I’m not a doctor, but played a sport with lots of broken hands. There’s a ton of tiny bones in the hand. I think you can crack one and still function and that’s technically a broken hand.
2018 NBA Finals
- Thread starter gedman211
- Start date
So, you hate dynasties which happens in every sport from time to time. Cools.
Really, you have? Were there lots of pain killers involved or something? Honest to god, I’m not doubting you. I just need to know how that works because I can’t imagine it. I’ve had the tiniest of hairline fractures in one of those many tiny bones you’re taking about, and the pain was intense. I can’t imagine playing basketball - even if it’s your non-shooting hand - considering how critical they are in this sport.
However major his injury was, I’m sure that didn’t help tamper Lebron’s hatred for JR Hill after that game at all. In the 5% chance scenario where Lebron stays, he’s gone.
Edit: I’m leaving that typo because it’s perfect.
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Re: West. See, that’s about the only kind of situation where I can imagine it possibly happening again today - close series going 7 games and a player on the losing team dominates. And wasn’t West the very first Finals MVP? I imagine it’s become an even more difficult feat to accomplish because the MVP coming from the winning team has almost solidified into an unwritten rule. IMO it would take a very good team performance AND dominant player performance to even be a consideration.
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So it's gonna come out that KD's got another burner account and it said Steph's beard is fugly and that mouthguard thing is hella annoying?
I think you read me wrong. I was involved in boxing, where there were lots of hand injuries. I did break my hand and fight on it though. It hurt, but the whole sport hurts. Not sure how it’d work in basketball where the pain and potential lack of mobility might affect shot accuracy.
I didn't know J.R. Smith's nickname was blackboard, good to know.
Adios Cadavers, take your lone gift title and go back to being irrelevant for the next decade.
Meh, what is the purpose of that? Boston still plays Philly, Golden State plays Cleveland in the quarterfinals and Houston in the finals instead of the other way around? I mean seriously, that is what it will take to get you back on track? The NBA's popularity, growth, and revenue is exploding worldwide.....not really the time for panic moves imo.
It's crazy how much injury luck the Warriors have had in their run. Kyrie and Love out the first time, lost the 2nd time, Kawhi last year ("luck"), and this year they got the Paul injury just when Houston had them on the ropes, in addition to dodging the Celtics' 2 best players.
The one year that the Warriors didn't benefit signficantly from opponents' injuries gave us the 2016 Western Finals and 2016 Finals, which were both total classics.
I don't think NBA champions have asterisks. I do downgrade the Warriors somewhat compared to other great teams, in the same way that I don't think of the early 90s Rockets as all-time greats with Jordan out, although they were deserving champions. It's just really really disappointing as a fan that the most loaded team the past couple years has also always ended up being the one on the right side of injuries, and it's made several finals and semifinals much less exciting than they could have been.
The one year that the Warriors didn't benefit signficantly from opponents' injuries gave us the 2016 Western Finals and 2016 Finals, which were both total classics.
I don't think NBA champions have asterisks. I do downgrade the Warriors somewhat compared to other great teams, in the same way that I don't think of the early 90s Rockets as all-time greats with Jordan out, although they were deserving champions. It's just really really disappointing as a fan that the most loaded team the past couple years has also always ended up being the one on the right side of injuries, and it's made several finals and semifinals much less exciting than they could have been.
They clearly were the best team the past 4 years but the Rockets with Paul healthy probably beat them this year. I don’t think the Spurs beat them last year even if Kawhi stays healthy and they win Game 1 but it would have been a tough 6 or 7 game series.
On the flip side, you can argue that Curry was clearly hobbled in 2016, which contributed to their loss along with the nut kick.
This is obviously a historically great team and all their best players are 30 or younger, which is just scary. These guys aren’t done.
Yes, to answer your question, that move on its own would make the Finals better, it would make the regular season more meaningful and it would make me care more all season long.
If Paul is healthy and Iguodala isn't, that might be true, but I think GS with Iguodala wins that series in 5 or 6.
Can’t see 5 but possible that Iggy flips one of the close Game 3 or 4 Rockets wins and they close it out in 6.
