||| WARRIORS ||| CAVALIERS ||| NBA ||| FINALS ||| 2017 ||| PART ||| 3 |||

gonna post this here so everyone has to read it when they open the thread

my fav outcome of this series wld be cavs winning via bron having the greatest finals performance ever, not cause im really rooting for the them just cause i wld like to see something like that, and it wld be cool to see the dubs lose after adding kd, i do not think thats whatll happen, i think the dubs will win in 5

― lag∞n, Friday, May 26, 2017 7:22 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bron v kd matchup will be very interesting and crucial, both teams will try to not have them guard each other but in the crunch time there will be no choice

remember when harrison barnes went 3-95 games 5-7. he's been swapped for KD. no rest for lebron.

this series is the ultimate challenge for bron and if he can do it he is the goat

maybe kyrie can play a lil D too who knows lol

the warriors cannot be stopped

also k love has looked as good as ever leading up to the finals but the warriors matchup has not been good for him.

Cavs should have Kyrie back on defense to help out, might be a nice change of pace for him.

Cavs in 6

never forget
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0-l1M_870

never happened

z lowe on TT
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19491943/zach-lowe-cleveland-cavaliers-tristan-thompson-becoming-elite-role-player-nba

no it definitely happened, i provided video evidence of this happening, see above for reference xp

im allergic to any evidence of the 2016 finals.

i predict it will come down to two free-throws to be taken by lebron - lebron will make one and miss one, with slightly different free-throw routines for each

lmao

offs so far:
https://bballbreakdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-28-at-6.50.38-AM.png

i really just hope its an epic finals cause otherwise whats the point of having two superteams

yea i don't want any chokers

in that same regard both teams have totally coasted up til now which is weird and adds an element of instability, like u cld see the dubs kinda freaking out when the spurs were torching them before they intentionally injured kawhi

its like training to run a 4 hour marathon then suddenly having to do a six minute 26th mile

this series is the ultimate challenge for bron and if he can do it he is the goat

yep

I agree that it'll probably be Warriors in 5 but I definitely think Bron will be the best player in the series

please no injuries for this series either

^^ injuries would only muddy up the results, which need to be crystal clear this time

stephen a smith changed his official prediction to dubs

yes very sad about that

i would genuinely encourage any posters here who are totally picking the cavs in good faith and not just because they're homers or anything to find your local bookie or log onto bovada and start printing money

don't worry I'm a homer though I do think cavs chances are higher than most people are giving them credit for

what are the odds rn? i would give the cavs at least 40% chance to win

right now it's warriors -240 which is 70/30. it opened at -260 or -270 i think

538 saying it's 90/10

dont forget friends, betting on sports is dumb for making money

i don't gamble but 70/30 sounds ridiculous for a finals to me, let alone 90/10

dont forget friends, betting on sports is dumb for making money

― lag∞n, Tuesday, May 30, 2017 2:14 PM (four seconds ago)

def, but every once in a while there's obvious money to be made. finals 2 years ago was pretty easy money for anyone paying attention.

70/30 seems like a very fair price, even if i think the warriors should probably be stronger favorites. don't think it's attractive enough to bet

90/10 is pretty far out but dont think anyones giving those odds, wonder what it was for that year the lakers beat the nets, had to have been one of the most lopsided matchups ever

538 is probably over-weighting the Cav's regular season after the ASB.

havent read the 538 thing but that's probably right

yeah I'd take 70/30 for sure, but my book doesn't have a price on the series yet, lol

that said I do get a little suspicious of projection systems when they're dealing with superteams like this.

main thing that 538 model doesn't account for iirc is ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ playoff lebron ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

more or less

i recall nate silver saying is ELO model or whatever doesn't really treat playoff basketball as different from regular season

i very rarely bet sports, i think the last time i did was the finals 2 years ago. i just like thinking about it

NBA finals are kind of an interesting betting phenomenon tho, if you're a reasonably discerning and plugged-in fan there can probably be money to be made. combination of the better team usually wins + lots of media attention/terrible opinions by stephen a smith probably cause people to bet on the cavs when they shouldnt, making the warriors odds better

warriors odds are probably as good as they're gonna get because most books probably got a lot of money on the dubs last summer after KD signed

Just remember that LeBron has appeared in 7 consecutive finals but he doesn't have 7 rings.

if u add the number he has to the number jordan has he has 9

also remember that LeBron has yet to be on a team that would manage a .500 record without him

ehhhhhhh

lol he's literally been on 'superteams' since he left Cavs the first time

yeah any of those heat teams and kyrie/love would still easily be over .500 if lebron's place was taken by Arbitrary Defense Man

those Heat teams look a lot less good without Bron dragging Wade's corpse around with him. Cavs numbers w/o him have been pretty awful.

they're what, 4-18 in games Lebron sits?

dont think ur gonna get anyone on board w this one

people (sports fans especially) just enjoy being contrarian

there's no "elite player can't join the team with the best win record" rule.

tbf, this is the entire history of the NY Yankees in a nutshell

man it's awesome being out of pocket for 22 hours a day b/c ALL the takes on these finals are essentially depressing.

