A Sea Of Red

It's been a crazy start. Last years MVP tore his ACL. Bronbron looks like he's finally ready to live up to the hype (at least until the finals). The Celtic that could cost them their shot isn't one of the oldies but Ragin Rondo. Lakers look deadly with Kolbe being the 2nd best player on the team. The other LA team overcomes a 27 point deficit. While either the young guns on the Thunder or old man Duncan and the Spurs may be the best team in the west.

Needless to the NBA playoffs are actually exciting this year.

and the Magic won game 1 without the "Almighty Howard", imagine that!!!

and now Lin thinks he might be back to play against the Heat.

That was a bummer of a season for bulls fans.Boozer didnt play the second half, its not looking good for him this summer.

Kobe eats raw chicken in hopes of having a flew game like MJ, unfortunately the plan backfires and the Lakers are knotted up at 3-3 with the nuggets.

Mike Miller has the worst tattoos in the league. That will not stop the heat from winning Lebron's first title this year.

Westbrook is looking solid, once the thunder lose a few, he will tighten up and try and do too much like last year.

And Chris Anderson of the Nuggets got caught with naughty pictures and was dismissed. Which is too bad because he was a great comeback story
And how about the Pacers?
LeBron is just a bulked up version of Scottie Pippen. He will fill up a stat sheet but when you need a big shot he's not the guy. Nothing wrong with that. Dwayne Wade is the money man
Is it possible to say Kobe is under rated for his career? I didn't care for him early on but over the last few years I think he is one of the all time greats.
I still am not Alan of the NBA but will watch some of the playoffs. I also hope the Celtics stay in so I can see them when I'm in Boston in 2 weeks lol

LeBron will not win a title this year. I guarantee it....

thepostman wrote:LeBron will not win a title this year. I guarantee it....

I hope you're right but there road to the finals got a lot easier when Rose got hurt. The Celtics could still get them in the east but otherwise they won't lose until the finals.

I know...it's just hard to really believe he will actually win a championship until he does. San Antonio is once again a sleeping giant nobody wants to tal kabout

thepostman wrote:LeBron will not win a title this year. I guarantee it....

R i wrote:

thepostman wrote:LeBron will not win a title this year. I guarantee it....

good counter argument. What has he and his team done so far that he hasn't done before? Until he breaks through and wins a ring I will always doubt him and any team he is a part of.

the role players got better. losing bosh hurts though. they have to hope that the other series goes 6 or 7 and they face a pretty meh 76ers team or an old tired celtics team.

they'll get past the pacers without bosh. they have shown in game 1 that wade and james can get to the hole effortlessly, they can abandon the post game. all you have to do is get the pacers out of rythmn and they start slapping everyone and getting into foul trouble.

at this point i'm still saying okc/heat. but i think okc can win it all. but their road isn't easy either .

Lebron completely shut down a great player last night. Bosh is out for at least the series, which hurts. However, the Heat are deeper than they've been in the past, Haslem, Battier, Chalmers. I don't think this is a Lebron question anymore, they just aren't going to face anyone who can go toe to toe with them. If you've watched any of the playoffs, you know the Heat are the best team in the league.

Indiana is going to beat them up a little. Boston isn't going to be a cakewalk if they make it to the E.C. finals.

Boston actually won three of four games against the Heat this year. I'll even toss out one of those Ws out, it was very late in the season when both teams were resting nearly all if not all of their key players.

Celtics lost the first game, which was the second game of the season for both teams, by a score of 117-105 in Miami, but Paul Pierce didn't play, Avery Bradley was still just a couple minute sub, and Greg Stiemsma didn't play. So we're talking two of Boston's top six players and their top post sub not being a factor. Jermaine O'Neal did play in that game, but Boston's best basketball of the season was post-O'Neal.

Boston won the second game 91-72 in Boston without Ray Allen on April 1st.

Boston won the third game in Miami 115-107 on April 10. The only players who didn't play that are in the regular rotations now are Ryan Hollins, Keyon Dooling, and Joel Anthony. So basically, no one that would have proven to change the outcome of the game.

So while the Heat may have been a better overall team in the regular season, the Celtics were without a doubt a better team head-to-head. Do I think the Heat win the series? Only if Bosh plays, but Miami certainly will have their hands full with the Celtics rather Bosh plays or not. That's if Boston gets past Philly, they should but nothing is a given.

lynchburgwildcats wrote:Boston actually won three of four games against the Heat this year. I'll even toss out one of those Ws out, it was very late in the season when both teams were resting nearly all if not all of their key players.