But I think that kind of underscores the original poster’s point. The Warriors were dealing with the loss of their 5th best player for a few games. Many of their opponents have dealt with the loss of their top 1-2 guys for the same period of time or the entire series. The Warriors have absolutely benefitted from opponent injuries but I’m not sure it makes a difference. I think 2015 is the only year where it could have made a difference since Cleveland lost in 6 with Love out the whole series and Kyrie out the final 5 games.
One alternative would be to wait until there are four teams left to re-seed the remaining teams, ignoring conferences - or even to automatically cross the teams over, so that the top remaining East team plays the lesser remaining West team, and vice versa. I believe the latter concept has been proposed for use next season in the KHL (Russian hockey league), although I think I prefer the former, which keeps the first and second rounds in the East and West intact but allows for crossover in what would be the Conference Finals without mandating it if the best two teams remaining are in different conferences.
2018
Boston vs Golden State
Houston vs Cleveland
2017
Boston vs San Antonio
Golden State vs Cleveland
2016
Golden State vs Toronto
Cleveland vs OKC
2015
Golden State vs Cleveland
Atlanta vs Houston
It would have prevented the same Finals for four years in a row, but doesn't look more competitive. The gap from #1 and #4 in this league is enormous. In 15 and 18, the #3 team had serious warts.
Boston vs Golden State
Houston vs Cleveland
2017
Boston vs San Antonio
Golden State vs Cleveland
2016
Golden State vs Toronto
Cleveland vs OKC
2015
Golden State vs Cleveland
Atlanta vs Houston
It would have prevented the same Finals for four years in a row, but doesn't look more competitive. The gap from #1 and #4 in this league is enormous. In 15 and 18, the #3 team had serious warts.
(1)Houston vs (16)Milwaukee
(2)Toronto vs (15)Miami
(3)Golden State vs (14)Denver
(4)Boston vs (13)Minnesota
(5)Philadelphia vs (12)San Antonio
(6)Cleveland vs (11)New Orleans
(7)Portland vs (10)Indiana
(8)Oklahoma City vs (9)Utah
I bolded what I think is the most important part of this. I honestly don't believe people understand how big the NBA now is across the globe. I have no idea what TV contracts, rights, etc. generate in other countries, but it's astounding how huge basketball is elsewhere. I still mess around in the trading card/memorabilia game, and I would say 90% of the NBA stuff that is sold heads to Asia. The amount of money they are spending over there dwarfs what is being spent by Americans, and dwarfs what is being spent on other sports. It's insane.
As a euphemism for JR Smith, that is a pretty racy choice if not outright inappropriate.
You watched games 6 and 7, right? What was Paul going to do to make the rest of his team start playing defense in the second half? They lost by 29 in game 6, and then in game 7 they lost the 3rd quarter 33-15 before GS took their foot off the gas in the 4th (and still won the quarter).
The entire offense went to shit in the 2nd half. I’m going to assume that a hall of fame point guard might have been able to help there. It was a tight game deep into the 3rd before the wheels came off. There is no way of proving either side on this but I think Houston wins if Paul is healthy.
If LeBron didn’t want to use the broken hand as an excuse; to the degree that he wasn’t having it treated or wrapped during games, practice or anytime the media could have possibly seen him; why did he decide to enlighten the media after he got swept, the exact time when he would need an excuse?
“I’m not trying to make excuses for my performance, but here is something that happened that nobody knew about and excuses my performance.”
“I’m not trying to make excuses for my performance, but here is something that happened that nobody knew about and excuses my performance.”
Yeah, given the reputed seven figures he pays on conditioning his body, there's a Death Star / exhaust vent joke to be made here.
This is all speculation, but I'm not convinced that a healthy Paul clinches the series for Houston. I watched a Golden State team that played with casual confidence the whole playoffs, reminiscent of the 1986 Celtics. Of course they had no plan to go down 3-1 to the Rockets, but they were clearly in "flip the switch" mode overall. A healthy Rockets team may have had enough to stave off the try-hard Warriors, but it's far from a given.
