If your team is good enough to give you the best record in the NBA 2 years in a row and secure homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, your team is good enough to win the championship. Sure Lebron doesn't have a prototypical no. 2 guy but its not like guys no.3 to no.8 were scrubs either. "LeExcuse" should be Lebron's nickname now
that's a poor logic. the playoffs are completely different than the regular season. defensive strategies become more advanced . and it shows that guys like mo williams put up worse numbers in the playoffs as compared to the regular season.
Collectively along with Lebron they were a championship team. In the pivotal game 5 at home with the series tied 2-2 vs Boston, they were getting their candy azzes whooped Lebron 42 minutes, 15 points, 3/14 FG 21% FG, 9 for 12 from FTs, 6 rebounds, 7 assists. Rest of the team shot 47% from the floor with Lebron playing the most minutes on the team and the game getting over with halfway through the 3rd quarter.
good job. you picked out lebron's ONLY subpar game all playoffs where he actually looked mortal. kobe shot 6-24 in game 7 of the finals. they won. paul pierce sucked the entire series. the celts won. .... you're a great team when your team can afford off games by your best player. your example obviously showed that the cavs have ZERO chance when lebron is not up to his superhuman ways. hell, he has had to be more than superhuman in the playoffs for them to beat the great teams
Kobe shot better than LeBron, plus he collected 15 rebounds. And the rest of his teammates weren't shooting 47%, they were actually shooting sub 40%, that included Artest, the savior. They won because they did a good job on defensive side as a team and Celtics struggled in that game too. Bottom line, whoever got the credit deserved the blame too. Kobe collected 23 points on high % shooting for the first half in 2006 game 7 against Phoenix, they're down 15 at half time. He didn't try as hard in 2nd half and he received no less blame than LeBron in 2010 game 5. We were talking about an underdog Lakers in a hostile environment that overachieved in first 6 games. LeBron was having HCA and Cavs were a heavy favorite, being blown out like that at home could have no excuse.
Or it could mean that your star player is just playing at such a high level that he is able to carry folks through the regular season when they play good and bad teams, but not in a 7 game series against a very good team. I would love to see the NBA champions that had a 2nd best player of Mo Williams caliber.
Or it means LeBron choked in playoff. Every b2b 60 wins team won at least 1 NBA championship in history. There're very few 65 wins team that didn't win NBA championship that year (<5). Should we put LeBron in the same league as Dirk now?
even i admitted that was a bad game by lebron. terrible game. and even i would admit kobe sucked for 3.5 quarters of game 7.
That's true if your team is able to play above its regular season level once the playoffs start. Getting the best record in the league has a lot to do with winning all the games against bad teams. Those teams aren't around when the playoffs start. Only the good teams are left.
Success in regular season is highly correlated in success in playoff. All team won b2b 60 games had championship. Most teams won 65 games had championship. LeBron's team was the odd one. They underperformed in playoff.
You don't think being around other great, hall of fame caliber, players made Magic and Russell greater players, I do. Bird, Isiah, Stockton & Malone clearly were greater when playing with other great players too--it raised their game because they were as great in team basketball skills as their individual skills. (Except for Jordan, I don't think playing with other great players had a positive or negative impact on his skill or game, but he is a different animal. Though it didn't hurt that Pippen allowed him an ability to focus more on offense by covering the lesser of the opponents wing players. Not that Jordan could not be great defensively, but it allowed him to conserve).) Hakeem almost never made it. He almost was traded due to his demands. Further, as phenomenal as he was, a John Starks 3 here, a missed Elie 3 there, and he is the greatest player to win nada. That is not a model another should followed. I am also glad Mo Malone got a ring with Phily--never would have happened if he didn't want to be moved to play with another legend who also never quite had enough around him. I think Magic has been particularly exposed. Coming into a team with an MVP and arguably the best player ever. He even had a hand in going to LA--which had nothing to do with his home town/area and everything to do with going to play with great players. His criticism is like a person being born with a silver spoon complaining that the guy across the tracks needs to buy nicer clothes to land that ideal job. Further, Magic himself was not a great scorer by NBA hall of famer standards, again his game was raised by playing with other great players. Same with Russell, and taking nothing away from their achievements this was true for them in College and Pro. Thus like I said I would listen a lot more to comments from a Jerry West, Roberston, Wilt (if alive), Malone, Erving, Gervin, etc, great players who almost never broke through and were limited by no free agency and loaded opponents. Wade in a stretch versus the Pistons & Mavs perhaps was better. But I agree Lebron was phenomenal. I actually think that series started the slide, because if Lebron playing that great couldn't get through Orlando, who themselves were not that tough for the Lakers, regular season 60 win teams or not that Cavs team was going to have a wicked time trying to win a championship.
I guess we're just gonna have to agree to disagree then. IMO no matter where you put him, Pip is a HOFer.
Different circumstances. I feel like I've repeated this several times. Garnett, Pierce, and Allen were teamed up through trades.
Jordan won his last 3 titles with 2 more HOFs, he didnt win it by himself! Hakeem in 94, won the title with no HOF, he did win by himself!! In 95, Hakeem won with one HOF, and Drexler joined until february.
I'm not going to argue about stats with you. You've proven already that you don't care about anything but your own biased perspective about what's happening on the court.
