Eastern Conference Finals: (1)Atlanta vs. (2)Cleveland

The Bulls were too incosistent team in the regular season. The Hawks on the other hand were good, like really good. They played nice basketball that I at least enjoyed watching. And they won as much in the East as in the West. They didn't just rack up wins by playing inferior teams like the Raptors did.
But as soon the playoffs started, and a little before that, they stopped playing well.
The Wizards on the other hand played bad in the second part of the season and as soon they playoffs started they pulled a switch on.
I think next year the Hawks will remain good, the Wizards if they get a good pf will reach contender status (for the eastern standards) and the Bulls will take two steps back. The Craptors will remain the craptors.
I'm interested to see what Indiana manages to do and Miami. I think Miami has the best starting 5 in the east but they have bad health and bad luck.
If they are full healthy and retain all their free agents ( dragic, deng , wade) they can reach the eastern finals.

 

That's outright ridiculous. LeBron's post-season stats are significantly down from last year in almost every category except rebounding and assists. His shooting is down by 10-20% (FGP and 3P%) and his scoring average about the same as last year and that playing more minutes. Your statement indicates that the Cavaliers this year has a stronger team (without Love and Irving) than last years Miami (with Wade and Bosh). That's simply not true. I'd say that statement is outright ridiculous.

 

I actually agree, hence it's wide open.

The Warriors have disappointed b/c they haven't been as dominant (inexperienced and playoffs intensity is different than regular season intensity).

GSW/Houston are favorites though by far.

 

That wasn't my statement at all.

How do you figure a team with the coach of the year getting destroyed by a team that has a rookie NBA coach with 2 of his best players injured AT HOME? FYI - Lebron (and his team) has repeatedly proven to ignore Blatt's directs numerous times (scratching his final play v. the Bulls in game 5, and playing completely iso ball in game 1 v. the Hawks in the 4th).

Is it tactics? Is it motivational? Or is it Lebron James? Figure that out.

You can put Mike Brown or D'antoni on this Cavs team and they will still be on their way to the Finals. Hell, put DFish.

 

Actually yes. The WArriors have improved each and every year the previous years.

23 wins in 2012.
47 wins in 2013.
51 wins in 2014

They had a young core, and those players developed and made jumps every year. Everyone knew Klay Thompson and Green were going to make jumps again this year. And they will make jumps again next year.

That was with Mark Jackson, and ridiculed coach by many. He took a 20 win team to a 50 win team in a span of 2 years.

Again, is that coaching? tactics? Or...

 

*losing horn*

Thank the lord I never bet on sports. I am turrrible.

Maybe I should pick against the Rockets tonight, just to make sure they win game 3.

 

So happy we do not have TNT, Marv is getting old and Kenny Smith in the highlights constantly trying to sound smart: "it's about can you guard me, it's not about the team, not about can you guard us, it's about me, can you guard me, nothing to do with the team, can you guard me, that's the question.."

 

It's a combination of things and coaching is more than tactics. It's also part motivating. Can you get guys to believe themselves. As for the Warriors, remember up until last year it was known that Curry had a glass skeleton.

With Kerr it was tactics. It was his decision to put Barnes and Green in important roles, which had them (especially Barnes...) play more to their potential with that vote of confidence. Also that Kerr uses Curry differently, where Jackson thought of Curry more as this superstar PG and had him handling the ball a lot more. Kerr uses him off the ball a lot and much more a part of a team. Doing this makes it harder to play defense on that entire team.

 

I simply don't believe that. The Cavaliers, after losing Love and Irving, does not have a roster that is even close to the level of last years Miami (also LeBron's team). We all know how bloated LeBrons ego is. He could commit suicide just by jumping off it. If you think that he behaved differently in Miami, that's not true either. In Miami he didn't dare to speak about it to the press, because Riley would have reacted. In Cleveland he can act as if he owned the club.

Anyway, Cleveland wins playoff games because of their superb defense and great 3-point shooting. LeBron does not coach the team in either of those departments. What he does by himself, he clearly does regardless of any coaching (as he has always done).

 

Korver out the rest of the playoffs

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: Kyle Korver is OUT for the remainder of the playoffs with ankle injury.</p>&mdash; Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CVivlamoreAJC/status/602182996909813760">May 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Quick story: Kyle Korver out for playoffs. <a href="http://t.co/Jl0SOk70kA">http://t.co/Jl0SOk70kA</a></p>&mdash; Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CVivlamoreAJC/status/602184042444894208">May 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Series over (even though we already knew it was gonna be a sweep)

 

This entire season has sucked with injuries starting with Embiid.

 

I hope nobody tries to argue otherwise

 

They jumped the gun. The Warriors should leave Korver healthy for a few more games in order to wear out Cavs some more.

 

The Cavs were gonna win this series anyway, but this is insane how everyone but the Warriors is confronted with either season-ending injuries or ailments serious enough to knock guys out of at least a playoff game or two. If you believe in law of averages, Golden State is due for an OKC-type of season next year.

 

So Korver out..well I guess this is it for me. I'm through with this series, not watching another game. No interest in watching Lebron isos.

 

Why bother watching, ISOs or no ISOs? That series is over.

 

Yes well if Atlanta played like their regular season beautiful basketball of sharing the ball I would watch even if it was a sweep. But now it will be just ugly and I am not going to bother waking up at 4 for this crap.