Cavs vs. Pacers - 2017 NBA Playoffs - Cavs Win Series 4-0

[castor777]

Waking up, I still can't believe we pulled that off. All season we've been hearing about Westbrook and Harden as the MVPs, yet it took LeBron 3 games in the playoffs to quickly remind everyone he's still far and away the best player in the league without question.

 

[Lyst]

The whole keeping Kyrie and Love out was very intriguing. I think it was JR, KK, Lebron, Deron, and Frye. This lineup was beastly. Deron might be about 2/5ths what he used to be, but he USED to be a top 3 point guard in the league, so 2/5ths of that is actually pretty damn good. Then you add some wild hot shooters in KK JR and Frye. This leaves Lebron with the ability to spread the floor to all the ends of the court, which gives him the abliity to drive, and if they double or triple team, drive and kick out. The defense of this group was also solid. KK could be the only weakness, but his offense makes up for it.

I'm really hoping that Lue is finding some things out about the team with this series. Every series cannot be a "who goes in and who goes out" experiment. Pacers are just bad, so that gives him some room to play.

 

[cavsfever]

Re the lineups with Deron at PG, I'd like to see Deron be just a touch less deferential on the offensive end. He had one FGA and two assists in 22 minutes last night. Granted he didn't want to mess up a good thing last night, but that's been pretty typical of how he plays with Lebron or Kyrie on the floor. He could open up the floor even more if he was seen as more of a threat, also let LBJ play off the ball a bit more when that's called for.

 

[kookoo]

View: https://twitter.com/NBA_Math/status/855461360527966209


YEEEESH...

 

[cavsfever]

View: https://twitter.com/NBA_Math/status/855461360527966209


YEEEESH...

wow, so if you buy this stat then so far nobody is good but Lebron, who is great, Channing Frye is our second best player, and Kyrie is by far our worst player.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

I am hoping last night was the flip and we are going to be this team going forward. The only worry I have is that they now know they can flip it, and might be more passive at times. I do feel good about game 4 though, both Love and Irving have something to prove, and we have 2 days rest again.

 

[fan0283]

Have to ask whose idea it was to barely practice in the regular season. Love and Kyrie are young players who need to come and improve their game everyday to fulfil their potential.

 

[ACisKING]

Have to ask whose idea it was to barely practice in the regular season. Love and Kyrie are young players who need to come and improve their game everyday to fulfil their potential.

I think you are conflating team practice with individual workouts. I have no doubt that all the Cavs are in the gym working on their games and staying in shape throughout the season. But with an older team like the Cavs, traditional team practice leads to unnecessary wear and tear. I don't know if Griff or Lue or someone else made the decision to hold less practices this year, but the reasoning that decision is sound: save the legs of the veteran team for the playoffs by cutting practice time where possible.

 

[kookoo]

I think you are conflating team practice with individual workouts. I have no doubt that all the Cavs are in the gym working on their games and staying in shape throughout the season. But with an older team like the Cavs, traditional team practice leads to unnecessary wear and tear. I don't know if Griff or Lue or someone else made the decision to hold less practices this year, but the reasoning that decision is sound: save the legs of the veteran team for the playoffs by cutting practice time where possible.

I'm kind of personally embarrassed by Kyrie's defense this season (along with a few of the other guys on the team, but he is by far the worst based off the position). He's just hedging too hard and I feel like the lack of practise and building that chemistry with the other players on a pick and roll can only be improved through practise. It's easy enough to yell at your player when they're getting burned but it's not as easy to retain that information when it happens in game. Where those repetitive issues can be improved is running that play in practise while Lue or whoever points out the obvious mistakes over and over and allows Kyrie to gain that muscle memory on how to react against (and with) certain players. Especially because in game it just leads to two points in a high scoring sport. You don't get to learn on the fly in these sort of scenarios, especially when it's something you aren't necessarily good at to begin with.

What needs to be done is focused practises (not sure if they're doing this or not), where they can tackle the key issues over and over again.

 

[fan0283]

I think you are conflating team practice with individual workouts. I have no doubt that all the Cavs are in the gym working on their games and staying in shape throughout the season. But with an older team like the Cavs, traditional team practice leads to unnecessary wear and tear. I don't know if Griff or Lue or someone else made the decision to hold less practices this year, but the reasoning that decision is sound: save the legs of the veteran team for the playoffs by cutting practice time where possible.

Think i read somewhere that even Griff was unsure but willing to go along with it. Something like individual defense needs to also be practiced as a team activity. That's when you develop an advanced understanding of all the moving pieces on the floor. Wathing film also helps immensely

 

[kookoo]

Think i read somewhere that even Griff was unsure but willing to go along with it. Something like individual defense needs to also be practiced as a team activity. That's when you develop an advanced understanding of all the moving pieces on the floor. Wathing film also helps immensely

10000000%. I'm sure most of us have played some sort of team level basketball at some point in our lives and without practice of even just communicating on that end feels tougher. It's not something you can work on, on the fly when you don't have defense engrained in your mind and aren't explosive physically (or a genetic freak in any way). Guys like Kyrie and Love are the most at risk because of their lack of physicality and explosiveness. Shump,

 

[buzzdog]

10000000%. I'm sure most of us have played some sort of team level basketball at some point in our lives and without practice of even just communicating on that end feels tougher. It's not something you can work on, on the fly when you don't have defense engrained in your mind and aren't explosive physically (or a genetic freak in any way). Guys like Kyrie and Love are the most at risk because of their lack of physicality and explosiveness. Shump,

Maybe their plan all along was to save themselves during the RS and hone the defense between playoff series sweeps?

 

[LeShaq]

Bulls are done with Rondo hurt, even if they get past the Celtics.

 

[Jscc]

Caption this photo.

 

[lov3]

They are doing the trophy again this year