Cavs vs. Boston -- 2017 Eastern Conference Finals

Better beat these fuckers in 5. That bullshit in Game 3 is exactly why I didn't want to face these fuckers. Hate 'em so much giving them even one little miracle win takes so much steam out of me.

Finish them, rest up and let's get to the real playoffs.

good to see Kyrie get out of cruise control mode and have some urgency. Same with Love- they both busted their asses last night.

They will have to play that way to finish off the Celts on Thurs and to have a shot against GS- really need to tighten up the defense as whole too.

JMoneyYourHoney said:

Stevens is running circles around Lue this series.

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except for the 2 blowout wins Cavs started the series with. So one game. He out coached Lue for one game...

Kbiz8288 said:

RJ is making quite a compelling case to join the TNT or ESPN crew when he retires. He's a hilarious, well-spoken dude.

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I would rather have him on the court for TNT than David Aldridge (No one can replace Craig but RJ would be close).

iamacavalier said:

except for the 2 blowout wins Cavs started the series with. So one game. He out coached Lue for one game...

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Stevens had a great strategy in Game 4 as well, and it worked about as well as it possibly could have before Kyrie just went off. Lue got outcoached last night even though we won, and that’s okay to admit.

Like I said in the other thread though, Lue pushed all the right buttons all playoffs long before Game 3.

I think "normal LeBron" makes a statement in Boston tomorrow night.

It really irks me that the narrative is that Kyrie saved the day and Lebron is barely mentioned..

So despite looking not 100% right(with the Bug explenation now there) he has 34 and 15 in the 4th...
People really are weird that they change the facts to whatever suits them.. especially the Media..

In 2013 It soley was Ray Allen who saved not only the Game but Lebrons legacy.. People Forget that Lebron made the three right before Rays three to even bring the Game in Range.. That he had 14 Points in the 4th that night.. And even last year as deserved as the praise for Kyries Shot is nearly nobody outside of us is talking about Lebron Scoring almost every single 4th Quarter Point for us in Game 7..

Here we are again... As deserved as every praise for Kyrie is.. why cant the Media give BOTH Lebron and Kyrie credit? Why does it have to sound like "Lebron had a second dud Game and Kyrie had to save him" ?

In generall i really hate the Media right now.. adding to all this there is a weird wave of "If GSW wins the Title KD made the right choise" stuff.. Then the super Arrogant quote from Lacob's gets portrait as "GSW really wants the Cavs.. they are hungry" ..

What the hell is going on? Is every human in the Media so unsure right now what to expect from the Finals that they desperatly try to look good no matter the outcome?

I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome in the Finals. I know the Pistons went into the Lakers in the '89 Finals, expecting a dogfight like the year before, but they swept Los Angeles 4-0. I don't think anyone saw that coming.

Same with last year. I'm not sure most had the Cavs coming back from 3-1.

AsianDawg said:

I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome in the Finals. I know the Pistons went into the Lakers in the '89 Finals, expecting a dogfight like the year before, but they swept Los Angeles 4-0. I don't think anyone saw that coming.

Same with last year. I'm not sure most had the Cavs coming back from 3-1.

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Or nearly nobody expected the 04 Pistons to beat the "Superteam" Lakers in 5..

I can see anything from us winning in 5 or losing in 5 and wich whay it goes depends on Lebron and if our defense can hold up against GSW at least adequately.

If Lebron gets rid of the Bug i am confident we will win. And tbh we really could shock the world by winning in less than 7. Look at how the Spurs looked with Kahwi against GSW.. and the Spurs even have a much worse defense this Playoffs than we do.. AND we have Kyrie and Kev.

shoes22 said:

Only since Game 3.

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Only in game 3.

PIP said:

Literally cannot believe this team is 1 win away from the NBA Finals and it's like Yawwnnnnnn

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Ten years ago, I was a sophomore in high school and played in the band providing the music for the commencement at the State Theater. There was a crazy buzz for Game 6 of the ECF, which was played later that night. Still can't believe that group made the Finals. Pretty awesome run that season.

Some of you have said that our game plan was to leave Boston beat us from behind the arc leaving them wide open, but I'm not convinced at all about this, because Boston is a good 3p shooting team. Yes they didn't shoot well from 3p in the first 2 rounds, but they have pretty a good outside shooters so I'm not that sure this is Lue game plane! I think that we have a hug issues to defend teams that move good the basketball and we tend to collapse and because of our slowness in some wing player that can't recover on the shooters so look and see how many wide open shoot the Boston had in the first 4 games! I'm very worried about our inability to defend the 3p arc vs the GSW!


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The first quarter player movement by the Celtics is incredible. They are taking full advantage of all the space the Cavs are allowing them. Combine that with some looks that I don't think we've seen all series (at one point, the Celtics started a play with three guys at the top of the key, then the three just scattered, leaving the Cavaliers' defense thoroughly confused).

Boston slipping a ton of screens and using their bigs as hubs when the catch on the wing. The Cavs were VERY slow defensively to start this game. Also, HOLY SHIT does Olynyk get away with murder in the post. He doesn't even try to hide it. Dude shoves the defender on every single possession.

(Unrelated: I like how Reggie notes that the Celtics have missed some open looks, which they did, without acknowledging the insane number of open looks the Cavs missed in the first quarter. By my count, they missed at least 6 wide open looks)

So much overhelping in the 2nd quarter. And too many times guys are just getting straight up beat off the dribble. Two Celtics threes and the shot Smart was fouled on were the direct result of unnecessary help. Deron, Tristan and Korver all overhelped.

Failed blitz on Smart leads to Bradley open corner three. That's the argument against blitzing Smart. He's a good passer capable of making quick decisions. However, Tristan was late because he had to hang back a split second as Olynyk set a back screen for Brown.

Love missed two WIDE OPEN threes in the 2nd. JR bad one on one take against Bradley. JR comes back a couple possessions later, doesn't force a three he probably should have taken anyway, and finds Tristan for a floater. He continues to play a very nice floor game.

Al Horford BULLSHIT bank shot from the top. Like, what the fuck even is that?

Explain this to me because I guess I don't get it. They called that Kyrie play late where he got fouled a two shot foul because it was a rip through. Which, I guess, technically it was. But he got the shot up. And it almost went in. Are you telling me if that goes in, they don't count the shot? Doesn't make sense.

Tristan stays a split second too long on the help on the last Boston play, leads to the Horford drive and dish to Olynyk.


Overall: The Cavs were slow on rotations in the first quarter, but Boston threw looks at them they hadn't seen before. Boston also had incredible off ball movement that seemed to confuse the Cavs (kind of like what we saw in games 1 and 2 in the finals last year). The Cavs cleaned it up in the second quarter, simplifying some of the off ball switches, but they lost some of their D principles. They overhelped too often, and they got beat off the dribble several times.

PIP said:

Literally cannot believe this team is 1 win away from the NBA Finals and it's like Yawwnnnnnn

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I don't want to say we are taking it for granted...

But it's all about the war to come. I'm thankful to have a team to cheer for where winning the conference is yet another small stepping stone.