Yeah, I follow sports pretty closely. Do you? You missed my point entirely on his teammates. I said when LeBron has better teammates, he'll be able to take better last minute shots -- because he won't be able to be automatically double and triple teamed (as he is now because opponents presently know no one else on the floor can beat them).

Do you watch the Cavs closely? I watch every game. Their offensive sets are terrible. the offense is stagnant and very predictable. it's pretty easy to defense most anybody with the sets they run, especially late in the game when everyone knows the offense will run through LeBron. That factors into anybody's shooting percentage, last minute shooting stats notwithstanding.

It defies logic to suggest that someone so dominant in the game somehow becomes "terrible" in the clutch.

Oh ok....I understand what you are saying....however it doesn't defy logic because it is true.....or atleast it is true right now. Stats don't lie...again, he is 2 for 16 when it really counts. The same can be said about Barry Bonds....he is one of the best to ever play baseball, regardless if he took steroids or not....and he was horrible in the playoffs until the Giants last appearance. I think he was hitting .089 all time in playoff games before he finally performed well recently.

Stats, screened tightly enough, can say whatever anyone chooses to make them say. That 2-for-16 you cite doesn't at all take into account where those shots are taken from. Obviously Jordan was a tremendous player, but he also had a long line of good/great coaches (Albeck, Collins, Jackson) who knew how to devise plays that got him good looks for those shots. Trust me, that's not the case in Cleveland. Often LeBron's shots, last minute or otherwise, are less than optimal because of the weak offensive sets they run, or the play has broken down and someone tosses him the ball 30 feet from the basket with 2.2 seconds left on the shot clock and says "here, LeBron. Shoot it." ESPN and other national outlets fail to mention this when they put up their stat comparison charts.

Last night, LeBron scored 19 of his 36 points in the 4th quarter. Does the 4th quarter of a game not "really count" as you say? LeBron clearly takes over games, and often does so in the 4th quarter -- in clutch time. As he matures, he'll do it better. I'm not a LeBron apologist but it's non-sensical to me to suggest that one of the game's top 5 players is not "clutch."

Basketball requires to teammates to depend on each other far more than baseball does, so the Bonds analogy doesn't work, IMO. But it does raise a question. If you hit .300, you're considered a great hitter, agreed? That means you failed 7 of 10 times. Is that "great" hitter still not "clutch?"

Sarcasm not detected I see

You make some good points, allthough I really don't think that any NBA team really runs high profile offenses. They are all pretty much simple motion sets that are designed for the stars on the team to prevail...this is why I like college much better. I'm not sure the average NBA player even remembers what a down screen or a back cut are.

And I see your point in the Bonds analogy...allthough I think that baseball above any sport exploits players who are and are not clutch. But it can swing both ways. Kirk Gibson was an extremely clutch player in playoff games and world championships.....but his batting avg overall was around .265, not bad, but not great by any means. Bonds lifetime avg. before the 2003 or 2004 playoffs ( I can't remember which) was around .310 or so.....and he was hitting .089 lifetime in the playoffs.....which is pathetic. So yes, I think you can be a very good hitter and not be clutch in baseball.

LeBron And The Cavs Sucked all right. Still holding on to the Fourth position in the Eastern Conference Playoff race. ;)

Haha, no disrespect to Lebron, but have you seen the Celts this season? Take away Paul Pierce, and you're looking at one of the worst teams in the league. Everyone is putting up numbers against them this year (they're horrible defensively).

the 30.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 6.7 apg is against the league, not just the Celtics.

Am off to see Knick's Celtics play later tonite. I'm excited even if the hometown team sucks!

wow...Knicks-Celtics? they should pay you to watch that. lol

I realize that - I was just noting that the Celtics have not been good this year. I also mentioned that I'm not taking anything away from Lebron; he's had one heck of a year.

HAHA yeaaaah a good night to drink! When I told my cab driver it had been a Knick's game he said "I hope the tickets were free!!" LOL but we had a fun time!

That may have been the best game the Celts have played all year. The starting five all were in double figures.

Yeah I saw that on the stats list up on the scoreboard last night...totally made a difference since I think Marbury was the only Knick to go to double digits. The papers today blasted him for that tho since he's more interested in making a basket himself than passing & getting the assist. I was surprised NY even made it over 90pts. I think they scored more in the 4th than any other quarter. Celtics were just amazing, glad I picked that game to go to!!

