₦airaland Forum

A40:
That's how you opt to interpret it. They could have easily decided to tank and play for a lottery ball. They didn't!

They competed and it showed in their record beating both Cleveland and the Warriors at home

You can't be talking about advantage between two equally matched teams like these. Especially when Golden State is involved. They have won at least 1 road game in the past 6 series so I don't see how you can talk of advantage to OKC till they win both games.

Curry played the regular season game where Lillard dropped 51.

If the Blazers can drop 137 pts on the defending champs. Who born Cavs?

lolawilliams:
All star game doesnt count.. All they do is just joke on the court. Thats not a serious game.. Mayb the title.. I just checked and I notice wester conf took more rings than the eastern conference.
And its just 2 teams that have been winning the title since 2000, lakers, spur, dallas nd gsw won just once... While eastern had 3 pistons, celtics nd miami, so no much diff... but I dnt think title is a way of know a better conf

SIRcumalot:
.
good for them,
we've seen this before in fact we saw it last season with the bucks a team overAchieve and then they have unrealistic expectations.
its the regular season game the wolves beat the warriors too.
the whole world knows it an advantage,it doesn't matter if the warriors have never lost a back-back,as long as OkC has the possibility of winning on their home court it is an advantage.

lolawilliams:
You just said pistons dont shoot well as a team and they beat you in reg season, the hook is cavs got a great defense... Remember the comeback for okc within 90sec in game 1 against gsw in playoffs to win 108_102 combacks are meant to happen.. You call rockets lowly??
What do we call bucks that beat you in reg season then?

SIRcumalot:
Firstly, I never said milsap or hoford will guard dame I don't know where you got that from.
Is there any big on the blazers that can match those two was what I implied

Kyrie is just as good a scorer and they both are bad defenders,saying dame is a better defender isn't saying much.

All this doesn't make the statics wrong DER says the hawks are the 2nd best in the league I believed it same way I accepted It when the warriors where the best defensive team in the league last season despite high scoring,no reason it should change now.

Yeah it is the toughest task in the league but not impossible they (already knocked off an historical great team so it nothing new)especially when you're doing it at home and you've two of the top 5 players in your team.

SmooshCHN:
So Are The Cavaliers This Good Or Are The Raptors This Bad?

Eruditor:
For whatever Milsap and Horford can do, Lilliard and McCollum will do more as was proven by their stats both during the regular and P/Os.

Kyrie is not just as good. Kyrie in his right is an all-star but in the 2016 regular season, he didn't score better than Lilliard. Lilliard is a marginally better scorer and he has waay more range.

I agree that both are not your typical defenders, but Lilliard is still marginally better in that department and the margins can tell some stories. Lilliard's weakness is his glaring inconsistency which isn't something Kyrie cannot be accused of.

I am telling you why the statistics are sometimes flawed. If a team averages 90ppg on offence and concedes 92ppg, they could very well end up last in their conference and still be judged the best defensive team. Whereas another team could average 120 on offence and 99ppg on defence and be the 9th team in terms of defensive ranking.

To emend the correlative flaw, you have to consider that if you scaled down the offence to 100 as a base the team with 120ppg will become 100 on offense and 82.5ppg conceded thus making them better defensively.

What this means in effect is that if GSW laid more emphasis on defence as they usually would, they would have had that 102ppg conceded drop to something in the region of 89/90 ppg. That is why on a good defensive day like game 2 they limited OKC to 91 points.

If we are talking about tough tasks and possibilities then it is the more reason you lot should pipe the Cleveland trumpets low. As it is not that hard a task for GSW to beat them over a 7-game series than it is for any team, much less OKC to beat them back to back.

SIRcumalot:
Is there any metric in the league that will stand up to intense scrutiny ?
Warriors are a great defensive team but focus on offense( and when locked in defensively are the best in the league) atl,is a team whose offense isn't so good and focus more defense to win games.
But this was never about the warriors.

ATL still have teague,they have Schroeder like you mentioned earlier,
they have the better coach the better roster hence are stronger. For however people harp on about heart and courage the team with most talent will win the cavs are way better than the hawks the hawks are Better than the blazers.

Kyrie and dame are too similar for me to pick,Kyrie can be locked in on defence when he has to,I'll point to the last season final series first game.

I am not the cavs fan egging on Cleveland if I was really a cavs fans the path of least resistance to the trophy is what I would pray for and that path is through Oklahoma.

What I find interesting is,
similar situation (series split)okc-gsw. swap any team In the league into the warriors position you and A40 will change your tune.

Eruditor:
The point about stats is that they should be used wholistically to tell the story not one side of it.

ATLs better coach, roster is debatable. Doc Rivers thought he had same and lost. Everyone thought SAS had same they still lost. It boiled down to matchups and people knew OKC were too quick and athletic for SAS so the advantage went SAS away because of their very strong home form. So on that premise, saying ATL are better than PTB doesn't add up. After all, ATL had a better regular season than Cavs last year and still got swept.

Telling me to check Kyrie in game 1 of the NBA finals for defence is like showing me 2000 NBA finals game 4 where Shaq made all his free throws to prove to me that he wasn't a bad free throw shooter.

I didn't claim Lilliard is a defensive stalwart but that he is marginally better than Kyrie at playing defence.

I and A40 are not giving any advantage to OKC because there is nothing guaranteeing them 2 wins at the Chesapeake. So that advantage is non-existent. Same way I would not have given any advantage to the Raptors, had they stolen a game at Ohio.

coded01:
What do you think about this Chinese guy?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLF68bWlVQ0


Which NBA team will be lucky enough to snap him after the olympics?

birdman:
i want a cavs warriors rematch bad.

Eruditor:
What was Lebron doing there?

Mizzzbeee:
Azin i am happy they are so that when they lose, trolling would be so sweetttt that Ewuro4 never still learn since last season

SmooshCHN:
The officials are bent on frustrating these guys.. Someone please drop the link if you're streaming online. I need English commentary.

Donlittle:
I do not know if toronto will win this game, but they are definitely showing the world how to defend against these guys.

Eruditor:
They better win this game. Kyrie and Love are good as dung in this game. They just need to match Cavs bucket for bucket.

Donlittle:
not if lowry is taking them contested threes, they wont win lol.


They should just give the ball to derozan let him create offense.