NBA Playoffs 2012

padraig_f

vs. vs.

vs. vs.

vs. vs.

vs. vs. LA Clippers

slick89

How does everyone think its going to go in East 1st round?

For me:

Bulls in 4/5
Heat in 6
Pacers in 4
Celtics in 7

Lafortezza

East
Bulls in 4/5
Heat in 5
Pacers in 5
Celtics in 6

West
Spurs in 4
Thunder in 5
Lakers in 6
MEM vs LAC, dunno about this one, I hope the Grizzlies win, but it''l be a 6 or 7 game series.

Paully D

Decent stream here for Bulls V Philly:

http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/121533/1/watch-chicago-bulls-vs-philadelphia-76ers.html

padraig_f

If the Bulls are healthy, I think the should take care of the 76ers in 4 or 5 games, so I'm mainly hoping they stay healthy for the series. The 76ers to me are like the Bulls without Derrick Rose, well coached, defensively very well organised and disciplined, but they lack an elite scorer. The Bulls should be able to match them defensively, and have the edge on them in scoring.

Borisss

Am I the only one that finds Chicago a very boring team to watch?

Paully D

NOAH!

padraig_f

- Good start, Rose looking a bit rusty early on, but Rip playing well.
- The 76ers' second unit is really good, looks nearly as good as their starting unit.
- The 76ers looking to get out and run a lot, so they don't have to play the Bulls' half-court defense, but Bulls' transition defense is pretty good as well.

Paully D

Oh **** D Rose's injury better not to too serious.

Oat23

I f**king hate Thibs right now.

All season I've been bitching about him leaving players in the game when the game is over. Now look what happens!

padraig_f

Disaster. The injury looked really bad. Always an element of bad luck with injuries but I was thinking a minute or two before 'why is Rose still in there?', the game was won, up 14 points with under 3 mins to go. He's played very little in the last 6 weeks & players are more vulnerable returning from injury.

Borisss

Flagrant?

GTFO.

Borisss

Flops aside, Lebron is beasting.

Heat are intense. Trolling the last few weeks of the regular season it would appear.

Unsurprising.

Paully D

LeBron:

killwill

Stuck in work so links for games would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Paully D

Rose is done for the season. Torn ACL.

Absolutely devastated

Oat23

I feel sick. Could have easily been avoided too.

Ugh

slick89

Gutted. Just gutted.

killwill

Torn ACL? Lousy.
Not a Bulls fan but was looking forward to seeing him shine in the playoffs.
You cannot blame the coach for the injury but at the same time, he should have been benched by then


Turkoglu for the Magic is spending more time fixing his face mask than concentrating on his game.
Missed layups, poor secondary help on D.
Very frustrating.

RMDrive

Sad to see Rose out. Dunno what all this rubbish about it being prevented is about though. He just elevated for a shot and it went. It was obviously going to go anway.

Enjoying my Pacers getting things started against the Magic

killwill

RMDrive wrote: »

Sad to see Rose out. Dunno what all this rubbish about it being prevented is about though. He just elevated for a shot and it went. It was obviously going to go anway.

Enjoying my Pacers getting things started against the Magic

The point is the Bulls had the game wrapped up. He should have been on the bench.
Look at the Knicks v Heat game. Lebron, Wade, Bosh all sitting out the last 5mins.

Anyways, Orlando are keeping it close after the first quarter, 21-22 to Pacers.
How long will it take the Pacers to pull away?

RMDrive

killwill wrote: »

The point is the Bulls had the game wrapped up. He should have been on the bench.
Look at the Knicks v Heat game. Lebron, Wade, Bosh all sitting out the last 5mins.

Anyways, Orlando are keeping it close after the first quarter, 21-22 to Pacers.
How long will it take the Pacers to pull away?

What I'm getting at is that whether it happened at that point or in the first quarter of the next game was irrevelant. His knee was obviously weak. There was little or no twisting involved in the injury - he just planted and elevated. Shame to see - great players and a good guy.

Pacers letting the Magic hang around. Pacers bench have been poor for the last few games andn the same again so far. Would hope they can enter the 4th with the job done.

Borisss

RMDrive wrote: »

What I'm getting at is that whether it happened at that point or in the first quarter of the next game was irrevelant. His knee was obviously weak. There was little or no twisting involved in the injury - he just planted and elevated.

Indeed.

No f**k you Thibs etc is needed.

killwill

Borisss wrote: »

Indeed.

No f**k you Thibs etc is needed.

I just said he should have been rested come the end of the game as it was already won. What is that statement about?

Anyways back on topic, huge, huge win for Orlando on the road. Jameer Nelson having a good game.
Now for Dallas V OKC. I think Westwood and Durant will have too much for Dallas in this one.

RMDrive

Well that was horrible from the Pacers. Granger in particular was terrible down the stretch. It's certainly a series now.

killwill

RMDrive wrote: »

Well that was horrible from the Pacers. Granger in particular was terrible down the stretch. It's certainly a series now.

