Knicks · 2016 NBA PLAYOFF BASKETBALL (page 30)

TPercy wrote:

NYKBocker wrote:I don't like the warriors. A bunch of arrogant fookers

And Westbrook and Durant arn't? No problem with having confidence and spirit. In fact, its a key component of a team's mental strength.

Westbrook yes. Durant I don't see as arrogant.

Kerr as coach? Well, I'd be delighted if he was the Knicks coach. I'd guess he _might_ have lasted longer than Fisher, maybe. I'm sure at least once a week, he glances at the Knicks and thinks . . . "There but for the grace of God . . . " :)

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Zach Lowe: Warriors in 7
David Thorpe: Warriors in 6
Chad Ford: Warriors in 7
Kevin Pelton: Warriors in 6
Ramona Shelburne: Warriors in 7

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/GSWCLE-15859161/nba-playoffs-2016-experts-predictions-golden-state-warriors-cleveland-cavaliers-nba-finals

I don't know most of the people in that list but . . . Warriors in 7 seems to be the safe bet.

I was thinking . . . maybe Cleveland in 6 but, hmmmm, I'm leaning hard toward the safe bet . . .

This Golden State of Mind article made me change my mind.

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2016/6/1/11833662/nba-finals-2016-warriors-vs-cavaliers-position-by-position-stephen-curry-lebron-james

In short, I was mostly thinking Curry vs. LeBron . . . and LeBron wins but, whew, Cleveland has so many bad match ups . . . JR vs. K. Thompson, for example. It's going to take multiple bad games by Green, Iggy, Barnes, and Bogut and great games by Frye, Shump, Smith, and T. Thompson for Cleveland to win four games. Curry/Lebron, Thompson/Irving, Green/Love are a wash . . . it's the team play and secondary players for GS that will win games. My money is on GS now . . . in 7, I guess, maybe 6, say 6.5 :)

Cleveland in 5.

The longer the series goes on the more Cleveland has to worry about JR unraveling. A shorter series benefits Cleveland, a longer one works in GS's favor IMO.

I think Cleveland will win this in 6. GSW is worn down from trying to win 73 games, they didn't get any rest at the end of the season. Curry may not be injured, but he looks exhausted. Draymond has lost a little of his mojo, too, maybe exhaustion?

Also, Lebron wants this one badly. And this is the best supporting cast he's had since the early Heatles. Cavs will need Kyrie to be able to punish Steph on the offensive end. The three point shooting of the Cavs will be very important.

Should be a good series. I can easily see GSW winning it, but I have a gut feeling the Cavs will be out for revenge.

any body here gonna watch the game 2nite in NYC? I work by MSG so I might check out a bar. let me know!

Schedule favors the Warriors. If they go 7 games, its spread over 17 days!!!
Wearing down the splash brothers a key. Defensively, Kyrie has to chase Curry. Shump and JR have to keep a body on Thompson, and yes, JR has to stay on point with his emotions both on and off the court.
When the going gets tough, JR usually succumbs to the pressure. He is like the cool guy in class that can't read well, so he creates distractions.

Im sort of neutral on this series. The knick guy in me does not want to see shump and JR win titles but I'd like to see Love and Kyrie win, and Lebron cement a little more history as this generations best player. No, he can't match the perfection of Jordans 6 for 6 and the golden standard that set, but in my mind he eclipses Kobe's legacy because he has not played on as balanced a team as did he, nor coached with Zen. I like to see history made.
There was the Wilt Era, Celtics (team) era, Jabbar era, Magic/Bird Era, Jordan era, Kobe/Shaq era and currently the Lebron Era. As far as the "curry era", its impressive as hell but we have a bit more for him to do before we label him. The Tadem of him and Thompson are perhaps how this should be looked at. Thus,

Cousey/Ramsey/Sharman
West/Goodrich
Frazier/Monroe-Barnett
Magic/Nixon-Scott
Hornacek/Stocton
Jordan/anyone
Lebron/Wade
Curry/Thompson
Kobe/Fish
Iverson/Stackhouse
Thomas/Dumars

Not in particular order. Iverson/Stackhouse more on paper than bling. Rings matter.
As for GSW, the quest of validation is the three-peat standard in this modern era. They are changing the geometry of basketball and how its been played. Not sure it can be replicated by others given the talent they have, and it is fun to watch.

Head Coach Tyrone Lue's Lebron-Cavs over GS in 6 games in the FINALS.
Westbrook stole a game in GS .. Tyrone Lue will steal a game in GS, and so will Lebron

Klay Thompson gets the MVP for the GS vs OKC series .. Plus coach Donovan gets FIRED for changing OKC winning rotation during the final 3 games of the series. OKC won 75% of their postseason games when C/F Kanter receive 20 minute of playing-time per game. In OKC last 3 games vs GS, player Kanter totaled 26 minute of playing-time throughout the 3 games .. 6 min game, then 9 min game, then 11 min game.

Nalod wrote:Schedule favors the Warriors. If they go 7 games, its spread over 17 days!!!
Wearing down the splash brothers a key. Defensively, Kyrie has to chase Curry. Shump and JR have to keep a body on Thompson, and yes, JR has to stay on point with his emotions both on and off the court.
When the going gets tough, JR usually succumbs to the pressure. He is like the cool guy in class that can't read well, so he creates distractions.

