They gameplanned without him this time. It wasn’t an emergency oh-shit-get-in-there-now-and-take-his-place thing. It’s a legit question.

I’m kind of wondering if that’s the takeaway here. At the same time though, it’s not like the Celtics played well without IT in the second half of Game Two. I think it’s probably more to do with Lebron not showing up.

Turns out 5 full sized basketball players is better than 4. Crazy!

It was Trump. When he touched the orb he undid the wizard’s spell, robbing Lebron of his powers. The ancient prophecy was true!

I haven’t watched ESPN in seven years, but I will never not like Kenny Mayne.

It certainly looks like he has all these dudes shook.

I think the turnover for teams in the east has been considerably higher than the west because every team has basically been forced to confront that their current roster cannot beat Final Boss LeBron. The few teams with any continuity like the Raptors and Hawks all had years where they could conceivably have stolen a…

True! But that goes to show you how lean the last 8 or so years have been. It’s both an indictment of the East as a whole and proof of LeBron’s ridiculousness.

Question:

He’s played at anywhere between 255 and 285. Any of those numbers would be a challenge for Smart.

Deadspin’s basketball coverage is a mix of multiple voices with multiple viewpoints, but I find it amusing to average them out, unfairly, into a single voice and boil down its principles:

Not true. The Cavs haven’t played in a long time so they need to get in some scrimmages before they face the Warriors.

Great moments in lying to yourself:

The NBA World is a better place when Boston teams are getting wrecked.

You seem confused about literally everything.

and turned the entire second half into a soggy exhibition.

CARMELO > LEBRON

This is the problem when your best player is (a generous) 5'9'’. Seems like they will be better of trading Thomas and drafting Fultz. Cause this ain’t good enough to get out of the East.

I don’t have a dog in this fight as a Bulls fan (pauses for laughter...) but I would not be very excited about the prospect of drafting Lonzo Ball at #2 and his permanent eye roll of a dad is only one of those reasons. A janky shot that he has to wind up from his waist doesn’t help. The #2 pick from the last several…

I had almost completely forgotten the Kobe-Nash-Howard-Gasol “Super Team” that never was. Watching how long it took the sports media to just accept that the team actually sucked was fun.