Celtics lost the first game, which was the second game of the season for both teams, by a score of 117-105 in Miami, but Paul Pierce didn't play, Avery Bradley was still just a couple minute sub, and Greg Stiemsma didn't play. So we're talking two of Boston's top six players and their top post sub not being a factor. Jermaine O'Neal did play in that game, but Boston's best basketball of the season was post-O'Neal.

Boston won the second game 91-72 in Boston without Ray Allen on April 1st.

Boston won the third game in Miami 115-107 on April 10. The only players who didn't play that are in the regular rotations now are Ryan Hollins, Keyon Dooling, and Joel Anthony. So basically, no one that would have proven to change the outcome of the game.

So while the Heat may have been a better overall team in the regular season, the Celtics were without a doubt a better team head-to-head. Do I think the Heat win the series? Only if Bosh plays, but Miami certainly will have their hands full with the Celtics rather Bosh plays or not. That's if Boston gets past Philly, they should but nothing is a given.

the bulls destroyed the heat in the regular season last year. regular season isn't much of an indicator of playoff success. it seems odd that it isn't so.

cjsweat wrote:Lebron completely shut down a great player last night. Bosh is out for at least the series, which hurts. However, the Heat are deeper than they've been in the past, Haslem, Battier, Chalmers. I don't think this is a Lebron question anymore, they just aren't going to face anyone who can go toe to toe with them. If you've watched any of the playoffs, you know the Heat are the best team in the league.

Please tell me you arent referring to Danny Granger when you say GREAT PLAYER?????????????????? He is in the same category as a Kevin Martin type player..he can score but is no where near an all star/dominant/great player in the legue

OKC Thunder

Even if you look at Granger by his stats alone, he's better than Kevin Martin. He's led Indiana to be a three seed in the East. That's better than what Melo did. People pay way to much attention to points per game, you can have a great player that averages less than 10 points per game. When I'm judging a great player, I'm looking at how they are if you took their points away. Granger can rebound and plays excellent defense. He also does things offensively that he doesn't get credit for, he sets his team up to be great. That to me is a great player. He was completely shut down by LeBron the other night and James dropped 32 on him.

Additionally, there are other pieces to the Miami puzzle that explains why they can win without Bosh. They are much deeper than they were last year and the chemistry is there. Not to mention, LeBron is becoming one of the best 4th quarter players. Boston will give them a good series but Boston is a terrible offensive team and Miami is great defensively. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're picking a series based on regular season results. If you're looking at how a team does playing 4 games in 6 days, that's good research. But if your argument is record or team vs team W/L's, you're not making an accurate pick. Dallas won it last year as a 3 seed, Lakers won in 2010 with the 3rd best Overall record, Cleveland had the best record in '09 and lost in the conference finals, SA won in 2007 as a 3 seed, Miami won in 2006 as a 2 seed. The point is that the champions are rarely the best team in the league. Very few teams pay much attention to their performance during the regular season. I expect Boston to take one or two but they aren't going to beat Miami.

thepostman wrote:

R i wrote:

thepostman wrote:LeBron will not win a title this year. I guarantee it....

good counter argument.

They are the best team in the league, and its not close.

cjsweat wrote:Even if you look at Granger by his stats alone, he's better than Kevin Martin. He's led Indiana to be a three seed in the East. That's better than what Melo did. People pay way to much attention to points per game, you can have a great player that averages less than 10 points per game. When I'm judging a great player, I'm looking at how they are if you took their points away. Granger can rebound and plays excellent defense. He also does things offensively that he doesn't get credit for, he sets his team up to be great. That to me is a great player. He was completely shut down by LeBron the other night and James dropped 32 on him.

Additionally, there are other pieces to the Miami puzzle that explains why they can win without Bosh. They are much deeper than they were last year and the chemistry is there. Not to mention, LeBron is becoming one of the best 4th quarter players. Boston will give them a good series but Boston is a terrible offensive team and Miami is great defensively. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're picking a series based on regular season results. If you're looking at how a team does playing 4 games in 6 days, that's good research. But if your argument is record or team vs team W/L's, you're not making an accurate pick. Dallas won it last year as a 3 seed, Lakers won in 2010 with the 3rd best Overall record, Cleveland had the best record in '09 and lost in the conference finals, SA won in 2007 as a 3 seed, Miami won in 2006 as a 2 seed. The point is that the champions are rarely the best team in the league. Very few teams pay much attention to their performance during the regular season. I expect Boston to take one or two but they aren't going to beat Miami.

