• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Official 2007 NBA Playoffs Thread - In Memory of Agent Zero

Status
Not open for further replies.

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
ryutaro's mama said:
....and avoiding this thread until 5 minutes left to go in the 4th quarter of a decided Game 6.

i don't post in here everyday, but i've posted before tonight.
 

themadcowtipper

Smells faintly of rancid stilton.
Hinder covering Born to Be Wild..........................................................................................................................................................
pleasekillme.jpg


Damn Sir Charles comment...I can hear the network execs cussing
 

Loki

Count of Concision
Just got back from watching this with some guys at a friend's house. Amazing game by Cleveland in all respects: on the boards, defensively, with their poise, and with everyone stepping up when it mattered. Detroit got outworked, and I felt they went too hard at Lebron defensively after his game 5 explosion, which compromised their defense and left them scrambling.


Detroit was ice cold tonight, but give the Cavs' defense a lot of credit -- even on the second and third pass around the horn, they were recovering and managing to get hands up to contest shots. If teams continue to play Lebron like this he's going to be putting up sick numbers in a couple of years as his off the ball game develops. One thing I noticed about Lebron is that he passes out of double teams almost immediately (which is what you should be doing, but which many star players don't do and end up trying to do too much and either turning it over or throwing their offense out of whack). However, once he passes it he doesn't move off the ball well, doesn't make hard cuts etc. That's not a knock, since very few players his age have a great off the ball game, but once he gets that, and gets passers who are able to get it back to him on the move in spots where teams can't locate him to double, he's going to be even more potent. It's to his credit that he gives the ball up as willingly and quickly as he does when the double starts to come, though.


There was a point with about 4:00 to go when Detroit got a couple of trips to the line on consecutive possessions (including one trip where it seemed like they got 5 offensive boards) and cut it to around 12, where I thought that they had a slim chance to come back if they could keep attacking and stopping the clock. But the Cavs -- especially Gibson -- kept coming at them. Sheed was tragic tonight, probably a combination of being frustrated with his own poor play and Varejao getting under his skin with his physical, pestering defense (and flopping). He just imploded...as usual. Hunter also made some boneheaded decisions that didn't help -- a couple of ill-advised shots and then a stupid halfhearted breakaway foul on Lebron to give him the 3-point play when the game was still close (a 4 point lead turned to 7 on that play). I mean, either foul him hard or let him go -- no use compounding your error. Ilgauskas was huge in the minutes he played; tonight it looked like he finally realized, "hey, I have 5" and 30 pounds on the biggest Pistons player - let me use it." :D


Lebron and the Cavs deserve a ton of credit for winning this series and getting to the Finals. As easy as his road to the conference finals was -- and, make no mistake, it was pretty easy -- no one expected them to beat Detroit. The odds on this series had to be at least 3-1 in the Pistons' favor. As I said after Lebron's 48-point game 5, Detroit is in the midst of a crisis of leadership. None of the great players of the past -- Hakeem, Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isiah -- would have allowed their team to fall apart like this. There's no one on that Detroit team who is capable of looking Lebron in the eye and saying, "you're not winning this game." Ultimately, this is why teams built on the "many parts" model are susceptible to teams of the "two superstar" archetype (or in this case the "one superstar" model :D) -- they're vulnerable to dominant, dynamic players who can impose their will upon a game.


But "big picture" wise, the NBA is suffering from a leadership drought at the top imo. Nash is a big game player, but I still worry about the Suns in close games. Dirk is, well, Dirk. We saw the Pistons' lack of leadership this series. Wade is good, but I don't think his team will be in contention again soon unless they make some moves. Really, the only top shelf team that features solid, tested, and capable leadership is San Antonio, which is why they're the odds-on favorite to win it all. But even Duncan's leadership will be tested at least a couple of times the upcoming series.
 

Fifty

Member
Whoa.......

It's my favorite verbose Norse God! Back from his year long absence.. It's good to have you back. I think.
 

reilo

learning some important life lessons from magical Negroes
Heh. Gotta love this photo and caption:

Detroit Pistons' Rasheed Wallace fouls Cleveland Cavaliers' Daniel Gibson on a shot attempt in the third quarter of Game 6 of the NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals Saturday, June 2, 2007, in Cleveland.

46b355a6-0153-4f8e-8a3a-71c1ece3b943.jpg


:lol

WHO WANTS A DAMON JONES AVATAR!?!

65143040-c49a-4ab4-989c-1ddb75575e76.jpg


LOL Varejao action shots.

92955e10-44d9-4ab1-b42a-d2b79eeec25c.jpg

463d650f-f35f-4ec8-bf43-4afcd632d391.jpg

6f317325-f9ba-4303-97e9-7b8450b6a8e9.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom