THE GLAZED DONUT FACE-OFF -- spurs! heat! it's the NBA finals 2014, where little fatasses happen

Spurs disagree with LBJ, say they respect Heat

lol this headline this finals is way too mature, sign of the times

i voted spurs in the season prediction poll way back when and i'm voting for them in 6 or 7 here. largely wishful thinking as i think it could go either way.

imo the spurs shd be favored they are better but not by like a ton, there are aspects of the matchup that favor both teams, good series prob

yeah i'm stoked for this.

looks like vegas is seeing it m/l the same i do

dear vegas be correct love spurs fans
btw put my spurs car flag up and whipped that shit around doing 80 on I-10 what the fuck is up

niice

the parking lot donuts face-off

spurs 7

lurkers out yourselves imo

― Clay, Thursday, June 5, 2014 3:00 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hi!
ilh is one of the first things i read in the morning to see what happened the previous night (i live in europe). best board but i don't know much about hoops and i never get to see games because of time difference so i lurk. i think i outed myself as ilh lurker on last year's poll too. last year was better tho cos i lived in a time zone where the finals were broadcast m/l during my breakfast, tho having to go to work after game 6 was horrible (rooted for spurs last year, still do this year)

Jibe! Welcome back

Voted Spurs in 6 but prob really will be in 7 and who knows what will happen by then Lebron could be a meteor or Boris could throw down a 28-13-8 in game 7

This isn't going to be the thread for Finals chat is it? I'm not gonna have this title at the top of my ILX

Was a little surprised zach Lowe picked so spurs in 7 bc I thought for sure he would go with the combo of "defending champs until dethroned" plus "best player on the planet" but his argument that it was so so so close last year and Miami is arguable a little worse is I think the key one right now

Counter would be that wade is better this year and has gotten better each round (!) but the counter to that counter is that Manu has been great and he was an actual trash barrel with flames coming out the top at points last finals

lurkers out yourselves imo

― Clay, Thursday, June 5, 2014 1:00 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hi. Echoing Jibe, this is a great board but I bow down to you guys far far superior knowledge and don't embarrass myself by posting(I save that for ILF). Went with Spurs in 6 or 7 based on emotion. Last year was sooo crushing.

I recall Manu's flame out last year all too well.

i'm going heat

I bow down to you guys far far superior knowledge and don't embarrass myself by posting

Doesn't stop me from posting!

yeah i picked spurs and when i think about it enough i think spurs but my gut keeps telling me heat. jalen and jacoby were on the podcast kinda befuddled at everyone picking spurs as well. for a series that seems like a real tossup to me there's a bizarre amount of consensus.

xpost me either

I'm glad a couple lurker a posted! Ha, I only really said that because there's like 30+ votes in this poll which has to be a landslide record for ilh. But it's cool you guys are around and feel free to say your thoughts during the series + onward!

the narrative that everyone is repeating -- that the spurs are better this year and the heat are worse -- is probably true for the regular season but the heat at least are playing much better in this year's playoffs than they did in last year's playoffs

another thing i've been thinking about is whether or not the spurs have another strategic counter left a la pack the paint because i imagine the heat will be prepared for that this year

Yeah the coaching duel might end up being the best thing about this series

the narrative that everyone is repeating -- that the spurs are better this year and the heat are worse -- is probably true for the regular season but the heat at least are playing much better in this year's playoffs than they did in last year's playoffs

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Thursday, June 5, 2014 4:22 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is more or less how i feel

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/prepare-for-the-2014-nba-finals-with-lots-of-pictures-of-spurs-and-heat-haircuts--photos-183147980.html

freakin me out rn

Have to give that one to the Spurs.

i thought nothing could beat ginobli face but
http://instagram.com/p/o3Sop6qvEr/

Kawhi hands is my #1.

i dont like those haircuts they are bad

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpZg7HJCcAA0exV.png

the narrative that everyone is repeating -- that the spurs are better this year and the heat are worse -- is probably true for the regular season but the heat at least are playing much better in this year's playoffs than they did in last year's playoffs

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Thursday, June 5, 2014 4:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is a really good point. it's also just really tough to pick against the team with arguably the 2 best players in the series, though the spurs did just beat OKC, so idunno.

idk its not that easy to say exactly how good the heat are playing considering who theyve faced in the playoff

spurs have maybe the 3rd-5th and 7th-14th best players though but this is maybe not the best way of looking at things

idk its not that easy to say exactly how good the heat are playing considering who theyve faced in the playoff

― lag∞n, Thursday, June 5, 2014 6:14 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah. they've eviscerated two top-10 defenses but the spurs offense will definitely test them.

but that said, if the lebron foul game doesn't happen the heat go 4-1, 4-1, 4-1 which is a huge swing from last year, esp wrt the east finals

also i agree with ∞ and have already said it several times but yeah the heat have basically not played an inarguably good team in a couple months

also like, in the three home games against the pacers this playoffs the heat hit top "we look totally unstoppable" gear for extended periods in games 3 and 4 and then for all of game 6. they could only do that last year once vs the pacers, and it was in game 7.

they pacers were very bad tho

but the pacers weren't the pacers by the time the east finals rolled around this year, the nets were completely cooked and coming off a difficult and long first round series, and the bobcats well you know xp to j

like those pacers that the heat looked unstoppable against still took them to six games. one month prior that same pacers team went to seven games against a hawks team that won ~40% of their games this year.

indiana's defense was still very good in the playoffs. it was off their regular season peak but still would've rated top 10 in the regular season.

I lurk here too, voted spurs in 6 or 7. I went to college in SA so they're my home team in a way. (& my fb feed is nuts with spurs fans right now, b/c a bunch of my college buddies stayed in south texas & spurs por vida)

also in europe for the next year+ so I can't watch the finals live unless I wake up stupid early. though one year I was in Turkey during the finals & woke up at a normal-ish early time to see a Shaq Kobe Lakers team live in the finals, which was really disorienting time-wise.

the heat's defense will definitely be tested, no doubt. they haven't played a good offensive team yet.

but like: the #1 off efficiency in the nba in the regular season was the clippers at 109. the heat in the playoffs are at 113.

that difference of ~4 efficiency points is the gap between the clippers and the knicks, who were the #10 offense in the regular season.

so the heat's competition has not been great. granted. but their offense is SMOKING teams. like, beyond unguardable.

what a team does against mediocre/bad competiton can be as telling as what it does vs good competition, and the heat in the playoffs have been like... better than the best offenses in the history of the nba.

do offensive and defensive ratings take into account strength of schedule b/c i think some of these eastern teams might have some highly inflated numbers

indiana's defense was still very good in the playoffs. it was off their regular season peak but still would've rated top 10 in the regular season.

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Thursday, June 5, 2014 6:24 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

top ten is like not that great, its just top third

the spurs offense has also been roasting everyone mostly so i wouldn't be surprised if every game was a shootout

top ten is like not that great, its just top third

― lag∞n, Thursday, June 5, 2014 6:31 PM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that rating also takes into account having to play the heat 6 times and getting blasted half of those times. i'm sure their def eff vs atlanta/washington was right around their normal numbers.

the heat in the playoffs have been like... better than the best offenses in the history of the nba.

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Thursday, June 5, 2014 6:30 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg u r out of control comparing full season numbers w 15 games what does it all mean

it's just for context. how would anyone know what "113" means as a number

well it cld be compared to past playoff runs for instance