2013 NBA Season News and Discussion

[conscript]

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying the heat can only win if they get ref assistance, but I have literally no doubt that the heat will win tonight, AND there will be several dubious calls in the favor of the heat. None at all, that is how much I believe donaghy over the league right now.

As a fan of LeBron James, I 100% agree. They don't need the refs to win the next two games, what they really need is Wade and the support staff to show up, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the bulk of the calls leaned their way in significant fashion. Not Game 6 2002 WCF fashion, but Miami/Dallas 2006 Finals fashion. Well maybe not to that extent, but I would expect all the toss up fouls to go their way and there is no way in hell they are going to be calling those Pietrus flops as fouls against the Heat. Dan Crawford, thankfully not Joe, is one of the officials tonight. He was responsible for the Boston Techfest Game 1. Another one of the refs was part of the Game 2 team that heavily favored Miami on close calls.

Pretty interesting dialogue on Grantland today. The parts about LeBron were especially relevant to a lot of the conversations here, I think.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-vs-simmons-iv

I love Bill Simmons. He is like the anti-ESPN portion of ESPN. He is the guy at ESPN who is a dick to your face all the time rather than a dick only once the camera turns off.

[buck008]

And what is your opinion of the Technical foul that Stephen jackson got last night, for LOOKING TO THE RIGHT after he made a shot? Oh no, he looked at the other teams bench and did not say a word! Clearly that is a tech! (Came at a VERY pivotal moment in the game last night) Joey crawford is 10x worse then anything Donaghy ever did.

Except for the fact that Crawford has been quick on the tech all post season. If it makes you feel better to assume that's a symptom of a league wide conspiracy to advance certain teams and players... go for it I guess. I think it's easier to blame incompetence and a quick whistle power trip. He's a shitty ref, not a shady conspirator.

[Twiddly]

Except for the fact that Crawford has been quick on the tech all post season. If it makes you feel better to assume that's a symptom of a league wide conspiracy to advance certain teams and players... go for it I guess. I think it's easier to blame incompetence and a quick whistle power trip. He's a shitty ref, not a shady conspirator.

I never said that he was a shady conspirator. But the fact that they HAVE to know how shitty of a ref he is, yet still put him in in pivotal games...

I asked your opinion of that specific tech, at that pivotal point in the game, not of the ref in general.

[conscript]

And what is your opinion of the Technical foul that Stephen jackson got last night, for LOOKING TO THE RIGHT after he made a shot? Oh no, he looked at the other teams bench and did not say a word! Clearly that is a tech! (Came at a VERY pivotal moment in the game last night) Joey crawford is 10x worse then anything Donaghy ever did.

---------- Post added 2012-06-07 at 03:59 PM ----------

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2012...e-lebron-james


Coach spoelstra is 100% gone if they lose tonight after what James said.

""It's been challenging not just for those of us who have been constants in the starting lineup but for those guys who have been in and out, not knowing if they're going to start or not," James said Thursday as the Heat prepared for an elimination game against the Boston Celtics."

""It's been a challenge for all of us," said James, who also has played minutes at center in the series with the Celtics."

All valid points I am sure, but probably not something James needs to be saying right now, before the game. Not only is it a "coach-killer reputation" move, it also makes him look like he is trying to make excuses in advance, just in case they lose.

Champions do not make excuses before the game James. Champions go out and win, or lose while giving there best. Which I do not expect from James, after seeing his last series in cleveland and the complete throw in the towel games he had.

That Jackson tech was a freaking travesty. How many times each night do guys stare down the other team after hitting a huge shot? Fifty? How the hell do you call that a tech in an elimination game.

Agree about Spo. He should be gone and if he isn't, then expect the Heat to continue being a mess as a team. I don't read that as making excuses though at all from LeBron. He was asked a question and he freaking answered it. If players shut up and say nothing they are attacked in the media for being cowards. If they answer questions they are making excuses. Nothing, not a single damn thing, LeBron says will serve as an excuse for why the lost. Excuses don't matter except to overeager fans looking to tack on another "This is why you fail" medal to James. Guess what. Every single player says stuff like LeBron did. Kobe openly bitched about his teammates all playoffs. The Spurs, Celtics, Heat, Thunder, Clippers, Grizz, etc all complained about the refs this playoffs. Isn't that making excuses for their losses? Stop taking EVERYTHING LeBron says or does and blowing it up 700 times out of proportion compared to every other player in the league as if he is some failed savior of the world.

