NBA Finals

[par73]

Right now both conference finals are tied 3-2.

The San Antonio Spurs lead the WCF 3-2 over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Spurs are armed with the Greatest Power Forward of All Time in Tim Duncan, and their Big 3 of Duncan-Tony Parker-Manu Ginobli have won more playoff games together than any other "Big 3" all time. Their second unit and entire bench is filled to the brim, and had the most productive bench of any team during the season, especially with Greg Popovich's routine of benching Veteran and Older players during the regular season. Despite benching their starters throughout the year, the San Antonio Spurs lead the league in record with 62 wins and 20 losses.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have only been a valid franchise for 6 years and have won their division for the past 4 consecutive years. The Thunder managed to get an injured Serge Ibaka back onto the court to play the Spurs and his defensive presence at the rim has surely made an impact. The Thunder also sport All Star Point Guard Russell Westbrook and the 2014 Regular Season Most Valuable Player in Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant has averaged Michael Jordan statistics throughout the Season and the Playoffs, Durant is the last person you want to turn his clutch game on in a close game, unless he was on your team.

Meanwhile the Miami Heat lead the ECF 3-2 over the Indiana Pacers.

Indiana played hard for 5 months to earn the #1 seed with the best regular season team record in the Eastern Conference. Lead by All-Star Paul George and seasoned veteran David West, The Pacers fell 3-1 in the series but narrowed the margin in Game 5 on their home court. The real key for the Pacers involves their Center Roy Hibbert. When Hibbert scores 10 or more points in the playoffs, the Pacers have won those games, but when he scores less Indiana has a tendency to lose.

The Miami Heat, two time consecutive defending NBA Finals Champions and three time consecutive defending Eastern Conference Champions, are lead by the NBA's current and critically acclaimed best player in Lebron James. James' supporting cast of NBA Finals 2006 Champ and MVP Dwayne Wade, the always improving Power Forward Chris Bosh who has added a 3-point shot to his arsenal, the greatest 3-point shooter of all time in Ray Allen, Forward Shane Battier and Gaurd Mario Chalmers. The Miami Heat are looking to become the 4th team in NBA history to complete the "3-peat", other teams including the Boston Celtics (9-peat under Bill Russell), the Chicago Bulls (Two 3-peats under Michael Jordan), and the Los Angeles Lakers (2000-2002 under Shaq O'Neal and Kobe Bryant).

The Western Conference teams won more games in the regular season than the Eastern Conference teams, despite having a more challenging conference.

Which team do you think will end up winning the NBA finals?

[Father Xmas]

voted for Spurs

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

i predict a team of idiots plays a team of idiots and the team of idiots wins.

hopefully lebron mcfaggot loses

[par73]

The Heat dispatched the Pacers and the Spurs have dispatched the Heat.


Rematch to last years finals:
Greatest player in the world vs Great Players from across the world

[heyhoeletsgo]

miami gona get shit on, ginobili gona wreck them all

[Chohan]

miami gona get shit on, ginobili gona wreck them all

^

[Captain]

Heat win 4-2, non exciting finish to a non exciting year.

I'm quite surprised how many people are up on the spurs.

[par73]

Spurs will win

Bench players and role players win finals.

[Captain]

Spurs will win

Bench players and role players win finals.

I will be surprised if the Spurs get 3 games out of 7. Lebron is too good.

[par73]

lebron is a very good player and he runs the miami offense as much as he runs the miami defense. however its his bench players and those around him as starters which brought him the championship in 2012 2013 and he knows this. that's why he facilitates to them. 2011 no ray allen.
gg.

[Pogue]

No Celtics = No Care

[HeadHunterKC]

Spurs in 7

[par73]

No Celtics = No Care

sup

[par73]

the spurs international roster reminds me of international mwc rosters from old days

[heyhoeletsgo]

well, i thought it was going to be 4-0 spurs. apparently miami won game 2, wtf ?! anyway, kawhi leonard showed lebron his place in game 3, easy win for the spurs

[Father Xmas]

the spurs international roster reminds me of international mwc rosters from old days

lol i didn't know tony parker was born in belgium

[Chohan]

No Celtics = No Care

>actually counting or caring about any "championships" in basketball before 1988+

Only delusional sports fans actually count those.

[par73]

the cavs weren't even a team until the 1970s gtfo
Championships 0
Conference titles 1 (2007)
Division titles 3 (1976, 2009, 2010)

you have more retired numbers than titles
Retired numbers 7 (7, 11, 22, 25, 34, 42, 43, Tait)

[par73]

Boston Celtics:
Championships 17 (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008)
Conference titles 21 (1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 2008, 2010)
Division titles 21 (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
Retired numbers 21 (00, 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, LOSCY, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 35, MIC)

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

Basketball is irrelevant now. Totally different game. You have 7.5 foot people shooting into a hoop 2 feet above their head. Its a physical sport, it used to be you can't just muscle your way to the hoop or it was considered a foul. Floppers make it even less enjoyable. That's like all of us playing in a kiddy hoop. Players palm the ball so much that [no shit you can fake out the defender when you carry the ball several feet illegally].

