2018 Watch the Playoffs thread

[magicdoc1 261]

2 hours ago, Mike1989 said:

First thing to consider here is the difference Kevin Love made in the Toronto series. In four games he scored 7, 31, 21, and 23 points which is an average of 20.5 per game. In the series against Indiana he scored 9 (L), 15 (W), 19 (L), 5 (W), 11 (W), 7 (L), 14 (W) which is an average of 11.4 per game. He scored 82 points in four games against Toronto compared to 80 points in seven games against Indiana. Now perhaps that backs your point up that the Toronto Raptors were pathetic in this series, however the flip side of that argument is that Kevin Love was not very good against Indiana and perhaps the Pacers were better suited to shutting him down. Had Kevin Love turned up against Indiana then I don't think the series would have gone to seven games, the Cavaliers would arguably have won it in less. 

Second thing to consider here is that the Cavaliers are still led by two all star caliber players, one of whom is still playing like the best player in the league. People call the guy but LeBron is still the best in the league as far as I'm concerned. LeBron averaged 34 per game against the Raptors. You can see what Love scored above, add LeBron's 26, 43, 38, and 29 points, and that means those two players put up 33, 74, 59, and 52 points combined in that series against Toronto. That duo would cause problems for the majority of teams in this league. The only reason the Warriors would probably sweep them or win in five games is because they have Curry, Thompson, Durrant, and Green in their line up. The Cavaliers don't have that quartet they have a star duo. The other thing to consider here is that I don't think anyone would legitimately take Lowry and DeRozan over LeBron and Love. 

With that said this is still a talented Cavaliers team. Kyle Korver and JR Smith are knocking down over 40% of their three point attempts. George Hill and Jeff Green are playing decent all round basketball for them, much to the chagrin of Kings and Magic supporters after witnessing what those two did for them. Their bench unit has some athleticism and energy when they come onto the court via Larry Nance Jr, Tristan Thompson, Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson. Now I won't dispute they are weaker after losing Kyrie Irving, but he's realistically the only loss from this year's team from previous years. Who else have they lost that would make them stronger? No one really. Iman Shumpert (average bench player), Deron Williams (past it), Richard Jefferson (past it), Derrick Williams (never really had it), and James Jones (barely played and picked a salary due to being close to LeBron). I suppose an argument could be made about Channing Frye because he was a useful stretch four off the bench, but if his subtraction makes this the worst Cavaliers team in years then boy did they underplay him!

Now perhaps you meant that this is the worst Cavaliers team because they finished fourth in the eastern standings, but here's something to remember they have only finished top of the eastern conference in one of their four seasons (15-16 when they won the title). In 14-15 and 16-17 they finished second. This year they finished fourth. You might argue that makes them the weakest Cavaliers team yet, but they have faced more competition in this year's eastern conference than in previous years because the 76ers have arrived on the scene, the Celtics have played brilliantly without Hayward and Irving leading the way, and the Raptors to their credit played really well in the regular season. So call the Cavaliers out if you want to, but the Cavaliers are still a very good basketball team that managed to reinvent themselves mid season and now look on course for a fourth finals appearance unless the Cetlics/76ers can stop them. So it really doesn't matter how well they compare to previous Cavaliers teams because they are still a very good team led by one of the greatest players of all time still playing like the best player in the league, supported by a proven all star in Kevin Love.

