[essbee]

"by a landslide" is ridiculous.

[futuristxen]

Incidentally, in this vote, has anyone noted that Tim Duncan... HAS RECEIVED ZERO VOTES.

I always feel like these debates should be put in quotes. Because they are really, who is the best player in the league until the playoffs start and Tim Duncan goes to work.

[Plastic Man]

Originally Posted by futuristxen

And as for the first part. The first game, the detroit game. Lebron was injured. Mike Brown couldn't put him in the game and they got blown out. The second game, Lebron was healthy, they blew the pacers out, and the only reason he didn't play more minutes is because they were up by a ridiculous amount of points. But if Mike Brown chose he could have put Lebron back in the game.

It's the diffrence between being active for a game and being inactive for another one. I don't understand why that is hard to understand. But if it's that important, you can give the Detroit loss to Lebron and give him the Pacers win. I don't care. Using your logic they cancel each other out, so I don't know why you are so aggressively interested in pursuing that point. What does it demonstrate? To what end are you making it?

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of that, thanks for clearing it up for me. I thought that he didn't play as much considering his injury + didn't seem like the sole reason for the win. But yeah, I was wrong and I'm not ashamed to admit it .

About the point I was trying to make. It's pretty simple; I find he whole 0-6 without LBJ and 30-18 with him argument pointless (discussed in another thread with Brandname), since we have absolutely no idea how the games he missed would go and they stand at 30-24 however people put it. I'm not saying LeBron should be punished for missing the games (like some people), but I also don't think he should be rewarded. But it is irrelevant at the end as far as I'm concerned. I am just somewhat annoyed with this number popping up in every NBA-related place I visit, that's all.

peace

[Plastic Man]

Originally Posted by futuristxen

This is definitely a sleeper team out East. And we may just get Kobe vs. Lebron in the finals.

That series would probably result in the highest ratings in a loooong time.

Not that I'd mind seeing it.

[futuristxen]

I don't mind if you don't reward him for the games he missed. I just think it's misleading to punish him for games he had no chance to affect the outcome of. The fact of the matter is that when Lebron has played this year, which has been pretty often, he's been pretty hard to beat.

[Brandname]

Originally Posted by Plastic Man

Yes it does make sense. He played 20 minutes in the Detroit game and 23 in the Indiana game. I don't care how you bend this, either he accounts for 1-1 or 0-0, you can't say he lead the team to 1-0.

Please don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not trying to pick on you at all. But you're CLEARLY just looking at the box scores for those two games.

I'm not into getting into a pissing match between these two players because it's kind of pointless. They're both great players, and everyone's minds are pretty much made up at this point. But I can't let some of these misinformed statements to go through unscathed.

Here's some information about those two games:

Cleveland vs. Detroit: Lebron gets injured

The Cavs are playing Detroit very close throughout most of the first half of the game (like they always seem to in the Lebron era). The game was roughly tied (give or take a point or two, I don't remember the exact score) when Lebron drives the lane and gets hit on the finger by Nazr Mohammed, causing the original injury. He tries to play through it for the rest of the half, but he's clearly not right and misses every single shot he takes between the injury and half time. At the half, the organization makes the decision to shut him down for the night for further evaluation. Even though he missed all of his shots after the injury, the Cavs are still only down 5 at the half.

In the second half, the team comes out to take the court without Lebron, and they promptly get OUTSCORED BY 30 IN ONE HALF. Turns out to be one of the most lopsided losses for the Cavs in a long time, and it all happened in one half. They played Detroit even until Lebron gets injured, then they get destroyed without him. There is absolutely no rational way that you could put this loss on him.

Cleveland vs. Indiana: Lebron comes back

Lebron did not start this game. He was perfectly healthy and ready to come back, so why didn't he play? He asked to come off the bench because it was Anderson's first game back after the holdout and he was worried about Anderson getting booed. So they came in at the same time for a HUGE ovation from the crowd. Pretty good leadership, IMO.

But anyway, they come in the game and proceed to ROMP ALL OVER INDIANA. This game was not close, right from the start.

He only played 27 minutes in the Indiana game because it was such a blowout he left for good in the 3rd quarter. How could you possibly not count that as a win for him?

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you didn't watch the game or understand the circumstances behind each game. Because trying to say they're somehow equal on the basis of minutes played is patently absurd.


EDIT -- I see this has already been addressed while I typed this out. So sorry about the redundancy. But this will give a little more info about those games, so I'll leave it up. I see that you already acknowledged the mistake.

[Plastic Man]

Yep, as I've said, I mostly follow the Lakers and don't try to downplay the Cavs and LeBron due to that fact. But, I made a clear mistake here, another great example why we can't really objectively judge when we can't follow every player as closely as we'd like (I know I wouldn't mind doing nothing all day, equipped with a giant plasma, sipping Coke and eating some chips while watching every game from the previous day in a comforting arm-chair.. ahh, I can see it now...) again, my bad.

Since I'm getting into fantasies, imagine what would happen if they ever teamed up for a team in the league... I think I'd wet myself.

[futuristxen]

I want to see Dwight and Lebron team up. Not Kobe and Lebron.

[compsciguy78]

Lebron's weakness is his jumpshot. Period. End of story.

His jumper is ugly looking I have to say. His feet are pointed outwards and his balance looks off.

Otherwise he is more gifted in every other area then almost every other basketball player in the league.


Lebron is shooting 31% from 3point land....that is god awful!!!!! He takes a lot of 3's!!!!

Lebron can't shoot good and thats the end of the story. He makes his bread and butter driving, dishing, and manhandling smaller guys.

In Lebron's defense, he might shoot jumpers to keep the defense honest, which is a sign of good offensive player. Kudos to Lebron.

The jumpshot is still ugly...