NBA 23/24:season

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.

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.

Living for these rants:

You know what age he is. How is he “acting like a child”?

Pretty standard stuff after a close loss with a few dodgy calls, no? What do you want from players? No emotion?

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!!

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.

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.

Clippers and Mavs could go 7 imo, don't see any of the rest doing that.

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.

Hands down my least favourite player in the league. Unbelievably talented but a gigantic bitch, very hard to watch

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.

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.

unreal !! Also the three from George from the corner to sort of halt the brilliant run Kyrie was on.

Great game

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.