₦airaland Forum

birdman:
I agree with you. I think if the Rockets come out of the west, no eastern team has the manpower to play the way they play, or slow them down. Spurs are a dark horse to me...Kawhi is an unselfish superstar, and I expect Popovich and that coaching staff to be ready to spring some surprises. I see how they are resting parker and lamarcus in the name of "injuries"..stiff back today, tingling leg tomorrow . Obviously trying to prep for playoffs on the DL. Warriors are deadly too, but they are a known quantity, and starting 5 chemistry is not close to 100%. Plus their bench is nowhere near as good as last year imo, and the cavs bench has gotten much better.

Not just in your opinion - it is in everyone's opinion including mine. If Curry & Klay don't go back to making atleast 50% of their 3 point shots we may lose 4-3 in the WCSF let alone WCFs. Other than that, our only hope is for KD to come back to give us the 27 points that have been missing from our recent average of 103ppg.

Cavs bench appears better on paper but their game against Houston was one particular game I watched critically and I still saw the same game play that made them 3-1 down against GSW in the playoffs. People forget that LeBron literally had to play like god for his team to come back in that series coupled with the suspensions and injuries. Ofcourse, this is not a post that is taking anything away from their ring but I am just saying all that 3 point shooting and ISO ball is not their true identity or rather not the system that will make them win another ring (maybe the East but not the NBA finals). They are a grind team. Finesse won't work. If they dare play this game where Lebron takes 11 3s and Kyrie 10 against any team in the west including GSW (Without KD). They will lose. Bench or not.

No disrespect to the Cavs but, it is still the western teams that worry me. SAS are playing solid with great ball movement and tight defending. You can tell they are moving the ball so as to create clean looks for the shooter. They play close to zero Iso so they are harder to predict. I know we say this often here but I don't think the East will beat the team that comes out of the west this year. That is how clear it looks at this moment.

Harden played good defence on Kyrie and Houston's rebounding is scary with Capela and Nene.

SmooshCHN:
I swear I'm shook. If you point this out to people they'll say it's excuse, you're exaggerating without even watching what kind of abuse Curry goes through.

The people who argue about Harden's MVP candidacy do so identifying his ploy to aim for the FT over and above anything and they are right. Dude had 8 in the first half alone but can't blame him as he knows how to draw those.

SIRcumalot:
cavs have shooters too but you can't get into a shooting contest with the rockets
i would guard the three and live with some shots,if you guard that three line too much they would get even more layups via back cuts.
you've got to let kyrie and bron occasionally,do their thing.

I agree. Just noted it in the first quarter when it wasn't really working but RJ turned to last season's Curry and hit 6 3s and the narrative changed.

Lebron is getting carried away and relying on his 3point shot. He should keep getting to the paint and put Capela in foul trouble. I guess his bad FT % is playing in his mind.

SIRcumalot:
cavs already beat them once this season.
as for their weakness,easier said that done all of them can shoot threes can't guard them all.
also cavs don't iso that much you make it seem that is their staple offense.

Yea, when Cavs were balling. They have iso-ed alot in this game that's what I noticed. One would think it is keeping them ahead in this game but it is the 7-11 they shot from the 3 that helped them 2nd quarter.

SmooshCHN:
This game is going well.

See the type of fouls Harden dey get?

SIRcumalot:
this cavs-rockets should be good.

Looking good so far. I doubt I would wait till the 4th quarter though. Cavs play a lot of iso. I can't fear them even without KD if they continue to play that way.

Houston is genuinely scary. They are outrebounding Cavs and they shoot lights out better than GSW at this point. Their weakness will be taking them off the perimeter and forcing them to take more mid range shots. It seems to offset the rhythm of their offense.

A40:
Nothing bad with going through shooting slumps but he is still not feeling the game and giving it what it needs any given night. The inability to keep things simple as a passer is also disheartening. Maybe he is a PG merely by function of his height because the turnovers are just not acceptable.

I could not agree more. Been complaining about the lethargic TOs especially the ones through sloppy behind-the-back passes.

Simeone said it; that the higher-ups were hell bent on giving La Liga to RM. They couldn't handle the fact that in the last 9 seasons this will be RMs 2nd.

Glaring red card for Navas but somehow the ref totally waives it off.

dmcdad:
Nonsoroyalty?? E don tey sha...

Yea! That's his name.