People love KG now. Remember 6 years ago when KG was as big if not a bigger pariah than LeBron? KG lost 7 playoff series in a row then missed them three seasons in a row. Then he formed a super team in Boston and won a ring, and blew another Finals appearance where Kobe shot 6-24 in Game 7 and still won yet no one ever gets pissy with KG about that. What I'm trying to say is people need to back the hell off the hate LeBron bandwagon. His career isn't even close to over. He is still one of the best players in the NBA. For the bulk of his career he played in Cleveland with a horrible set of players, a horrible coach, and a horrible GM. Then he went to Miami and in two years they have won the most games in the playoffs of any franchise, reach the ECF twice, the Finals at least once, won more playoff series, 5, than the Heat had in the previous half decade. Its just fucking absurd at this point. LeBron isn't making excuses. He isn't being passive. He isn't a coward. He is a freaking basketball player who goes out and puts up numbers like only one other guy in the entire league and absolutely obliterates that other guy on the defensive end of the court. He plays every single position on defense for his team. he runs his team's offense. He doesn't not show up for practices (Iverson). He doesn't get in massive legal issues off the court (Kobe). He doesn't get suspended for a season for gambling (Jordan's "I'm retiring" season). He did one freaking interview on ESPN titled the Decision no different than EVERY SINGLE 5 star NCAA football recruit. No different than college basketball players do when they announce they are going pro. Then he held a ceremony with the FANS of his team and told them they were going to win a bunch of rings just like any other player would do and hundreds have done. Not a single player goes out and says "Gee golly we sure are gonna try hard." None of them. Duncan came out last night and said they felt like they deserved this title. How is that any different than LeBron saying they were going to win Championships?

I guess Champions make excuses after the games. "My teammates should have played better. Gasol was awful" says Kobe the Champion. Surely it had nothing to do with him taking 30 shots per game. "We deserved this one" says Duncan the Champion although that is less of an excuse as a man I wish we would have won this one statement. "Miami is busying bitching about calls" and "The officiating was terrible" says KG, Pierce, Rondo, and Doc Rivers, all Champions.

But no, you're right Twiddly. LeBron quit on his team in Cleveland. Just quit. Walked right off the floor after having a bad Game 5. It isn't like in game 6 against Boston in the 2010 playoffs, his last game for Cleveland, he had 27 points, 19 boards, 10 assists, 3 steals, and a block. That is the type of stat line you would expect from a super star player giving absolutely everything he had to keep his team alive. Oh wait, THAT IS THE EXACT STAT LINE HE HAD IN GAME SIX. LeBron gave Cleveland freaking everything he had in his tank every single year. They gave him jack squat in support. But you're right. Dude is a quitter and always has been. He only averaged 27 points per game against Boston in his final series as a Cav. He only led the team in assists in five of the six games. He only led them in rebounding in three of the six games. He only defended the best player on the Celtics in six of the six games. He sure did tarnish his legacy there in Cleveland with his last series.

---------- Post added 2012-06-07 at 06:43 PM ----------

I never said that he was a shady conspirator. But the fact that they HAVE to know how shitty of a ref he is, yet still put him in in pivotal games...

I asked your opinion of that specific tech, at that pivotal point in the game, not of the ref in general.

They put him in games because the NBA for some reason considers him one of their best refs. God knows why, but every time you read an article about him it had the, "considered one of the best refs by the league" line in it. The dude is a loose cannon, not that he is alone in that (see: Boston/Miami Game 1 refs), and should be reeled in big time by the league. How can you give Jackson a tech for staring guys down and not, say, Westbrook for running up the floor holding three fingers out after hitting a three every time. They are both taunts, no one worse than the other. But the NBA is like the MLB. It won't discipline its refs unless there is a massive scandal attached or if they get completely, completely out of control and it becomes a huge deal in the media like the ump that was suspended for his "Fuck you Charlie" rant a couple weeks ago against the Phillies manager he had thrown out of the game minutes earlier although Manuel was in the dugout not making a confrontation at all at the time.

---------- Post added 2012-06-07 at 07:28 PM ----------

According to Wikipedia, Erik Spoelstra has already been fired as of June 9, 2012. I wonder if that time traveler knows if they lost game 6 then he was fired or if he was fired as soon as game 7 ended in a loss.

[Twiddly]

But no, you're right Twiddly. LeBron quit on his team in Cleveland. Just quit. Walked right off the floor after having a bad Game 5. It isn't like in game 6 against Boston in "the 2010 playoffs, his last game for Cleveland, he had 27 points, 19 boards, 10 assists, 3 steals, and a block. That is the type of stat line you would expect from a super star player giving absolutely everything he had to keep his team alive. Oh wait, THAT IS THE EXACT STAT LINE HE HAD IN GAME SIX. LeBron gave Cleveland freaking everything he had in his tank every single year. They gave him jack squat in support. But you're right. Dude is a quitter and always has been. He only averaged 27 points per game against Boston in his final series as a Cav. He only led the team in assists in five of the six games. He only led them in rebounding in three of the six games. He only defended the best player on the Celtics in six of the six games. He sure did tarnish his legacy there in Cleveland with his last series."

Sorry I could not get quotes to work right. are you serious? he completely quit in like 2.5-3 games of that series. He did not show up or even TRY. Did you watch the series? I watched every single game, and he was giving less then half the effort he gave on any other playoff game that I have seen of him :P I guess that it is relative though.


And KG was never a pariah to me, a timberwolves fan. though we lost, his intensity made me and pretty much every twolves fun love him, and though we hated to see him go? we were happy he had success elsewhere, and he even thanked us FIRST in his post game speech after they won the title! Thank you KG, for remembering where you came from.