*That was the most sports talk I think I have ever posted on GC!!

The playoffs are here. Post your predictions


Here's mine.

East- 1st round

1 Detroit vs 8 Milwaukee Detroit 4-0
2 Miami vs 7 Chicago Miami 4-2
3 NJ vs 6 Indiana NJ 4-2
4- Lebrons vs 5 Wash Wash 4-2


East 2nd round

1 Detroit vs 5 Wash Detroit 4-1
2 Miami vs 3 NJ Miami 4-2


East Final

1- Detroit vs 2 Miami Detroit 4-2




West 1st Round

1 SA vs 8 Sac SA 4-1
2 Phoenix vs 7 Lakers Lakers 4-2
3 Denver vs 6 Clippers Clippers 4-2
4 Dallas vs 5 Memphis Memphis 4-2

West 2nd Round

1 SA vs 5 Memphis SA 4-2
7 Lakers vs 6 Clippers Lakers 4-3


West Final

1 SA vs 7 Lakers SA 4-3


NBA Final

Detroit vs SA Detroit 4-2


Eta: Note how heavily biased I am towards the LA teams. har har har

Are you fucking kidding? Memphis beats arguably the 2nd best team in the NBA in the first round?

You definitely have the correct East Final and winner picked!

San Antonio is gonna win it all....and I will be there watching at all the games, atleast the ones I don't scalp!

I'm looking forward to another epic Pistons-Spurs series again. The Pistons blew them out both games this year, hopefully they can take all this year.

Yep. :cool:

enigma_AKA

So am I the only one who is going to post predictions?

I posted mine.

San Antonio wins it all.


How they do it really doesn't matter :)

No way LA beats Phoenix in the first round. In fact, I am calling for a Phoenix sweep. Why? Rapist Bryant will try to score 50 every game and no one else on the Lakers will do shit.

This series could go either way you know? I think Phoenix could beat LA, but I don't think its gonna be a sweep like what you say. Mr. Rapist and the Lakers have been playing exceptionally well lately. Especially Kwame Brown. Lakers need to slow down the tempo with the Suns, beat the Suns up in the middle and let Rapist do his thing.


But you know. I'm a LA guy. So I gotta be biased for my team. The way you are biased for the Mavs

I'll agree with you for sure.

Rapist, you always seem to piss me off at just about the right times.

i put off studying for finals last night to watch my mavs win by 10.

Uhhh...lol

yep

So I get a call from my boy right now asking me where I'm gonna watch the Laker game at. I tell him just at my house. He says, " guess what i'm gonna watch it at? SECTION 120 BOY!!!!!"


Motherfucker. Cost him 220, but he says it is worth it.

I'm the Kobe stopper.

Kobe doesn't know the world stop or no. He'll just rape somebody.


And apparently Kwame too

Have to love Kobe completely disappearing in the 2nd half of the biggest game of the season.

I watched today's containment of the Mavericks from Section 213. Beautiful game, loved the end result. A 'W' is a 'W', no matter how you got it.

Now imagine if we played this game with more than 36 hours rest and with the refs calling 25% of the flagrant fouls that they missed.... It would of been a repeat of the Kings 39 point R1G1 loss........

Disagree. Mavericks didn't play well.........even with a 5 day rest. And I saw no flagrant fouls and I watched the whole game. What I did see....as with every Spurs game....is a bunch of diving and flopping by Manu Genobli and a complete bitch fest by the biggest whiner in the NBA...Tim Duncan.

......And Jerry Stackhouse is an idiot. had a complete open lane to the basket with 3 seconds left (Dampier had the paint blocked out) and he steps out to the three point line and shoots an air ball.

Kobe Bryant is a fucking idiot


War Clippers

He has proven that he's Kobe B**** Bryant.
That was ridiculous.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon made a good point on PTI (my favorite ESPN show at this point). If Kobe's going to invite the MJ comparisons, he has to play like MJ. If Raja Bell had pulled something like that on Jordan, he would have responded by scoring 60 on him the next time out.

Bryant responded by only showing up for one half. It was a very weak performance in so many ways.