Thoughts on Irving and Love's playoff debut?

[Kuberski33]

Irving's defense impressed me. He was working at it and offensively of course he couldn't be stopped.  Great performance.  Love I thought was largely mediocre, but I would expect him to have plenty of moments as the series progresses.  I like him better as a 3rd wheel vs a guy you need to carry a team. 

I don't want him in Boston because I think we'd wind up disappointed with the end result.

[colincb]

Irving had the type of game you just have to tip your hat to.  Made some very tough shots.  Love played fine minus his shooting and it was his and TT's rebounding that was the real difference.

I think we're going to need Sullinger to stand a chance against getting our butt kicked on the boards or a scheme change.

[JHTruth]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

[krumeto]

Kyrie looked like a superstar against a team that had no answer for him defensively, nobody who could hope to match up, or put pressure on him on the other end.

When Kyrie is in the zone there is nothing anybody can do. The Spurs with CoJo, Green and Kawhi and good team defense could not. He just makes absurd Js and when you body him, he blows by you.

[Celtics18]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday. 

[PhoSita]

Kyrie looked like a superstar against a team that had no answer for him defensively, nobody who could hope to match up, or put pressure on him on the other end.

When Kyrie is in the zone there is nothing anybody can do. The Spurs with CoJo, Green and Kawhi and good team defense could not. He just makes absurd Js and when you body him, he blows by you.

I'm sure that's right to some extent.

I think a team with a dangerous point guard who can force Kyrie to expend effort on defense could at least wear him out enough to make it harder to sustain the offensive outbursts.

[colincb]

Kyrie looked like a superstar against a team that had no answer for him defensively, nobody who could hope to match up, or put pressure on him on the other end.

When Kyrie is in the zone there is nothing anybody can do. The Spurs with CoJo, Green and Kawhi and good team defense could not. He just makes absurd Js and when you body him, he blows by you.

I'm sure that's right to some extent.

I think a team with a dangerous point guard who can force Kyrie to expend effort on defense could at least wear him out enough to make it harder to sustain the offensive outbursts.

Thomas has to be a better offensive answer to Irving than Smart. Put Smart at SG and let Irving chase Thomas around.  Turner's not going to be able play point forward against Teflon Lebron.

[CelticGuardian]

Well both completely destroyed us... Kyrie was being Kyrie, dude is just a stud... nothing we could do, we gotta force him to pass that ball, Marcus has to get in face.

Kevin Love was a big reason we lost, all those boards he grabbed could've been second chance points for us. We gotta put our best scrappers on him, they were doing a good job containing him in the first half, but we gotta get more physical on him... Bass needs to throw some elbows.

When it's the playoffs and you are a Boston Celtic, you have no choice but to compete and they played hard, I'm proud of our boys.

[JHTruth]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday.

Talent being roughly equal, you'd like to have more experience. But given a choice between talent and experience, take talent..

[Moranis]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday.

it's been shown when exactly and how?  Rarely do the more experienced less talented teams beat the less experienced more talented teams.  Talent is king.  now sure if the talent is roughly equal, take the experienced team, but talent is rarely equal.

[Celtics18]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday.

it's been shown when exactly and how?  Rarely do the more experienced less talented teams beat the less experienced more talented teams.  Talent is king.  now sure if the talent is roughly equal, take the experienced team, but talent is rarely equal.

I was doing a bit of research on this the other day and discovered that since the Bird/Parish led Celtics of the early '80s the only championship team to not have a top two player with at least 2,000 previous playoff minutes was the 2004 Pistons. 

Ironically, that Pistons team is known as a champion that won with considerably less top tier talent than the Lakers they were playing in those finals.

Of course you need talent to win it all.  But when you look at the NBA champions of the last thirty-five years, there is a clear pattern of superstars needing a lot of seasoning before they eventually lead their teams to a title. 

I'm not saying that a young, talented team can't win an NBA championship.  I'm just saying that it's been a very long time since it's happened.

Experience matters. 

[Drucci]

Kyrie looked great again in game 2 but I thought he was even more well-defended this time. He made some timely baskets but he looked mortal.

As for Love... he is reaching "Antawn Jamison" levels of uselessness (i.e a guy that is supposed to play great in the playoffs and carry his team and instead sucks the most on his team). I'm glad we didn't sign him last summer and certainly hope Danny stays aways from him in the next months.

[SHAQATTACK]

Love is a third wheel.   Totally.