it's caused an odd degree of side-taking from ppl who can usually do better (and i'm not just talking about ilh). what happened was a function of the cap spike and little else.

yeah we're stuck with this possibility for the next few years until all the pre-cap-spike contracts wash out. they need to pay curry a proper max finally but klay and dray will still be underpaid for a couple more years.

see to me steph is an incredibly unique and fun player, i don't see how anyone can dislike him

Mouthguard

https://californiastarssite.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/150612_snut_nbagum_curry-crop-original-original.png

is steph the first person to chew on his mouth guard?

do you guys watch football? lotta visible mouth guard action in football

lebron literally stuffed his mouthguard into his tights during the finals

also frankly had the cavs not blown game 3 this probably would have been the finals everyone was hoping for

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, June 13, 2017 11:38 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup its sad

see to me steph is an incredibly unique and fun player, i don't see how anyone can dislike him

when you play a lot of pickup bball with guys <25 yrs old it becomes almost inevitable!

haha tru

Yay to the Dubs! I love all of them, disgusting mouthgaurds and all. KD added the clutch player that they were missing.

thanks Marcos!

Matt Moore, who's been pretty outspoken in his warriors dislike of late, had a good piece last night
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-how-the-warriors-dominance-can-help-forge-a-better-nba/

I know people hate any team that gets good and stays good, comes w the territory. But they play a really fun brand of ball, and they're likable if you can get past them stuntin on your fav team.

they were more fun when curry was the primary guy imo

i've said plenty of times on this board that i didn't really enjoy watching KD in OKC but he was a joy in this series i thought

Yah I was in agreement w okc thunder kd

this team is for sure more fun to watch than the laker superteam i grew up with and all of the lebron teams imo

was the laker team the aforementioned malone/payton "era"?

hmm i guess they only became a 'superteam' when they added malone/payton. prior to that it was just kobe/shaq and good role players, huh. but yes the threepeat lakers team

the second bulls threepeat team is still my ultimate superteam, lots of fun dudes on that squad. i'm sure they were immensely hateable outside Illinois.

I prefer the 1st Bulls 3peat! Younger MJ, Ho Grant, BJ, Pax, Levingston, Scott Williams, Craig Hodges, still felt like an underdog team. Or at least hadn't had the "dynasty" tag slapped on with it's presumption of inevitability.

ya young(er) jordan was the shit too

oh yeah i prefer the first bulls threepeat team myself, i just didn't consider them a superteam in the same way. overcoming the pistons, ostracizing isiah thomas, finishing off the magic/worthy lakers, arguably singlehandedly denying championships to ewing/miller/barkley/malone/stockton/payton, true magnificence.

i was glad that during jordan's retirement the dude who won was Hakeem, he was my favorite NBAer outside of Chicago. I liked Drexler too.

ya hakeem was rad, super fun to watch and an a+ guy too

hmm

In his autobiography, Living the Dream, Olajuwon mentions an intriguing draft trade offered to the Rockets that would have sent Clyde Drexler and the number two pick in the 1984 NBA draft from Portland in exchange for Ralph Sampson.[17] Had the Rockets made the deal, Olajuwon states the Rockets could have selected Michael Jordan with the number two pick to play alongside Olajuwon and Drexler, who had established chemistry playing together during their Phi Slama Jama days in college.

wow

there's an alternate history i wouldn't have minded living in

re: Matt Moore article. Good stuff, and I love the term "gentlemen's sweep!"

Bay Area billionaires out in abundance

If you see this anywhere else but the Bay Area... they bitin #DUBNATION pic.twitter.com/lD6aNfH6SF

— Fall Up Focus (@SBFocus) June 13, 2017

ya young(er) jordan was the shit too

― lag∞n, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 7:37 PM (three hours ago)

the greatness of post-miami lebron has kind of given me greater appreciation for second threepeat era jordan tbh

Final playoff plus-minus leaders:
1. Steph Curry +245
2. Draymond Green +228
3. LeBron James +195
4. Klay T +192
5. Kevin Durant +177

— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) June 13, 2017

agree re: Hakeem. I should go back and watch those 94, 95 playoffs, I was still in MJ-mourning mode at the time. Such a beautiful player to behold.

the dream is my fav all time (non warrior).

I'm still tickled by Stephs 8 reb/game in the finals. Seeing a smaller dude jump into a group of bigs and snag the ball is like watching a squirrel steal someone's half-eaten sandwich and running up a tree at a picnic.

yah he was beastin

how did he even do that crazy, cavs really needed to dominate the boards to have a chance, and the did not

yea that was ridiculous

steph curry grabbing more boards than tristan thompson, rip cavs

that was great/bizarre to see

im in sf today and there is hella fresh warriors gear getting around

the dream is my fav all time (non warrior).

― Spottie, Wednesday, June 14, 2017 6:04 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, man - I LOVE Hakeem. That he came from being a sub-7 foot soccer player to one of the top 5 best two-way centers ever, along with being a great dude, is just the best. His successive ownership of David Robinson and then Shaq in the '95 playoffs is still one of my favorite runs of any player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKIQK2O9Lc