What a Loser. Could have played in NY. And they look good.

[nba is the worst]

And what about a 2-1 series deficit with the Cavs handing the Celtics their worst home playoff loss in team history (right before he tanked) indicates that the Celtics were a "team that was playing better than the Cavs were at the time"?

  I dunno, maybe taking a broader look at what was going on than game 3? Seeing that the Celts losing big at home in a game they were out of in the 1st quarter doesn't mean that Lebron's suddenly elevated to a plateau where he's unstoppable and the only possible reason the Cavs lost is that he quit trying?

  Your theory makes no sense. Lebron goes all out getting the Cavs the best record in the league, plays well in the first round, has the Celts on the ropes and then, for no reason at all, he quits trying? He just decided that, sure, the Cavs could easily win a title that year, but he didn't feel like it? And then he spends the offseason figuring out which team he's going to switch to so he'd have the best chance of winning, er, titles? Hmmm.

It doesn't make sense, but for those who watched his change in effort, that's exactly what happened.

The Delonte numbers seem to be an indication of a widely rumored potential reason being valid - as I posted above, it's hard to come up with a "theory" on why this happened (why does Mike Brown play his backup PG so many fewer minutes in games 3-6 than he did in 1-3), and why was Delonte USELESS?

[nba is the worst]

Lebron's a cancer now?

Since when?

Since he threw the playoff series after leading his team to a 2-1 lead - while a B2B MVP on the #1 seeded overwhelming favorites.

Because playing poorly = "threw the playoff series".

Personally I credit the Celtics for that series win.

As is your right - but almost everyone besides Lebronists and Celtics fans see it differently, since trhe Celtics didn't defend him differently in games 4-6 than they did in 1-3...

The difference was in leBron's OBVIOUS change in effort.

Keep pushing the conspiracy theory.

LeBron has always struggled to be efficient against the C's defense. We wall him off from the basket, send him to the line, and force him to play 1 on 3 by overloading the strong side.

After game 1 the C's did a great job of doing all of this, in game 3 he hit a lot of jumpers and the rest of the Cavs feed off of it to a blow out. After that his jumper didn't fall

Hmmm - how is Lebron tanking in any way a "conspiracy"?

LeBron averaged 38 ppg vs the celtics, with multiple 20+-pt quarters.

His jumper didn't fall - but his attempts did - for some reason...

Game 4 was the most revealing, with a 2-pt deficit to start the 4th, and the guy just takes 6 shots the entire quarter, in a game where all the cavs starters had double figures and Varejao had 8 - with perk/Sheed scoring just 3 pts to Shaq/Varejao's 25.

And then, the classic 3-14 in game 5, with the standing around between halfcourt and the 3-pt line multiple times on offense while the rest of the cavs went 4 on 5...

Tell me, how does the C's defense cause that pathetic display?

Its a conspiracy theory for you to suggest that after 3 games he "decided" to lose to the Celtics. Rather than the Celtics just beat him.

LeBron's possessions used in the series:

31
27
27
30
22
35

He definitely got passive in game 5 when his shot wasn't falling and he was frustrated. Of course that game was also blowout by teh end of the third quarter. In the regular season his possessoions used versus Boston were.

44
33
32
30

So your entire point about "his shot attempts fell off" is inaccurate.

The definition of conspiracy is "An agreement by two or more persons to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act".

So that doesn't apply to Lebron's throwing the series.

In games 1-3 he had 61 shot attempts. In 4-6, just 53. That is absolute proof that "his shot attempts fell off" !

You didn't respond to the part about him standing around near halfcourt in game 5 - which was commented on by the game announcers - and a theory of how the C's defense was somehow responsible...

How about the FG shooting percentages for Lebron and Delonte comparing games 1-3 and 4-6:

Lebron games 1-3, 33-61, .541, 5-13, .385 3-pt for 32.3 pts in 41:12 min pg
LeTank games 4-6, 18-53, .340, 2-13, .154 3-pt for 21.3 pts in 43:55 min pg

Delonte gm 1-3, 10-17, .588 in 29:23 min pg
Delonte gm 4-6, 1-12, .083 in 14:08 min pg
 
Perhaps there was a conspiracy after all...

Shot attempts don't matter nearly as much as total possessions used. When he goes to the free throw line, he was trying to take a shot after all. (except with technicals and and-1s). Likewise most of LeBron's assists and turnovers come off of driving and creating.

Honestly given your logic, did KG try to tank to the Lakers? KG clearly gave up and didn't rebound, so he must have just quit after game 5 when the C's were in prime posiiton to move on. After all he only got 9 rebounds in the last two games, when he got 10 alone in game 5....

