Posted this elsewhere but i get way more of a 2011 Mavs vibe.
A wing who can shoulder the scoring (except he can also defend)
Lots of shooters, all of whom can get scorching hot from deep
An elite rim protector/PNR defender (who can also score)
A coach who is among the best in adjustments, counters, and giving an opposing team different looks to keep them on their heels.
I think this series goes at least 6 games. And if it gets to 7? The Heat's younger legs are going to have an advantage.
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35750 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -≥≥≥≥≥Berkeley, CA
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:30 am Post subject:
pjiddy wrote:
Posted this elsewhere but i get way more of a 2011 Mavs vibe.
A wing who can shoulder the scoring (except he can also defend)
Lots of shooters, all of whom can get scorching hot from deep
An elite rim protector/PNR defender (who can also score)
A coach who is among the best in adjustments, counters, and giving an opposing team different looks to keep them on their heels.
I think this series goes at least 6 games. And if it gets to 7? The Heat's younger legs are going to have an advantage.
Butler is not nearly on the same level as Dirk, either offensively or overall. Dirk was an MVP level player on a hot streak. Butler is a mid-tier all star. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
They give me a Golden State vibe. And guess what, they’ll make a run at Giannis too. _________________ “You have to dance beautifully in the box that you are comfortable dancing in.” - Kobe Bryant
There's about 100 reasons why that 2004 Lakers team lost to the Pistons. Most here have covered the common subjects.
I think the most underrated and forgotten of them all is just how quietly taxing that WCF series was against the Timberwolves. That's pretty much one of the most nightmare scenarios. You work hard all season long and finally make it only to start getting exhausted and banged up in the WCF. We needed Kareem Rush to step up for us in game 7 to take us to the finals.
Several role players got injured that series and it took 7 exhausting games to finally get past them. When they finally ran into the brick wall which was arguably the greatest defensive team in sports history it was just too much.
There's a reddit thread where they ask fans which team is the best defensive in NBA history. Almost unanimously agreed it would be that 2004 Pistons team v a banged up dysfunctional and tired Lakers team.
(Oddly enough the next one they pick is the 07-08 Celtics. Kobe's two finals losses are greatly overrated when you consider how injured his teams were those years)
We never played a game 7 against the timberwolves, and I am sure the spurs series was more exhausting.
The fact is, we probably beat Detroit if Malone wasn’t hurt. Sheed was the one we could’ve stop.
They were both nightmares. (bleep) I was exhausted just from watching them. If the T-Pups had Billups available I doubt we would have even made it past them. Trenton Hassell looked like the second coming. Don't get me started on that series, or the reffing in the Finals. Bad OP for posting this. Shame.. Shame.. Shame...
There's about 100 reasons why that 2004 Lakers team lost to the Pistons. Most here have covered the common subjects.
I think the most underrated and forgotten of them all is just how quietly taxing that WCF series was against the Timberwolves. That's pretty much one of the most nightmare scenarios. You work hard all season long and finally make it only to start getting exhausted and banged up in the WCF. We needed Kareem Rush to step up for us in game 7 to take us to the finals.
Several role players got injured that series and it took 7 exhausting games to finally get past them. When they finally ran into the brick wall which was arguably the greatest defensive team in sports history it was just too much.
There's a reddit thread where they ask fans which team is the best defensive in NBA history. Almost unanimously agreed it would be that 2004 Pistons team v a banged up dysfunctional and tired Lakers team.
(Oddly enough the next one they pick is the 07-08 Celtics. Kobe's two finals losses are greatly overrated when you consider how injured his teams were those years)
We never played a game 7 against the timberwolves, and I am sure the spurs series was more exhausting.
The fact is, we probably beat Detroit if Malone wasn’t hurt. Sheed was the one we could’ve stop.
They were both nightmares. (bleep) I was exhausted just from watching them. If the T-Pups had Billups available I doubt we would have even made it past them. Trenton Hassell looked like the second coming. Don't get me started on that series, or the reffing in the Finals. Bad OP for posting this. Shame.. Shame.. Shame...
If the Wolves kept Billups, no way in hell we beat the Wolves. In regards to Detroit, there was no way we were going to be allowed to win that series. Had the refs been straight, we would have still lost. With the number of non calls for us and the refs quick to blow the whistle for the Pistons, we got the non-competitive series we got. Malone and Payton signing with us for discounts pissed off the other owners which probably had backlash for Stern but even more importantly the thing I think pissed off Stern to ensure the Lakers wont win was the Eagle Rock incident which reflected very poorly for the league from its greatest marquee young star. Once this happened combined with the Payton/Malone thing, I think Stern had to make a point of ensuring the Lakers dont win on the biggest stage if they made it there. People who always point out 2002 WCF as the most rigged except it seemed rigged for both sides in different games. 2004 Finals was the most obvious rigged series EVER. Then you got the classic Game 2 2008 Leon Pow-Wow game which I have no idea why the refs were rigging that game but was obvious they were
Last edited by 1995Lakers on Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:07 am; edited 2 times in total
team chemistry are not even close to be the same. that 2004 team was full of drama, shaq-kobe, kobe-phil, shaq-phil feuds were at the tipping point. this year's squad is the most united Laker team i've ever seen in the last 30 years.
