Can the Nuggets repeat? Will Jokic get the MVP this year? What team will fail to live up to expectations?
Many, many questions to be answered.
Maxey and Embiid had great night's but the sixers lost.
Jokic had a double double in the first quarter. I'm off to bed now.
Jamal Murray wins bit at the buzzer for Denver. LeBron, AD, and even Russell all had good games but they just can't get one over on Denver. 10 in a row for the Nuggets vs LA now.
Yeah, you can pick at certain decisions the Lakers made during the 4th but in the end Denver just had gears to go to down the stretch. They switched Gordon onto AD and he only managed one shot in the 4th. And even then, the last three field goals Denver made were all ridiculous. MPJ three off a Gordon recovery of some Jokic bullshit at the end of the shot clock; then two tough fall away mid range jumpers from Murray to finish. In all three cases it's good Lakers defense and you have to live with those shots.
Similarly, LeBron had broken KCP's ankles and had the wide open 3 as a result that didn't fall.
I think Denver blow them out game 3, everyone on the Lakers utterly deflated at the end. Not that you could blame them.
Great night of basketball - two awesome finishes.
Almost every losing team has come out post-game and blamed the refs, it's becoming embarrassing.
You can't point to 1 or 2 refereeing moments in a sport that has 100+ possessions per game and saying "that's the reason we lost."
It's annoying to see in all sports but I find it especially so in basketball where one single call or moment doesn't really determine that much over a whole game.
I think complaints about replay calls are warranted. Those are the ones that are very difficult to swallow.
In game is generally whatever really, I agree, unless it's something egregious on the last two possessions.
Living for these rants:
What age is LeBron? Still acting like a child I see.
You know what age he is. How is he “acting like a child”?
Big rant about the officiating before walking out of the press conference. Childish stuff.
Pretty standard stuff after a close loss with a few dodgy calls, no? What do you want from players? No emotion?
I wouldn't expect that from a player in his late thirties whose been around the block many times.
He still wants to compete, even in year 21, that is clear from his high level of play all year. Complaining about calls without going too far maybe gets you a kinder whistle in game 3, it’s all part of competing across a series imo.
And that’s beyond the simple reality of the replay call on D’Lo just being a bad call, that meant a lot to the flow of the game.
If he was stoically and robotically going through the press conference without complaining, people would say he’s lost his edge, doesn’t care, etc. Can’t win!!
My Cs are just mentally weak, also no coaching adjustments to defend the 3 point line, Jrue was out there guarding via staredowns. I know it's only one loss but when I see the mental fortitude displayed by other teams in the playoffs, the Celtics don't fill me with confidence at all.
I dunno man, Miami hit 23 threes. It's nothing to do with mental fortitude imo, when a team is that blazing hot from beyond the arc they will win most games. Miami have had outrageous variance from three against the Celtics specifically the last couple of years:
https://x.com/CoupNBA/status/1783309855899422943
All that happened was a 4 game sweep became 5 games, because the probability is they don't run that hot again.
ya they hit 23 threes , at 53.5% conversion and won by just 10 points. I'd be confident they don't do that too often
Yeah I admit I overreacted. Still though, the fact that porzingis couldn't even back down Tyler Herro in the post worries me greatly, not really for this series, just going forward.
So whats the most competitive series left in the first round worth setting my alarm for? Clippers and Mavs?
Clippers and Mavs could go 7 imo, don't see any of the rest doing that.
D’Lo 24 scoreless minutes, 0 - 7 and benched. Two series in succession against Denver where he can’t stay on the floor. Denver are excellent, Warriors 2017 type vibes. Really well balanced and everyone in the starting lineup capable of getting hot.
Mad game from Embiid last night. 50 points, 21 free throws, a Flagrant 1 that could've been a 2 and a handful of other borderline dirty plays.
The F1:
The other plays:
Hands down my least favourite player in the league. Unbelievably talented but a gigantic bitch, very hard to watch
Looks like Embiid took an ‘if he dies, he dies’ attitude to a few of those plays. Strictly speaking, I would say he should be banned a game for that nonsense.
But also - he wasn’t **** losing last night and I respect that.
Embiid is lucky he wasn't trying that nonsense against a team that has a few dirty players, the Knicks are physical but are a nice team. If Embiid did that against the Bucks, Bobby Portis or Pat Bev would go right back at him.
Looking like all of LBJ, Durant, Kahwi and Harden going to miss the second round (and Curry lost in the play in). The times they are a changing.
Wont be long before Durant wants a trade again.
If he stays, himself, Beal and Booker will cost the Suns more $ than the combined payroll of 14 teams next year.
Harden with one of the most incredible displays of clutch you will ever see. Absolutely insane performance
unreal !! Also the three from George from the corner to sort of halt the brilliant run Kyrie was on.
Great game
So this thread was wrong about some things in the off-season but ends up kinda right about the Suns. Adding Beal as opposed to maybe doing other things that could have built out the depth in the rotation seems squarely to have been the wrong move.
To be clear, Minnesota are just very good. Very deep, well balanced, best in the league inside and plenty of athleticism. Anthony Edwards seems to be taking that step forward right now also. But the Suns weren’t any better this year compared to last, and last night the template was the same as it had been last year (when they took Denver to 6): Durant and Booker play the whole game and go nuts, and hopefully that’s enough to get over the line.
Not sure where they go from here, and maybe Durant would have won in this setup a few years ago, but they probably shouldn’t just run it back.
Yeah I don't see the Suns getting any better with a slightly older KD and Beal. Between the big 3, Allen, and Nurkic they're locked in until 25/26 without much wiggle room. Just those 5 players have them only ~$5m below next season's second apron cutoff, and throw in $6.5m/year Nas Little (also contracted through 26/27) and they're above it.
Alarm bells were ringing a little last year when they were so desperate to get rid of Ayton that they committed to playing the center rotation of the previous season's worst defensive team (Nurkic/Eubanks).
Their draft pick situation is barebones too.
The amount of talent KD has played with since leaving Golden State is wild, and he's not made it past the second round since.
On both Brooklyn and Phoenix he's lost in the second round in Season 1, then been swept in the first round of Season 2.
13-17 record in the playoffs since leaving GS.
His record on the Warriors was 46-14 and in OKC it was 50-40.
