A day late but here is a new thread for the new season!
What are everyone’s predictions?
Thread title changed for new season
Was it this year or last year that the refs let the players get more physical ? I remember it was good but there were a few sections complaining that it was too dangerous. I think we have gone back to the refs being too involved and calling every ticky tac foul and on top of that the flopping is ridiculous, I’ll admit a lot of Warriors players do it, super annoying, Curry kind of those but not really in my opinion, he falls down a lot after a shot but rarely complains, it seems to be part of his shot now to a certain extent, he doesn’t get a lot of calls if Iam honest but that’s fine, it is what it is
I see Game 6 Miami v Boston is scheduled for a 1:30AM Irish time tip off. 🙄 I really never get this from the NBA scheduling people. They seem to only ever consider West Coast US audiences for viewing numbers, ignoring Europe and the rest of the world. There's absolutely no reason this couldn't be scheduled for 3:30PM EST (8:30PM in Ireland). It's not like Americans aren't used to watch sport on Sundays - and football is not just a daytime viewing event, it's an all day (daytime) viewing event, so having it at 3:30 v 8:30 local time really makes sod all difference to them. Even if they pushed it out to 4PM EST (1PM West Coast) would it really be such an inconvenience?
I was going to post a slew of LeFlop videos but I decided against it.
That said, the one where Grayson Allen is called for a foul on LeBron is priceless, the look on Allen’s face says it all. It’s by no means his most ridiculous one, but it is funny.
😁
I love the haters videos.
I laughed my ass off watching this.
https://youtu.be/_NQthathIj4
Bronny would do well to keep himself away from his father's ego.
I was being sarcastic..........
Well obviously LeBron but Marcus Smart has been doing it a bit of late. He's really good at it though, always looks like he's been fouled or at least collided with someone. 😁
NBA considering intriguing technical fouls in game for flopping. I wonder who and what particular play were the final straw in this…..
I honestly have no idea.
Bam has been very disappointing, not just this series but throughout the play offs. The all time record for teams down 3-0 is 151 - 0, so it's highly unlikely that this will happen, but. Boston are actually better away from home than they are at home in the Play Offs in the last few seasons, so if they can win G6, it's a once off all to play for G7. It would be bizarre, but this is likely the best chance go that becoming 151 - 1.
The thing now is that Miami will be feeling the pressure because they'll be looking at this game as game 7 because they don't want to go back to Boston.
I really believe if they can handle Bam like they did last night that they have a real chance to win in Miami. Spoelstra will find a fix most of the time but with Bam, who is so important to them, it's hard to see what they can do.
There’s a chance, but it’s a slim one. It’s never been done, but if anyone was to do it, it’s likely to be a team that had a significantly better season than the team currently leading them, lost a few games to the other team shooting way above expected % in games 1 and 2, has game 7 at home etc.
I’m not saying they’ll do it and I’ll be shocked if they do, but after games 1-3 you’d have been mad to see anything but a sweep, and yet here we are.
Very good performance by Boston, they are doing what they should of done last week but it is what it is, they are showing great heart and not going down easy, I respect that.
It may be not enough if you go by probabilities but definitely have a chance especially since they have a stronger overall team, I just can’t see them winning 4 in a row
They found something on defense, they had a bunch of steels. Adebayo was a big target, when he went low to start his run to the basket it was easy for them to knock the ball out of his hands. They targeted Lowry with a lot of success as well and a couple of times with Jimmy and Caleb Martin too.
Defensively they were massive last night. If they can continue to defend like that then the dream is very much alive.
Also, thank you for your good wishes.
Congrats, hope it continues to go well.
Great team performance, it’s a very rare thing to see 4 guys scoring over 20 each when your team scored just 110 in total - you tend to only see that in high scoring blow outs.
Tatum on fire, 12 points in the first quarter. Great start for the Celtics leading 35-20. White 3-3 from the three point line including a buzzer beater, he's on fire too with 11 points.
So the first thing to my mind when I'm thing how the Celtics can do this tonight is how many minutes Grant Williams gets. He looked great in the last game and imo was the only player who left game 3 with any credit.
So let's see loads of Grant to start with. We need a big game from Jaylen Brown, he's disappointed in the playoffs, a shadow of what he was this time last year. If Brown starts playing then the dream of the impossible is on.
Hoping you're in the clear eagle eye, best of luck with everything.
Another biopsy today, I'm hoping this one clears me. I was given a general anaesthetic, lots of sleep, and one in my back so I can't move my legs, they are just starting to come back now. I've been in a bed since about 3pm and I won't be getting out of it for at least another 45 minutes.
Why am I telling you this? Because it means I'll be wide awake for tonight's game. 😁
I am genuinely shocked KD and Booker ok'ed this. Chris Paul is on the way out so he likely wasn't asked, but surely KD in particular is around long enough to know better?
He'll do well to be there in season 3 if all of this is true.
Couple of points:
It's not "what little negative"; there's tonnes of it.
1'm a Celtics fan yes, but foremost I'm a basketball fan. Pre-Covid, when I was in the US monthly with work and in a position to see games regularly I didn't decide on what teams to watch, I almost always decided on players. I've seen LeBron in the flesh countless times. One of the greatest in game dunks I've ever seen was LeBron over half the Celtics team (not the dunk over Jason Terry btw). I purposely sought out to watch him play many times. It's nothing to do with who I support as a team, nothing.
Carcharadon is a Warriors fan btw, so his "hate" 🙄 is not based on LeBron beating up on the Celtics.
No-one has mentioned "The Decision" on here in a long time. But since you mention it, surely even you can admit how it was handled was appallingly bad for LeBron's "brand"? But you probably won't even admit that, right? Just to be absolutely clear, I have no issue with him wanting to play elsewhere....that's his call. But he handled it so badly it's used as an example of how not to exit a team/job/city etc.