Im sort of neutral on this series. The knick guy in me does not want to see shump and JR win titles but I'd like to see Love and Kyrie win, and Lebron cement a little more history as this generations best player. No, he can't match the perfection of Jordans 6 for 6 and the golden standard that set, but in my mind he eclipses Kobe's legacy because he has not played on as balanced a team as did he, nor coached with Zen. I like to see history made.
There was the Wilt Era, Celtics (team) era, Jabbar era, Magic/Bird Era, Jordan era, Kobe/Shaq era and currently the Lebron Era. As far as the "curry era", its impressive as hell but we have a bit more for him to do before we label him. The Tadem of him and Thompson are perhaps how this should be looked at. Thus,

Cousey/Ramsey/Sharman
West/Goodrich
Frazier/Monroe-Barnett
Magic/Nixon-Scott
Hornacek/Stocton
Jordan/anyone
Lebron/Wade
Curry/Thompson
Kobe/Fish
Iverson/Stackhouse
Thomas/Dumars

Not in particular order. Iverson/Stackhouse more on paper than bling. Rings matter.
As for GSW, the quest of validation is the three-peat standard in this modern era. They are changing the geometry of basketball and how its been played. Not sure it can be replicated by others given the talent they have, and it is fun to watch.

Phoenix Suns Hornacek & Johnson
Boston Cetricks Ray Allen & Pierce perimeter shooting in the 4th qtr. are still best in NBA history.
Philly 76ers Iverson & Snow tandem had a season that came real close to matching Mike & Pippin tandem on offense/defense

BRIGGS wrote:Cleveland in 5.

Bill Russell says that it comes down to defense and matchups.

Where do the Cavs have an advantage in matchups?

Lebron, Irving, Love, Smith, Thompson-------> Dellavadova, Frye, Shumpert

versus

Iguodala, Curry, Green, Thompson, Bogut------> Barnes, Livingston, Speights

- Overall, I think this will be a fun series that features star players and ALOT of offense!

- When the cavs replaced coach blatt (who has decided to coach in Turkey next season) with Coach Lue - they changed their philosophy. Thet switched from a conservative defensive team to a fast paced offensive team. players like Shumpert, Mozgov, Tristan and Delly - dont play as much as JR, Frye, Jefferson and other offensive weapons

- Last yr, the Cavs were competitive vs the Warriors because they SLOWED the pace, played DEFENSE, and had several offensive rebounds. Now they want to run up and down and that might play right into the Warriors' hands

- The Cavs might win a game or two simply because of the law of averages. A team with good 3pt shooters can get HOT and win some games. But overall, the lack of defense of: Kyrie, JR, Love and Frye might be too much to overcome

- Ironically, their best lineup might be surrounding Lebron with that defensive-minded of tristan, delly, shumpert and just run that ELBOW series with passing. It allows them to slow the pace, defend and score. However the cavs are paying kyrie and love a lot of money to PLAY not sit the bench

- On the other hand, the warriors have 4 players that can guard lebron: barnes, iggy, green and thompson. No one can STOP lebron but they can take turns controlling him. Zach Lowe made a big deal about who will start (Iggy vs Barnes) on Lebron but i dont think that matters as much. Also Since Moz wont be playing, the cavs wont be able to own the boards.

- Coach Kerr is a nice guy that likes to play his WHOLE bench. He'll play varejao, clark, speights who are one trick ponies who shouldn't be getting mins. When these players play, the other team usually goes on a run. If he can minimize these subs, the warriors will be fine.

- Compared to playing OKC who had the size, length and athleticism, playing the Cavs will be MUCH easier. Not to mention, home court advantage, chasing history, surviving a scare - I think the warriors win this in 6

It's certainly gonna be a different series than last year :) Mo' 3s! Less Delly and Moz! No Blatt.

Barnes and Iggy are two of the best Lebron defenders around, IMO. I'm not sure Cleveland, unless they want to give Delly plenty of minutes, have good Curry and Thompson stoppers.

I'll be curious how Kerr handles tonight's game. Is everyone on a short leash? Is he going to make mid-game adjustments or just let things play out. That first game of the OKC series was almost deadly for GS. Kerr just let the game run without making the obvious changes he made later in the series and . . . GS lost. Seems to me he might have learned from that mistake. Maybe. I'm also curious what the balance is going to be between Curry running things and Green running things. There are ups and downs there but it seems like, overall, GS is better if Curry mostly controls the pace/style of the game and Green is in a supporting role.

Cleveland in 3

The Lebron Cavs will WIN the first game of the Series at Oracle!

Im in favor of the Cavs for having ex-Knick players Frye/Mozgov/Shump/and JR

Paul Pierce guesting tonight. I'm a fan.

John Legend just sang a great National Anthem.

How cool was that Ghostbusters commercial with KP, Melo, Clyde n Spike?

The Magnificent Seven!!!!!

Fuck yeah!

GustavBahler wrote:The longer the series goes on the more Cleveland has to worry about JR unraveling. A shorter series benefits Cleveland, a longer one works in GS's favor IMO.

Just like clockwork, when you need JR the most he lays an egg.

livingston and Iggy where phenomenal

Draymond played an excellent game too and he matches up much better against cleveland than OKC.

Clevelands offense looked shaky and Kyrie who played ok is just a sh1tty team player.

Wow. I was completely wrong. GS's defense was amazingly good . . . if they can keep that defense working, series over. Curry and Thompson were non-factors this evening. Curry partly ran the offense but after a while, Green seemed to be in charge.

Will Cleveland make significant changes? Will we see more Moz in game 3? More Mo Williams? A motivated Lebron?