stopping him? I know it isn't all them as he doesn't like going to post for whatever dumb reason, but they've done an amazing job at stopping him.


And if Lebron loses this finals the Jordan/Lebron comparisons need stop forever unless Lebron wins like 5 in row. Now the Heat aren't even close to losing this series, but say they do that would be Lebron's THIRD final loss and if he continues playing like this then his stats will also be beyond awful for the finals too. Now knock Kobe all you like, but that can went ALL out in the finals regardless of the year. He might never have put up the best stats, but he would always do whatever possible to win and I'm just not seeing that at all with Lebron. He seems passive and scared to take jumpers.

I agree about the Big three needing to break up but I think they should break up regardless of whether or not they win this series. Don't pull a Celtics, this era is over and won't last another season.





I agree 100%. If LeBron loses again, he's in the same tier as the likes of Karl Malone, David Robinson, Barkley, KG, etc. I think it's complete bullshit that mainstream media tries to hype him up like he's on the same tier as the likes of Jordan/Russell/Magic/Wilt, etc. LeBron hasn't done enough, he hasn't dominated like they have and I'm willing to say he isn't as talented as those guys either.

Is it fair to say that LeBron has still never really reached his potential? Of course he still has time but he's not getting any younger, he'll be turning 30 next year and for a guy that depends on athleticism, I would expect his decline would start unless he changes his style of play. But I just feel like LeBron could've been so much better than he he has ended up being.
Lebron's potential was to win multiple championships. The stats are irrelevant, if he still manages to win 3 or 4 then his career was successful, but not to the degree that was expected as with three final loses he would never go down as one of the greatest.
 
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