They were up 11 at the half without Paul and in control of the game until around the mid-3rd. Nothing is a given, of course, but I think Paul would have really helped to prevent the offense from floundering like it did.
I think Houston wins a tight game 7 with Paul but, unfortunately, we’ll never know.
Also did it have any noticeable effect on his shot? I haven’t looked at the box scores, but did his percentages go way down after game one?
Plus, the baseline is a 51 point game, so yeah, some drop-off would be expected, and then game four hardly counts, so there isn't going to be much sample.
It's plausible from the numbers, though. There just aren't a lot of them.
It's plausible from the numbers, though. There just aren't a lot of them.
I thought this was a pretty interesting stat:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23739593/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers-played-significant-hand-injury
That would seem to indicate he was having trouble aiming the ball. He did seem to wince landing on his hand at one point.
Regardless the fact that the injury occurred punching a blackboard is really the story here. Given how bad his team was it’s something he really couldn’t afford to do obv. Curry and Thompson must’ve really gotten under his skin.. that and the way that game ended.
I wish I had thought of this angle.
But yeah, I mean... it's Greek tragedy stuff.
Man, imagine what Marcus Smart could have caused him to do!
What a loss...
Pretty clear that it was all about how the game ended and his own teammate and not much to do with Curry and/or Thompson
I played basketball and had many "jammed fingers" "palm bruises" etc as they called them at the time. Once I had an x-ray of my hand for something else and the Doc showed me a few breaks that had healed. All but one was a finger and a thumb, but one was a metacarpal. It was my left hand and I remember it hurt like hell put I played. It was the 80s and the decisions were left up to players, and coaches expected you to play. Like most injuries it was on defense when the unexpected happened like deflecting a pass, that really hurt because you could not anticipate it. When rebounding or making a move you could anticipate the pain and it was not too bad. Pain is weird. I read once in WW2 they found if a guy was injured and they told he would live and get sent home he was something like only 25% as likely to ask for morphine as the guys they didn't say that too. And constuction workers, hardly pussies, were 4 or 5 times as likely to ask for morphine as soldiers hurt in combat. A huge part of playing ball was knowing where to be on the court, being in the right place, game plan etc, so often hurt veteran is better than healthy rookie.
It was? In the clip below Curry is clearly trash talking LeBron with Thompson behind him.
LeBron tells him to get out of his face and then to stfu and get out his face as he shoves him. I think this happened right at the end of the game, but my memory could be faulty. I don't think it has to be one thing or the other..just that he was pissed.
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=23664997
Sure, but he got hurt punching the whiteboard. That ain't happening if JR Smith doesn't do JR Smith things.
I think Windhorst reported that the James vs Curry and Thompson feud began with LeBron blocking a Curry layup and Curry in garbage time and was like “Cmon man, you couldn’t let me have that one?” and LeBron replied by telling Curry to get the fuck out of his face. So Thompson came over and Curry and him probably talked some shit to James.
Oh the reason is definitely the stupidity of JR Smith. Lebron was beyond furious at the end of regulation.
Oh, you had to remind me about jammed fingers. Those are the worst. It's funny, because basketball is the only life situation where I've ever gotten a jammed finger, and it used to happen all the time. Deflect a hard pass with your finger in the wrong position...and it's immobile for a while. Ugh.
I never even played basketball except screwing around a couple times and I got a permanently crooked finger from it.
Yep, spent 10% of my waking hours in high school with two fingers taped together. Always found it funny that jammed fingers don't affect your basketball as much as they affect the rest of your life.
I played all the time growing up and I have the same thing.. ring finger on my left hand is always bent unless I concentrate on it and straighten it out.
Got right ring finger twisted in my mastiff’s collar as he tried to defend himself against an aggressive lab. Popped in back into place and taped it to middle finger. Third knuckle is still bent and twice the size of other hand. Played golf two days later with no ill effect. Color me unimpressed if he’s touting playing with a jammed finger. These guys play with those all the time. Was it Jordan who spent years wearing a finger brace?