He was hurt in Game 1
He was hurt in Game 2
He was hurt in Game 3
He was hurt in Game 4
He didn't play in Game 5 (because of what happened in Game 4)
He was hurt in Game 6
"If you're going to say he was "hurt" in Game 3 you might as well say he was hurt all throughout the playoffs."
No one has ever disputed that Tony Allen had lingering hamstring issues the whole series. But he still HURT his hamstring midway through Game 3. It doesn't matter that it was already hurt, in Game 3 it got hurt worse than before, and that affected him going into Game 4. ESPN and Tony Allen's own words have already verified that.
"When you bring up a player actually getting hurt that has a lingering injury, it's usually in reference to them coming out of the game and staying out - that only happened in G4 of that series."
Where do you make up these rules?
Why doesn't ESPN follow your rules, when THEY said that Tony Allen hurt his hamstring in Game 3.
Why did Tony Allen tell ESPN that his hamstring was a "growing" concern before Game 4 if it wasn't worse than before?
Did Gronk not get hurt on Sunday because he stayed in the game after his lung got punctured?
Or is this only the special and very specific unwritten "lingering injury" rules that you and the other voices agreed on in your head?
And FWIW, after Allen reaggravated that injury he went out with 6min left in the 3rd quarter and sat for 8 minutes of game time extending into the 4th. In the previous game, his 3rd-quarter break was only 3 minutes and he played the entire 4th. After playing 38 and 39 minutes in Games 1 and 2, he only played 33 minutes in Game 3 (due to that extended time sitting in the 3rd/4th), went into Game 4 saying that he had reaggravated the injury and that his hamstring was a growing concern, played 12 limited minutes in Game 4 before re-aggravating it again, sat Game 5, and could only play 5 minutes in Game 6.
After playing 110 minutes in Games 1-3, Tony Allen only played 18 minutes in Games 4-6.
CLEARLY he was doing worse in Games 4-6 than he had been in Games 1-3. And that was the whole point of the argument.
I said that Conley and Allen's injuries hurt Memphis's chances in that series. Memphis won the two games when both players were the closest they were to healthy. If they had been fully healthy the entire series, they might have had a chance.
The fact that not only you deny this, but that the lynchpin of your denial is "Tony Allen didn't get hurt in Game 3 even though ESPN says that he did!" is one of the best examples I've seen of you not being able to back down on any argument, ever.
Tony Allen did get hurt in Game 3. You were wrong.
i) Durant wanted Horford in OKC - clearly his first option was to stay - the most probable outcome like I said
And all I had said was that unless something big happened, Durant probably was leaving for a contender. Obviously a major free agent signing would have been big.
But you came onto a thread where you hadn't even been involved and mocked me for saying that Durant was probably leaving to a contender, then you chased me down and mocked me after OKC beat SAS solely because you assumed that made it certain that Durant wouldn't leave, and then you refused to admit that you were wrong when Durant did leave.
The fact that Durant left EVEN THOUGH OKC WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT SAS shows exactly how probable his leaving was.
Durant did leave for a contender. You mocked me repeatedly for saying that that's what I thought he would do. You were wrong.
ii) I NEVER said Kyrie wouldn't hurt himself, just that it was the best option given the circumstances. Kyrie was still going to re-aggravate his injury no matter what because there wasn't enough time in the postseason to get the appropriate rest.
If a player's leg is a "ticking time bomb", as you called it, then wouldn't the best option be to sit his ass down until you need him, so that the time bomb doesn't keep ticking? Playing him before you absolutely need him just uses up the available minutes he has to give you before he inevitably gets hurt again.
In any other circumstance where you weren't trying to defend yourself, you'd automatically realize the validity of that point.
The Cavs didn't need Kyrie yet against the Hawks. You thought they did. You were wrong.
You CLAIMED that the reason he needed to keep playing after Game 1 of the Atlanta series was that he
had to find his rhythm. Well, obviously he didn't, because he played just fine in Game 1 against the Warriors without taking that extra playing time to "find his rhythm".
I said during Game 6 of the Chicago series that they needed to sit his ass down and rest the injury until he could contribute better and the Cavs absolutely needed him. Instead, he rehurt the injury in Game 6, rested a few days and saw it improve, then rehurt it against in Game 1 against the Hawks, rested a few days and saw it improve, then rehurt it permanently when he got over 40 minutes against the Warriors.
Re-aggravating the injury in Game 6 Chicago and Game 1 Atlanta almost certainly hurt his chances of making it through any significant amount of the Warriors series. Rest, when he got it, helped him, and more rest could have helped him more. You were wrong.