A40:
Ironically Leflop personally whines about not getting calls yet fans can't talk when it happens to Steph

As long as they have someone they can compare with Jordan they are fine.

A40:
I don dey talk about Draymond since. Can't be so inept offensively. He can do so much better

Steph is also not doing enough let's not kid ourselves

So painfully true. I am tired of deceiving myself defending him.

10d0ve:
I never thought there was someone on here that hates the Rosell /Bartomeu board as much as I do, until today!

Ah, there is someone else. I forget his name. He said he lived in Spain for a bit and followed Barca over there. He hated them as much.

mcdreeezy:
But there was a time I use to see your posts a lot on Bayern thread arguing with Dayo. I use to think you're a Bayern fan oh.


Well, good to know.

I never argued with Dayo till the Henry thingy. I actually used to go to the Bayern thread to defend Pep .

SmooshCHN:
I agree Ian who has been the most improved at Golden State has been playing well making his shots and cutting to the basket like Klay, McCaw who plays stellar defense, McGee, MacAdoo, Shawn and Iggy should be kept. The rest are just to blow out games. I'm sure everyone would figure it out what to do. Everything's just stinking right now it'll take time to pass. The guys would figure it out. Draymond is being lazy these days. Using defense as an excuse not to play offense. He needs to step since our Splash Bros are still glitching

Everyone got lazy tbh. They started getting free 27pts per game so nobody needed to do more than was necessary. The KD injury could also double as a motivating factor. We beat Houston and partly Portland without Curry last season.

mcdreeezy:
Chairman are you not a Bayern Munich fan?

Fully Blaugrana. Fully anti-Rosell and Bartomeu. Cried when Pep left. Criticized Enrique till 5/6 trophies in first season. Decided to post sparringly on this thread because of the plenty in-fighting.

SmooshCHN, don't you think Ian Clark should play SG for us while we move Klay to SF to accommodate the loss of KD. I was thoroughly impressed with his 36 points (15/21) yesterday and he seemed to be the only player on our bench that is efficient and can make his own shot.

McCaw (bless his heart) had a horrendous game. Shaun is considering a career in bricklayering. D West is passed it. Looney is not fit for pro basketball and McGee needs a playmaker to make buckets. The only other player that is worth anyone's time is Zaza who surprisingly made a few good passes, rebounds and blocks.

What do you think?

You guys don't know Bartomeu. He is very sly and a protegé of Sandro Rosell. Ask yourself, who would Sandro Rosell hire? A coach that would come and have a bigger personality then the president?

SmooshCHN:
LeMarcus Aldridge out with abnormal heartbeat. These Spurs are crazy

It is good for the NBA. Let their much televised game lose ratings.

Muna15:
The Dude talked about Leadership, not just mental strength. Curry's mental-touchness makes him continue to shoot 3's despite his recent failures but I think leadership involves more than that.

He referred to mental toughness and even restated what he had said in a previous post.

If we are referring to leadership, you may have a point but Curry has a ring and Harden and KD don't. If anyone then wants to claim he did not lead his team to winning the ring they may need to make an argument with facts only they would imagine.

Muna15:
And where was Curry's leadership when his 73-9 team blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA-finals?

You forgot to add that

Good question. That is my point; because someone did not play well does not mean they lack the mental strength to. I mean, all Curry's life he was being told "not good enough, too small, too fragile, one trick pony" etc and the same player has a ring and 2 MVPs to show for it yet his mental-toughness is still being questioned.

A player that was pivotal to his team's 67-15, 73-9, 1 ring 2 finals season is the one that needs KD to carry his team?

SIRcumalot:
eruditor you no curry isn't the first superstar to not get calls right?
Rose in his prime doesn't get them too and he drives all the time don't how things are with the Knicks now.

when I have the energy I go ask you how you arrive at this mental-toughness stuff.

Sure, never claimed he was the first but my issue with his own is that when he plays the same type of defence against the opposing PG he gets the foul calls which forces Kerr to bench him thus limiting his rhythm and productivity. I believe I also addressed his shooting slump which has taken a lot from his groove and confidence. But if we downplay the significance of FTs from the top FT shooter in the NBA, we would be remiss.

For evidence, see how many FTs LBJ got after game 4 in the Playoffs. I mentioned game 4 because it was after that game that Lue began to complain about Lebron not getting foul calls.

Decale:
Make una leave NBA out of this one. Curry dey fire without FT, Wetin come happen?

