NBA 2012-2013 Talk

[Rusty]

James and Chalmers both coming up big so far. So much for them disappearing in big games.


On the other hand, the predicted Heat blowout has not materialized. This is down to the wire. I just wonder who the Spurs go to guy is.

[Rusty]

Spurs could have won both games 6 & 7 and have blown them both. Bad shots, missed shots. It ain't over yet but I think they have made one mistake too many on the road. I hope I am wrong.

[Rusty]

All talk of Lebron being Jordan is over and should've been awhile ago.

But what if he pops for 35/40 in each of the next two games and the Heat win the title?

I am liking the Spurs game so far but as Yogi says, it aint over 'til it's over. There's no reason to believe a 66 win Heat team can't win two at home for a repeat championship..

Just sayin'

[TANEYTOWN]

Tip of the cap to Lebron. Really felt Pops could do this but in the end he ran out of options. Dumb turnovers late and cold shooting. Danny Green is what he is and when you ride that type of player you live and die with it. Leonard is a hell of a prospect and something to build around.

[mookie]

Those superior Spurs "worker bees" must have taken a break.

[TANEYTOWN]

They went cold for sure. Worker bees are a bitch of a thing. In the end this was about Lebron and how much better he is. The Spurs big 3 ran out of juice.

[TANEYTOWN]

Erik Spoelstra says this was Miami's toughest series? I recall 2011 and how they couldn't get past 2 wins tough. But yea getting to 4 wins is tougher than 2.

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

I think we all knew this series would come down to Shane Battier's 3 pt shooting.

[TANEYTOWN]

Good player^.

[Noodle]

Ginobli really fell apart at the end. I assume Parker's hamstring mandated Ginobli being in the game, but three key turnovers in the last three minutes really hurt the Spurs. TheBron now only has to get five more championships with the Heat to live up to his prediction. Only five.

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

Ginobli really fell apart at the end. I assume Parker's hamstring mandated Ginobli being in the game, but three key turnovers in the last three minutes really hurt the Spurs. TheBron now only has to get five more championships with the Heat to live up to his prediction. Only five.

I'm guessing LeBron is wishing he hadn't said that now that he knows how hard it is.

[TANEYTOWN]

This whole thing was about Lebron. The best player was the best player. Lebron has to do all the rebounding scoring passing and defense.

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

LeBron is not Jordan. No one is or has been in the modern era. He and the Bulls won 6 titles in 8 years. In one of those non-title years he was playing baseball, in the other he was just coming back from playing baseball and was not in top playing condition. When he played full seasons, he and the Bulls won 6 times in a row.

As a Celtics fan I gag a bit saying this but Kobe Bryant is probably the closest to Jordan in the current era. Wins titles, plays big and gets the most from the talent around him. But LeBron did bring a couple of otherwise very mediocre Cavaliers teams to the finals and conference finals. He is top rate talent.

At their apex - for LeBron that's basically now, for Jordan that's 90-92 or so - I'd take LeBron over Jordan. Career-wise, I think Jordan will end up having the better one, and in terms of the playoffs, Jordan wins although if LeBron is closer than you think. But the last 5 quarters are why I choose LeBron. Jordan couldn't do that, not against this defense. He had a tough defense against the Sonics and was terrible for all but one or two games. LeBron scored 37 in game 7 on 23 shots. That's just absurd. That's after going up against Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Kawhi Leonard for 18 games. He was just dominant. I think I read somewhere that LeBron has the highest PPG in elimination games in NBA history. That's an incredible number, especially for a guy who looks to defer as much as LeBron does.

As far as Kobe goes, Jordan is better in most respects and that's less of an argument, except that Kobe made his teammates better in a way I don't think Jordan ever did. Additionally, Kobe was a smarter player. I remember in I think the 2009 NBA Western Conference finals, Kobe threw a no look pass to the corner to Shannon Brown or Ariza or whomever, and the ball went out of bounds because Brown had drifted up to the wing. And Kobe starts LAYING INTO HIM telling him to stay in the corner, and Jeff Van Gundy's like, "sorry, Kobe, that's on you, how's he supposed to know where you're going to throw the ball before you do it?"

Well, now EVERY TEAM has a spot up 3 pt shooter standing the corner. The corner 3 might be the most important shot in basketball. If your spot up guy drifted out of the corner when he was open, he'd be pulled from the game immediately. A big part of Miami's 3 pt success and LeBron's success specifically is due to their prowess at the corner 3. But things didn't really get that way until the last couple of years. But Kobe - not Jackson - was telling his spot up shooters to stay in the corner a couple years before that really became a thing. I think that's cool.

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

People have made a big deal about this but we should talk about it - really a pretty clean series and a well-officiated one as well. LeBron, Duncan, and Popovich each probably deserved at T at one point or another, but kudos to the refs for swallowing their whistles and kudos to the players for not acting like dicks when games got ugly. Not a single tech all series! That's incredible. Also thought it was a well coached series on both sides. Just don't see all that very often.

[TANEYTOWN]

I would call it one of the worst coached finals I've seen. Pops was really bad the final 2 games. And the blowouts in the first 4 games left a lot to be desired with both coaches having flat teams.