Lebron showed up tonight, eh

 

FT attempts don't tell anything close to the story. Friends who are Lakers fans admitted that the Lakers got all the calls in the 4th quarter.

I give the Lakers credit when they deserve it. Last night was as much about the Nuggets giving the game away as it was about the Lakers pulling out a close one at the end.

As much as people try and minimize what the Cavaliers have done in the postseason thus far, the fact remains that they've beaten inferior competition both at home and on the road resoundingly every chance they could. No way does the Yao-less Houston squad take 2 games off of the Cavs if they'd played them. Why do the Lakers deserve credit when they let a depleted Houston squad take them to 7 games, especially when the Lakers looked like a second-tier team in a couple of those losses?

 

Imagine the contributions that Marcus Camby would make for the Nuggets if not for last off-season's salary dump. NBA critics should really watch the games. The league is fantastic and the two series going on now are fantastic!

 

Tonight showed that Cleveland is not immortal, untouchable and unbeatable. They blew a 16 point lead at home and lost. Both series are going to be fun to watch.

 

Definitely. Both game 1 were great.

 

Just about everyone was surprised tonight that Cleveland blew the lead/Orlando made a huge comeback. I didn't expect the Cavs to have anything close to a series sweep, but I thought the first loss would've been in Game 3.

Will be interesting to see how Cleveland responds. Game 3 could be huge.......

 

First off, I never gave the Lakers credit for their play thus far... once again I have to remind you of how critical I have been of my team. Since once again you call us "homers".

And let me get this straight... I can't question the inferior teams the Cavs have faced, even though it is fact that the both teams the Cavs faced were below or barely .500 teams. Thats a fact. Yet you can sit there and ASSUME that the Cavs would NEVER let the Yao less rockets take 2 games? You have no idea how the Cavs would have fared against the rockets with or without Yao.

And as far as the reffing you commented on in the Lakers game. I took offense to the fact that you credited the Lakers with a win because of some "help" from the refs. When in fact, throughout first the 3 quarters, the Nuggets seemed to be playing at home, and had a huge advantage at the FT line. It wasn't till the 4th that the FT discrepancy started to even out.

In the end, I just want consistent officiating on both sides. Give these guys a fair shake. Don't call the game one way for 3 quarters, then start calling it differently later on.

Been fun debating with you Fusion

GO LAKERS! BIG GAME TOMORROW

 

Homers is plural, not singular. You're not the only Lakers fan that's posted in this thread. Get some perspective......

Yes, the overall level of reffing in the NBA stinks. But again, stats don't tell the complete story. Were you sitting in front of a TV during the first half going "dang, the Nuggets are getting some kind calls from the refs"????? No, b/c it was pretty obvious that the Nuggets got out to a good-sized lead by begin better team, not b/c of calls going their way.

Fast forward to the latter half of the 4th quarter. As much as LA came back, you couldn't also state that the Lakers weren't getting some suspect calls go in their favor during that stretch of the game. As much as Laker fans point out that Billups stepped out of bounds when he hit his late 3, the fact of the matter is that the game wasn't put in severe doubt with that oversight. As long as LA inbounds the ball to Kobe after that, he was going to make both FTs and put LA up by 3 with just a few seconds and Denver with no TOs left (nice coaching job there AGAIN by Karl).

And while you keep trying to minimize who the Cavs have played, the fact of the matter is that Atlanta was 47-35 during the regular season (not barely over a .500 team, as they were a game behind Utah) and was a BETTER team this year than the one that took the eventual champions last year to 7 games. The Cavs dominated them in a sweep. So yes, it's not a huge stretch to extrapolate that the Cavs wouldn't have let a series with the Rockets go to 7. If you still can't admit to that, then are you also going to state that the Cavs would've lost games to the Rockets by 12 & 15 points after Yao went down??

It's all good though. This is what I love about this time of the season in the NBA - - having spirited but civil debates with homers....oops, I mean "fans".....

 

Actually, I did come away with thinking that after the first 3 quarters... but thats just the homer in me

My bad on the Hawks, I guess by the time they got to the 2nd round they had a depleted roster, and were playing like crapola... so I thought they had a worse record. But as you sit there and tell me im off base about the CAVS beating down the rockets, I'm sitting her telling you that the CAVS have played bad teams during their road to the ECF. So we'll agree to disagree.

I still don't buy your assumption about the CAVS railroading through the apponents the Lakers faced. But I guess thats the homer in you... at this point, I have no idea who you root for. Or is it anybody the Lakers are playing against

I still called the Magic to come out of the east before the playoffs started, and I'm going to stick with it. I think last night showed that the Magic have played tougher opponents, and they match up pretty well with the CAVS. And they sustained a great game by their best player, and still got the win.

Playoff basketball, gotta love it.

 

I should've made a thread for this when the playoffs started.. but as soon as the final seeds were in, I called a Nuggets/Cavs final.. so we'll see