[conscript]

Sorry I could not get quotes to work right. are you serious? he completely quit in like 2.5-3 games of that series. He did not show up or even TRY. Did you watch the series? I watched every single game, and he was giving less then half the effort he gave on any other playoff game that I have seen of him :P I guess that it is relative though.


And KG was never a pariah to me, a timberwolves fan. though we lost, his intensity made me and pretty much every twolves fun love him, and though we hated to see him go? we were happy he had success elsewhere, and he even thanked us FIRST in his post game speech after they won the title! Thank you KG, for remembering where you came from.

KG was always a stand up guy and a great team member. The way he was viewed nationally was always out of touch with who the guy really was and I don't think it is that different than the LeBron hatefest. In that Boston series he didn't put in the greatest effort in game 5, but the rest of that series he did literally everything imaginable for the Cavs and got nothing. They had the Diesel running on 1 cylinder maybe. Mo Williams a 2 guard so good he backs up Randy Foye in LA.

I got tremendous respect for the guys on the pregame ESPN show, but as a group they are just flat out wrong with what they have been talking about. Magic is going on with how all the pressure was put on him in LA. P-freaking-lease Magic. You have absolutely no clue what guys like LeBron and Kobe go through. When you played you were criticized by the Boston Herald and LA Times, local newspapers. You didn't deal with the 24/7 news cycle. You didn't deal with 150 million bloggers. You weren't getting ripped apart by local village newspapers in Montana. Magic didn't face 5% of the outside pressure modern athletes do. He has no idea about the pressure on guys like LeBron, Kobe, Tiger, etc. that are ripped apart nationally not locally. Magic is one of the greatest ever, but he also played with a couple of the greatest ever. He didn't play with a collaboration of nobodies and then Wade for two years.

[Twiddly]

I agree with that, pressure today is absolutely insane compared to back then with the crap that goes on.


What I find funny about ESPN is Stephen A Smith (Who I usually love to listen to) the last couple days with his soooooo obviously fake "I know the heat are going to lose and I am sad about it"...he is going for a reverse jynx so obviously that it is sure to backfire, right? I mean c'mon Stephen a., you are better then this!

[Oboloz]

OKC fan here. City has been crazy the past day.. everyone is fired up!

I'm rooting for the Celtics because they're my favorite team in the East, but I kind of want a piece of LeBron.

Oh and a lot of people have been saying the refs saved OKC.. to be honest, there was horrible officiating for both sides, oh and flops all around.

[conscript]

One quarter down. 14 points for LeBron. 0 points for Wade. Hey look! Its every game in this series.

[Blueobelisk]

LOL at rondo chalmers foul.

[conscript]

Wonder is 30/5/2 is a good enough half for the LeBron haters in the media lol. Congratulations Dwyane Wade. You hit your first half average of six points again. LeBron only doubled his average in the first half.

[Deleted]

30 First half points by Lebron on 12/14.

[mirodin]

Wow, did you see LBJ's face in the first half. He looks locked in. Wade is doing his best Pau Gasol impersionation these whole series. Heat look like Cavs 2.0, at least the officiating has looked descent.

[Blueobelisk]

OKC fan here. City has been crazy the past day.. everyone is fired up!

Congrats btw dude (just read through the comments here since it's halftime). I'm really happy for you, I hope you get to go to some games.

I was gonna go to Boston for a finals game if they win this series. Let's see.

[conscript]

What a stupid tech on LeBron.

[Blueobelisk]

No way conscript there's like a rule if you slam the ball down (angrily) and can't catch it it's a technical foul.

And not only did he not catch it, it flew into the crowd. I knew it was a tech before the whistle blew lol.

But that guy James is pulling some magical shots and getting some nice points.

[conscript]

The Heats Big 2 have combined for 50 points through three quarters. Pretty good. LeBron has 82% of those points. Not that good. Nice three points from Wade in the third. Keeping his 3 points per quarter average rolling into the third in this one.

---------- Post added 2012-06-07 at 10:35 PM ----------

No way conscript there's like a rule if you slam the ball down (angrily) and can't catch it it's a technical foul.

And not only did he not catch it, it flew into the crowd. I knew it was a tech before the whistle blew lol.

But that guy James is pulling some magical shots and getting some nice points.

Its a rule, but its a stupid rule. It is just like that tech KG got in game 1 for tapping the ball away from the Heat after a basket. It takes all of two seconds to get that ball back from the stands. No reason to call a tech on that when they spend 20 minutes playing the last minute in each game with fouls and 800 timeouts. That crap is delay of game. Tapping the ball out, even in a frustrated manner like LeBron did, shouldn't be a tech. Frankly I'm glad to see LeBron get pissed like that though. He is killing the Celtics at both ends tonight and he got pissed at himself for taking a rebound for granted rather than attacking it. Good sign for his attitude.

[Twiddly]

Lebron in full on beast mode, does NOT want to lose this one :P

[conscript]

No one has scored more than LeBron has tonight through three quarters in a playoff game in over a decade.

[Pendulous]

If Boston made even half the shots they were open for but missed, they'd be winning. Some terrible shooting.