Author Topic: we have a better shot then you think not a good chance but a better shot  (Read 4414 times)

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Offline fairweatherfan

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We have no shot guys. We dropped 5 slots in the draft to get sweeped by the future EC Champs. Awesome :(

lol I will never get it...

It's the curse of people who can see the future, provided they never think about the accuracy rate of all the previous times they could see the future.

Offline celticsclay

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We have no shot guys. We dropped 5 slots in the draft to get sweeped by the future EC Champs. Awesome :(
Hornets were very much in the thick of this playoff race up until a week or so ago.  Arguably a better team than us when healthy (MKG, Kemba and Big Al all spent time injured).   They'll have the 9th best odds in the draft.  We're picking #16.    That's 7 spots minimum between two teams that all things considered are (at best) even matchups.   

I'd like to say we have a chance in these playoffs, but it would take a catastrophic meltdown by Cleveland for us to make a dent against them.   This is the playoffs.  The Cavs have been outstanding over the second half.   LeBron is going to eat us alive.   For the record, I was totally on board with the playoff push.  We have no chance, but it will be fun for a quarter or two... then this is going to start to feel like 2004 against the Pacers.   Made the playoffs with 36 wins... Lost by 16 in game 1.  Lost by 13 in game 2.   Lost by 23 in game 3.   Lost by 15 in game 4.   Aint no fun.

The bright side of that story is that Boston finished a game above the Cavs that season.  Cavs had the 9th projected pick and Boston, by making the playoffs, had the #14 pick.   The Bobcats expansion pushed the Cavs to the 10th pick and Boston to 15th.   Cavs took Luke Jackson.  Celtics took Al Jefferson.   So the useless playoff appearance didn't really hurt us.

Kemba and Al Jefferson were legit injured though with Kemba in the middle of the season. Al Jefferson was playing really hurt for a while, but his normally bad defense became even worse and he was actually hurting them by playing. With this being the second season that Jefferson has had ended by injury in a row related to his legs, you wonder if these are a cumulative issue. Unless we were to have legit injuries to Bradley, Turner and Thomas I don't really see how we could have had the same outcome as Charlotte.

Offline Yoki_IsTheName

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IMO we need to approach this like 2004 Detroit Pistons vs the Lakers.

Let LeBron get his, but try to contain everyone else. We should not double on LeBron and just throw different looms and different faces at him, and keep our defense honest on the rest of the Cavs. If he drops 30 a game in the series, good for him, but we need to play cohesively on offense and run our schemes, at the same time, we try and contain the rest of the Cavs. They're not a deep team, so if we manage to have Kyrie, Love and JR Smith to play cranky games, we have a big puncher's chance.

Let LeBron do his stuff, but don't let anyone else do theirs.
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Offline LGC88

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We know how to win against Lebron. Lock the paint and let him shoot his contested jumshots at 35%. He can score 40 points for all I care, as long as he's not near 50% FG.
The danger is Mozgov, he can eat us in the long run and make the 3pt line wide open for his teammates.
Our main guards will have a tough series on defense and will be probably exhausted after that.
Still I think we can win it.

Offline fairweatherfan

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IMO we need to approach this like 2004 Detroit Pistons vs the Lakers.

Let LeBron get his, but try to contain everyone else. We should not double on LeBron and just throw different looms and different faces at him, and keep our defense honest on the rest of the Cavs. If he drops 30 a game in the series, good for him, but we need to play cohesively on offense and run our schemes, at the same time, we try and contain the rest of the Cavs. They're not a deep team, so if we manage to have Kyrie, Love and JR Smith to play cranky games, we have a big puncher's chance.

Let LeBron do his stuff, but don't let anyone else do theirs.

I agree, but we should help on penetration, try to make him shoot from outside.

Oddly LeBron is obviously their best player but I feel like Kyrie has the most potential to just destroy the team if we let him.  We need Marcus and Avery glued to him whenever possible, because if he gets into the lane regularly it's all over.