Like 99 percent of the plays begin with what ever Irving and James decide ......which is to pass it rarely to anyone else , unless that team mate has a wide open shot , breakaway or the Cavs have a big lead.    Then they can trust somebody else to shoot.

It's a two man ball hog offense .....that doesn't seem to include the rest of the team . 

It seemed weird to see anyone else even shoot the ball.

They have TWO top five players .  And the rest have limited offense role.

Blatt pretty much admitted , after the game he turns them ( Irving and James) loose on the court and they do their thing is what he said.   Other words , not a lot of set plays for anybody else, just those two playing tons of hero ball until they can build a lead that allows the others to come into the fold .

Cavs are very boring ......just a rehash of Miami w James n Wade play n 75 percent of the control with Bosh the third wheel. Several bad low level bigs to rebound.

When both Irving and James are out , the team sucks pretty bad ......Moz sucks too ....it's all hidden by the attention James and Irving command .

[Moranis]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday.

it's been shown when exactly and how?  Rarely do the more experienced less talented teams beat the less experienced more talented teams.  Talent is king.  now sure if the talent is roughly equal, take the experienced team, but talent is rarely equal.

I was doing a bit of research on this the other day and discovered that since the Bird/Parish led Celtics of the early '80s the only championship team to not have a top two player with at least 2,000 previous playoff minutes was the 2004 Pistons. 

Ironically, that Pistons team is known as a champion that won with considerably less top tier talent than the Lakers they were playing in those finals.

Of course you need talent to win it all.  But when you look at the NBA champions of the last thirty-five years, there is a clear pattern of superstars needing a lot of seasoning before they eventually lead their teams to a title. 

I'm not saying that a young, talented team can't win an NBA championship.  I'm just saying that it's been a very long time since it's happened.

Experience matters.

And then you have teams like the 79/80 Lakers which sure had Kareem (and Haywood and Chrones as 7th and 8th men) but pretty much every other main cog was a rookie, 2nd or 3rd year player, and Magic was a rookie. 

Experience helps sure, but it doesn't trump talent.  I mean all those title teams that you claim are experienced were led by guys like Jordan, Bird, Hakeem, Magic, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, Wade, and James.  Big bunch of no talent schlubs that lot is.

[Celtics18]

Both are all-stars in the league, and talent trumps experience, as JVG said during the game. Scrubs are scrubs, stars are stars, regular season, playoffs, or finals..

I disagree that talent always trumps experience. The value of experience is starting to become vastly under-rated.  It's been shown that you need good players with lots of big game experience to be able to be successful in the NBA playoffs. 

Of course, the point is moot in this case as the Cavs currently have more talent and more experience than the Celtics. 

Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Jonas Jerebko and Isaiah Thomas all played in their first playoff game ever on Sunday.

it's been shown when exactly and how?  Rarely do the more experienced less talented teams beat the less experienced more talented teams.  Talent is king.  now sure if the talent is roughly equal, take the experienced team, but talent is rarely equal.

I was doing a bit of research on this the other day and discovered that since the Bird/Parish led Celtics of the early '80s the only championship team to not have a top two player with at least 2,000 previous playoff minutes was the 2004 Pistons. 

Ironically, that Pistons team is known as a champion that won with considerably less top tier talent than the Lakers they were playing in those finals.

Of course you need talent to win it all.  But when you look at the NBA champions of the last thirty-five years, there is a clear pattern of superstars needing a lot of seasoning before they eventually lead their teams to a title. 

I'm not saying that a young, talented team can't win an NBA championship.  I'm just saying that it's been a very long time since it's happened.

Experience matters.

And then you have teams like the 79/80 Lakers which sure had Kareem (and Haywood and Chrones as 7th and 8th men) but pretty much every other main cog was a rookie, 2nd or 3rd year player, and Magic was a rookie. 

Experience helps sure, but it doesn't trump talent.  I mean all those title teams that you claim are experienced were led by guys like Jordan, Bird, Hakeem, Magic, Kareem, Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, Wade, and James.  Big bunch of no talent schlubs that lot is.

It's not just a "claim," it's a fact.  Also, I would certainly never call the guys on your above list "no talent schlubs."

My whole point here is that even for great players, it generally takes a lot of seasons, and a lot of losses along the way, before they finally get over the hump.  Obviously, you need talent to win in the NBA, but just having that talent isn't enough.  You need talent that is well seasoned to really give yourself the best chance at winning.

This is something to keep in mind for those who advocate "tanking" year after year for high lottery picks.  If your team is continually losing, your top players aren't getting the playoff experience which is crucial for eventual playoff success.