you have to get that to lebron. i don't care when, i don't care how. you have to get that to lebron. lebron should have done more with 7 whole seconds to move and go after the ball. just terrible all over (i'm a huge lebron fan, but jordan would've tackled 4 pacers, 3 cavs and a ref to get to that ball and throw up a shot). why even hope they miss if that's your plan? also why i didn't like using the last timeout with 13 seconds left. a timeout at the end is always more valuable than one with some time left. with a timeout you can literally do something in 1 second after advancing. sure, they would have had less time after the first play so it might have been 3 or 4 seconds instead of 7.6, but you saw even with 7.6 seconds trying to go the length of the court is tough in a scramble.
they had 5 seconds. and theres no way youre getting that to lebron off a miss ft reb and hes on the other side of the court
to be somewhat fair, i think harden usually tries to dribble and draw the defense, oladipo just sat back and hoped his teammates would take care of the rest. maybe that should be harden's strategy, but a guy like bojan having the game he had is what it took. ariza and tucker might do the same but they might just dribble and hand it back to james so i don't know what the best strategy is. but either way, harden has to get better at double team passes because his are usually soft and/or off target and give the teammates no advantage even if he draws in the defenders more than oladipo did by just backing up.
Yea. Harden needs to get rid of it quicker. I noticed a couple times in game 2 we had CP3 set the screen for Harden and he gave it up quick allowing CP3 to go 4-on-3 I think that is the definitive counter to trapping Harden but we dont do it often enough.
That was truly great to watch. The drama at the end (i.e, the fact the Pacers repeatedly gave up the lead) maximizes both the physical AND emotional exhaustion for both teams. Only one day off between games for the remainder of the series. The collapse of the Cavs offense in the 2nd half is the story. Their defense was good enough. If the Pacers were more explosive, they would have won by 20 again.
Harden has been struggling with double teams since teams realized he is unstoppable one on one. It hasn't been for just 3 games this season, it's been for a few years.
There is NO way Lebron returns to a team that can't beat the damned Indiana Pacers. If the Cavs really do lose this series he's as good as gone. Here is to hoping he joins another Eastern Conference team or the Rockets.
Aside from that shot by Cory Joseph to beat the shot clock I didn't notice any terrible shots. That was clearly a bad possession but at least they took of 24 seconds and it wasn't a live-ball turnover. It was just a broken play, those are bound to happen sometimes. At the end of the game with the lead you just don't want any mistakes.
my bad, 7.6 was before the foul play. and then jeff green forgot to guard anybody. once again proving that you should pretty much never sign jeff green no matter how desperate you are. either way, if you rush it up the court with 13 seconds, you can have essentially no time left for your next score if you still have a timeout. no good choices, but i think that would be better.
Yep, I agree. Before CP, Harden didn't trust anyone with the ball (rightfully so), he tried to force it. Even now, with CP, Harden doesn't like to give it up as quickly as I would like. Vic just standing and passing is genius in it's simplicity.
that was the whole idea for lebron to be on the other side of the court. BUT off a make by collison's FT. its completely different off a reb when you have to get the reb first and control it. that alone costs atleast a 1 sec or so
Not that I am looking ahead just yet, but Toronto is actually a very tough matchup for the Pacers. Speed and length. It seems the Pacers always play Lebron's teams tough, though
clarkson and nance kind of seems like soft players who got used to playing in meaningless games in LA and thought that was all it took and now the playoffs are punching them in the mouth. a guy like jr might not always be the smartest player, but he's out there playing D and hustling like he knows what's up. same with korver. milwaukee doesn't need delly do they? can they send him back to cleveland?
They play LeBron's team tough and lose. Hopefully this squad is more mentally tough than those of the PG years.
