Cleveland vs Atlanta

[kheeko]

Cleveland is freaking unstoppable 20pt blowouts in every postseason game wow

[star18]

They are playing against nobody. Williams and Horford out for Game 2, and Joe Johnson missed 2nd half. Boston is going to crush these overrated Cavs.

[star18]

In their last 23 games, the Cavs have 1 win against a team with their top 4 players in(Game 1 Atl). They only played an opponent with their top 4 players in 3 times in their last 23 games(@Wash, home Phi, Game 1 ATL). During that stretch(according to the refs)Lebron has committed 24 fouls.  I've never seen a more overrated stretch run in my entire life in sports history. Boston is going to expose this overrated nonsense big time.

[star18]

The Cavs haven't beaten a team with a winning percentage of .600 or better with their opponents having their top 4 players playing, in their last 50 GAMES!!! You don't believe me go look at the box scores.  Last win over a team .600 or better at full strength was Jan 16 against the Hornets(Paul,West,Stojakovic, Butler & Posey all played), and the Hornets win % is actually .598.  It is the biggest overrated stretch run I have ever seen in sports history.

[Atzar]

We're far from full strength (you do remember that KG and Powe are out, yes?), yet we're going to 'expose this overrated nonsense'?  Look, I think this team can beat anybody anywhere when they play as well as they're capable of playing, but saying that is just ridiculous.  We will be the underdogs in that series, and we deserve that status - whether you attempt to disprove it with cherry-picked stats or not, Cleveland has had a heck of a year and deserves to be the favorite to win it all. 

[star18]

Its not cherry picked stats. Lebron is averaging 1 foul per game, and they aren't playing anybody at full strength. 3 teams at full strength in their last 23? When has that happened before in sports? Those are facts, that is just the way it is.  Had they been playing teams at full strength and had the usualy 2 fouls per game on Lebron it would be alot different, but that is not what is happening. When the Cavs finally play a team that is quality they are not going to be as good as some people think.

[star18]

How is 0 wins in your last 50 games against a team .600 or higher at full strength a cherry picked stat? Really 0? Shouldn't it at least be a few. Honestly, what is impressive about that? It is a 50 game stretch. Name 1 example where something similiar to that has happened before in the history of sports. Until you do that, everything I am saying is correct.  Yes Lebron is one of the greatest ever and the Cavs are a great team. However if you really are that great you should be beating quality opponents at full strength and this is nowhere near from happening. Simple and plain, they are just not playing anybody quality.

[kheeko]

^good points

[star18]

All I'm saying is that when a team is truly dominant and great they beat quality opponents and the best teams in the league.  This is not even close to happening. If you play 50 Games in a row and you don't beat one quality team at full strength nothing you have done puts you up there with the elite teams of the past.

[yagru]

look i love the Cs and hate the calvs .. but LBJ is looking unstoppable right now.. 40 ft jumpers?? are you kidding me?? We would be lucky to take 2 from them imho.

[star18]

Yes he hit a couple of 40 footers and was close on a few others, but that was just a couple of shots. LBJ is playing awesome, the other guys are just OK. I just think that we are more impressive this year. We are a better team, they have the better player.  But when you look at some of the stats you realize it is not just wins and losses.  We have played 91 games this year and have had a chance to win 88!! That is ridiculous it has to be close to a record.  We lost big @IND and two @CLE. Our 4th worst loss this year was @NYK and we were down 5 with 3:38 to play, every other game besides those 4 we were in a better position to win than that.  By comparison Cavs lost big 8 times this year and in those losses they didn't get within 10 points in the last 5 minutes so they were decisive losses. We have 11 wins this year against .600 or better full strength, Cavs have 5. The thing is the media is making this out to be David vs. Goliath and I just don't think that is what it is, otherwise I wouldn't be able to come up with stats like this. It reminds me of when the Packers played the Broncos in 1998 Super Bowl. Everyone was like Packers are so much better, they were favored by 7 points, but when you really looked in depth the teams were about even there was nothing to even say the Packers were better except for media hype, so it was a wonder why Packers were heavily favored. Broncos won the game. Cavs are great, when they were 26-4 I was like wow I don't think they are that good. Then I started following their games, and they haven't really played anyone since. They faced a good Rockets team in Houston and got blown out. Faced Orlando twice in Orlando got blown out both times. Then they also lost at Boston recently. Even after the Boston loss, they won 7 in a row, 6 by 6 points or less all of those games were close. Every other game they played was against a low percentage team or a team missing key starters. Cavs are a great team that is a fact. It is also a fact they haven't beatin anyone in their last 50 games .600 or better full strength and have only played 3 games in their last 23 against teams at full strength. No team should even play only 3 games in their last 23 against teams at full stregth. That in itself is ridiculous.

[Atzar]

How is 0 wins in your last 50 games against a team .600 or higher at full strength a cherry picked stat? Really 0? Shouldn't it at least be a few. Honestly, what is impressive about that? It is a 50 game stretch. Name 1 example where something similiar to that has happened before in the history of sports. Until you do that, everything I am saying is correct.  Yes Lebron is one of the greatest ever and the Cavs are a great team. However if you really are that great you should be beating quality opponents at full strength and this is nowhere near from happening. Simple and plain, they are just not playing anybody quality.

