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NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2018-19 Thread

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  • Registered Users Posts: 19,365 ✭✭✭✭Osmosis Jones


    Portland finally win a playoff game after 10 losses in a row :D

    Paul George is clearly still hurt, he was terrible yesterday, went 4/15 from 3, barely drove to the basket and never really even thought about passing the ball.

    Kanter, who Billy Donovan previously said can't be played in the playoffs, was great. 20/18 with 7 of those 18 rebounds being offensive and he even got 2 blocks on decent defence! I think OKC could be an okay matchup for him defensively because they don't really have many guys that can force him to defend the perimeter.

    Lillard was on fire from deeeeep too:

    giphy.gif


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Angliru


    Kanter was a beast. I thought Dame was hot and cold (and still got 30 :pac:) but came up trumps when needed. George might have put up the worst 26 and 10 game I've ever seen. It'll be interesting to see if there's more to Russ' ankle knock than just a slight tweak. They're in huge trouble if so.

    Anyone manage to watch the entire Celtics game? A very hard watch...even for a game 1 of R1 of the playoffs.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Angliru wrote: »
    Kanter was a beast. I thought Dame was hot and cold (and still got 30 :pac:) but came up trumps when needed. George might have put up the worst 26 and 10 game I've ever seen. It'll be interesting to see if there's more to Russ' ankle knock than just a slight tweak. They're in huge trouble if so.

    Anyone manage to watch the entire Celtics game? A very hard watch...even for a game 1 of R1 of the playoffs.

    Kanter is perfect vs Adams because Kanter is an excellent offensive player and Adams is not, nor his Rudy Gobert defensively.
    Kanter is an elite offensive post player, one of the best in the league but he is also one of the league's worst interior defenders.
    If he could defend at any sort of respectable level he would be incredibly sought after.
    He'll be a weapon here but a complete liability against someone like Boogie because his inevitable offensive productivity won't be able to offset the defensive frailties.


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,365 ✭✭✭✭Osmosis Jones


    Oh yeah and Giannis dunked from a few inches beyond the FT line

    giphy.gif


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Angliru


    Yeah that was ridiculous. Great comment on reddit:
    Giannis' dunk range is deeper than Ben Simmons' shooting range


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Undervalued aspect of playoff results such as last night is that Rockets & Bucks only had to play their superstars 23 & 33 mins respectively.

    Compare that to the type of effort needed from OKC & Trail Blazers, continuing in that vain compounds as a substantial disadvantage/advantage moving forward


  • Registered Users Posts: 36,023 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    Undervalued aspect of playoff results such as last night is that Rockets & Bucks only had to play their superstars 23 & 33 mins respectively.

    Compare that to the type of effort needed from OKC & Trail Blazers, continuing in that vain compounds as a substantial disadvantage/advantage moving forward

    Yep, very true - this is where surprisingly uncompetitive semi / finals series are created.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    LuckyLloyd wrote: »
    Yep, very true - this is where surprisingly uncompetitive semi / finals series are created.

    I noted that I thought the Bucks may struggle vs Detroit due to their size with Blake, having watched the game it's certainly not the case.
    I enjoy a contrarian opinion as everything points to it being wrong. Irrespective of Blake's presence the Bucks should blow past these.
    I read something recently highlighting the predictability of team +/- has in the post season as it is an excellent indicator of playoff success, Bucks being +9 this season, comfortably the best by a substantial mark


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    Oh yeah and Giannis dunked from a few inches beyond the FT line

    giphy.gif

    First post in a long time but he travels before he dribbles. :( Insanely impressive nonetheless.

    Now I'm a Giannis-hater no doubt.....I'm most definitely not btw.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    First post in a long time but he travels before he dribbles. :( Insanely impressive nonetheless.

    Now I'm a Giannis-hater no doubt.....I'm most definitely not btw.

    First post back Butters and you start that stuff. Glad to have you back and all but don't understand why you'd kick it off like that.

    On a side note, I saw a pretty good video of the evolution of dribbling recently and the 3 step gathering has changed the game so much.
    Incredible how players didn't even turn their wrist while dribbling, almost patting at the ball.
    I'll have to try and find it, well worth a watch.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    First post back Butters and you start that stuff. Glad to have you back and all but don't understand why you'd kick it off like that.

    On a side note, I saw a pretty good video of the evolution of dribbling recently and the 3 step gathering has changed the game so much.
    Incredible how players didn't even turn their wrist while dribbling, almost patting at the ball.
    I'll have to try and find it, well worth a watch.

