Cavs defeat Warriors 4-3 in 2016 NBA Finals

[The Wizard of Moz]

Honestly as far as taking shots at a city's location goes: that's what you do when you're insecure your team will win or when your team has already lost.

Trust me, I've called Baltimore the city that heroine built enough times purely in spite because we can never beat those damn Ravens to know.

Just like that Toronto beat writer who took digs at the city. Guess why? That's all he had. Merely grasping at straws because his team got van thortled out of town and to take attention off that you just say 'lol ya guess what glad I don't live where u nerds live'

wow. You really got us.

The fact that GS fans are doing it BEFORE the series is even played actually pleases me. It means that deep down they are scared. Even if they won't admit it. They're scared and lining up their 'haha ur city sux we might have lost but I'm totally getting laid tonight at a super kewl night club bathroom enjoy your flaming rivers' card for if they lose.

I have lined up no Oakland insults because I am not afraid. We will have the last laugh and that beat writer will cling to the fantasy that we all poop in an outhouse because it is what will help him get over his team setting a regular season record only to be sent packing by us.

 

[bigfoot5415]

But you made sure to use a blanket statement and call "your" city a "run down piece of shit."

Idiotic and ignorant statement out of someone who clearly has their head in the sand.

• Highest downtown population since the 1980s and has increased 79% since 2000
• Voted a top 25 city for college grads
• In 2015, more than 5,000 jobs were created and retained in Downtown Cleveland
• Since 2011, the spending power of Downtown's retail trade area has increased by more than $100 million
• Ranked 15th best city for jobs by Bloomberg
• Home sales in Cleveland have increased by 10% since 2011 while the value of homes increased by 14%

But please, go on about how it's a shit hole and nothing's changed.

It's disgusting that someone disliked this comment.

Let's not forget in a 3 year window Cleveland will have hosted the International Senior Games, The Gay Games, and the Republican National Convention. It doesn't get more diverse than that.

That being said hopefully protesters do not embarrass our city with the National attention we are about to get.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

But you made sure to use a blanket statement and call "your" city a "run down piece of shit."

Idiotic and ignorant statement out of someone who clearly has their head in the sand.

• Highest downtown population since the 1980s and has increased 79% since 2000
• Voted a top 25 city for college grads
• In 2015, more than 5,000 jobs were created and retained in Downtown Cleveland
• Since 2011, the spending power of Downtown's retail trade area has increased by more than $100 million
• Ranked 15th best city for jobs by Bloomberg
• Home sales in Cleveland have increased by 10% since 2011 while the value of homes increased by 14%

But please, go on about how it's a shit hole and nothing's changed.

Very good info, thanks.

 

[MirORich]

Hey guys, while doing the voodoo rituals and chants for a California earthquake apocalypse post Cavs finals victory, can you do me a solid and leave Long Beach out of the carnage?

 

[czvo]

Taco Bell just announced that the first road team to win a game in the finals wins everyone in America a free Doritos Loco Taco.


If that's not motivation for the Cavs in game 1, I don't know what is...

 

[brownsbuck6]

But you made sure to use a blanket statement and call "your" city a "run down piece of shit."

Idiotic and ignorant statement out of someone who clearly has their head in the sand.

• Highest downtown population since the 1980s and has increased 79% since 2000
• Voted a top 25 city for college grads
• In 2015, more than 5,000 jobs were created and retained in Downtown Cleveland
• Since 2011, the spending power of Downtown's retail trade area has increased by more than $100 million
• Ranked 15th best city for jobs by Bloomberg
• Home sales in Cleveland have increased by 10% since 2011 while the value of homes increased by 14%

But please, go on about how it's a shit hole and nothing's changed.

I'll just assume that @PeonHaiters disagreeing this post is a misclick, cause otherwise you're a complete jack ass.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

Taco Bell just announced that the first road team to win a game in the finals wins everyone in America a free Doritos Loco Taco.


If that's not motivation for the Cavs in game 1, I don't know what is...

 

[BimboColesHair]

I'll just assume that @PeonHaiters disagreeing this post is a misclick, cause otherwise you're a complete jack ass.

Judging by the history...complete jackass is the right description...

