the lakers have just pooped their big-boy pants: 2012-2013 NBA regular season thread (part 2)

just looking at the popovich-era spurs' season-by-season records is a thing of beauty.

they've won 12 in a row and 21 of 24 btw

^ unreal

sorry, 11 straight, 13/15, 20/23

very easy schedule next few weeks too

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/54395/john-hollingers-new-view

fluff piece but nice to check in on an old friend

'87-'88 MJ shot 13% from 3, only made 7 the whole year, and still got 35ppg, won MVP, crazy. a wing will never have a season like that again.

how long until we can just say lebron's better than jordan? two more years of this?

overlooking MJ's D imo

btw those heat alternates are p dope if maybe a lil too cute imho

http://images.livemixtapes.com/artists/trapaholics/waka_flocka_flame-duflocka_rant_2/back.png

how long until we can just say lebron's better than jordan? two more years of this?
overlooking MJ's D imo

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 2:43 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lebron's one of the best defenders in the league too

off the ball ? i don't consider him the lock down guy that jordan was in his time.

no he's an incredible lockdown defender, and unlike jordan can do it at 4 positions

But you're also forgetting that, in crunch time, you can put LeBron on almost anyone, pg -> center. Plus, on off-the-ball defense, Miami probably wants him roaming somewhat, which is how he picks up a lot of blocks and steals, rather than playing deny-first D.

Always wonder how different Jordan/Russell/Bird/Magic's numbers would look if they'd played in an era that had better efficiency stats. Feel like if those super-competitive guys knew which shots to avoid / passes to not make / players you'd want to coax shots from / etc., their numbers would look a lot different. Kinda goes w/o saying I guess, but still.

lebron is a really good defender, MJ was better

MJ forever wins cause he never lost to Dirk in the finals, how I break it down

mj got swept in his three straight first rounds and got his ass beat by the pistons in the eastern finals three straight times before he finally broke through though- so it's not like he didn't struggle to get there

obviously he's still the GOAT and it might have been 7-9 straight titles if he hadn't taken a few years off, so lebron's got a way to go...but he's on the right trajectory to get into the conversation when he's done

MJ forever wins cause he never lost to Dirk in the finals, how I break it down

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 11:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no he just couldn't get past the pistons, you're right

Dirkin' Dirk could have beat anyone tbf.

also dirk > anyone on those pistons teams

Remember when MJ kept choking in the clutch and it was a big deal and everyone wondered whether he could ever get over it?
Remember when MJ totally quit on his team in the last few minutes of a conference finals?

MJ couldn't get past the Pistons...until he swept them and they walked off the court like bitches, c'mon that's awesome thanks for giving me a chance to bring that up.

isaiah was really really good and those pistons teams when back to back finals and were better than those mavs. weren't you like 3 yrs old when this happened??

fourth times a charm sure

yeah those piston teams and the defensive rules at the time would have beat the crap out of the Dirk's mavs

MJ w/shitty cast lost to great Pistons teams, excellent counter argument to LeBron totally pissing his pants and losing to Dirk and bunch of moderately good dudes when he had Wade and Bosh, u right

thomas wasn't that good. wasn't even the best player on those teams. the 2011 finals were weird, yeah, idk, but then the 2012 finals happened.

actually i got my dantley dates mixed up, but thomas was still never the player dirk was, even at the start of his decline in 2011

hahaha yeah ok thomas not that good, ok buddy. ok. good one. yeah.

"that" in the matt armstrong sense from last night, meaning not as good as dirk

if only MJ were as good as LeBron, would've swept those Pistons

obviously he was really really good (but probably a little overrated)

good thing you're here to properly rate everyone

like, thomas for instance

Man people scoring points on Dirk nagl. And neither is diminishing the late '80s Pistons, which featured one of the all-time great pgs in his prime, a hall-of-fame shooter, and one of the all-time best defenders/rebounders (not to mention an amazing cast of role-players, which Dirking Dirk had and LeBron has basically never, ever had in his whole career and would greatly benefit from).

LeBron is amazing but idk how I see it he has to make up for 2010 and 2011 playoffs by doing crazy stuff like avg trip dub, 8 titles in 10 yrs, something like that. body of work counts for more than peak play when imo when talking who's the greatest.

hey, MJ needed pippen and bron needed wade. no shame in that

LeBron is amazing but idk how I see it he has to make up for 2010 and 2011 playoffs by doing crazy stuff like avg trip dub, 8 titles in 10 yrs, something like that. body of work counts for more than peak play when imo when talking who's the greatest.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 1:47 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lebron's peak has been going in for about 6 years now and isn't slowing down anytime soon. don't really care about counting rings, but he'll have a few

so at his peak he quit on his team in ECF, and then pissed his pants in 1st Finals against a moderately good opponent. Sounds like G.O.A.T to me.

please don't say that Mavs team was better than '91 Lakers

dude i literally do not care about whose team was better, who has more rings, etc. lebron has played in teams full of jokers his entire career, and save wade and bosh, that's been true of his heat teams too. i'm talking about his individual play

hey, MJ needed pippen and bron needed wade. no shame in that
― manti 乒乓 (k3vin k.), Thursday, February 7, 2013 1:47 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jesus not to have a smh-athon or anything but MJ needed Pippen + a solid, roles-defined cast, which is what LeBron needs much, much more than having Wade and/or Bosh. Kinda banging my head here, but I'm very happy to go through the last 35 years of championship winners and point out how basically every single one -- Old Celtics, Old Lakers, Old Pistons, Bulls, New Lakers, New Pistons, Spurs, even New Celtics, ALL HAD COMPLETE TEAMS WITH STRONG COMPLIMENTARY PLAYERS.

I mean Miami needed otherworldly performances from Wade and LeBron to get it last year, and it's amazing that LeBron is so much better than everyone else that he gives his team a chance to win every year even though he's had pretty shitty overall teams his whole career.

yup

so at his peak he quit on his team in ECF, and then pissed his pants in 1st Finals against a moderately good opponent. Sounds like G.O.A.T to me.
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 1:50 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Heaven forefend the other absolutely insane playoff 4th quarters the dude had, playing on shitty teams where he was the main focus of the opposing team's defense and still would score like 20 straight 4th q. points because he's just that good.

yeah it's almost like the clutchness granny's talking about is mostly imagined

haha riiiiight

dude i literally do not care about whose team was better, who has more rings, etc. lebron has played in teams full of jokers his entire career, and save wade and bosh, that's been true of his heat teams too. i'm talking about his individual play

which, you, possibly you alone, are capable of accurately measuring and judging. it's a team sport dude. a chaotic, flowing one at that. MJ's "individual play" was better, he consistently performed better when it mattered throughout his entire career than LeBron has. Like I said, LeBron has to make up for some stinkers. MJ had almost no stinkers. Go look at his Finals stats, playoff stats.

i'm mostly imagining career Finals avg of 33.6/6/6.

Heaven forefend the other absolutely insane playoff 4th quarters the dude had

point is MJ set the bar by having virtually none of these playoff stinkers. LeBron is great, 2nd greatest ever. At that level, 1 or 2 bad performances in important games matter.

2nd or 3rd greatest. Never saw Russell play, can't accurately judge.