Obviously, trying to give Kyrie more playing time to "get in rhythm" was counterproductive. Obviously, rest helped the injury (though didn't fully heal it, as no one has ever claimed), but rest never meant that he was immune from re-injury. Every time he came back from rest he felt better, but every time he played he was only a certain # of minutes from injuring it again, so they should have sat his ass down until they absolutely needed him to win. Sitting the last part of Chicago and all of Atlanta, then giving him about 20 minutes/game against Golden State to take a little offensive load off Lebron and keep Delly from exhausting himself, would have given the Cavs the best chance to win a ring.
This is OBVIOUS now. And you can call it Monday Morning Quarterbacking....except that it's the same thing I was telling you long before the Finals even started.
Kyrie didn't need to play more against the Hawks to "get into rhythm". You were wrong.
iii) Curry wasn't the same after his injury and it was one of the reasons why the Warriors didn't go back-to-back
And I never once said that Curry's injury wouldn't affect the Warriors in the Finals. All I said was that we didn't yet know whether Curry's injury would keep them from winning a ring, but we knew for sure that Blake's/CP3's injuries would keep the Warriors from having to worry about any sort of meaningful opponent in the WCSF. I kept saying that they had caught a lucky break when CP3 got injured because it kept them from facing a dangerous Clippers team with Curry out, and that Curry's injury had not yet hurt them because they were only facing teams they could beat without him, and we didn't know what would happen later.
The second that Curry's injury began hurting them against OKC and the Cavs, I admitted that they were finally on the wrong side of the injury breaks. But that wasn't true in the WCSF - in the WCSF, Blake/CP3 being out mattered more than Curry being out, because the Warriors were still going to win without Curry as long as they didn't have to face the Clippers with CP3 and Blake.
The only point I made was that injuries had given the Warriors a consistent string of breaks from the 2015 WCSF to the 2016 WCSF. Every opponent that could threaten them (2015 Memphis, 2015 Cleveland) and every potential opponent that might have threatened them (2015 Thunder, 2015 Clippers, and 2016 Clippers) ended up facing injuries that either kept them from reaching the Warriors or destroyed their chances against them.
Golden State had gotten lucky on the injury bug in comparison to every meaningful opponent they faced or could have faced from the 2015 WCSF to the 2016 WCSF. I never said that Curry's injury wouldn't hurt them in later series, I said we had to wait and see. You were wrong.
Not only is this FACTUALLY untrue. You can't even remember all the arguments we've had. Never mind the fact the most "blindingly obvious" one [Paul's defense on Lillard] where you were completely wrong is staring at you right above.
I'm quite pleased that the most "blindingly obvious" example of me being wrong that you can come up with is my claim that CP3 defends Lillard well.
When I gave you receipts of Blazers commentators after Game 1 stating that
Lillard struggled against CP3,
and I linked breakdowns of
Blazer commentators explaining why Lillard typically struggles against CP3 defense and that
CP3 dominates Lillard head-to-head,
and that
CP3 was credited with
getting the job done as
the anchor of the defense that had limited Lillard to that point,
and Lillard proceeded to average 30ppg and 7apg the rest of the way in the playoffs after CP3 went out,
and Portland averaged 104ppg the rest of the series after only averaging 91ppg in the first three games with CP3 in,
and just last week CP3 held Lillard to a disgusting 1-10 for 8 points with 1 assist and 3 turnovers game,
and Lillard has only averaged 17 and 5 on 37% shooting with 4 turnovers/game against CP3 for his entire career....
I'm really impressed that "CP3 can't guard Lillard" is the "most blindingly obvious" example you can find of me being wrong.
Now, I'm not going to say that you don't have a point about the Clippers team defense being a factor. I've never said it wasn't. And if that's the most "blindingly obvious" example of me being wrong, then I am doing very, very well.
And I'm still not going to watch your video. What a waste of time!
ii) These are the conditions of the bet :
If the Warriors grab the #1 record in the league and Durant or Curry (or both) win MVP - you're banned until the start of the '17/'18 season
If the Cavs don't grab the #1 record in the league and LeBron wins MVP - I'm banned until the start of the '17'18 season
It's on!
Caveat I want to add - if the Warriors get the wins record, all bets are off. I said that they couldn't win MVP if the Warriors did worse than they did last year.
Also, if Curry or Durant or Lebron get seriously injured (say, miss 10+ games or are seriously limited due to injury), of course all bets are off.
And clarification - the ban from the Coliseum is effective the MOMENT the MVP award is officially announced. No trying to squirm your way through the end of the playoffs.
Watch you try to talk your way out of this one.
