Lebron has never lost in the First Round of the playoffs

[LakersReign]

Ether, that stuff will make your heart burn slow.


Will people finally stop acting like those Cavs teams were under dogs? When the truth is that they were the overwhelming favorites 2 years in a row.

The only people dumb enough to say stupid sh*t like that are the FAKE Cavs fans, who are now FAKE Heat fans, trying to make themselves feel better for jumping the bandwagon the minute Lebron left Cleveland

[Ne 1]

And how its laughable to play bad teams in the first round is beyond me. Everyone does know that you get to play bad teams by having a great record right? What....its more impressive to lose more to play a higher seed in the first round?

Basically because since the early 00s the Eastern Conference has pretty much been regarded as the JV league of the NBA while the Western Conference as Varsity.

The 42, 41 and 43 win 2006-2008 Wizards teams wouldn't have even made the playoffs in the West back then. The 39 win 2009 Pistons and even the 47 win Hawks who they played in the second round both wouldn't have made the playoffs out West. The 2010 Bulls wouldn't have made the playoffs in the West either, they would have been the 10th seed in fact as would the 2011 Sixers. Last year was a lock out season so that has an asterisk in the NBA record books.

That dosen't take anything away from LeBron as a player obviously, but it is reality though.

[Kblaze8855]

As I asked....what does he do? Not lead every team for years to an elite record so he plays a good team in the first round?

[Kblaze8855]

Will people finally stop acting like those Cavs teams were under dogs? When the truth is that they were the overwhelming favorites 2 years in a row.

Winning a lot due to one players absurd impact on the outcome of games doesnt make a team talented.

And being favored due to the record does not mean you are supposed to win when as many as 5 of the 6 best players on the floor are on the other team.

Hall of fame players have missed the playoffs with teams more talented than Lebron led to 60 wins.

As a Bulls fan...I wouldnt trade Deng and Noah for the entire 2009 Cavs team Lebron aside. There was nothing special about that team aside from its best player.

[Ne 1]

As I asked....what does he do? Not lead every team for years to an elite record so he plays a good team in the first round?

Uh, that's not what I'm saying at all. Nice strawman though. What I'm saying and the point I think what most people are saying is that the fact that LeBron has never lost in the first round isn't any accomplishment, it isn't even it isn't even anything noteworthy.

[longtime lurker]

LMAO
/end thread

[Kblaze8855]

When the only way to be noteworthy is to play worse and lose more.....noteworthy isnt much of a goal.

Never losing in the first round is impressive no matter what...even if all it says is you dont lead teams to bad records.

[Ne 1]

Those Cavs team were actually great for playing to LeBron's strengths and playing style. They were probably missing maybe one more player from being a real title lock.

Also, if you still think the Cavs' success was solely because of LeBron, why couldn't he even make the playoffs without Mike Brown as coach?

2005: Cavs go 42-40, miss playoffs
2006: Cavs hire Mike Brown, go 50-32 and take Detroit to 7 games in the second round


Also, Cleveland managed to win 50 games and make the Finals in 2007 with LeBron posting inferior overall stats compared to his last season without Mike Brown coaching.

Lebron James in '05: 27.2 points per game, 47.2% field goal percentage, 75% free throw percentage, 35.1% three-point percentage, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

Lebron James in '07: 27.3 points per game, 47.6% field goal percentage,. 69.8% free throw percentage, 31.9% 3-point percentage 6.7 rebounds per game, 6 assists per game, 1.6 steals per game.

For all the times I've heard people disparage Mike Brown, it's hard to ignore the turnaround Cleveland had when he took over. They went from missing the playoffs for consecutive seasons with LeBron, and then nearly making it to the Eastern Conference Finals the very next season with no major additions other than Larry Hughes who only played in 36 games.

Now I don't think the Cavs were a particularly loaded team by any stretch of the imagination, but the amount of abuse hurled towards Cleveland over the past year by LeBron supporters (who were all cheering for Cleveland when he played for them) has been ridiculous.

[Kblaze8855]

Mike Brown is the reason that the record they missed the playoffs with before him would have put them in the 5th seed the next season?

[longtime lurker]

When the only way to be noteworthy is to play worse and lose more.....noteworthy isnt much of a goal.

Never losing in the first round is impressive no matter what...even if all it says is you dont lead teams to bad records.

Not really it's all relative. Huge difference between routinely beating the Washington Wizards in the East as a 1 seed and facing a tougher matchups in the West as 3 or 4 seed. This thread just screams dickriding status because bringing up Lebron's finals still leaves him open to criticism. I hardly hear Tim Duncan fans talking about him never missing the playoffs as some kind of big deal.

[Mach_3]

06-wizards
07-wizards
08-wizards
09-pistons
10-bulls
11-sixers
12-Knicks

Looool like that's something to proud of when facing those shitty teams

This, it's impressive he's never lost in the first round but...he's played terrible/bad teams almost each time.

[RaininTwos]

smh@ these idiots

Ne1 conveniently forgets the fact that Lebron missed the playoffs his second year due to losing a tie-breaker to the New Jersey Nets.

[Kblaze8855]

Never losing inthe first round when you make the playoffs on a regular basis means one of two things....


You always have a good record so you beat the low seeds served up to you...or you lead middling teams that manage to beat other teams in the 3-6 range yearly.

Either way its impressive. Its more impressive to beat the 3-6 range teams but its a less impressive level of basketball that forces you to play them.

[Kblaze8855]

If yo dont find that greatness being the reason you play bad teams in the first place is relevant to the statement that beating them isnt impressive we just have different ideas about what a player should be setting out to do.

I'll leave it at that and go get lunch.

[Ne 1]

When the only way to be noteworthy is to play worse and lose more.....noteworthy isnt much of a goal.

Again, this is besides the point. Irrelevant conclusion.

Never losing in the first round is impressive no matter what

Not really, it's just arbitrary and cherry picking really. Nobody gets a medal for leading their team past the 1st round of the playoffs and definitely not when it's against JV league competition especially a player of LeBron's caliber it simply isn't noteworthy or even worth mentioning at all that he "didn't lead his team to a bad record". This is just moving the goalposts.