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144432 Location: The Gold Coast
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:13 am Post subject:
BlueNGold wrote:
Aeneas Hunter wrote:
wolfpaclaker wrote:
People thinking the Heat are overmatched are in for a rude awakening. The only thing that I think favors us, is I think we are not happy to be there. The Heat look a bit happy just to be there. We are extremely focused. I think we have a little more experience and edge.
Naw. We have the best two players in the series, though Jimmy Butler is a close third. We have a significant size advantage if we can exploit it. We have a lot more experience, not just a little. I don't disrespect the Heat, but they are going to need to catch some breaks to make this a competitive series.
To be fair, Jimmy has relied greatly on the role players to kind of save his bacon against Boston. Not to downplay his potential greatness, but he did not excel against a defensively challenged Celtics team.
That is playing as a team, preached by probably the best coach in the league. That is what the Lakers have to expect, Heat players not named Butler will have success. Will the Laker role players? This will be the best defense that the Lakers will face. I wouldn’t predict a Heat win but it should be a tight series. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.
People thinking the Heat are overmatched are in for a rude awakening. The only thing that I think favors us, is I think we are not happy to be there. The Heat look a bit happy just to be there. We are extremely focused. I think we have a little more experience and edge.
Naw. We have the best two players in the series, though Jimmy Butler is a close third. We have a significant size advantage if we can exploit it. We have a lot more experience, not just a little. I don't disrespect the Heat, but they are going to need to catch some breaks to make this a competitive series.
To be fair, Jimmy has relied greatly on the role players to kind of save his bacon against Boston. Not to downplay his potential greatness, but he did not excel against a defensively challenged Celtics team.
That is playing as a team, preached by probably the best coach in the league. That is what the Lakers have to expect, Heat players not named Butler will have success. Will the Laker role players? This will be the best defense that the Lakers will face. I wouldn’t predict a Heat win but it should be a tight series.
While all that is true this is the best offensive and defensive team the heat will have faced. They were able to wall off Giannis but we have 2 top 5 players it won’t be as easy for them to defend. And for us this is the first time we don’t have to double team a dynamic scorer so the d might be much better than it already was
But but the clippers are back next season and are heavy favorites
We still have the best 1 - 2 punch in the league, great defensive team and we can still improve in the off season
We still have to get past Miami. I know it’s been a long time, but there’s no need to become front runners just yet. Brooklyn will be good, Golden State will be back, The Clippers should be there, there could be a dark horse dynasty brewing somewhere. We really don’t know _________________ “You have to dance beautifully in the box that you are comfortable dancing in.” - Kobe Bryant
Some good points raised in favor of the Heat - I would say some of our laker brethren favor the Heat to win.
Some things to consider
1. Lakers opponents during this run have been heavily underrated by the media to an extent. Folks kind of poop on portland and houston. Portland imo has as much if not better talent than the Heat. Houston’s covington and tucker are just as much as good if not arguably better than any Heat roleplayer. We just beat a nuggets team who was shooting at an insanely hi percentage for a couple games.
2. Heat are probably closer a team to the Clippers in terms of overall roster construction but not as talented. I think if Heat had to play nuggets most would say theyd have their hands full and point to wins vs clippers and lakers by the nugs.
3. Bam is not AD. Folks need to understand he is not a counter to AD. His offensive game is at the rim and getting to it he has no real outside game. Also If Heat zone and keep Bam near the rim it opens up AD to hit jumpers vs smaller guys or simply get in spaces for scores. If they go man to man they likely put Bam on AD who can take him away from the hoop.
Bam has not had to face bigs who can move and if lakers go big with javale/dwight at C and AD at power forward he will be forced to run up and down that court since Laker bigs can run the floor - theyre not plodding slow centers like brook lopez. This has had very little discussion and I bet it will get mentioned by the announcers as series goes along.
4. Sorry but While Heat do have folks to “throw at lebron” (crowder, iggy, arguably butler)...come on now, do we really think these guys will do enough? Iggy isnt the same guy that had some impact vs lbj 5 years ago. Butler isnt going to go that long otherwise his scoring will get impacted. Lbj is frankly stronger and faster than these guys.
5. If bam and butler do actually “counter” the Lakers we are done anyway...may as well call it a day folks if we wanna believe that since Heat, like nugs, probably have the best 3-6 \ 3-7 after that which is like everyone weve faced so far
6. Lakers scrappiness is highly highly underrated. Unlike popular opinion - a laker team is a bunch of premaddonas who win on glitz vs dirty work - this team is primarily made up of grinders. Kcp. Caruso. DG. Rondo. Dwight (this iteration)...the clippers became the premadonnas. That grit alone wins this team at least 2 games. And if of rest of 5 you dont think lbj and AD can win on talent? Then just go ahead and crown your heat.
7. Of course all of this assumes proper execution. I will sum this up this way: if Lakers have a respectable 3% (eg season average) they will win. That 3% is enough to force the Heat to stop going all day zone and instead going after 3 shooters...if that happens we get into the creamy center for higher percentage shots. That plus good rotation on D and Lakers will get this.
Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 4077 Location: New York, NY
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:48 pm Post subject:
Feels like the vibe is more like every Eastern Conference series LeBron has played since 2011. Heat are a nice team, easy to root for. Just like many of the Hawks teams over the years. The Raptors teams. Pacers teams. Pistons teams. Celtics teams. Bulls teams. All nice teams who were basically overwhelmed by him. Now throw AD and the Others into the mix and I see it going like every East series the past decade.
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