Again, I'd say there's no shame in losing to the Cavaliers because no one would take the Raptors team on paper over the Cavaliers team. Sure you can be angry and embarrassed that you didn't take a game off them, but they nearly did in game one and three that they lost at the death. Had they won those games the series could have looked very different. They didn't and they got swept. Fine. It happens. However, I would caution them blowing that team up in pursuit of building something better because if you aren't lucky you get stuck like we have and the Kings have in the lottery for many, many years, with no sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it is better to appreciate what you have and enjoy it, then blow it up in the pursuit of a fantasy that doesn't happen for the majority of teams. I wish we could turn back the clock to before the Dwight Howard trade happened. Granted that split was for different reasons but had they been able to patch things up and move forwards together, I would happily take more seasons of competing in the east even if we didn't win a title over starting a rebuild in the pursuit of building something better on a whim. Now I guess you don't know unless you try, but if rebuilding was easy we would have done it by now, instead we haven't and we are arguably looking at a reboot this off season (we are now 6 seasons without play off basketball). Other teams haven't managed to rebuild successfully either, so there is no easy way to do it, and most of time it takes a bit of luck. If you aren't lucky, you end up stuck. So if the Raptors blow it up and decide to gamble, that's up to them, but there is no guarantee that they will rebuild successfully or rebuild anything better. 

You typed all of this using your phone?

I think this will go as the longest non-read post of the year. 

[jjgator 164]

26 minutes ago, magicdoc1 said:

You typed all of this using your phone?

I think this will go as the longest non-read post of the year. 

It isn't unusual. I can do that swiping thing almost as fast as I can type and I type about 60 wpm. 

[The Boss 129]

Mitchell 22 points in the 3rd to get Utah back in the game, he's a real gem.

[MagicFan1234 124]

16 minutes ago, The Boss said:

Mitchell 22 points in the 3rd to get Utah back in the game, he's a real gem.

Too bad he got hurt

[~O~ 565]

Hey Man.  Chris Paul wants to win.  Jesus.  His performance has been beautiful.  I think he strung together 6 straight threes and probably 12 straight shots with no misses.  He could not miss.  Dude was on fire.  I've never seen him that focused before.  

[MagicFan1234 124]

2 minutes ago, ~O~ said:

Hey Man.  Chris Paul wants to win.  Jesus.  His performance has been beautiful.  I think he strung together 6 straight threes and probably 12 straight shots with no misses.  He could not miss.  Dude was on fire.  

Nice playoff game for Paul

[~O~ 565]

2 minutes ago, MagicFan1234 said:

Nice playoff game for Paul

Nice?  Nice???  Dude didn't even get to the line during that fourth quarter.  Didn't need the referees for ****.  He shut Utah down mentally without any help.  That was pure will.  Dude was *****ing balling while harden was no where to be found.  CHRIS PAUL TOOK THE GAME OVER MAN.    That was a performance of the playoffs for me.  

[MagicFan1234 124]

24 minutes ago, ~O~ said:

Nice?  Nice???  Dude didn't even get to the line during that fourth quarter.  Didn't need the referees for ****.  He shut Utah down mentally without any help.  That was pure will.  Dude was *****ing balling while harden was no where to be found.  CHRIS PAUL TOOK THE GAME OVER MAN.    That was a performance of the playoffs for me.  

If you say so

[Justin Jaudon 221]

15 hours ago, ~O~ said:

Sigh.  Ill break down this overbearing mispresentation later when im not on my phone.  

I meant to misrepresent nothing, oh wise sage, one who sees what is hidden.

 

You have revealed that Toronto's players should all be third stringers:

On 5/8/2018 at 12:00 AM, ~O~ said:

As for Toronto......the egg has been laid to rest.  This Toronto team shouldn't make it to the playoffs at all next year. They need to stop wasting peoples time and dismantle this team and their coaches.  Stop wasting years with this piece of **** core.  Trade them away so they can be BENCH..players or third strings as they should.  Goodbye Lowry.  Goodbye Derozan.  Goodbye Casey.  

 

Even with new acquisitions of star players, I don't think Toronto could ever mentally overcome LeBron James as an organization.  I think their fanbase is traumatized by this.  

