The Spurs are 2007 champs!(much more inside)

[NNpF]

If you can flop and get away with it more power to you. It drives me nuts when other teams are flopping against the Pacers, but untill a rule is put in that bans flopping, I have no problem with players that do it and I would do it if I were in the league.

Secretly I think that's how we all feel. We hate it when our teams get called for the charge when the opponent flops, but on the other hand If our teams draw an offensive foul we're happy to see it.

Back on to the topic of the Finals. As much as I hate to say it this series looks very one sided. I'm not someone who likes to predict these kinds of things but it seems 4-0 or 4-1 are very likely.

Getting to the Finals is a big deal but just seems like the Cavaliers played some very mediocre teams to get there. A Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards team, a Nets that really causes no problems against serious teams unless the big three is on fire and the Pistons seemed to beat themselves more than anything.

Not to make it seem like they don't deserve it but the Spurs went through three teams that I think could all beat the Cavaliers in a 7-game series.

That being said good luck I wouldn't mind seeing the Cavs make the series interesting and hopefully even winning it all.

[xfobu1ousx]

I was waiting for Game 1 for some exciting game but I was disappointed by how James and the Cavs played. James looked shaken by the pressure of Finals and hopefully he can step up his game in game 2. Cavs got blown away in the 3rd quarter again.. What's the matter with their 3rd quarter of every games?? They need to play all quarters like how they play in 4th quarter to win this Final.

[magius]

i think they should've tried snow on tp, bron and gibson rotating between ginoboli and the other wing, hughes off the bench. cavs frontcourt doesn't even seem to bother td, and their offensive rebounding strength seems utterly negated when faced with a presence in the middle like td. for most of the game their inside game was completely dominated defensively by td. bron needs more iso, when he rolls of that screen they're just pushing him out further so that the help has more time to collapse when he does penetrate. brown is a great defensive coach, but sometimes i wonder about some of his decisions.

its beginning to look a lot like utah.....

[Andrew]

Obviously the focus is going to be on LeBron's first trip to the Finals and Duncan going for his fourth ring, but beyond that there's a good story in Daniel Gibson's play. With Hughes ailing, he should be getting significant minutes the rest of the way and perhaps even starting alongside him in the backcourt.

More agressive isnt the idea or mindset of Lebron. Lebron is all about good decision making and look at the history of the playoffs, playoffs are won....team effort.....yeah sure....MJ went off every game lol but on the other hand he hand a BONAFIDE scorer next to him in Pippen.
Lebron's PAV or GIBSON or GOODEN is not a side kick....haha not even close more like decoys...

LeBron being more aggressive doesn't necessarily mean playing selfishly or out of control, which certainly wouldn't get the job done. The bottom line is that the Cavaliers are not going to have any chance of winning the series or even taking a couple of games if LeBron averages 14 ppg throughout. Team play and good decision making are necessary ingredients if a team wants to win big games and we're all familiar with the old adage of defense winning championships, but ultimately you need to outscore your opponent by the final buzzer to be victorious; you can hold a team to 75 points but it won't matter if you can't put at least 76 points up on the board. Cleveland relies upon LeBron to shoulder a significant amount of the scoring load so while I wouldn't advocate making their gameplan a one man show, he's still going to have to rack up points.

The Spurs' defense deserves a lot of credit for the way they shut LeBron down in Game 1 but all the same LeBron needs to knock down shots, get to the basket and finish or draw the foul...anything to get the defense back on its heels or whenever possible, in foul trouble.

[Sauru]

i think the fact the cavs made it here is good enough, they cant beat the spurs, no way in hell, they just are not at that level yet. getting to the finals is good enough for them for now

[Matt]

I hate to say it, BUT, Lebron is too passive for Cavs to have any hope of beating the Spurs. He needs to be more like......*sigh* Wade, the guy who doesn't go down quietly and picks his spots, instead of letting the defence picking his spots.

Apart from back-2-back 3's in the 4th James just wasn't there. He has to go all out, all the time.

[cheater1034]

I hate to say it, BUT, Lebron is too passive for Cavs to have any hope of beating the Spurs. He needs to be more like......*sigh* Wade, the guy who doesn't go down quietly and picks his spots, instead of letting the defence picking his spots.

Apart from back-2-back 3's in the 4th James just wasn't there. He has to go all out, all the time.

Yep, he definitely does. He did not respond to this game at all and he probably hurt this team more than he helped last night.

I think Daniel Gibson should start for larry hughes, parker blew past hughes every time making hughes neither an offensive threat nor a defensive threat which is bad for the cavs.
Gibson was more poised than anybody last night though and he's the rookie! He needs excessive minute increases, and probably to start, because lets face it, larry hughes is no threat at all to the spurs on either end of the floor now, so the spurs only have to defend 4 guys unless gibson's in there.