 

[Jscc]

Can one of the more hardcore stat guys here evaluate this article and the model it uses?

http://nyloncalculus.com/2016/05/31/guest-post-kyle-lowry-may-have-exposed-clevelands-achilles-heel/

It concludes:

[...] using the shot-distance-specific regularized adjusted plus-minus model the defensive impact of an Irving led defensive team can be measured and is shown in the gold bars. Compared to league average, a defense featuring Irving performed at below-average levels in terms of expected points allowed per possession; allowing more points per possession than what is typically expected specifically in short to mid-range shot attempts. As described by the model, the most glaring weakness for an Irving-led defensive team stems from shot attempts taken within 12 feet from the basket, most notably within three feet, indicating that Irving led defenses are most exposed and least effective when shots are taken from these specific ranges.

and

The model highlights a glaring and significant mismatch at the point guard position in this year’s version of the Eastern Conference Finals swayed heavily in favor of the Raptors. As shown above a Lowry-led offensive teams excels in terms of expected points scored per possession where Irving-led defensive teams struggle the most. It’s the proverbial mismatch that teams look for in a long seven game series and could have been a small but critical element that helped propel a team like Toronto towards an upset over, or at least competitiveness with, the top-seeded Cavaliers. The model does not claim that an exclusive Lowry-Irving matchup is a mismatch, but given an average set of teammates, an already potent Lowry led offensive team should not be expected to be limited by any substantial margin by an Irving led defensive team.

and

The model’s suggested impact of a Dellavedova/Shumpert defense in exchange for an Irving-led defense manifested itself during the fourth quarter of Game 4. For nearly the first six minutes of the quarter, Irving sat on the bench until the 6:39 mark of the quarter while Shumpert and Dellavedova remained on the court. During this period, the Cavaliers closed the initial quarter deficit from nine points to a one-point margin. While Irving sat, Lowry was limited to 3 points on two shots, 2 fouls drawn and a turnover. With Irving back in the game and Shumpert subbing out, Lowry accumulated 6 points on three shots, 3 fouls drawn and a turnover. Comparing over near equal stretches of time, Lowry’s effectiveness doubled in points scored and aggression as he increased the number of fouls drawn while Irving was on the court compared to when Irving was on the bench. This is not surprising as the model suggests that Lowry should be about twice as effective when Irving is on the court [...] .

and

The defensive liability that Irving brings to the court was also observed by Zach Lowe, who noted how Toronto “ruthlessly hammered” the Irving/Kevin Love pick-and-roll defense with great success. As Lowe points out, on possessions where the opponent creates a situation with Irving and Love defend a pick-and-roll Cleveland gave up 1.207 points per possession, significantly higher than the league average and ranked worse than 119 qualifying defensive pairs in the league this season. This data provides a more definitive reason as to why Irving led defenses struggle greatly when shots are attempted within 12 feet of the basket. Poor pick-and-roll defense allows a dynamic playmaker such as Lowry to position himself or teammates in the short to mid-range shot attempt ranges, which creates multiple scoring opportunities for Lowry or the screener rolling back to the basket. Where the model lacks the ability to account for specific actions by individual players on the court, its findings are revealing themselves on the court.

While the Cavs have some effective options to counter a mismatch presented by a player such as Lowry, but the correlation between breakout performances by Lowry in Games 3 and 4 of the series that resulted in Raptors’ victories should not be viewed as an aberration, but an underlying core problem that should have the Cavaliers worried moving forward. Looking ahead to the NBA Finals, Golden State’s Stephen Curry is just this sort of dynamic playmaker, even more effective offensively than Lowry, especially in Irving’s weakest defensive ranges. [...]

One thing is certain: If long term solutions are not found, it should be expected that the Cavaliers will be susceptible to breakout performances by opposing team point guards moving forward. This weakness could ultimately prove to be an Achilles heel to their ambitions of winning the franchise’s first championship.

And then offers the potential solutions:

Fortunately for the Cavaliers, they have two viable alternative defensive options at point guard in Matthew Dellavedova and Iman Shumpert to minimize the mismatch. The impact of a Dellavedova or Shumpert defensive on a Lowry led offensive team can be estimated as shown above. The bars indicate how many points expected per possession a Lowry-led offensive team would have given the opponent is an Irving-, Dellavedova- or Shumpert-led defensive team. In comparison to the league average, Dellavedova- or Shumpert-led defenses bring the point expectancy of a Lowry-led offense closer to the league average, specifically in Lowry’s most effective shot distances between 0 – 12 feet of the basket. Where Irving struggles greatly, minimally impacting the Lowry led offense, Dellavedova and Shumpert are valued as above average impact defenders and their effect is noticeable on Lowry. As a result, a switch between Irving or either a Dellavedova/Shumpert defense can minimize the impact of point expectancy for a Lowry led offense and provide the best answer to Irving’s weaknesses for the Cavaliers.

and

Golden State’s Stephen Curry is just this sort of dynamic playmaker, even more effective offensively than Lowry, especially in Irving’s weakest defensive ranges. Finding ways to avoid this direct matchup of Irving guarding Curry might be critical to Cleveland’s success. It could require lineup alterations, or more high trapping of Curry’s dribble.