Everybody was expecting fire from Curry in KD's absence now...

So wait, if a player is fouled each time he tries to score which prevents him from scoring, yet the foul is not called. He should go to the score board and give himself the point?

sapiosexual1:
I still stand by my previous assertion that Curry hasn't got the mental toughness to be the go-to guy in a superstar team when all eyes are on you. In no way can his leadership be compared to that of a LeBron or KD or Kawhi or Harden.
Curry is no doubt a talented player who rides on the crest of success but when the chips are down, he goes into hiding.
His fanboys would come at me again with bogus stats while quietly praying that he suddenly finds his range.
Hello fanboys!!

So where was Lebron's leadership when Dallas beat Miami 4-2?
Where was Kawhi's leadership when OKC drubbed Spurs 4-2?
Where was KD's leadership when a Curry-led GSW beat OKC (with Russell and KD) 4-3?
Where was Harden's leadership when a Curry-led GSW beat his team 4-1 in 14/15?

Go to your google searchbox and type "Curry foul calls" to see what people are saying online about how he doesn't get foul calls for a current MVP. Then bring any videos of Curry complaining about it.

I think my own previous assertion that you do not know what mental-toughness means still stands

SIRcumalot:
that ref wasn't good to curry at all.
KAT and Wiggins had periods in the game were they both played horribly

I wasn't going to watch the spurs game because of kawhi absence but Kerr don make the game dey alright by resting four warriors to balance out kawhi .

LOL @ 4 players. A loss to GSW will still have us a game and half infront plus I think it is a "middle-finger" to the NBA for the Wolves game.

SIRcumalot:
makes you win game period.
has it even be ten games since he went down against the wizards ?
we all would like to see the warriors fire on without KD (to show he joined the easy road) that hasn't happened.
lastly all that bullshit fouls curry doesn't get,KD gets them all the time.

I am not sure you got me. When he plays and we win, we usually blow teams out or have comfy leads. We never had that all game but whenever a game was close even in his presence we didn't win it. We have missed him easy but that game against Wolves was down to bad officiating (never mind how bad Curry has shot the 3 ball).

I just saw the video of the slide tackle Rubio put on Curry and even that wasn't called. Rubio had more FTs than GSW and Wiggins had 4FTs down the final stretch of possessions when Wolves couldn't make a bucket. This is painful.

My prayer goes to Curry though (slightly even more than KD). One of the reasons I went to bed was that I couldn't stand the sight of him bricking that many 3 balls. I really don't know what's happening in his head or home, but some thing is wrong.

SIRcumalot:
wolves almost forked up this game for themselves.
pray for KD warriors may lose this first seed without him.

KD makes us win games more convincingly and that's about it. We lost 3 close games when he was still fit and we have lost close games again in his absence. That's what is actually disconcerting; the fact that Playoff games are close games for the most part. And we still haven't figured out how to win it. Yet Spurs tend to do that so effortlessly and consistently.

SmooshCHN:
No!! That was a previous foul..You see these refs. They didn't want to call a foul after Klay held RuRush after the missed clutch

After 3rd Quarter I went to bed. The kinda foul calls Curry does not get worries me because Harden and WB get calls for people breathing around them.

The biggest mistake Spurs made was lose to OKC the other day. I suspected the NBA would find any way to make today's game more important than it should be. Anyways, Since it is a back to back, I endorse the rest. Even with an L, GSW will still be ahead by half before the next game. That game is the decider because I think they will shake this bad run off soon.

I know they claim Wolves had improved since the All star game, but really, apart from GSWs slumpy shooting and loss of points to second chance putbacks by Wolves, the foul calls were incredible. See the softest Tech Draymond received for his tackle on KAT- when Curry barely got to the line all game (in fact zilch when I was watching).

Smoosh where are you? Second chance points and bad 3 point shooting affecting us again. The NBA needs to do something about all the foul calls Curry doesn't get. It is sickening to watch. Wiggins literally held Curry's jersey till the lay up and the refs unlook.

SIRcumalot:
who asked you to stay in the wild wild west ? .
my concern is for the Cavs to play the smallest amount of games possible in the EC then patiently wait for who ever comes out of the west.

if the wolves Solo una Tonite start remembering KD in your prayers.

KD will be back for the playoffs. Now praying we keep top seed by some chance.

Curry, please cut down on the TOs and attack the rim more. 10 points down in the first quarter. Good start from Klay. Seems he might save us today.