Offline JBcat

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We match up better then you think defensivly
 I think smart can shut down irving reasonably. Smart in the playoffs I think will be good.
avery bradley can take out J.r smith I am pretty sure
Kevin love has not nearly played as well as he should be so I think brandon bass can actually take him out
 And zellar is just as good as mozgoef
 The real question is lebron. How to contain him and how to hold him  down. we have the better bench and the better coach. I think bradley stevens has to make jae crowder start. he is our best sf at defense. If jaw crowder can somehow play decent defense on lebron we might have a shot. comment below what you think

Crowder didn't play well for us when he started for us earlier in the season.  It wasn't until he went back to the bench until that happened.  Plus by starting him over Turner you lose Turner's point forward skills to start game, leaving more responsibility for Smart which I'm not sure he is ready for.

What I might do though is have a quick hook and bring in Crowder and Thomas at the same time.  I have a feeling especially this series we will need Thomas's scoring to help keep up with the Cavs attack.   We have some players we can rotate to try at least slowing down  Lebron down in Turner, Crowder, Jonas, Bass, and even Wallace.  Smart and Bradley could take turns guarding Irving, and we have some bodies to throw at Love.

I think our bench is better than theirs, and we need our depth to really come in handy.  It's going to be really tough though.

Offline danglertx

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I don't worry about Lebron so much early because he usually tries to get everyone else involved.  So Jae keeping fresh and coming in for stints in the 2nd and 4th quarters work for me.

Other than that, whoever Lebron guards has to run, like nonstop.  Lebron will tire and especially cramp up if you force him to over exert himself.

You never know when a knee might buckle, or an ankle turn, or someone get mad hot for a couple games and totally change a series.  Every team has a shot.

Offline loco_91

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I don't really think we have a shot. Our only advantage is depth, but in the playoffs your top 6-7 players are what is important. The Cavs have three players who are much better than anyone on our team. We just do not match up well with them:

Smart/AB vs Kyrie - This is our best matchup defensively. Unfortunately, neither of these guys is likely to exploit Kyrie's lackluster defense, either.

Crowder/Turner/Bass vs. LeBron - Crowder and Bass are OK matchups, but Turner will get owned, especially with Zeller as the second line of defense. But if we remove Turner from the starting lineup, that leaves Smart as ballhandler - is he ready for the task? Or do we put Smart on LeBron and let Turner guard JR Smith?? There isn't a good answer here.

Bass/Sully/KO vs Love - apart from Bass, this is a pretty dreadful matchup, too. KO will get buried in the post, and Sully... can't wait to watch him try and defend the Kyrie/Love pick and pop... yikes.

Offline D Dub

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we've won so many in a row now, 9 of 10 I think, that it'll be interesting to see if/how our guys bounce back when the Cavs run over us in game 1. 

game 2 will be telling, how well our team stomachs adversity.  if we can get the 1-1 split, I think the Celts win the series.  as great as LBJ is, his team is inexperienced and poorly coached. 

Offline D Dub

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I don't really think we have a shot. Our only advantage is depth, but in the playoffs your top 6-7 players are what is important. The Cavs have three players who are much better than anyone on our team. We just do not match up well with them:

Smart/AB vs Kyrie - This is our best matchup defensively. Unfortunately, neither of these guys is likely to exploit Kyrie's lackluster defense, either.

Crowder/Turner/Bass vs. LeBron - Crowder and Bass are OK matchups, but Turner will get owned, especially with Zeller as the second line of defense. But if we remove Turner from the starting lineup, that leaves Smart as ballhandler - is he ready for the task? Or do we put Smart on LeBron and let Turner guard JR Smith?? There isn't a good answer here.

Bass/Sully/KO vs Love - apart from Bass, this is a pretty dreadful matchup, too. KO will get buried in the post, and Sully... can't wait to watch him try and defend the Kyrie/Love pick and pop... yikes.

You left out our best player, Isiaah Thomas.  He can and will exploit Kyrie's lazy D