Granger is not THE leader on that team. Indiana is a team that is led by David West, Granger and a couple other veterans on the squad. Granger is one of them but he is not THE leader on the team. I am not referring to just points per game. If you talk about good defenders in the league you are not mentioning Granger in the top 100 in the league. He is not even a top 3 defender on his team. Indianas rise to the playoffs had a lot to do with the development of Paul George, Roy Hibbert and the signing of David West. If you look at Grangers production it is way down from the previous years, which is why they are a better team. A team cannot rely on a Danny Granger to take them to the playoffs because he is NOT a great player.. When you say great player, you think of guys in the league such as Lebron, Wade, Durant, Kobe, Howard, Rose..Granger cant hold a candle to any of those guys.

cjsweat wrote:Even if you look at Granger by his stats alone, he's better than Kevin Martin. He's led Indiana to be a three seed in the East. That's better than what Melo did. People pay way to much attention to points per game, you can have a great player that averages less than 10 points per game. When I'm judging a great player, I'm looking at how they are if you took their points away. Granger can rebound and plays excellent defense. He also does things offensively that he doesn't get credit for, he sets his team up to be great. That to me is a great player. He was completely shut down by LeBron the other night and James dropped 32 on him.

Additionally, there are other pieces to the Miami puzzle that explains why they can win without Bosh. They are much deeper than they were last year and the chemistry is there. Not to mention, LeBron is becoming one of the best 4th quarter players. Boston will give them a good series but Boston is a terrible offensive team and Miami is great defensively. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're picking a series based on regular season results. If you're looking at how a team does playing 4 games in 6 days, that's good research. But if your argument is record or team vs team W/L's, you're not making an accurate pick. Dallas won it last year as a 3 seed, Lakers won in 2010 with the 3rd best Overall record, Cleveland had the best record in '09 and lost in the conference finals, SA won in 2007 as a 3 seed, Miami won in 2006 as a 2 seed. The point is that the champions are rarely the best team in the league. Very few teams pay much attention to their performance during the regular season. I expect Boston to take one or two but they aren't going to beat Miami.

I'll take Kevin Martin over Danny Granger every second of the day and wouldn't even have to think about it for a second. Kevin Martin is a vastly more efficient scorer. THis year was an off year for Martin and he was still more efficient. He had a 55.4% true scoring percentage and it's normally in the 60%+ range. This year, Danny Granger checked in at 54.2% and normally his % fluctuates in the high-mid 50s range. Kevin Martin is also generally amongst the elite scorers in the league in terms of getting to the foul line and he converts at an 86% career rate from there. It was a very down year for Martin getting to the foul line (main reason why he had a down year) at only 4.5 free throw attempts a game, but he's been at or above 7.0 attempts a game since 2007. Kevin Martin also posted a 0.97 points per possession compared to 0.95 for Granger. Considering scoring is their only high level skill, I'll take Martin.

Oh, and Granger by no means plays excellent defense. When's the last time he even got a vote for All-Defense? He's a solid defender if that, and even then it's hard to tell since it's rare to see him guarding someone that's anything more than a spot up shooter unless he has to. You know how many small forwards got a vote for All-Defense last year (since it hasn't been released yet this year)? 11, and that doesn't include Granger.

Granger also ranked 19th at the small forward position in rebounds per 48, hardly anything to brag about seeing as how Steve Novak was 20th at 7.6 and he is considered a poor rebounder.

I do agree Miami can win without Bosh. THey should beat Indiana without Bosh. They can beat Boston without Bosh but i'm not overly confident with it. If Avery Bradley's shoulder continues to get worse, Boston is going to have one mighty hefty task facing them. The only time Philly really scored consistently for any stretch of time last night was in the third quarter, the quarter in which Bradley didn't play because of the shoulder. However, there's no way in hell Miami is going to beat San Antonio or OKC without Bosh.

Granger is a solid player, but he IS NOT great...

R i wrote:
They are the best team in the league, and its not close.

better than Ok City? better than San Antonio?

I am not saying they aren't a really good team, but they are not nearly as good as you say.

I think my doubts of a LeBron James team are pretty legitimate. Until he wins the big one those doubts won't go away.

I say either Ok City or San Antonio wins it all over Miami

How about those Pacers. Ugly all the way but not as ugly as the Heat. Tied up at 1-1 and headed to Indy.

From the class of 09 wrote:How about those Pacers. Ugly all the way but not as ugly as the Heat. Tied up at 1-1 and headed to Indy.

LeBron passes up another opportunity with the game on the line.

It's definitely looking bleak for Miami right now. They have to find someone other than Lebron or Wade to score 10-15 pts. Chalmers is the most likely, but he was plagued by foul trouble all night. Miller, Haslem and Battier have done nothing on offense.