The cavs have a chance to win some games here though, they played atrocious last night (it was hideous), but surprisingly they only lost by nine (I have no idea how it was only 9)

If the cavs make a couple of adjustments like remove larry hughes and if LB could take it upon himself to attack the spurs like he did against detroit and the spurs in the regular season the cavs can win this series.

If not, they might as well pack their bags now

Alsos LB held the ball way the hell too much, the plays should go to him he shouldnt run the plays.

They played bad, but I'd expect that in a game 1 for a team who not one player has been in an nba final (besides eric snow) to come out and not know what's going on. The cavs were not prepared the spurs, they were not prepared for the championship atmosphere.

[dan_suth]

What? Lebron held the ball too much? He shouldn't run the plays? What did he do all series against the Pistons? (especially game 5)

Cleveland is a one man team, face it. Gibson has been pretty good, but he's not gonna carry the team to victory against the Spurs. Lebron needs to play out of his mind in order to get some wins.

[cheater1034]

What? Lebron held the ball too much? He shouldn't run the plays? What did he do all series against the Pistons? (especially game 5)

Cleveland is a one man team, face it. Gibson has been pretty good, but he's not gonna carry the team to victory against the Spurs. Lebron needs to play out of his mind in order to get some wins.

I'm saying LeBron got the ball down the court, held it for 10 seconds, then shot it.

In game 5 he did it because he took over the game in the 4th quarter and was on fire, but he still passed out of the double teams at the end, and at the end of that game he had like 8 assists along with the 48 points.

In game 1 against the spurs he ran the plays, turned the ball over, and jacked up low percentage shots. Against detroit he ran the plays in the 3rd quarter and refused to shoot the ball, that's why he did bad in the 3rd.

Also, LeBron didn't waste any time holding the ball against the pistons, he drove the basket to get those 2 dunks in the end, and kept attacking in OT, he took over the game.

LeBron is holding the ball every time he gets it, and shooting long off balance jumpers which is causing me to scratch my head. I'm just saying it was a different LeBron.

The cavs are not a one man team though, the cavs aren't nearly as deep as the spurs, and they are built around superstar LeBron, he doesn't have somebody who's going to be the second leading scorer and take over when he has a bad night (larry hughes lol), he does have 2 other big guys who can nail the mid range every time, and 1 starting guard who can penetrate and make the outside shot, he also has some decent bench scoring which isnt really utilized for some reason (Gibson, Donyell, D. Jones). LeBron gets his help, when he was out of the game during game 1 the cavs made some small runs, when he came in they just got blown out though. So they only lost by 9 to a spurs team who was pumped up at home and we've never been to the finals, and the reason it was a close game wasn't because LeBron (his 2 3s at the end helped, but before that it was closer without him)

LeBron had more turnovers than baskets, but I'll just wait for game 2 with high spirits (I'm going to the Q to watch it in 3D HD and see what that's like)

[ixcuincle]

The cavs are not a one man team though, the cavs aren't nearly as deep as the spurs, and they are built around superstar LeBron, he doesn't have somebody who's going to be the second leading scorer and take over when he has a bad night (larry hughes lol)

Yeah , they aren't a one man team. They're a "two-man" team , Lebron and Gibson are consistent game after game. Otherwise everyone else remains inconsistent from notorious flopper Varejao to Pavlovic.

Gibson is also the second leading scorer that can take over when LeBron has a bad night (31 pts game 6?)...he really needs more minutes because whoever was guarding parker game 1 really didn't do a good job

[maes]

Bron held the ball longer because Spurs don't play basic, playground man defense. They defend spacially, the court. They assume Bron or Kobe or whoever will get by their man and they're set up to defend the basket once that happens.

"If I went by one guy, another guy stepped up,'' James said.

In the Pistons games once Bron got by Prince he basically had a clear lane to either score or draw a foul, or the Pistons over-compensated so much that Gibson was WIDE open.

LeBron was correct in shooting jumpers, that's how you beat the Spurs, the mid range game. Jordan would have had the Spurs for lunch...but the mid-range is a rare skillset these days. Actually a few years ago the Sonics always played the Spurs competitively even in the playoffs because Ray Allen & Rashard have no problem popping a mid-range jumper.

This is VERY Michael Jordan deja vu. Jordan started out his career like LeBron, a high dunking high speed slasher. But in the playoffs Jordan ran smack into the Pistons who knew how to play team defense and protect the basket. The reaction was Jordan changing his game to primarily a mid-range game in the later years.

LeBron will figure it out, and he'll get hot, he'll start scoring now that he knows what he's up against. The real issue lies in the Parker mismatch, i don't see the Cavs stopping both Parker & Ginobili for a series. Hughes must not be assigned Parker, that was just a joke.

