American Sports Thread

Oraisteach · May 28, 2018, 08:24:43 PM

Sadly, I fear that the Cavs will be devoured by either GSW or Hou, but then again, I never imagined that they'd win win the East with one player and four plastic cones (ie minus Love).

SLIGONIAN · May 28, 2018, 08:38:59 PM

Igadualo and CP3 are out for tonight, id expect both to play some part in the finals whoever gets there.

Think we will win tonight, that 2nd half under that pressure at home was unreal the other night. Thompson really pulled us through. We are going to be super aggressive in defence tonight so id expect to win just. They are dangerous especially at home. Durant was off form the last 2 matches, he'll deliver tonight. Curry still finding his feet after injury. Green the ultimate competitior and defender. We need our bench to give those guys a rest, think that maybe the Rockets downfall only using 6/7 players. They'll tire without CP3.

Syferus · May 28, 2018, 08:45:26 PM

Quote from: Oraisteach on May 28, 2018, 08:24:43 PM
Sadly, I fear that the Cavs will be devoured by either GSW or Hou, but then again, I never imagined that they'd win win the East with one player and four plastic cones (ie minus Love).

When that player is LeBron James anything is possible.

Oraisteach · May 28, 2018, 11:05:21 PM

I hope your anything possible truism comes to pass, Syf, but I'll say this, as brilliant as Michael Jordan was, I don't think he could have made it to the Finals with this team. Of course, we'll never know.

bennydorano · May 29, 2018, 12:41:35 AM

Who is the greatest Lebron v Jordan https://youtu.be/rmM1REPNg_M

Syferus · May 29, 2018, 12:51:26 AM

Quote from: Oraisteach on May 28, 2018, 11:05:21 PM
I hope your anything possible truism comes to pass, Syf, but I'll say this, as brilliant as Michael Jordan was, I don't think he could have made it to the Finals with this team. Of course, we'll never know.

Physically he isn't the sort of genetic freak that James is. He had a great mentality but it's hard to argue that James doesn't have that too given what we've seen over the last decade. I'd love him to win this one, it would be storybook stuff.

Carmen Stateside · May 29, 2018, 02:49:21 AM

This has been a fun start! Rockets have come out hard and has crowd well into it!

Carmen Stateside · May 29, 2018, 04:00:06 AM

Crowd not so much in it now. Warriors with a great second half showing.

gawa316 · May 29, 2018, 04:36:32 AM

Warriors come good in the second half again. Paul a massive loss for them but rockets missed like 26 3's in a row at one stage, which is no were near good enough. Would even argue Harden came up short again in a play off game. Yes he got 32 points but he shot 29 times and was only 2/13 on 3'a.

heganboy · May 29, 2018, 04:42:52 AM

That wasn't even basketball. What the hell? KD and Curry made some absolutely ridiculous 3s.
Some weird officiating in that game tonight. Paul available would have made some difference.

gallsman · May 29, 2018, 08:23:59 AM

Dunno how much difference CP3 would have made as Gordon played exceptionally. Houston left it behind them for sure as GSW were off, especially from 3 in the first half and Klay had three early fouls. Warriors, and Steph in particular, really caught fire after halftime and that was that. Houston missing 27 straight efforts from 3 was just appalling.

Two poor enough Game 7s it has to be said.

Asal Mor · May 29, 2018, 09:16:19 AM

I think Paul would have made the difference. Paul was the one who kept them going in the 3rd quarter in game 5. Gordon was playing a lot of minutes and playing really well with Paul there, so I don't think it's an either/or situation. I agree that Gordon was brilliant and so was Capela. Harden was unlucky with a few calls when he looked to have been fouled shooting for 3 but I'm delighted that sneaky tactic, which Houston have perfected of waiting for a bit of contact and throwing up a 3, backfired. Warriors got the calls last night but delighted for D'Antoni too, who is hateful with his constant barracking of the refs.

The Warriors shot pretty well aside from Draymond, who the Rockets were happy to leave open. Steph was heroic again in the 3rd and turned the game. He is a joy to watch and a great competitor. Durant broke the Rocket's hearts with some ridiculous shots while being defended perfectly. He plays a bit soft though and only had 5 rebounds in 44 minutes. Steph had 8. Gordon beat KD for one 50/50 rebound when the Warriors were struggling. The offensive rebounding of the Rockets was killing them and they were very lucky to be still in it at half-time thanks to poor Rockets shooting. Draymond has to take a lot of the responsibility for all those rebounds too and he had a lot of turnovers again. One of the commentators was raving about his performance but I thought he was sloppy again. Klay was very good while he was on the court but those early fouls were really dumb and put his team in big trouble.

With Iggy due back soon they should be able to put the Cavs away in 4 or 5.

gawa316 · May 29, 2018, 06:49:07 PM

Agreed...it's not so much Paul replacing Gordon but having them both available. When Paul is resting you have Gordon to come in, as opposed to say Green. Houston were also only using 7 or so players so that must've taken a toll of them. Paul being available would've shared the workload.

SLIGONIAN · May 29, 2018, 08:30:58 PM

Warriors would of won in 5 had Iggy and CP3 being fit all through, you do realise we beat Houston twice with CP3 playing.. However without Iggy, CP3 would of made a difference, definitely would of been closer late on so we did get a bit of luck with his injury. Hard luck to Houston.

Cant see anything other than GSW win in the finals, East conference looked weaker than the West. Boston did unreal without Irving. Massive respect for LeBron though, one of the greatest sports people of all time. Hope its more relaxing than he last couple of matches. Home court advantage = GSW in 5.

Asal Mor · May 30, 2018, 04:58:49 AM

Quote from: SLIGONIAN on May 29, 2018, 08:30:58 PM
Warriors would of won in 5 had Iggy and CP3 being fit all through, you do realise we beat Houston twice with CP3 playing.. However without Iggy, CP3 would of made a difference, definitely would of been closer late on so we did get a bit of luck with his injury. Hard luck to Houston.

Cant see anything other than GSW win in the finals, East conference looked weaker than the West. Boston did unreal without Irving. Massive respect for LeBron though, one of the greatest sports people of all time. Hope its more relaxing than he last couple of matches. Home court advantage = GSW in 5.

Not sure if they'd have done it in 5 but hard to argue they wouldn't have won with Iggy given they were leading 2-1 and had just won by 40 points in the game where he got the injury. They were never as vulnerable as they were without him though and it was there for the taking for the Rockets.

Hard to know what to make of the injury reports and if they are true, there's no guarantee he'll be back. The Love injury reports are also unclear but he looked fine attending game 7 and my uneducated guess is that we'll see him in game 1.