That KG comparison doesn't pass the eye test. No one would say KG was "looking distracted", "taking possessions off", etc -  that have been used to describe Lebron's "performance".

And as for Nick saying it was his elbow - why wasn't it a factor in games 1-3?

[BballTim]

And what about a 2-1 series deficit with the Cavs handing the Celtics their worst home playoff loss in team history (right before he tanked) indicates that the Celtics were a "team that was playing better than the Cavs were at the time"?

  I dunno, maybe taking a broader look at what was going on than game 3? Seeing that the Celts losing big at home in a game they were out of in the 1st quarter doesn't mean that Lebron's suddenly elevated to a plateau where he's unstoppable and the only possible reason the Cavs lost is that he quit trying?

  Your theory makes no sense. Lebron goes all out getting the Cavs the best record in the league, plays well in the first round, has the Celts on the ropes and then, for no reason at all, he quits trying? He just decided that, sure, the Cavs could easily win a title that year, but he didn't feel like it? And then he spends the offseason figuring out which team he's going to switch to so he'd have the best chance of winning, er, titles? Hmmm.

It doesn't make sense, but for those who watched his change in effort, that's exactly what happened.

The Delonte numbers seem to be an indication of a widely rumored potential reason being valid - as I posted above, it's hard to come up with a "theory" on why this happened (why does Mike Brown play his backup PG so many fewer minutes in games 3-6 than he did in 1-3), and why was Delonte USELESS?

  I think most of the people who felt he gave up just didn't understand that the Celts team in the playoffs was different that the group that went 27-27 over their last 54 games. And you don't think that the reason Delonte got his minutes cut could have been the way he was playing?

[Fafnir]

That KG comparison doesn't pass the eye test. No one would say KG was "looking distracted", "taking possessions off", etc -  that have been used to describe Lebron's "performance".

And as for Nick saying it was his elbow - why wasn't it a factor in games 1-3?

If you're going to dismiss my KG analogy with the "eye test", I guess I can dismiss your LeBron theory with the same test.

I think LeBron looked very engaged in every game except the second half of Game 5. (it was a blow out at that point and he'd been playing terrible) And if we go back to the tape I bet KG wasn't as firey and engaged when the Lakers were up big in game 6 of the Finals. KG also frequently takes offensive possessions off when floating to a spot waiting for a pass to take a jumper if necessary.

Your theory just isn't supported by anything other than your personal "eye test" and a whole lot of hatoraide.

[Fafnir]

And what about a 2-1 series deficit with the Cavs handing the Celtics their worst home playoff loss in team history (right before he tanked) indicates that the Celtics were a "team that was playing better than the Cavs were at the time"?

  I dunno, maybe taking a broader look at what was going on than game 3? Seeing that the Celts losing big at home in a game they were out of in the 1st quarter doesn't mean that Lebron's suddenly elevated to a plateau where he's unstoppable and the only possible reason the Cavs lost is that he quit trying?

  Your theory makes no sense. Lebron goes all out getting the Cavs the best record in the league, plays well in the first round, has the Celts on the ropes and then, for no reason at all, he quits trying? He just decided that, sure, the Cavs could easily win a title that year, but he didn't feel like it? And then he spends the offseason figuring out which team he's going to switch to so he'd have the best chance of winning, er, titles? Hmmm.

It doesn't make sense, but for those who watched his change in effort, that's exactly what happened.

The Delonte numbers seem to be an indication of a widely rumored potential reason being valid - as I posted above, it's hard to come up with a "theory" on why this happened (why does Mike Brown play his backup PG so many fewer minutes in games 3-6 than he did in 1-3), and why was Delonte USELESS?

  I think most of the people who felt he gave up just didn't understand that the Celts team in the playoffs was different that the group that went 27-27 over their last 54 games. And you don't think that the reason Delonte got his minutes cut could have been the way he was playing?

I think they just would rather hate LeBron than give credit to the Celtics.

Even after we eliminated the Cavs, they talked about LeBron in the post-game over the next two days....

[nickagneta]

And as for Nick saying it was his elbow - why wasn't it a factor in games 1-3?

Well, of course it effected him in games one through three. He took only 4.3 3-point attempts per game in those games and the previous two years was averaging well over 5 per game in the playoffs.Then go back and look at the games and what yoiu are going to see is a WIDE open LeBron in those games passing up the shot to drive or passing the ball. On more than a few occasions each game the announcers wer commenting on how the elbow must be bothering LeBron since those are shots he would normally be taking and making.

[dpaps]

Saying that Lebron threw the playoff series, takes away from a hard fought win by a great Celtics team. Lebron didn't lost to Milwaukee. He lost to the best team in the NBA (if Perk doesnt go down, we win the title, imo).