2018 NBA Catch-All - LeBron Fallout Edition

I actually agree with you. That was just a crazy shot.

But Steph's step back on the next possession was sweet too. And like you said he can do anything with the ball, much more threatening.

Whelp. Harden shrank in the moment again and Golden State just has too much. It would have been kind of fun to see a different matchup. I was starting to buy into that.

I think it is a totally different game if Paul plays. Pretty impressive that Houston was able to keep it so close, just terrible luck sunk them.

LeapingGnome wrote:

I think it is a totally different game if Paul plays. Pretty impressive that Houston was able to keep it so close, just terrible luck sunk them.

Yeah.

A shame Paul got injured and of course the bad shooting luck. It would have been fun this summer to see if Golden State imploded from going out in the Conference Finals.

1/30 from three?

That's some major poopy pants.

Best result for us LeBron haters tho

Is 0-27 some kind of three point record?

Probably.

@Herring_NBA wrote:

The postseason record for 3-point attempts without a make was 11 coming into this past week. Then Harden tied it a couple games ago. And Ariza, as of right now, just broke it with a 12th miss.

7-44 from 3. They hit 4 more 3's, they'd be 11-44, which is still AWFUL but they'd have won.

I'm going to stop having big meals during Game 7s from here on out.

At least I can watch the finals now. Whew.

I’m trying to figure out Harden’s comp. League leading scorer who might never win a title because he shrinks in the moment.

T-Mac?

Every other player I can think of with his scoring pedigree either won a title, was never close to one (Vince Carter, Alex English) or left it all on the court (Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley).

I don't think I'd call that bad shooting luck. Just... The Rockets trust the math and it got the better of them. Nobody on their team shot better than 40% on threes for the season. The guys taking the bulk of threes for GSW are three of the greatest shooters in history.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I don't think I'd call that bad shooting luck. Just... The Rockets trust the math and it got the better of them. Nobody on their team shot better than 40% on threes for the season. The guys taking the bulk of threes for GSW are three of the greatest shooters in history.

Correct. Also, Trevor Ariza:

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Blind_Evil wrote:

I don't think I'd call that bad shooting luck. Just... The Rockets trust the math and it got the better of them. Nobody on their team shot better than 40% on threes for the season. The guys taking the bulk of threes for GSW are three of the greatest shooters in history.

Yeah. This is probably the bottom line.

DSGamer wrote:

I’m trying to figure out Harden’s comp. League leading scorer who might never win a title because he shrinks in the moment.

T-Mac?

Every other player I can think of with his scoring pedigree either won a title, was never close to one (Vince Carter, Alex English) or left it all on the court (Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley).

I think you're being a little harsh on him. The deciding two games were 4 all stars against one. Want a comp? Allen Iverson vs. The 2001 Lakers.

Blind_Evil wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

I’m trying to figure out Harden’s comp. League leading scorer who might never win a title because he shrinks in the moment.

T-Mac?

Every other player I can think of with his scoring pedigree either won a title, was never close to one (Vince Carter, Alex English) or left it all on the court (Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley).

I think you're being a little harsh on him. The deciding two games were 4 all stars against one. Want a comp? Allen Iverson vs. The 2001 Lakers.

I think Allen Iverson had more heart than Harden.

Maybe. But I think they had about the same chance in these particular circumstances.

Interesting from The Ringer: since 1999 only one finals has not involved a team from either Texas or California. Can you name off the top of your head? I had to go year by year to get to

Spoiler:

2012,
Heat over Thunder.

Well a lot of that is the Spurs...

Spurs, Lakers, Golden State

The last one I can think of is Utah - Chicago but that was before 99.

fangblackbone wrote:

Well a lot of that is the Spurs...

Spurs, Lakers, Golden State

The last one I can think of is Utah - Chicago but that was before 99.

I'll give you a hint, two of the players that were in that Final are in this one.

My favorite similar fact.

Every NBA Finals since 1999 has involved at least Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Shaq or LeBron James (sometimes 2 of them).

Morning after thought for me:

I don't wanna hear any Yeah, But regarding Chris Paul being injured.

Winning a championship is an organization-wide effort. Part of the Rockets organization decided Chris Paul was the answer. He certainly surged them to new heights. However, Chris Paul is the same guy that missed the end of the 2016 and 2017 playoffs with injuries. They either knew about that risk and it bit them in the ass, or they didn't, which means they did a poor job of scouting.

Glad the Warriors won. A Rockets team with an injured Chris Paul has a chance to lose to Lebron. Golden State is just going to crush them every game. I mean I'm not going to watch yet another Warriors/Cavs series but Lebron getting crushed yet again is the only redeeming factor here. If this helps him decide to go out West next year even better.

What is greatest in life?

To crush LeBron, have the Cavs driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the Gilbert.

I can’t imagine this matchup 4 years in a row will be good for ratings on a national level. I guess we will see.

Don’t get the LeBron hate. Doesn’t feel like people hated Jordan or Kobe on this level. Granted they didn’t hop to a new team right in the middle of their careers. Well I mean Jordan did go play baseball for a bit.

I mean could be worse. He could pull a Durant move.

I don't get it either Guru. Sure he whines a bit to much to the refs, and he checks out on plays sometimes, or quarters when he feels they have no chance. But that is about it, I am not sure what people's beef is with him that isn't just driven by homerism. There are many more hateable players in the NBA.

I can sort of see the frustration that he has a tendency to cut the legs out from any eastern conference team that has potential. Non of them can take the next step because LeBron says "nope". That being said, is he supposed to be not so dominant to be fair to the other teams?

But that doesn't also mean that him moving to the western conference wouldn't be one of the healthiest things to happen to the NBA in years. The scary thing is it will probably also improve his game :0

Lets be clear here. Despite the toxicity it generates in the NBA, Hero Ball wins. Its proven.

I don't follow basketball but enjoy watching playoff sports and watch sports channels. LeBron annoys me because he seems to enjoy bringing up how great he is and sometimes throws teammates under the bus at the same time.

As an athlete he is fun to watch though.

EvilDead wrote:

I don't follow basketball but enjoy watching playoff sports and watch sports channels. LaBron annoys me because he seems to enjoy bringing up how great he is and sometimes throws teammates under the bus at the same time.

As an athlete he is fun to watch though.

For the amount of accomplishments he has and the absolute mountain of expectations he has lived under since he was a 15 years old I am uncertain how he is supposed to NOT mention how great he is. Point to another athlete that has had unreal expectations that they not only met but absolutely DESTROYED. Tiger Woods is the closest I can think of and he still managed to throw the final 40% of his career away after initially dominating the PGA.

I'm also afraid I cannot take your criticism of James seriously if you are not even informed enough on the subject to spell his name correctly.

Player Hater wrote:

I'm also afraid I cannot take your criticism of James seriously if you are not even informed enough on the subject to spell his name correctly.

Fixed. No reason to be an @ss about it.

Player Hater wrote:

For the amount of accomplishments he has and the absolute mountain of expectations he has lived under since he was a 15 years old I am uncertain how he is supposed to NOT mention how great he is.

Self control?

I don’t get the LeBron hate either. The Decision was dumb and I doubt he’d do it that way again at this point, but it’s in the past. And he took Cleveland to the Finals for the last 4 years and won a title there. That has to be worth some forgiveness.

Meanwhile he’s accomplished something few players (West, Cousy, Russell?) have ever done. And with different teams which is even crazier.

My deep-seated worry is that I don’t know how he’s doing this, all the minutes. That’s the only negative I can come up with, that at a certain point it might look fishy to some people that he can play 48 minutes at 33 in his 100th game of the season.