Cleveland Cavaliers vs San Antonio Spurs

[Just John 0]

 

That was cool. I was stunned at how he shaded the jersey.

 

Anyway, I think it's safe to say the playoffs have gotten less exciting with each passing round. Man, back in April we had Warrior-mania running wild, the Suns were putting on an exhibition, and the Bulls were going crazy on the Heat. The second round at the wild Phoenix/SA series with a dissapointing finish and GS getting eliminated (but having fun games in the process), the East was really bad though. In the CF, you really only Lebron's 48-game to write home about because everything else was terrible. And there doesn't seem to be one redeeming quality about these finals.

 

Random thought: Looking back on the way things played out, does anyone think the Wizards could have won the East if they were healthy?

[Slayer 0]

This might be the worst championship game I've ever seen. In any sport.

quite a few Superbowls say hello.

The Maryland-Indiana title game from '02 set the gold standard for awful basketball championship games that will be very difficult to displace, even by this.

[Vyce 0]

Random thought: Looking back on the way things played out, does anyone think the Wizards could have won the East if they were healthy?

 

I'm not sure if they could have won the East, but a case could be made it was definitely possible. They were going strong until the injuries, which caused something of a slight implosion.

 

It's a bit shocking to live in D.C. and actually have a good sports team.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm willing to forgive Maryland and IU for that mediocre outing since each team was involved in some awesome games to get to that point. IU had the markout upset of Duke, the 3 point display vs. Kent St., and the even more shocking upset of Oklahoma (to me anyway). Maryland had a fun game vs. UK, a terrific regional final vs. UConn, etc. Games like the one last night are worse though, since these guys are supposed to be professionals and thus held to a higher standard.

[Guest George's Box]

I'm hoping for the Suns vs. Heat next year in the Finals. At least that might produce something resembling professional basketball.

The Heat aren't fun to watch unless you like free throws, and the Suns are doomed to be one of those fondly remembered also-rans, like the Denver Nuggets that scored 120 points a night and didn't play defense. Their system appears to be too inherently flawed (not enough defense, not enough bench) to win 16 playoff games, enjoyable as they may be at times.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

That said, to suggest Detroit vs. San Antonio would have been better is to miss the point. Spurs vs. ANYONE in the Finals isn't going to be worth a damn, I think it's obvious by now. Sure, the Pistons might have provided a tougher series, but that would just be 6-7 unwatchable games instead of the unwatchable sweep we'll get here. Fans by and large don't want to see any of these teams.

I don't know if Spurs versus anyone would necessarily be bad. San Antonio has two things working against them. The first is that they are just flat out better than everyone else which makes it hard to have any competitive games. Second, they seem to adopt the style of whoever they are playing. When that's Phoenix or Dallas we get something interesting. Cleveland? Not so much.

 

If you look back, the most entertaining series' of the last few years have all involved the Spurs (Spurs/Suns this year, Spurs/Mavs last year). I think Spurs/Bulls or even Spurs/Pistons (much better than '05) could have been slightly entertaining.

[Ripper 0]

Its funny. Despite the fact that we were all witness to one of the worse no calls in recent NBA history(in the finals on his home court with a INTENTIONAL foul at that) and no one cares because no one thinks the Cavs can win anyway, and everyone else isn't even aware the finals are on.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

That was a horrible non-call, as egregious as any we've seen in the finals. But I'm not convinced that it altered the conclusion of the game.

[Ripper 0]

That was a horrible non-call, as egregious as any we've seen in the finals. But I'm not convinced that it altered the conclusion of the game.

 

 

It SHOULD have been 3 free throws which would have made a huge difference. of course Lebron would have had to make all three, and they would have been in overtime without Gooden's defense and rebounding, so you are probably right, but still. They deserved a chance.

[alfdogg 0]

Had the Cavs played good enough to win and then had the game stolen from them at the end, I think more people would care, but that's not the case. Not like the Spurs played that much better, but it was fairly obvious watching last night who the better team was. The Cavs were lucky to be within one shot at the end. I know if my team had played such a poor game, I wouldn't expect to be bailed out on that kind of a call. And that's twice LeBron's done that in these playoffs.

[Ripper 0]

But its tough to call that a bail out call, when the guy is obviously trying to foul him. Bail out would be him driving to the hole and there being contact and no call(like the Pistons game). This was pretty much a common sense call

 

Plus, seriously, last night it wasn't obvious who the better team was. That was fucking horrible by everyone from top to bottom. Games one and two showed you who the better teams were.

 

And once again, i have to ask Mike Brown, the pick and roll...it doesn't work. EVER. Why the fuck do you keep running it. Everytime lebron caught the ball and no screener came over, he abused Bruce Bowen. When they brought the screener, it was a auto double and you get Anderson trying Dream Shake people with the game on the line.

[C Dubya 04 0]

Mike Brown is a pretty terrible coach. He hasn't made an adjustment this postseason.