It is a cherry-picked stat because no team is 100% at the end of the season.  Even the ones that have all of their players on paper might have smaller injuries i.e. sprained ankles, etc. that guys try to play through.  Just for kicks, though, here's a few injuries from each team still in the playoffs to prove that nobody's at full strength:

Boston:  No KG, Powe
Cleveland:  Pavlovic has a broken nose, playing with a mask
Atlanta:  Horford and Marvin Williams in-and-out, Joe Johnson will be hobbled for the rest of the playoffs
Orlando:  No Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee has a fractured sinus and will be wearing a mask
Houston:  No McGrady
LA:  Bynum hasn't recovered from the torn MCL, Luke Walton is battling an ankle injury
Dallas:  Josh Howard has ankle problems
 
So far, all you've proven is that the Cavs are a bit lucky - with the exception of Denver, they're the only team still in the playoffs and more or less completely healthy at this point in time.  Other than that, your statistic means absolutely squat.  Unless you want to tell me that our Championship last year wasn't impressive because LA didn't have Bynum?  Didn't think so.

I'm done with this argument for tonight, though - it's 2 in the morning and I've got a Macroeconomics assignment to finish before I hit the sack.

[xmuscularghandix]

How is 0 wins in your last 50 games against a team .600 or higher at full strength a cherry picked stat? Really 0? Shouldn't it at least be a few. Honestly, what is impressive about that? It is a 50 game stretch. Name 1 example where something similiar to that has happened before in the history of sports. Until you do that, everything I am saying is correct.  Yes Lebron is one of the greatest ever and the Cavs are a great team. However if you really are that great you should be beating quality opponents at full strength and this is nowhere near from happening. Simple and plain, they are just not playing anybody quality.

It is a cherry-picked stat because no team is 100% at the end of the season.  Even the ones that have all of their players on paper might have smaller injuries i.e. sprained ankles, etc. that guys try to play through.  Just for kicks, though, here's a few injuries from each team still in the playoffs to prove that nobody's at full strength:

Boston:  No KG, Powe
Cleveland:  Pavlovic has a broken nose, playing with a mask
Atlanta:  Horford and Marvin Williams in-and-out, Joe Johnson will be hobbled for the rest of the playoffs
Orlando:  No Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee has a fractured sinus and will be wearing a mask
Houston:  No McGrady
LA:  Bynum hasn't recovered from the torn MCL, Luke Walton is battling an ankle injury
Dallas:  Josh Howard has ankle problems
 
So far, all you've proven is that the Cavs are a bit lucky - with the exception of Denver, they're the only team still in the playoffs and more or less completely healthy at this point in time.  Other than that, your statistic means absolutely squat.  Unless you want to tell me that our Championship last year wasn't impressive because LA didn't have Bynum?  Didn't think so.

I'm done with this argument for tonight, though - it's 2 in the morning and I've got a Macroeconomics assignment to finish before I hit the sack.

Houston losing McGrady is whats made them good, imagine if TMac was in charge or guarding Kobe? how can you possibly consider that a problem.

[Atzar]

How is 0 wins in your last 50 games against a team .600 or higher at full strength a cherry picked stat? Really 0? Shouldn't it at least be a few. Honestly, what is impressive about that? It is a 50 game stretch. Name 1 example where something similiar to that has happened before in the history of sports. Until you do that, everything I am saying is correct.  Yes Lebron is one of the greatest ever and the Cavs are a great team. However if you really are that great you should be beating quality opponents at full strength and this is nowhere near from happening. Simple and plain, they are just not playing anybody quality.

It is a cherry-picked stat because no team is 100% at the end of the season.  Even the ones that have all of their players on paper might have smaller injuries i.e. sprained ankles, etc. that guys try to play through.  Just for kicks, though, here's a few injuries from each team still in the playoffs to prove that nobody's at full strength:

Boston:  No KG, Powe
Cleveland:  Pavlovic has a broken nose, playing with a mask
Atlanta:  Horford and Marvin Williams in-and-out, Joe Johnson will be hobbled for the rest of the playoffs
Orlando:  No Jameer Nelson, Courtney Lee has a fractured sinus and will be wearing a mask
Houston:  No McGrady
LA:  Bynum hasn't recovered from the torn MCL, Luke Walton is battling an ankle injury
Dallas:  Josh Howard has ankle problems
 
So far, all you've proven is that the Cavs are a bit lucky - with the exception of Denver, they're the only team still in the playoffs and more or less completely healthy at this point in time.  Other than that, your statistic means absolutely squat.  Unless you want to tell me that our Championship last year wasn't impressive because LA didn't have Bynum?  Didn't think so.

I'm done with this argument for tonight, though - it's 2 in the morning and I've got a Macroeconomics assignment to finish before I hit the sack.

Houston losing McGrady is whats made them good, imagine if TMac was in charge or guarding Kobe? how can you possibly consider that a problem.

It's a problem because they have nobody to score in the fourth quarter without him.  He was their only guy they could give the ball to, say "make something happen," and expect positive results.  Their lack of that guy is the reason they've lost 5 of 6 to the Lakers this year. 

[star18]

Its not a cherry picked stat because it covers a span of 50 games. That is too long of a stretch to go through to say that it is cherry picked. This covers more than half the season. Your injury example isn't promising because Pavlocic is a #10 best player on the team while everybody else has a Top 3 or 4 with Bynum being a Top 5 missing. This compares in no way to the Celtics championship team of 07-08 when they won 8 games at the end of the season against .600 or better teams missing only one opposing player the great Andrew Bynum. The statistic shows what it is, it is a better evaluation of the overall play of the team when compared to the media speculation. The only way you could prove the stat to mean squat is to show another example of a team throughout sports history that has had simliar statistics and I have yet to find any.