    Thanks for the welcome post, even if somewhat guarded. ;)

    Travelling has always been my major, major hate, I can't let that one slide. Would be interested in that video if you can find it. There's a very good Coach Nick and Ronnie Nunn B'Ball Breakdown on that subject from a few years back that's worth a look. I'll have a look for it over the weekend if I think of it.

    I've wanted to post a few things lately, amongst them:
    • Paul Pierce going old-man crazy claiming firstly he was a better shooter than Klay (for which he didn't get much criticism), and then a better player than Wade (for which he did). I hate to be an old man giving out about and old man but come on.....and I'm a Celtics fan
    • Magic doing Magic things. Where would I even start on that one?
    • The Wade game winner 3 against GS which wasn't actually a 3 and wasn't over-ruled which drove me crazy. In case I need to explain why it wasn't have a look at it first and I'll answer it then if needed
    • Le Bron making guys All NBA Teams playing 55 games and having a losing season....and that's before I mention his part in the AD mess. Journalists saying they couldn't vote Butler onto an All Star Team due to his opening season T'Wolves theatrics but give LeBron yet another pass, smh.

    But I couldn't because I was banned.........

    In other news, Giannis for MVP for me for lots of reasons but basically because he plays both ends at elite level and his per 36s are insane.

    I'd also ask if those of you knocking Russ (a few pages back) for averaging a 20+ pt triple double 3 years straight have any idea how hard that is? Cut the stat padding line, it's insane that he did this once, let alone 3 times. He's the smallest player ever to average 10 rebounds in the NBA btw, and the way he brings it every night - come on. Simmons always talks about the 90-10 guy and that how you focus on the 90 too much and forget the 10% you don't like. With Russ people seem to focus on the 10 far too much. There's a lot of commentary over the past few weeks that he's under-rated now (yes I saw the player vote, but players mess up every vote it seems).

    I'll be back more regularly from now on hopefully.

    Game 2 predictions:
    East:

    Philly
    Toronto
    Boston
    Bucks

    West:
    GS
    Denver
    Houston
    OKC (I'm assuming Paul George isn't as injured as he looked or ruled out)


    Finally, very sad to see what happened in Paris tonight. I love hoops, but I love architecture too, and lived in Paris for a while. Stunning building. :(


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,940 ✭✭✭Carcharodon


    I pretty glad I sold my tickets to tonight’s game, what a meltdown form the warriors, fair play to the clippers. Looks like Boogie has a serious enough injury, won’t be back anytime soon I’d say


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    I pretty glad I sold my tickets to tonight’s game, what a meltdown form the warriors, fair play to the clippers. Looks like Boogie has a serious enough injury, won’t be back anytime soon I’d say

    Epic meltdown. Losing after being 31 up at this level points to mental flaws that have been visible sporadically at times this season. They’re still the best team in the league talent wise, but if they don’t get their sh*t together they could well be overturned by Houston or the Bucks amongst others.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Angliru


    Have yet to see the documentary but from this clip alone I know it is going to be a terrific watch:



    Oh DRose <3


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Angliru wrote: »
    Have yet to see the documentary but from this clip alone I know it is going to be a terrific watch:



    Oh DRose <3

    Adidas have been an unlucky party in shoe game, obviously they're fine, just an observation.
    D-Rose & John Wall both not quite lived up to their promise for similar reasons. I suspect D Rose would have been a major player in shoe game, in contrast UA struck gold with Steph. Also Speith in Golf too.

    I'd love to see D.Rose get 6th man, he doesn't deserve to be the only MVP to never make the HOF and if he doesn't win 6th man and/or a championship as a contributory factor he's not getting in imo.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Angliru


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    Adidas have been an unlucky party in shoe game, obviously they're fine, just an observation.
    D-Rose & John Wall both not quite lived up to their promise for similar reasons. I suspect D Rose would have been a major player in shoe game, in contrast UA struck gold with Steph. Also Speith in Golf too.

    I'd love to see D.Rose get 6th man, he doesn't deserve to be the only MVP to never make the HOF and if he doesn't win 6th man and/or a championship as a contributory factor he's not getting in imo.

    A healthy DRose would have made them very competitive alone. Nike really f*cked up with Steph, absolutely bizarre how much they f*cked up.

    Isn't Lou a lock for 6th man?

