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I'm STILL going with a Cleveland/LA matchup in the Finals.   Orlando's 3-point shooting is insanely good. They will NOT keep up the torid pace. Orlando is gonna give it all in Game 5, and will keep it

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Care to back that up at all?

 

I was just joining in on the complaining.

 

However and I've mentioned this before.... his punishment for the Pacers/Pistons was either favortism for the Pistons or hatred of the Pacers. I tend to lean towards my second guess. I can give you proof of Pacer hatred.

 

1999 playoffs. Pacers 1 seed Knicks 8. Pacers have their best shot of winning a championship. Knicks beat the Pacers when Larry Johnson shoots 3 pointer and hits and according to the official was fouled by Antonio Davis. Grandmama sinks freethrow to go up by 1 and give the Knicks the defeat.

 

I'm almost sure that Stern being a New Yorker isn't a big Piston's fan. Good luck getting any calls against the Spurs.

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How many times do you see the officials call a foul on the last play of the game? Almost never

 

You can't expect to get a call unless its a really really obvious hard foul. That's just how it works.

 

I'm really tired of the Pistons and the Spurs. I really hope they don't make it to the finals. Although I bet it would be a pretty good series.

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The Pistons and Spurs are my two favorite teams. Well, the Pistons are my team anyway, and I feel like I have to respect the Spurs because they play a similar game (although with some distinct differences -- the Spurs are certainly the Western Conference team most similar to the Pistons though).

 

I won't dispute that the Pistons got some calls in that last game, but as tunedtochords said, that will never get called when it may tilt a playoff game. It's not team favoritism, but simply the league's refusal to call a foul that may tip an important game. It's still not really a fair application of the rules, but it's certainly a consistant one.

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Christ, there are a lot of stupid sportswriters out there.

 

He's not Michael Jordan, and he probably never will reach that height. Thats not a knock against Lebron, thats just how good Michael was.

 

Also, his game is probably closer to Magic Johnson's than Jordan's, isn't it?

 

I like LeBron, but he might not even be the best player in the league right now (Dirk, Nash, Kobe, Wade, Dwight Howard might all be ahead of him). He's a fantastic player, but he's still way too scared to take the shots at the end of the game (he's still young, understandable), and he's not much of a defender. Hell of a game in game 3 though.

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However and I've mentioned this before.... his punishment for the Pacers/Pistons was either favortism for the Pistons or hatred of the Pacers. I tend to lean towards my second guess. I can give you proof of Pacer hatred.

 

The official explanation is sometimes bullshit, but in that instance, the official explanation was that they came down harder on the players who actually went into the stands and fought the fans. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Do you really think that Ben Wallace, who overreacted by shoving Ron Artest, deserved to be punished as much as Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson, who attacked fans in the stands? I know it was debated around here at the time, so I'm not going to get too wound up about it now, but I didn't realize that this was a viewpoint that was out there right now.

 

Anyway, re: Lebron. He's never going to be as good as Jordan, but he's actually better than Jordan was at the same age (due mainly to his earlier entry into the NBA). His team probably would have won if he was more aggressive in the first two games, but citing Jordan in his peak to criticize Lebron now seems silly. Why should Lebron, still early in his career, be compared to the concensus greatest player ever at his peak? Doesn't make sense. It took Jordan until his fourth try to get past the Pistons in the Playoffs. Lebron came close to it last year in the conference semi-finals, is likely going to end up with a hardfought loss in the conference finals this year, and is still six years younger than Jordan was when he won his first championship. It's not as if this is Lebron's last chance to carry his team to a championship or anything. He's still young and relatively inexperienced in the playoffs (at least compared to the Pistons, or compared to Jordan when he won his championships). I think the media criticism of him at this point is way overblown.

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No frickin way Dwight Howard is better than Lebron. He could end up better, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

He's not better, but I'd probably rather start a franchise around him than LeBron from a basketball standpoint (not from a marketing standpoint, though.)

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How's Dwight Howard doing?

 

Good bit.

 

A young dominant center is probably more valuable than a young dominant forward, in my opinion.

 

That said, LeBron can take over a game when he wants to, huh.

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Yeah, a great center is more valuable than a great forward of equal talent, but I think Lebron's talent exceeds everyone's by a wide enough margin that it would be difficult to pick anyone else to build a team around, given the choice.

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Guest Jules
Yeah, a great center is more valuable than a great forward of equal talent, but I think Lebron's talent exceeds everyone's by a wide enough margin that it would be difficult to pick anyone else to build a team around, given the choice.

 

Kobe?

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I meant to refer to the crop of young stars, but yeah, I didn't say that. Why can't you just read my mind? :P

 

But yeah, Kobe's probably the best player in the game (for another year or two before Lebron overtakes him).

 

No problemo. Last night's performance was one of the best I've ever seen, including Jordan, so you might be right. He needs to shoot better than 70% from the line, though. No excuse there. I still think Kobe is the best in the game, but the gap is narrowing.

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Guest Jules
No problemo. Last night's performance was one of the best I've ever seen, including Jordan, so you might be right. He needs to shoot better than 70% from the line, though. No excuse there. I still think Kobe is the best in the game, but the gap is narrowing.

Sam Smith makes a case for this being the best ever.

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