DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum NBA Finals III The Empire Strikes Back

see thats the thing, kyrie and kevin are defensive liabilities.

you can hide one or the another, but you cant hide both at the same time. so love is gonna have to come off the bench

I wonder how we'll do on Friday?

Wish I could work 'part time' and make my whole salary!

My sleeping pills are kicking in, I'm gonna wait a bit more for the game to end but I'm ready for bed.

Love getting paid salary. I don't have to give a shiz.

31 points! I wanna win by 33!

After Mo hit that 3 it makes me wonder why we don't see more of him.

Because his defense makes Kyrie look like Bruce Bowen.

It's all about the next one.

There ain't no reason we can't do this in their house!

I don't know who Bruce Bowen is. Apparently a defensive monster?

Great game, and a great win!

This thing's not over. Nothing is over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bomber Pearl Harbor?

The German's didn't bomb Pearl Harbor...

Forget it, he's rolling.

Forget it, he's rolling!

Damn beat me to it!

Rolling?

Steve Kerr: "We weren't ready to play. They punched us right in the mouth...We were extremely soft."

I was pretty hard on the team and players in the first half. I don't know how LeBron can play like his nerves are on edge in one quarter and then the next he looks like the best player in the league.

Whatever. Just keep winning. Cleveland deserves it. What a weird playoffs.

And I would definitely bring Love off the bench for the rest of the series.

A term used when one is high on ecstasy.

That was unbelievable.

I KNOW they can do it, I just despair of it happening.

There's potentially 192 minutes of basketball left this season. There is no tomorrow after that. These guys need to play this intense for every minute of that time and they CAN do it.

I'm so torn now as to whether I think we're getting jobbed with the only quick turnaound in the series...is it better to come back quickly for momentum's sake, or would an extra day of rest help? I'm leaning towards coming back quickly...I mean there's at most 192 minutes left, they should be able to play that continuously if needed...

The Empire lost by the end of the series! What are you saying?!?!

lose by 30, win by 30

I fully expect next game to be down to the wire

Part of the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor reference from Animal House

yeah come on eve

Don't the Cavs have more away games in this series?

That's probably exactly it. With teams like Toronto, they only have a few guys that can hurt you on offense, so it's much easier to hide Kyrie and Love. With GS, everyone can hurt you, so having two defensive liabilities really limits what you can do.

I hope Love is okay with it, but I think it would do us wonders if he came off the bench. I had advocated doing that with Kyrie earlier in the season, when he seemed to be struggling with the first unit. It would solve some of our bench scoring problems. I think the real problem isn't necessarily "Kyrie" or "Love" ... it's "Kyrie AND Love". Having both of them out there puts two holes in our defense, and there's only one ball for them on offense.

j/c:

Blow the team up. The Cavs are so mentally weak. Trade everyone! Fire Lue. The Cavs and LeBron always choke. There is a huge talent gap between these teams. TT is horrible.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh........it was nice not having to read those comments over and over and over.

The Cavs were much more sound defensively. That fed their offense. Gotta bring that intensity in three 3 more games.

I don't think the Cavs will bench Love. Nor, do I think they need to.

When the Cavs are making shots, everything else improves, defense, rebounding, ball movement, general energy... but like at the beginning of the second quarter, when they go through a period where shots aren't falling, everything else suffers. They have to get out of that mindset and just play the game whether the shots are going in or not...


I have no idea how much of last nights energy and defense was about Love/Jefferson.. I would not be opposed to starting Love but his leash would be about ".." that long.

Perfect point about our lineups. Starters with too many players that want the ball in their hands and want to shoot. @nd team with not enough.

I have often wondered how somebody with hands and feet as quick as Kyrie can't at least be a decent defender.. and last night kind of proved what I thought. He can be when he wants to be.

Plus he was making shots.. and this whole team has a bad habit of letting how they are playing on the offensive end dictate how they play on the defensive end..

That's a great point too. Like I said in an earlier thread, one of our biggest problems is that we sulk. When shots don't go in, we can't play through it. We immediately revert to ISO offense and our defense stops trying. It's probably why we see ourselves getting blown out so often when we do lose.

You're right though. They need to just forget about that and keep at it. Keep running the sets, keep playing hard on Defense. When the shots start going through again, we'll only be down by a couple, instead of a dozen.

I was amazed last round how quickly the media rhetoric would flip.. depending on who won..

Last night I expected it after the game, and was not dissapointed.

still clueless i see...easily the worst poster on this board, right below CoachB

Last night while a good game follows script of GS in the playoffs, they have lost every game 3, only to come back to win series, I think with the Love deal, you have to play him at home if healthy, then you get a better idea if the fix worked, if you play him at home and he's lights out, then you just attribute it to the team overall playing better, if he's meh, then you have him come off the bench..It's the finals, get over it, you sometimes play the matchup game. Now I will say if Kyrie fights through picks and screens like last night, then that PNR defense probably doesn't expose Love as much. Last night was fun, but history still is on GS side, but as long as we put the effort forth like last night then its doable, but we still have to win one in their house..i'd prefer it to be game 5, playing them game 7 would be brutal

They do sulk when its not going well, thats that mental toughness they need night in and night out that only comes with experience and confidence. What's funny is they used the same blueprint OKC used to beat them, get physical with everyone, trap hard and don't allow yourself to be screened. They did that, and our guards gave theirs Zero room to shoot, sure they made a couple shots but you just tip your hat and move on, i love how Lebron/RJ played green as well, RJ plays great help defense and his activity under the basket really benefited TT, TT didn't have to fight 4 guys for the board because RJ actually helped box people out, novel concept. That allowed TT to be more effective, his offensive game still has gaping holes, but if he can play like this most games, then thats 100% ok with me.. I loved seeing mosgov out the with the bonecrushing screens, i think you need to do that a few times a game..keep them beat up.

I could totally see us getting blown out on Friday and losing in 5 still, GS is still a very good team.

But if you can hold home court, and gaurentee another game in Cleveland? That'd be a big plus.. especially if you can carry this momentum back to GS..

Cavs in 6. Until proven otherwise..

Love or Hate charles, he does have a soft spot for Cleveland..funny read

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2016/story/_/id/16062449/charles-barkley-remains-bullish-cavs