And that LeBron's greatness is built upon the lies of NBA officials:

On 5/7/2018 at 2:21 PM, ~O~ said:

See. We're not talking about those plays.  I already mentioned this a couple of pages back.  I said these are legitimate scoring.  Im talking abiut the plays early on in the game where he bulldozes through people.  I watch the course.of the game and every point counts.  If he's not getting and1 off his offensive fouls, his point totals would go down dramatically.  If you take away that from him, he'll start throwing up his brick show. It psychologically effects any momentum he could build.  As hes plat8ng catchup now with unreliable mediocre teammates

Your great knowledge, learned from the sacred space simulators, is known to us all:

On 4/27/2018 at 8:57 PM, ~O~ said:

 I've watched too many space documentaries and used too many space simulations not to believe aliens don't exist.  What people need to understand is the Great Filter which I doubt previous alien species survived.  We definitely won't survive and I'm completely satisfied with that.  If you really want to know how vast the universe is, Space Engine is what you need to download which might cause an existential crisis.   In essence everyone is small to me no matter the illusion they try to use that.  An excess on physical things depends on context.  Excess of things I use to have until I realized that damage.  These can be red flags.  

Scaling everything to the universal size, no one on this planet matters or in fact never mattered because of the time and gravity.  We'd have to break physics or warp it like a black whole.  Hell, even this Terra didn't need us to exist for it to exist.  "The earth is dying"....No.  Our ecosystem for continuity is which is at our own fault.  The earth...will be fine.    

----------------------

As for my post, its important for everyone to have read that post before you criticized it or made some cliched dismissal of it.    I didn't even mention referees or cared for the call.  It was the comments that it was not a goal tend that was troubling which it is.  I actually didn't watch that game. I went to YouTube and saw the replay and slowed it myself.  I also slowed the replay of the out of bounds play off lebron.  The out of bounds play was off lebron's finger tips.  The block was not only a goal tend but a foul.  Should have been a free throw with that.   The comments were that it wasn't a goal tend when its off the backboard.  I don't know who created those accounts and liked all those comments but no collective amount of people can't be that stupid to not know  that its always a goal tend if its blocked off the backboard almost immediately.  This...right here is troubling.  

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Currently, we live in a society where we're slowly suppressing our feelings or conforming to groups(tribes) mentality.  Our country has become sensitive to anything that remotely offends anyone.  Humans are meant to be angry by nature but it depends what they are angry about.  When they actually have a *****ing point, they shouldn't be silenced.  Instead, today people will meme you which will take away from your argument and/or various other tactics.  They'll use cliche terms or statements that they cleverly picked up from other people who used the same cliche terms or states to dismiss the said argument.  Some philosophies driven socially can be dangerous and everyone needs to be aware of who they are to know what they support isn't dangerous.  They most of all need to be aware of who the support.  

My concern begins when people want to suspend REALITY for a delusional cause or agenda.  Especially for BONDS like the american dollar.  I see some of you are okay for that. 

How did we get here today without people challenging the status quo?  We definitely wouldn't be this far if people didn't have Lasers, ballistics, robotics, physics of every degree, telecommunications, stealth, nuclear fission, penicillin, refrigeration, flight, radio, navigation, economics, chemistry, acoustics, and scientific theory if no one said anything or challenged themselves to do these things.  These things wouldn't be mastered without critique and some still have yet to be mastered.  

 

Thanks TMF and fan for far too long.  I guess you've seen the same bull**** for far too long I guess..lol.  

So please, sir. Do not chastise your disciple. If I have erred, misrepresented you, it is clearly the fault of the feebleness of words to express your great mind. No longer speak to us in mongrel English. Use the divine language learned at your computer screen while playing a space simulator and `thinking so hard it pisses you off`. Some, nay most, among us will not understand. But at least your brilliance won't be misunderstood.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

Statement game for Chris Paul. Now let's see what they do against the Warriors. Should be a terrific series

[~O~ 565]

Ok. So we've settled for the omnipresent all seeing trolling religious context trolling.  At least its more creative.  Better than the picture memes. 

Those were all opinions.  Some exaggerrated out of frustration with the east.  

[Soul Bro 1,419]

How can Derozan be this bad in the playoffs??? Look at these advanced stats:

http://stats.nba.com/player/201942/?Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Playoffs