Bogut is out. He does have small minutes, but he sets up the defensive tone early on for the Warriors. Even with Ezeli, expect more of drive and slam from the Cavs early on (forced pun hehe).
Bogut's absence has brought in more picks for Ezeli. I looked at games this year when Bogut is out, and found that Ezeli is not an automatic replacement. He still serves as relief backup and may continue to do so. Despite his eagerness shown in interviews, I am not convinced (yet) that he can make an impact for Game 6.
Green is back. Warriors will go small more now, and I think that makes them better, and negates Love's presence on the court. But who's betting here Green will get another flagrant foul and miss Game 7?
Me, because the Cavs are winning Game 6. I know Cuban will earn more with his "City of Champions" trademark, but it's time to repay Cavs Nation for 2011...
Mavs for Cavs!
UPDATE: I have lined up Iman Shumpert for Game 6 playing at home, but with him being all-defense and un-measured contributions on the court, I am not sure if we'll ever see decent PRABS from him.
Frye and Dellavedova are the two other Cavs fillers that can have big points potential. It's just they have not shown that yet these Finals.
Hmm...
The heck.. I'll go with Leandro Barbosa. Tried and tested ;)
Good luck with your picks.
UPDATE 2: Change of heart. Change of pick. This guy got more minutes when Bogut went down in Game 5. He was 0/6, but that just tells you he's not afraid to shoot it.
Marreese Speights, let's go!
This time I will do pick Kevin Love. Let's see the second part of my strategy, if he will play a good game. He usually does at home. At least I guess he will do better than he did in game 5. Even if Cavs win, I don't trust Love for game 7, so I hope he will make some shots today.
ReplyDeleteI also think Warriors must close their defense, protect the paint without Bogut, and it would let the Cavs better looks from outside, they will need Love and JR to step up to win
I'll tally up Game 5's PRABS after Game 6.
ReplyDeleteHope this goes 7 games.
I'm betting on the CAV's to pull it out tonight. Though if the DUBS win I want to say a few words in parting.
ReplyDelete...
First off
..........Outstanding job Taong.
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I know things were choppy to start the contest off with the site but thank you for hanging in there and making all the fixes as contest went along.
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I know things will be a lot better next year.
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When NBA.com came out with this contest I fell in love with it. When they discontinued it I was heartbroken.
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I want to thank you personally for keeping it alive for those of us who love it. Major props to you and all the hard work you have put into it.
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Thank you and I look forward to next year my friend.
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P.S.
I would also like to thank all of the guy's that donate their time in writing up all their articles. I love reading every ones takes and strategies.
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I just wanted to get my thank you's in in case it all ends tonight.....
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Again, thank you Taong... I absolutely love this contest..
Very well said Topknox! All the thanks to Taong and all the contributors :)
Delete-37 rebounds
+1 !!
ReplyDelete(huskys from France)
Well, in the matchup between David and Goliath that occurred in Google Drive to the Finals, Goliath won. A whopping 64 PRA from LeBron James compared to a solid 14 PRA from Shaun Livingston, and now I've got a 61 PRA lead with only scrubs remaining for everyone. Should be safe, but you never know. Tonight, I'm picking my best remaining player, Richard Jefferson, and just seeing what happens. I expect I will soon be celebrating a championship simultaneously with the Warriors!
ReplyDeleteIn Drive & Slam, Bogut had foul trouble and got hurt, and I only ended up with 3. Seems like a disaster, but Love was even worse in a way as he only got 6. I'm picking Love tonight. He can't do any worse, can he?
Kyrie Irving (50 PRA) and LeBron James (64 PRA) were phenomenal in crushing the Golden State Warriors on the Warriors' home court to shock many including me. After Cleveland carelessly lost Game #4 at home by a decent amount, all hope looked lost for the Cavaliers. However they really stepped up in Game #5, and along with Draymond Green being suspended for the game, Cleveland bought themselves at least one more chance to win at home and force a series deciding Game #7. Did Cleveland win Game #5 because of the monstrous efforts by both Kryie Irving and LeBron James, or was it that Golden State lost one of their Big 3 for the game? Probably it was a combination of both, but we will see tonight if the momentum of that win by Cleveland carries on to further success.
ReplyDeleteFrom Game #5 the best scores were obviously Kyrie Irving (50 PRA) and LeBron James (64 PRA) of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tristan Thompson also added 21 PRA.