Yeah it just makes it alittle more interesting but you still have to fancy the Pacers for the series.

killwill

What a finish to the Dallas V OKC game.
Fricking love this time of the season!!!

Da GOAT

Thibs mentioned why he wanted Rose still out there. Rose needed the practice time anyway.

Good enough news for my Celtics though. Hopefully now get to the conference finals vs the heat now.

Paully D

The thing I'm hoping happens now is other sides start to underestimate the Bulls without D Rose. That would be a very dangerous thing to do.

CJ Watson is a baller and the Bulls full roster is better than any other in the NBA and a starting lineup of Watson, Rip, Deng, Boozer and Noah is still excellent, especially with Rip's record in the playoffs. Personally I think we'll have enough to dispatch of the 76ers and we're a deeper team than either ATL or the Celtics. The season is not over yet. Believe!

On a related note, nothing sums up the difference between LeBron and Wade more than their reaction to D Rose's injury:

LeBron: “It’s unfortunate that injuries happened for him and that team. But I’m worried about the Knicks. I’m not worried about the Bulls.”

Dwyane Wade: "It's very unfortunate. When I heard about it during the game I actually said a prayer for him and his family. You never want to see anyone get injured, especially a player of his caliber. Very unfortunate. D-Rose will do his best to rehab and get back to being D-Rose."

Borisss

Completely agree.

Its Lebron's focus and drive that make him the standout best player in the League.

He's also right to not worry about Chicago, I wouldn't worry about the Bulls either.

/trollface

killwill

Borisss wrote: »

Completely agree.

Its Lebron's focus and drive that make him the standout best player in the League.

He's also right to not worry about Chicago, I wouldn't worry about the Bulls either.

/trollface

Yeah, Lebron is 100% focused on the job in hand. That showed last night hitting 32pts against the Knicks.
Obviously the Bulls are still one of the favourites but you can only be concerned about what is rght infront of you, not what is around the corner.

Paully D

You can be a great player and not a first class wanker at the same time.

Maybe LeBron will actually show up when it really matters this time given that he's so focused :rolleyes:

Borisss

First class wanker?! Really? For not giving much of a toss about DRose's knee while his team battle for a Championship? I mean..really?

Bulls fans still butthurt about 'the decision'?

killwill

I didn't see the interview but in his quote he said it was unfortunate but he is concentrating on the Knicks. I don't see that being first class wan&*r tbh.
I will go and look at the interview though and it is hard for me to judge with just a quote.




Atlanta V Boston, is this on at midnight our time???

Oat23

buyer95

Paully D wrote: »

The thing I'm hoping happens now is other sides start to underestimate the Bulls without D Rose. That would be a very dangerous thing to do.

CJ Watson is a baller and the Bulls full roster is better than any other in the NBA and a starting lineup of Watson, Rip, Deng, Boozer and Noah is still excellent, especially with Rip's record in the playoffs. Personally I think we'll have enough to dispatch of the 76ers and we're a deeper team than either ATL or the Celtics. The season is not over yet. Believe!

On a related note, nothing sums up the difference between LeBron and Wade more than their reaction to D Rose's injury:

LeBron: “It’s unfortunate that injuries happened for him and that team. But I’m worried about the Knicks. I’m not worried about the Bulls.”

Dwyane Wade: "It's very unfortunate. When I heard about it during the game I actually said a prayer for him and his family. You never want to see anyone get injured, especially a player of his caliber. Very unfortunate. D-Rose will do his best to rehab and get back to being D-Rose."

Your kidding yourself if you think the bulls can compete with Lebron and Wade without Rose. The Bulls are going home before the finals for sure, I think they will take the sixers but will crash out in the second round, and definitely will not be coming out of the east. There is a difference between, winning without rose against mediocre opposition, and winning without him against similar or better opposition in the playoffs. This years is the heat's to lose, I think it all shapes up for a heat okc finals

Carcharodon

Fell asleep watching the Clippers game and didn't even check the score when I woke up, just presumed Memphis wrapped it up, they really threw that game away.

Rondo given 1 game suspension, pretty fair, you can never touch a ref, big no no.

Come on NY now, Anthony needs to bring his A game.

buyer95

Carcharodon wrote: »

Fell asleep watching the Clippers game and didn't even check the score when I woke up, just presumed Memphis wrapped it up, they really threw that game away.

Rondo given 1 game suspension, pretty fair, you can never touch a ref, big no no.

Come on NY now, Anthony needs to bring his A game.

15 points for anthony after the 1st quarter!

Carcharodon

buyer95 wrote: »

15 points for anthony after the 1st quarter!

Yea, he is playing pretty well but NY don't seem to have an answer for LeBron, NY are just about hanging in there, Miami are threatening to pull away.