The comments about lack of empathy and threats to the validation of my youth? Lol. Whatever amateur psychology book you read that in should be shredded. But since we're doing amateur psychology, the way you defend him in such a ridiculously over the top way in the face of all available evidence suggests a deep insecurity on your part TBH.
You only see "hate"? You repeatedly ignore any and all criticism of him no matter how valid - even when that criticism is flanked with praise, and frankly that completely undermines a lot of your positions. Even your defender-in-chief on here says you go "overboard" in your praise for LeBron but he's probably been removed from the super friend list for saying that. No-one, and I mean no-one, on here isn't saying he isn't great. We'd just like to see less of the "me, me, me", and the flopping, and the travelling, and the gamesmanship, and the "I've never played on a super team" and "I need to learn how to flop" comments etc. etc. You also seem incapable of seeing the praise I and others give him at times - example: you can say he played an amazing game in G4 of the WCF and still criticize his last 2 plays. You do know they're not mutually exclusive, right? You do know you can both praise a player and criticize him for actions in the same game - it's not as simple as "he had a great game" or "he was crap".
Despite what you seem to think, Jordan isn't my favourite player, but I do think he was the greatest to ever play the game - again, I know you struggle with subtlety and nuance, but there's a difference. My favourite player is Larry Bird - knowing how some people think I'll probably be accused of being racist now. 🙄
The dunk I referenced btw:
Oh dear god, Iam pretty confident that this won’t work out, I genuinely don’t think Doc is an elite coach, still riding the coattails of that Celtic championship, which is fair but he has always been handed good teams from that championship to now, hasn’t done anything with them, it’s not easy but I don’t think he is a good fit.
Well I listened to Rusilo and he very specifically said he didn’t buy into any complaining about LeBron answering the question in this way to deny Denver their props, like Carcharadon suggested above.
He was hugely complimentary of LeBron’s effort, etc and called out Van Gundy’s commentary asking for LeBron to post up through the second half. He was clearly just exhausted, and people sitting in their armchair have unreasonable expectations of these moments, about what is possible. LeBron being able to do it for all 48 five year’s ago sets those unreasonable expectations, of course.
Dunc’d on Prime also effusive of LeBron’s effort, particularly his defense again. So I don’t know what you’re listening to (or hearing, in the case of your Rusilo reference). I mean if LeBron’s last two plays and him considering retirement are the things you want to pluck out of that magnificent performance it’s just sad. Talking heads on ESPN focusing on those things are doing it for engagement, but I doubt they hold the opinions seriously.
I dunno lads, seems to me ye are desperate to see the negative the whole time. Year after year on here, what little negative can you find about LeBron. It must be exhausting.
The thing ye should be asking yourself is ‘why do I default to focusing on the negatives?’ I mean you hate LeBron, but why? Is it the Decision, a thing that happened 13 years ago? Is it because he beat up on your Celtics for years? Or just that he has been under massive scrutiny since he was 16 and has grown up infront of our eyes and not had the same tools a decade plus ago? So a lack of empathy? Or is it because he’s the one player who threatens your sense of who the greatest player was, and thus invalidates something personally about your own youth or something?
Because it’s not hard lads to know why you’d be rooting for this guy. 20 years of absolutely insane basketball, the greatest comeback in finals history, an athlete with the highest expectations and most scrutiny ever who EXCEEDED all the unreasonable expectations. And did it with virtually no personal missteps or scandal. A family man with his missus through it all, etc.
I’ll never get the hate, that’s the long and the short of it.
Just seeing Woj reporting Phoenix are about to hire Doc Rivers as coach. Well forget about winning a championship then. Crazy move.
Any criticism of LeBron is nonsense according to LL. You should know this by now.
There were reasons he was taken 3rd. I don’t agree with them but I understand some of them.
I said as much at the time (you can read back).
Well it’s not nonsense to be fair, Iam not saying he hasn’t given Denver any props, of course he has, it would be insane not to, it’s pretty clear the difference in levels between those teams.
My point is that he knows damn well that he isn’t going to retire but he just had to let it linger out there, maybe Iam being too cynical and LeBron honestly doesn’t know but I think I live here on planet earth and I know he ain’t retiring. The lengths people go to avoid any criticism of LeBron is more baffling to me.
The point is he couldn’t leave it at that, he then had to drop the “I might retire” crap knowing it would be a huge story. There’s not a chance in hell he’ll retire after spending years saying he wants to play with his son. Nothing he says isn’t calculated, it was no accident. It was nothing personal against Denver, he’d have done it no matter who the opposition was.
As predicted - half-jokingly - on here, he was bound to do something to make it about him, that’s what he does and he has a long history of doing it. It was going to be this, or come in on crutches saying he can barely walk.
🙄
The angles people find to defend him. SMH.
He’s been widely criticized for it. Tim MacMahon called him “The Drama King” on today’s Hoop Collective. Simmons and Kevin O’Connor laughed mockingly about it, Rusillio the same. All of the podcasts I’ve listened to since Game 4 have criticized it and so have all of the tv snippets I’ve watched.
But once again you’re right and anyone who criticizes your hero is wrong. 🙄
You probably think his last two plays in the game (hitting the side of the backboard going left and then dribbling into a wall) were great plays too. Honestly, it’s so tiresome.
I have to defend Lebron here, he did say as well that Denver are the best team he and AD have faced in their four years together
Another interesting thing from the Denver/Lakers series is that Michael Malone is the son of Brendan Malone who was assistant to Chuck Daly during the bad boy piston era
If you see the last play in game 4 the way Denver defended LeBron reminded me so much of the way Detroit defended Jordan with Gordon being Rodman in this play and Murray being a Dumars/Thomas type
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