NBA Playoffs

[Brutus Buckeye]

[Kris61]

The hype regarding Tiger was that he would slay the Golden Bear's Major record.

The hype regarding LeBron was that he'd win more titles than Jordan.

Neither of those things are likely to happen.

I don’t think either of those statements are true.  The hype surrounding both of them when they turned pro was that they could/would be historically great players.  They have both proven to be just that.  Both are widely considered among the top 5 players to ever play each of their respective sports.
Tiger’s catching Jack didn’t start at the onset of his career but only after he started racking up Majors at a ridiculous pace.  I don’t remember anyone saying Lebron would win more title than Jordan, but the comparisons started after Lebron started winning MVP’s and got his first couple of rings with Miami.  Then I started seeing charts comparing what Lebron had accomplished by a certain age compared to what Jordan had accomplished by the same age.
Both Tiger and Lebron have been everything they were portrayed to be, IMO.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I watched portions of the GS/NO game on Sunday while at a brewery, and I was struck that the modern NBA looks more like AAU ball than I ever thought. 

[TyphonInc]

It ain't over yet

It's over.

[ELA]

The CQF looked like they were going to be great, instead the prior round was a hell of a lot more fun.

[medinabuckeye1]

The CQF looked like they were going to be great, instead the prior round was a hell of a lot more fun.

It is kinda odd how that has worked out, at least in the East:

• #2 Boston needed seven games to escape the lowly #7 seed Milwaukee then cruised past #3 Philly, 4-1.  
• #4 Cleveland needed seven games to escape #5 Indiana then swept #1 Toronto.  

Ironically, the other two first round series were less competitive with #1 Toronto beating #8 Washington 4-2 and #3 Philly beating #6 Miami 4-1.  

In the West the two two seeds each won both of their first two playoff series 4-1:

• #1 Houston beat #8 Minnesota and then #5 Utah, both 4-1.  
• #2 Golden State beat #7 San Antonio then #6 NOLA, both 4-1.  

There really hasn't been any excitement in the West so far because the other two quarter-final series were a #6 NOLA sweep of Portland and a #5 Utah 4-2 win over #4 OKC.  

Cleveland/Boston and Houston/Golden State should provide more drama if for no other reason than that the two lower seeds are both favored at this point.  

[ELA]

Yeah, but at least the 3-6 and 4-5 series in the West involved the lower seed winning.  I'd argue 5 of the 8 CQF series we're interesting

[bayareabadger]

I watched portions of the GS/NO game on Sunday while at a brewery, and I was struck that the modern NBA looks more like AAU ball than I ever thought.

How do you mean?

[medinabuckeye1]

Yeah, but at least the 3-6 and 4-5 series in the West involved the lower seed winning.  I'd argue 5 of the 8 CQF series we're interesting

That is technically correct, but I think it is a bit misleading because the #5 and #6 had the exact same record as the #4 and only one gmae behind the #3 so even though they were lower seeded it wasn't like those were major upsets.  
In the west there was a logjam of seven teams all between 49-33 and 46-36 for the #3 through #8 seeds and the first team out.  
Those would have been much more surprising upsets if they had occurred in the East where the #5 seed was two games behind the #4 and the #6 was fully eight games behind the #3.  In the West, IMHO, #3 through #9 were effectively interchangeable.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

How do you mean?

Players just barreling towards the hoop with reckless abandon. Players playing "fast" rather than "sound". Players just trying to create rather than actually running offensive sets. Players playing sloppy in their driving and their passing. Players jacking up ridiculous off-balance shots that bounce off the backboard without even hitting rim creating easy DRBs. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Yeah, the West is always much better than the East. 
I am surprised (yet glad) that the NBA Playoffs have avoided installing a crossover rule. 

[bayareabadger]

Players just barreling towards the hoop with reckless abandon. Players playing "fast" rather than "sound". Players just trying to create rather than actually running offensive sets. Players playing sloppy in their driving and their passing. Players jacking up ridiculous off-balance shots that bounce off the backboard without even hitting rim creating easy DRBs.

It's interesting how differently we can see things. 
There's a lot of reckless abandon/speed over fundamentals/sloppiness, but the turnovers are better than the majority of college games. I know Kerr is a pretty big sets guy, and imagine Gentry is as well, though they're faster and have to be tighter than more simple and repetitive college offenses. I'd be interested to see how many ridiculous shots came just from the three outlier players: Thompson, Curry, Durant. I can't speak to the link between off-balance shots and easy defensive boards. Were there a ton of shots that didn't hit the rim? That seems like a stretch. 
What I can say is that the aesthetics of the NBA are likely not any worse than they've been. It's a sport that went from frenetic sloppiness through the 80s to the iso-ball of the 90s. The sport is at a pretty high level at the moment, granted, flowing basketball might not be to one's taste at the moment as compared to some of the more drawn-out, occasionally mechanical schemes college can provide. (There's also the possibility we see what we want to. The way people saw NBA players as "not playing defense," when in truth, the level of defense even bad NBA players could play was absurdly better than most in college)

[TyphonInc]

ummm.... Yuck.

[TyphonInc]

Cavs down 0-2, really bad 3rd quarter did them in.