[shadow]

ATTENTION !
MAD DORF IN THREAD

[Pogue]

Basketball is irrelevant now. Totally different game. You have 7.5 foot people shooting into a hoop 2 feet above their head. Its a physical sport, it used to be you can't just muscle your way to the hoop or it was considered a foul. Floppers make it even less enjoyable. That's like all of us playing in a kiddy hoop. Players palm the ball so much that [no shit you can fake out the defender when you carry the ball several feet illegally].

I agree with most of that. The constant "fouling" just pisses me off. I watch less basketball every year it seems..

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

Flopping in any sport pisses me off. I hate the concept of "buying calls." That's why sports that are officiated are most frustrating because its all a judgment call. Sports that are clear cut yes/no good/bad are the best for that very reason. I mean seriously, a boxing match could be super close but judges rate in favor of one over another, or calls in football, balls/strikes in baseball, penalties in hockey. Everything is subject to human error which sucks. Tennis is a sport where every call is accurate and both sides have an equal chance.

[Pogue]

They fuck up calls in tennis. Didn't you ever see McEnroe?

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ekQ_Ja02gTY[/youtube]

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

Those are very few and far between, but anymore, the calls are 100% because of instant replay and challenges. But, again, the calls are based on black and white evidence. They are not judgmental. Define a "foul" in basketball. There is no one way to define it. Or pass interference in football. Baseball is another one that could go either way. If they really really wanted it to be called 100% accurate, they would get rid of UMPS and just use machines for balls, strikes, and outs.

[Pogue]

I would be down for using machines for strikes. Literally ever 4-5 games I watch there's at least 2-4 calls where the umpire gets it totally wrong and the replay shows what a fuck up he is. Like you said, human error.

[BIG KROK V8 SS]

What I hate is how much power the umps show. Say a guy argues a called strike and thinks its a ball, the ump will intentionally call an even worse pitch a strike out of spite from the hitter's behavior. shit like that pisses me off. or when a manager gets tossed after 1 second into an argument.

[par73]

err, the calls are based on grey evidence, that is then put through a black and white judgement.

if evidence was black and white for umpires and refs, there would never need to be any arguments or replays over their calls (and also, no human error).

basketball is still relevant now and is quite a different game than how it was in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, etc. every era changes the game to something different. shooting gaurd was a laughable position up until the 1980s, barkley, jordan and drexler redefined it. 3 point line wasn't added until 79-80 season, totally opening up the defense, giving shorter players chance to be more efficent offensively, and making the game more enjoyable for fans.

define a foul in basketball? significant contact that is the fault of illegal conduct between two opposing players.


basketball is a sport where the players are often in constant motion so reviewing plays is even more important than in games such as baseball. i'm actually surprised they now include video reviews in baseball but have not replaced human umpires with the 'digital strike zone' that shows up on the side of a broadcasted baseball game.

[HeadHunterKC]

I believe this Spurs team was one of the best teams of all time.

[Pogue]

Who called Spurs in five? Oh that's right...

[HeadHunterKC]

I thought they would win in 6 or 7, called it at 7, but damn... the Heat got trampled.

[East Wind tmnt]

I think the clippers had the best chance with the spurs because they had a deeper team than either okc or the heat.

[par73]

okc bench is raped
1. after losing harden to rockets (because the front office in OK didn't want to resign him, even tho he is easily a top 10 player in the league, top5 at gaurd, top 3 at sg) and
2. losing martin to timberwolves (who's probably happy he's getting starting minutes again even though its on a timberwolves squad that is losing their greatest asset).


also what the hell is up with kendrick perkins. apparently doc rivers can make any team's players that much better, because perkins has absolutely fallen off offensively, defensively, and rebound wise, since leaving boston and joining the thunder squad. absolutely terrible, don't even get me started on his PER


clippers are very nice and i was amazed to see matt barnes step it up this year. they have been a great team to watch and continue to develop and add more pieces to become even more efficent. if they never make a title run it will be a shame, but it's tough to get in the finals over there on the west coast.

[East Wind tmnt]

jalen rose on our boi - "Kendrick Perkins be running up the court like he wearing combat boots" lol

After they brought Westbrook back both Jackson and lamb regressed, I'm sure they weren't expecting those guys to just stop producing.
The teams that give the spurs trouble are teams with deep benches and not limited scoring options.

[par73]

westbrook and durant duo just gets stronger every year.

heat bench in 13 was way stronger than in 14 (yeah, mike miller really has that effect on my perception). when's beasley gunna step up ? LOoooOl

clipps and golden state are so nice, i wish they could just switch to the eastern division (even though they are both cali teams)

the western conference is out of control in superiority, intensity, and in pleasure of watching the games.
im surprised the spurs weren't worn out more for the finals but portland couldn't take em and the OKC only brought em to 6.

crazy to think the #8 seeds brought both #1 seeds to 7 games this year. good stuff.