re: There is no way the Cavs win without 30+ shots from LeBron - T or F

This is True. The strategy, while it appeared dysfunctional on the surface, is in actuality brilliant.

LeBron tells his boys to play ball to the wall on D, then rest on offense.

Sure, they'll run the occasional play to give a guy some open looks. But never in the history of the NBA have I seen one player dribble the ball up the court, hold onto it for 20 seconds, then shoot a wild arse fadeaway yet still make it enough times to win the game.

If the cavs win this series, I honestly think it'll be the greatest single man performance I've seen in my life.

YIKES

T

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Curry made some amazing shots last night, even when it was close. There was a bad call/no-call that killed their momentum (not saying it blew the game, but it definitely changed things). And as awesome as Curry is, he can't hit 100% of his shots. But he made most of them last night late and he went off a good bit. They say shooters should keep shooting to get themselves back on track, and it's likely that Curry did that last game in the second half and late. Does it mean he's back completely? Who knows. But it's definitely a positive for him considering that for the previous game and a half he couldn't throw it in the ocean.

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He started that streak when they were nearly out of it. Maybe the pass out of bounds was nothing more than a miscommunication, but I'm not surprised in the least that he was able to start going off when they were no longer expected to win the game. I don't trust that he'll automatically carry that level of confidence to tonight.

He does really well when things are going well for him. But like you said, even with the best shooters, sometimes their shot doesn't fall. If that's the case, then he has no reason at all to hang his head low because that's simply the nature of his game. So last game's late rally really shouldn't even matter to him. If it does and he misses a couple, then he'll be hanging his head again thinking why won't the ball go in.

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But there is something about this, at least so far, that is just amazing. I want it to happen so bad

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Yea, I caught onto it after game 2.

Most of the irrational types around here won't believe it, but I never cheer for Lebron(I've never cheered him on or anything of the sort on this board). I just appreciate his game and he happens to dominate the conversations on this board, so I post a lot about him, mostly positive, which shouldn't be surprising considering how good he is, but any who...

After game 2(fwiw, I called for a sweep or GS in 5 after the Irving injury), upon realizing how the Cavs are playing and this then game 3 upon realizing maybe they have a shot here, I just kinda came to the realization, if GS wins this series, anything short of this being their 1st title in a dynasty type run, it’s not really super memorable or anything out of the ordinary. If Lebron is able to continue going for near 40/1010 and CLE pulls this out, it’ll be talked about as one of the greatest single performances in sports history, and everyone will still remember or you’ll see it brought up here and there on TV 30 years from now like you see with Magic or Bird nowadays. I want that, I want to see that kind of historic, iconic moment and performance, so I do want to see CLE win this series.

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Agreed being "efficient" isn't always in the team's best interest especially when there's a sizeable dropoff in talent after the stud.

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Right. People don't understand this. Anything over the opportunity costvalue efficiency is good for your team and anything better than the other team's efficiency is positive basketball. If because of the refs allowing a TON of contact, .8 Points Per Possession is the standard for the day, than anything over that is efficient. 40 points on 20 shots improves team efficiency(the only relevant thing) more than 30 points on 14 shots, because those extra 10 points on 6 shots is still better than the opportunity cost of 9.6 points.

That's an oversimplification. In actuality, team PPP is incredibly inflated by fast breaks and breakdowns such as dunks. Those are great when they happen(and Lebron is as good as anybody at creating or finding them). But in any given possession where there is no opportunity for a fast break or a blown defensive assignment, the offensive points per possession is quite low. That's when Lebron plays his borderline "inefficient" basketball. He's not bricking pull-up hero ball jump shots on fast breaks with a guy open for a layup.

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The only one who really can help is Delly, but he can't get out of double teams really well.

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Wait, what? He is absolutely terrible on offense. 4.8 PPG in 21 minutes on 36 percent shooting? He's scored less than 10 PPG this series despite averaging 30 minutes.

Oh ok you're right. I misread the OP I guess. That's what I meant to say.