[cheater1034]

Hughes must not be assigned Parker, that was just a joke.

Hughes shouldnt start or even play period :-p He's been a stiff in the playoffs except for his defense, but now even his defense sucks. Gibson should start on parker with help (like they defended chauncey), LeBron did a nice job on parker yesterday though, but the matchup wasn't changed for a bit until larry hughes got blown by several times.

[cyanide]

What? Lebron held the ball too much? He shouldn't run the plays? What did he do all series against the Pistons? (especially game 5)

I think he meant that LeBron spent too much time dribbling the ball in Game 1. Mike Brown also complained about that.

[ixcuincle]

Looks like the Cavs are done for game 2.

Asked if he was pondering a lineup change to replace Hughes with Gibson, Brown offered an immediate "No."

Brown seems weirdly reluctant to pull the plug on Hughes. Before the game, he said, "For me to start somebody else because they had a big game, I don't know how much sense it would make to try to mess with what's gotten you here."

Wrong , coach Brown. That "someone else" had several straight big games while Hughes hasn't been the same since the injury.

Seriously , someone needs to let Mike Brown know that the season is on the line now. How can you expect to win the series if Daniel Gibson comes off the damn bench?

[Matt]

they're giving that guy an extension.

[Axel]

The Cavs really aren't a Finals caliber team. The parity in the eastern conference was just pathetic really. In the West, they wouldn't have been any better than a 6 or 7th seed at best. This series isn't really a series, and I'm probably not going to watch any of it.

What's worse is that the West only continues to get stronger with Durant and Oden going to Portland and Seattle next season. Will the east ever get any better? This is so anti-climatic that I almost exclusively watch the first three Western conference rounds and then stop watching altogether.

[Patr1ck]

Game 1 gets lowest tv rating ever for the NBA finals

[Matt]

^ i guess we aren't witnessing anything then....

"But the problem with that idea is that Parker has become as good a midrange shooter as anyone in the league (think Richard Hamilton, Carmelo Anthony and/or Luol Deng), shooting 52 percent from the field this season and .548 last season after failing to crack 47 percent in his first four seasons. "

no way is Parker on that level......he still cant dominate a game from mid-range.

[ixcuincle]

Well...at least they aren't 1.1 NBC numbers like the Stanley cup finals got.

[gio23]

San Antonio sucks..always playing double team on James..

[Dan's Brain]

San Antonio sucks..always playing double team on James..

I can't work out why they didnt leave him unguarded either. Baffling. I'm sure the Spurs will rectify that for game 2, seeing as it obviously didnt work.

[-Young Buck-]

The cavs need to start Gibson, Pavlovic, LeBron, Gooden, and Ilgauskaus. Larry Hughes was a non factor in the game, he couldnt defend, he couldnt even carry the ball up. Start Gibson and give Eric Snow some minutes. Gibson looks like he is a player that can excel when the playoffs are on, and you would be stupid to not play him more minutes next game. If you are going to play hughes put him on Bowen so he dont have to defend much, then on offence Bowen will most likely move to Lebron when the cavs have the ball. I also thought Ilgauskas was playing good defence on Duncan one on one...im suprised he didnt get more minutes. He did look a bit slow sometimes though, which didnt help in getting rebounds. Plus i think that lineup would be good because both Lebron or Gibson can create plays while both can spot up shoot if the other is creating along with pavlovic who has impressed me in game 1. Gooden and Big Z should work harder on the boards.

[Tupik]

San Antonio sucks..always playing double team on James..

I can't work out why they didnt leave him unguarded either. Baffling. I'm sure the Spurs will rectify that for game 2, seeing as it obviously didnt work.

Great one

I'm just feeling like game 2 is gonna be even worse than game 1 for the cavs, I don't know why, but I'm not feelong it good at all...

[maes]

Bron's thoughts on game 1:

[The X]

^ i guess we aren't witnessing anything then....

"But the problem with that idea is that Parker has become as good a midrange shooter as anyone in the league (think Richard Hamilton, Carmelo Anthony and/or Luol Deng), shooting 52 percent from the field this season and .548 last season after failing to crack 47 percent in his first four seasons. "

no way is Parker on that level......he still cant dominate a game from mid-range.

yeah, that comment is a joke....Rip is on his own level as far as midrange shooting....guys like Melo & Deng are on a tier below....as for Parker, he doesn't register....he was an abysmal midrange shooter until this season....he's worked on it & now he can regularly drill them if left wide open, which teams do as they still don't trust his shot & would prefer him beating them that way than getting to the hoop....a guy like Rip will shoot all his midrange shots under great duress but make them....once again, they are looking too much at shooting percentages & analysing them wrong....the shooting %'s are up because he scores most baskets on high % layups....the improved midrange game doesn't hurt either....