From the losing Golden State Warriors, Klay Thompson (41 PRA) and Andre Iguodala (32 PRA) both came up big, and Stephen Curry had 36 PRA). Shaun Livingston (14 PRA) did okay, but the rest of the Warriors squad did next to nothing including Harrison Barnes (11 PRA) who really regressed from a couple of very decent games. Kevin Love was a nightmare (6 PRA) for the Cavaliers, and can't be trusted at this point.
Having LeBron James for his monstrous 64 PRA was absolutely awesome for Game #5. Now hopefully he doesn't do much better than that in Game #6 and/or possibly Game #7. Going forward from this point on, the choices for me are quite easy to make: Kyrie Irving for Game #6 in Cleveland and Stephen Curry for Game #7 at Golden State if we get that far.
Kyrie Irving has been nothing short of phenomenal in his last three game stretch after a hideous Game #2 vanishing act. Irving has put up 50 PRA, 42 PRA, and 42 PRA efforts in his last 3 games. Hopefully I can get one of those great efforts from Kyrie Irving tonight and stay away from the 14 PRA clunker like he put up in Game #2 on the road in Golden State.
Reminder to self: stop changing picks!
ReplyDeleteDarn Dubs went small ball all throughout
DeleteSpeights thanks garbage time
DeleteYou never know, your first pick was Shumpert, right? Finally even changing to Speights was better lol
DeleteIt's not every day that a 12 gives people blue! That says everything about the available pool! Looks like Love actually won at something afterall!
ReplyDeleteMust have felt good when Speights drained these 2 Threes at the end :D
ReplyDeleteYeah lol! Relief. I was at a pub at the time, having my lunch break. Couldn't muster to pump my fist and yell "SWISH!" coz it was garbage time and the other patrons were all packing up to get back to work. But deep inside I was "HELL YEAH!"
DeleteHi there, I am back again from a week in France watching 7 games at the EURO 2016. Did I miss anything here?
ReplyDeleteOh, I see, there will be a g7 on sunday. Hmm... not what I expected, but still.
Funny thing though, I didn´t get any news in France about this until my buddy mentioned the Cavs winning what I thought was g5. After a little search I found out that the Cavs indeed won g5 but lost g4 before that so it was still looking good for the Dubs. Even if there is a g7, it will be played in Oracle Arena, so I am pretty sure they will finish it.
Going the distance in the final two series is not that great a finish for the 73 win-team, but if they DO win that final game, then all will be validated.
In the meantime, the picks. What did I write back before I went on hiatus? I think I was pretty clear ;)
Quote:
"Okay, Taong, I have to ask. Is it possible to make back-up picks?
My picks right now:
g4: Love
g5: Livingston
g6: Jefferson
IF Love does not play in g4:
g4: Jefferson
When Cavs win g4, then:
g5: Livingston
g6: Love
When Cavs lose g4, then:
g5: Love
When Cavs lose g4 and Love still can´t play, then:
g5: Livingston"
The thing is, Love played in g4, even though he didn´t start. So the picks should/could be what I first had picked: g4 Love, then g5 Livingston, then g6 Jefferson.
I say that because I saw I have Jefferson in g4 in my picks.
For g7 I changed my pick from Dirk Nowitzki to Leandro Barbosa. I would have kept Nowitzki out of spite if not for two little things:
1) I already picked Dirk on 04/18
2) I just learned that Dirk is in France right now. He was in Toulouse at the game Sweden - Italy, cheering for his brother-in-law (?) who plays for the swedish national team
By the way, Taong, I also want to thank you for the game. Last year, I finally had a buddy joining the game so I had someone to compete against (naturally, with all my experience in the game, I lost to him :D ). We were both pretty disappointed when nba.com discontinued the game.
Therefore I am extremely grateful to you for bringing the game back. Yes, the original game was easier to handle and all that, but I can´t thank you enough for your work putting it together again.
Thank you, Taong. Great job. Especially as you took one for the team, your own picking slightly suffered, I am afraid to say. I am not only looking forward to g7 on sunday, but also to next DTTF season.
With the series going the distance, I don't have to worry about any possible cell deletion and will pick my final two fun picks that I will hope to give me a boost back into contention!
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one taking Mo Williams n G7? lol
ReplyDelete