 

 

I personnally didn't think that should have been continuation (but it might be because I hate that rule). The foul should be on first contact, and LeBron made a basketball move after first contact, so I'd say no free throws.

[MFer 0]

From my understanding, the Spurs were trying to foul LeBron to put him on the line for 2. The way I saw the replay, that's what should've been called. It appeared to me that Bowen's arms left LeBron's body slightly before LeBron began to rise up for the shot, which would have made it a 2-shot foul instead of 3 (unless the ref called continuation which I don't believe would have been warranted).

 

On another note, it looks like Pop is lobbying for Bowen to become Finals MVP.

[Ripper 0]

He had already brought the ball up, thus it was a shooting motion. If Bowen had gotten him before he picked up his dribble then it would have been a two shot foul.

 

Basically he fouled him at the start of a shooting motion.

 

But like others have said, it wouldn't have made a difference because they weren't going to win this game either way. But still. It was slightly annoying.

 

If this was Wade last year he would have clear pushed away Bowen and then took the shot and they would have called the foul on Bowen.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

In a column on espn.com today, Chris Broussard calls Tony Parker a Hall of Fame point guard. Now obviously this is a ridiculous statement to make. However, once I looked at his numbers and his recent success, I realized that he may be on the way to having that type of career. Through his age 24 season he has three rings, two All-star appearances and a possible Finals MVP award. How would you rate his chances of getting in some day, provided he can keep up this level of play into his early thirties?

[Guest Vitamin X]

I think the reason why I don't expect him to get in is because I also don't expect him to keep up that kind of success later on. I predict a Sam Cassell type of career for him- lots of early success and acclaim, then bounce around the league to try and give a veteran boost to a team that needs it.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

You know what stat I heard the other day? Tony Parker led the league this year in points in the paint. That's a ridiculous accomplishment for a PG who's just a shade over 6'.

[Brett Favre 0]

That's not the first year he's been doing that either. With his improving jump shot, he's almost unstoppable.

[Just John 0]

I don't think Parker in the HOF is a stretch. He's a terrific scorer, and he runs the Spurs offense very effectively. The difference in the fluidity of the Spurs offense when being run by Parker as opposed to Vaughn is pretty big. Don't underrate his defense either.

 

The only thing that will be held against him is playing with Duncan for most of his career, so he'll have to put up some strong career numbers to shake that criticism.

[Ripper 0]

Don't underrate WHO's defense?

 

Tony Parker is easily the worst defender on a playoff team that gets minutes.

 

If Damon Jones wasn't around, he would have been the worst one in the playoffs. And I don't mean that as a stretch in the slightest. And I not trying to be a homer because Amare Stoudimire comes in a close second, but at least he will give you a weak side block or two. Parker is absolutely HORRIBLE defensively.

 

But he has put up a HOF type resume so far in his career and there is no reason to believe that he will slow down, so I would say, barring some Roy Tarpley-esque breakdown, he will be in the hall.

 

But yeah....I could put up 20 on Parker...of course he would put up 115 on me, but still.

[cabbageboy 0]

This might sound weird, but the Spurs are a team that need to be carried. As in they need to be against the right opponent that can drag an exciting game out of them, since they can put up 100+ if necessary but have a hard on for these dreadful 75-72 crapfests like the other night. For instance the Suns series had games that were 110-105 type games.

 

As far as the Suns go, I don't think they are destined to be that fun also ran team that never gets it done. In fact I think next year could be their year as long as they don't trade someone (a la Dan Majerle in 1995) in some desperate attempt to change styles. If you consider it the past 2 years there are "What Ifs" with the Suns. What if Stoudamire was healthy in 2006 for the playoffs? What if there hadn't been the goofy suspensions against the Spurs this year? The Suns are out of excuses though. If they can't get it done next year, the window of opportunity may be shut.

[devo 0]

Speaks volumes about this series that the Spurs just won and there hasn't been a single post about Game Four.

[Brett Favre 0]

That's the worst celebration i've ever seen. They're like patting each other on the ass and shit.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Congrats to the Spurs

[Bored 0]

Seriously all sports leagues need to stop doing these on the court/field trophy presentations when the visiting team wins.

[strummer 0]

Michael Finley finally gets a ring after seemingly being on teams that fall short in the playoffs year after year

[devo 0]

Seriously all sports leagues need to stop doing these on the court/field trophy presentations when the visiting team wins.

 

Yeah. David Stern having to speak over the booing doesn't lend a whole lot of class to the ceremony.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Tony Parker is one lucky bastard. I bet Eva Longoria lets him get anal tonight.

[Precious Roy 0]

That's the worst celebration i've ever seen. They're like patting each other on the ass and shit.

 

It's not like it's their first dance.

 

It is funny watching them celebrate though. They celebrate like they play, boring

 

Tony Parker gets the MVP.

 

Was that the worst Finals appearance ever by Cleveland? And can we offically put the brakes on the LeBron=MJ talk. That lasted what, 5 days?

[Guest Vitamin X]

The worst Finals appearance? That was their ONLY Finals appearance.