Carcharodon

NY might bring the series back to Miami but really can't see them causing an upset overall especially now Amare is out, some idiot !
I hope indiana beat Orlando, I think they are a much better team.

Ock v Dallas is turning out to be a great series, Dallas have been unlucky but not sure what else they can throw at the Thunder.

SoulGuy

The one thing that I think might just be a bit of a disadvantage for the Heat is an easy path to the finals (I know this is a bit of an oxymoron here...). They should walk into the Finals, but they might do so without having to "dig deep" at any point. Considering how much LeBron shrinks when things don't come easy, that might be bad preparation for the Finals.

leggo

I'm very disappointed with the Knicks, they don't seem to have brought any kind of fight to the series and when Lebron comes alive he's decimating them. Then when he quietens down they just seem deflated and beaten. Can see this being 4-0.

I'm sad Magic couldn't get the W last night. Taking a 2-0 lead to Orlando would've really been a confidence boost. But Indiana are a good team so, if we do lose to them, I'm okay with that. With the mess our season turned into, we don't deserve to do well in the play-offs. Still, massively impressed by Big Baby.

Loving Mavs/OKC too. Be a shame if this finishes 4-0, I'd love to see them go the distance as they never seem to have a dull game.

padraig_f

So sick about Derrick Rose. I was in shock for a day or two so I'm not sure what effect it has on the team, at least they had a couple of days off to adjust to it, and they've had enough practice playing without him this season.

I think they can get back to the conference finals, where they'll be underdogs, but watching the Heat last night, they still look beatable to me. The Knicks looked pretty bad on their defensive rotations, leaving the 3-point shooters wide open, Chalmers/Miller/Battier were a combined 8-15 from 3, they won't get such easy looks against the Bulls.

I thought this was the year for Carmelo to deliver in the playoffs, first year with a team, you get a bit of a pass, 2nd you have to deliver. He's been a combined 15-41 (36%) from the field in the two games against Miami, pretty shocking, and has a total of 4 assists. If he can't shoot at an efficient rate, he should be drawing double teams and kicking it out to their 3-point shooters. Lebron's a more efficient scorer, but has 12 assists over the two games.

Someone suggested Stoudemire punching the fire extinguisher was a reaction to the number of shots he got, and it's a plausible theory, he only got 9 shots last night to Carmelo's 26, and shot them at a much higher efficiency (6-9).

Paully D

buyer95 wrote: »

Your kidding yourself if you think the bulls can compete with Lebron and Wade without Rose. The Bulls are going home before the finals for sure, I think they will take the sixers but will crash out in the second round, and definitely will not be coming out of the east. There is a difference between, winning without rose against mediocre opposition, and winning without him against similar or better opposition in the playoffs. This years is the heat's to lose, I think it all shapes up for a heat okc finals

Where did I say we could? All I said was that I think we can still get to the east finals and for that reason the season's not over yet.

For the record, I wouldn't expect us to beat them without D Rose over a series but we certainly can compete (if we get there). The Bulls have actually beaten Miami without Rose this season and beat them a second time when Rose scored 2 points. They're beatable.

GoldFour4

Wow Amare is such a dumbass. Hurting his own hand like that. Didn't believe it when I read it at first. Hes fallen right outta sync in New York. Should never have left Phoenix in my opinion. He was made for that team with Steve Nash running pick and rolls with him all day.

padraig_f

buyer95 wrote: »

Your kidding yourself if you think the bulls can compete with Lebron and Wade without Rose.

I think they can, for a few reasons:
- The defense, best in the league, is just as good without Rose
- Rebounding. If the Knicks have outrebounded the Heat in both playoff games, the Bulls will have a real advantage there.
- Rip Hamilton is now healthy, which he hasn't been for much of the season, so can contribute to the scoring. He's averaged 20ppg in his playoff career.
- Still have home court advantage

There is a difference between, winning without rose against mediocre opposition, and winning without him against similar or better opposition in the playoffs.

I accept playoffs are different, but here's a stat: the Bulls have beaten every playoff team in the East this season without Rose playing (except the Pacers, but this is because they never played the Pacers with Rose out).

Are they underdogs? Yes. And they probably need to get hot from 3 in a couple of games to win, but it's possible.

Legwinski

Oat23

Aha Shake wrote: »

padraig_f

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc-ENGAsbLY

killwill

padraig_f wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc-ENGAsbLY

Torn ACL and achilles. Are they the two most come long term basketball injuries?
3 lads I play ball with have each torn their ACLs and one mate did both his left and right Achilles (in different seasons).
You could tell immediately with Rose his ACL was gone with the jerk of his knee on impact. Makes me cringe everytime I see it.

Carcharodon

Pretty shocking defense by the Bulls tonight in the second half, dunks and ally oops galore in the second half, they seemed to drop their heads and when they couldn't get anything going offensively they seemed to let it effect their defensive effort. Didn't protect the basket at all and was way too easy for the sixers to run all over them.