The author also replies in the comments:

I wrote it before the WCF finished last night (originally written as a the mid-ECF piece that I did not update significantly to match the Finals (my fault)). I think its unlikely you see Dellavedova or Shumpert get starting minutes, so my guess is the Cavs will initially try forcing a high trap, which was successful against Toronto on DeRozan and Lowry. The biggest issue is that the Warriors have far more lethal 3PT shooters than Toronto which could leave the Cavs exposed. Especially if the trap is initiated by a Green screen and leaves him open to create plays, something he excels at. To thecity2's point Barnes is the likely candidate. You would imagine he poses the smallest threat on offense of the Warriors primary lineup and the Cavs would be comfortable forcing the Warriors to make their offense flow through him even though it pose a mismatch in height. The question is who moves to Curry? Now that Love is a factor in the series, you probably would see Thompson on Bogut, Love on Green, and (in this scenario) Irving on Barnes, which leaves either Smith or LeBron on either Thompson or Curry. It's certainly an interesting puzzle the Cavs are faced with, but with Love now a factor in this series it should give the Cavs more flexibility than last year.

 

[lbjames23]

Just saw this shit

View: https://twitter.com/mcten/status/737814750042685440

 

[Chris]

This is the only truly delusional post in this thread.

So delusional.

 

[Pioneer10]

Can one of the more hardcore stat guys here evaluate this article and the model it uses?

http://nyloncalculus.com/2016/05/31/guest-post-kyle-lowry-may-have-exposed-clevelands-achilles-heel/

It concludes:


and


and


and


And then offers the potential solutions:


and


The author also replies in the comments:

Not sure about the model as RAPM based on a very limited sample size of one playoff series is going to have huge margins of errors even before you try to sub divide it some more.

That being said I think the conclusion isn't that surprising: Irving has never been a good defender against PG's (particularly when paired with Love). That being said we have a lot of flexibility this year and will mix and match the lineups. The big failure is what is GS going to do the other way: Irving is a more lethal scorer then even Westbrook and Lillard. This is may be a high bar but Lue has him playing both team ball and scoring which the other two have struggled with. Plus unlike the other two the Cavs have Lebron and bunch of lethal shooters all around him which both the Blazers and OKC didn't have.

It's really what the series is going to turn on: the Cavs aren't going to shut down Curry but they're going to make it tough on Thompson, they're going to hit the glass, and their going to force GS to expend a lot more energy going side to side when we're on offense the GS has had to in the past two series. What GS will try to do is put Thompson on Irving but I think this is a tough matchup for Thompson as it's hard for bigger players to stay with the misdirection style that Irving brings and then the Cavs will force Curry to fight thru screens to stay with JR or put him in a PnR if Delly is on him. I hate to use the cliched term but the Cavs are going to use their offense as their defense. The Celtics and Detroit played GS very tough this year and I liked what they did: spread them out and attack the rim. High percentage shots lead to fewer possessions and you punish GS when they go small by outrebounding them and forcing your way to the rim. Rinse and repeat. I too get very concerned about how we match up on defense: but the Celtics got away with freakin Sullinger in there and we have more talent.

 

[Cavatt]

Maybe we can send them some fresh water through a land line...smug assholes...no offense to any Cavs fan in Cali...

No offense taken. People don't know dick here.

 

[Real Deal]

http://www.thespread.com/nba-basketball-public-betting-chart

 

[Sebastian]

Honestly as far as taking shots at a city's location goes: that's what you do when you're insecure your team will win or when your team has already lost.

Trust me, I've called Baltimore the city that heroine built enough times purely in spite because we can never beat those damn Ravens to know.

Just like that Toronto beat writer who took digs at the city. Guess why? That's all he had. Merely grasping at straws because his team got van thortled out of town and to take attention off that you just say 'lol ya guess what glad I don't live where u nerds live'

wow. You really got us.

The fact that GS fans are doing it BEFORE the series is even played actually pleases me. It means that deep down they are scared. Even if they won't admit it. They're scared and lining up their 'haha ur city sux we might have lost but I'm totally getting laid tonight at a super kewl night club bathroom enjoy your flaming rivers' card for if they lose.

I have lined up no Oakland insults because I am not afraid. We will have the last laugh and that beat writer will cling to the fantasy that we all poop in an outhouse because it is what will help him get over his team setting a regular season record only to be sent packing by us.

Having spent time in the Bay area, their so-called fans are hardened in their devotion for all of three years. Most people in the Bay area could care less about sports; except the old blue-collar hold-outs. Many of the younger folks in the area are from elsewhere, are too educated (pretentious) to care about sports or prefer theater and knob gobbling to 'conformist, misogynistic jock culture.'

The rantings of "Warrior Fans" are as noteworthy as the opinions of people who pretend to like MLS soccer.

They are petulant, classless and odious simply because they have no real stake in whether the Warriors win or lose and thus can care less how they are perceived by the rest of the NBA community. That the Warriors are now reviled by most NBA fans, coming off a mountain of good-will, speaks volumes about these fair-weather yuppie spawn and their douche-bag, entitled team. FUCK THEM.