Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

So what do the pacers do to slow down LBJ ?

Poison him.

[redsox4evur]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Maybe break the air conditioner in their arena?

Then crank the heat up to 80 degrees.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I called this right after the trade. Gimme some time to go back and find that post but I definitely remember saying he’ll be relegated to Bosh-Lite playing with Lebron and that someone would have to sacrifice their gam(out of Bron, Kyrie and Love)and Love was the obvious one.

I’m still waiting on these new additions they made back in February to make a difference. Looking at you, Hood, Clarkson and Nance. Their impact in this series has been minimal at best so far.

As for the Wizards series, they lost that one over the last few minutes of the 4th, man. Couldn’t hit a basket over that stretch, Wall looking gassed.

Biggest differences is that Love still finds more ways to have his impact felt. He still rebounds, he's usually the 2nd best passer on the floor, he sets great screens, and unlike Bosh he was already a shooter before hand. Love can find open spots, move without the ball, he still can roll to the rim on screens. Bosh's problem was he would just pick a spot on the floor and stand there. Rarely cut, rarely posted up, didn't crash the offensive glass often, didn't really move to open spots on the floor. I don't think he understood really how to get himself open, more so just hoped that when the defense collapsed that he would be open. Bosh was a much better defender than Love due to his length and athleticism, but behind him at the other end and on the glass. Bosh more so than Love, was a good stats bad team guy IMO at least.

I thought Love had played well to start this season as the second guy. I think his per 36 numbers before the injury were nearly identical to his Minnesota numbers even. Other than his shooting being really inconsistent over the years he's been really good for them. His averages are still good, but he really feels like he's won of those guys who hits nearly everything and scores 30+ or misses nearly everything and scores 12. Averages out well, but it's really up and down.

Definitely agree about those new pieces. They looked good for awhile, then came back down to earth a bit, and now seem to be completely missing. Hood and Clarkson in particular have not been the solid scoring punches off the bench they've needed. At least Clarkson plays with energy and makes the defense work a bit.

Washington should have won that game. But Toronto did do a solid job of closing it out. I think Wall has looked fatigued a few times this series, having that injury in the season set him back a bit in terms of what he would usually look like this time of the year. I still think Washington can take game 6 at home, even though the Raptors probably take the series in 7.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

So what do the pacers do to slow down LBJ ?

Oddly enough I've thought they did a pretty solid job on him most of the series. Even the nights he's had big games they made it difficult, he's had to hit some tough shots and looked really fatigued at the end of some of these games.

With that said last night almost looked like the opposite of that. Felt like he was getting wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. Looked like he could have just said **** it and went for 60 if he really wanted too. Still looked a bit tired by the end of the game though, even though he got that breather early in the 4th.

Not sure what the Pacers need to do specifically, but with how the other guys seem to be playing right now my mindset might be to make the other guys beat me. Could be the game Love and JR get hot and go for 25 a piece and Indy lose the game anyways, but I'd rather take my chances on that than to let LeBron have 40 points and a good rhythm going during crunch time.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

It's wild how much they really need Korver at this point.

Could be easier if the other pieces stepped up as well. Hood, Nance and Clarkson.

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Boston going to finish up Bucks tonight?

[areobee401]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

So what do the pacers do to slow down LBJ ?

Kill his HGH supplier after burning the lab the secret sauce comes from to the ground.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I think Hood, Nance and Clarkson will be a lot better as the playoffs go along. It's pretty clear the playoff basketball intensity has hit all 3 hard.

Hood seemed like he bobbled every pass and lost every dribble in games 1-4....you finally saw flashes of confidence in game 5...I see him building on it..

Nance is playing as hard as he can, which is essentially what you ask from him...just over thinking it a bit in some situations....

Clarkson is probably the next thing the Cavs have to a creator next to LBJ, so they'll need him...but hes been pretty erratic...I think it was Game 2 he had a pretty hot quarter...Lue has to keep trusting him.

That's the glass half full take of course - but all 3 of those guys can ball- I think they'll bounce back...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I want to see these Bucks take it to 7...they look like an entirely different team ar home....

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

[z Revis]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Oddly enough I've thought they did a pretty solid job on him most of the series. Even the nights he's had big games they made it difficult, he's had to hit some tough shots and looked really fatigued at the end of some of these games.



With that said last night almost looked like the opposite of that. Felt like he was getting wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. Looked like he could have just said **** it and went for 60 if he really wanted too. Still looked a bit tired by the end of the game though, even though he got that breather early in the 4th.



Not sure what the Pacers need to do specifically, but with how the other guys seem to be playing right now my mindset might be to make the other guys beat me. Could be the game Love and JR get hot and go for 25 a piece and Indy lose the game anyways, but I'd rather take my chances on that than to let LeBron have 40 points and a good rhythm going during crunch time.

I don’t know... we’ve had some occasional success on him(particularly Bojan and Thad imo) here and there but for the most part I thought the difference was LeBron was in attack mode for damn near the whole game yesterday. In the other games after his bursts of scoring 10-15 straight he had long periods of stretches where he looked gassed and was passive.

I think that is our strategy and has been(letting the others beat us), but while that is the strategy it just feels like there’s been too many miscues on D elsewhere(like losing Korver off a screen for example) and he gets just enough help from his other guys. Couple that with Oladipo not doing much and they’re able to win games not even scoring 100 points.

That said, anyone remember what the Warriors did to LeBron in 2015? Obviously we aren’t the Warriors but IIRC they doubled LeBron quite a bit in that series and he still got points but was far more inefficient. And this Cavs team is similar to that one at least in the sense of not having Kyrie or Love(basically no Love in this series lol).


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[ojandpizza]

Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I think Hood, Nance and Clarkson will be a lot better as the playoffs go along. It's pretty clear the playoff basketball intensity has hit all 3 hard.

Hood seemed like he bobbled every pass and lost every dribble in games 1-4....you finally saw flashes of confidence in game 5...I see him building on it..

Nance is playing as hard as he can, which is essentially what you ask from him...just over thinking it a bit in some situations....

Clarkson is probably the next thing the Cavs have to a creator next to LBJ, so they'll need him...but hes been pretty erratic...I think it was Game 2 he had a pretty hot quarter...Lue has to keep trusting him.

That's the glass half full take of course - but all 3 of those guys can ball- I think they'll bounce back...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

Yeah Nance isn’t so much of an issue, he’s basically giving them something similar to what they’ve gotten from Thompson the past couple of years just to a lesser degree. If they weren’t struggling so much to get points he would probably see the floor for more minutes and average close to a double double. But with them struggling to put up points it’s hard to play him extended minutes because he only scores on offensive boards or rolls to the rim.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I want to see these Bucks take it to 7...they look like an entirely different team ar home....

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

Me too

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[ProfessaPackMan]

Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

I’ve seen more Varajeo in Nance than Thompson, if we’re keeping it 100.

Been good in transition and finding space down low but outside of that, not much else. He did his thing in Game 3 but if we’re judging him based on the results in these playoffs, his impact has been minimal. Maybe he’ll be better against Toronto or Washington, but right now....blah.

Hood is the surprising one because it’s not like this is his first go round in the playoffs but he’s still not doing what he was brought in to do.

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

Gainnis hurt? Place say no

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference Playoffs - 1st Round Discussion Thread

How random is this.

1989 series tied at 2-2 number 23 Michael Jordan hits a game winning shot at Cleveland to score 44 points.

Series tied at 2-2, game 5 at Cleveland, number 23 LeBron James hits a game winning shot to score 44 points.

Both number 23, both game 5, both at Cleveland, both drifting left, both scoring 44 points, both featured a number 22 Larry Nance lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk