Dame Lillard is the NEW Truth.
Paul Pierce will have to share his nickname for a minute.
Look - if LAL gets PORT first round that is a potential BUZZ SAW for them...
Carmelo Anthony is SLIMMED down and CONTINUING his improved play....a playoff matchup against LAL and his friend LeBron will be HUGE for Melo.
Nurkic is a RUGGED and talented Big....Zach Collins adds size up front as well.
Top it all off was Dame giving shade to Paul George and Pat Beverly this weekend after they teased him about missing those FTs......dude played it off perfectly and I loved his response to those two.
Don't sleep on PORT, LAL....
I just don't see Portland as a true threat to the Lakers. Their improved play in the bubble is the difference between getting swept and pushing the Lakers to 6 games (at most). Dame is a monster and healthy Nurkic is a huge upgrade but that's where it ends for me.
Melo deserves lots of credit for his conditioning. Unfortunately, it hasn't changed the fact that he's an attrocious defensive player. Portland can't get stops when it counts, which puts all the pressure on Lilliard to play out of his mind on a nightly basis.
The Lakers can win any style of game and will have the two best players in a potential playoff matchup. More often than not I trust the Lakers in the final minutes of a close game. They can execute on both ends of the court.
The Blazers with Nurkic and Collins both back can beat this current Lakers squad. The Lakers should be favored of course, but it won't be easy for them. Losing Bradley will hurt them a lot. They will have a hard time containing Lillard and McCollum.
A front court of Melo, Nurkic and Collins is also a lot for the Lakers to deal with. Sure they have AD, but Lebron is old, and after those two guys they have practically nothing but a washed up group of disgruntled vets who are borderline out of the league and a handful of guys who are good 9-10th guys on a roster.
Agree with all of this.
People sleeping on Portland....
I get that LAL is a favorite to win it all but they are NOT invulnerable - see BOS's effort against them TWICE this year.
Talented and hungry teams do not back down from LA.
The Lakers are absolutely vulnerable but the Blazers just aren't the answer. They don't have a single player who can impact the game at an elite level on both ends of the court. LeBron might be showing some age on defense but he can still come up with game changing plays when it really counts. Anthony Davis is also the 2nd best player in the series. It was only two years ago that a Blazers squad featuring Dame, CJ, and Nurkic got swept by the New Orleans Pelicans. That Pelicans squad was lead by AD, Rondo, and Jrue Holiday and their bench was terrible. It's obviously not apples to apples (Nurkic is way better now) but Portland has way too many holes to be considered a true contender.
Do you guys think LeBron is no longer capable of playing at the same level as the 2018 playoffs? Don't forget that he carried a terrible Cavs squad to the Finals. To put things in perspective, Kevin Love was his only teammate to average over 10 PPG in the playoffs.
Despite the Lakers being full of past their prime veterans, LeBron has single handedly carried much worse teams deep into the playoffs.
I think your forgetting two very important points here:
1. Lebron is in the Western Conference now. Lebron carried those teams to the finals in a perennially weak Eastern Conference
2. Lebron's old now. Lebron from 3 years ago would have been a totally different story
Nobody is calling the Blazers legit contenders. Just saying that they can beat the Lakers. Plenty of contenders have struggled and even lost to lower seeds in the playoffs before. I just don't really view the Lakers as legit contenders either.
I'm still scratching my head about your comment about Caruso putting up crazy numbers. He's at best a 10th man on a legit contender.
And as gouki88 said, Avery Bradley is not walking through that door for the Lakers this postseason.
Yeah, I have no faith in LBJ's ability to completely carry a team anymore. He is a far-cry from Miami or Cleveland Bron nowadays. He can't play as much nor carry as heavy an offensive load, his defence is weak (got a good cover in AD), and he's never had as boneheaded a supporting cast as this one (Smith, Waiters, Morris, McGee). I have no faith in the Lakers.
Even if it's not Portland who knock em off (it probably won't be), I think someone will. Portland will push them, but I don't think they have the defensive players to stop the Lakers. But I think facing the Rockets in the 2nd round could be a very real problem for LA.
Also, maybe he meant Caruso's numbers were crazy bad, in which case he'd be right.
Topic: NBA 2019-2020 season thread (Read 397185 times)