    I think Rose will eventually get into the HOF. He won't be first ballot but a few more consistent seasons and I think he'll eventually get in. Youngest MVP and greatest PG in Bulls history might be enough on its own but if he can fit in another All Star award I think he should be okay.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Angliru wrote: »
    A healthy DRose would have made them very competitive alone. Nike really f*cked up with Steph, absolutely bizarre how much they f*cked up.

    Isn't Lou a lock for 6th man?

    I think Rose will eventually get into the HOF. He won't be first ballot but a few more consistent seasons and I think he'll eventually get in. Youngest MVP and greatest PG in Bulls history might be enough on its own but if he can fit in another All Star award I think he should be okay.

    I didn't look at Vegas since around Feb so maybe Lou locked it up. Deserving of any accolades he gets, hard to argue to given Clippers making playoffs after trading Harris.

    Jerry West is ridiculous, the guy is worth anything he asks for.

    Not saying you're wrong but shoe market is different than playing ability. Certain players might not be the best players but have a greater target market than a better player.

    Kawhi is an example of someone who is probably a Top 3 player in the league but shoe sales won't be great.

    Not saying D.Rose is Kawhi but he's not quite the media lover that LBJ, Blake & Harden is, those are the players companies want and as dynamic as D.Rose was I'm not 100% convinced it would have transferred to shoe sales if healthy.

    Hope he makes HOF either way


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    Adidas have been an unlucky party in shoe game, obviously they're fine, just an observation.
    D-Rose & John Wall both not quite lived up to their promise for similar reasons. I suspect D Rose would have been a major player in shoe game, in contrast UA struck gold with Steph. Also Speith in Golf too.

    I'd love to see D.Rose get 6th man, he doesn't deserve to be the only MVP to never make the HOF and if he doesn't win 6th man and/or a championship as a contributory factor he's not getting in imo.
    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    I didn't look at Vegas since around Feb so maybe Lou locked it up. Deserving of any accolades he gets, hard to argue to given Clippers making playoffs after trading Harris.

    Jerry West is ridiculous, the guy is worth anything he asks for.

    Not saying you're wrong but shoe market is different than playing ability. Certain players might not be the best players but have a greater target market than a better player.

    Kawhi is an example of someone who is probably a Top 3 player in the league but shoe sales won't be great.

    Not saying D.Rose is Kawhi but he's not quite the media lover that LBJ, Blake & Harden is, those are the players companies want and as dynamic as D.Rose was I'm not 100% convinced it would have transferred to shoe sales if healthy.

    Hope he makes HOF either way

    Don't forget Dwight and adidas.........before everyone hated Dwight. These were good commercials in fairness. Sadly for me I remember posting these on boards when they first came out...in 2011:eek:


    Echo the above on talent doesn't equate to shoe sales. It's worth remembering that Rose is absolutely huge in Asia (and particularly China) though before you write his show line off. Here's an ESPN article from last year on this:

    http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24374713/why-derrick-rose-sneaker-popular-china

    A lot of that is personality-driven, with guys willing to put in the face time and personality (Rose) outselling those who don't have any and won't do the PAs etc. (Leonard).

    In fairness to adidas I think lately their aesthetic and style have improved dramatically. The Lillard signatures look great, as do some of the newer b'ball models. Some of the Hardens are ok but personally I'm not mad on them. Lillard has also done some interesting cross colabs with BAPE for example. The N3XT L3V3Ls in particular are very futuristic looking and I've found some of the designs to be very nice indeed.

    adidas though are showing strong growth in recent years driven Kanye and Pharell lines, but Nike got a huge and arguably unexpected boost this past weekend from Tiger. For me as a collector where they've really missed a trick is on retro'ing older models in the way Jordan brand have milked the Jordan line. Anyway, we're getting off topic here.


    Finally, found this recently and it's really interesting, definitely worth a look IMO (esp. if you watched basketball in the mid-late 80s and into the early 90s:

    Truly shocking to see how much the game has changed in such a a short period of time. His other videos are good too btw.


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    Toronto blew out Orlando as expected, Spurs let one slip at Denver you feel, could have been 2-0.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 636 ✭✭✭Angliru


    God I love watching Kawhi play.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Has there been a more polarizing superstar in the past 20 years than Westbrook.

    Guy can singlehandedly win any game by himself, 3 years in a row averaging a triple double, MVP and he still looks like a deer in the headlights at times.

    He must be the least likely MVP in the past 2 decades to carry a team to the NBA finals. Sweeping statement I know but his decision making is incredibly head scratching at times.


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,365 ✭✭✭✭Osmosis Jones


    Westbrook has been terrible, shot 5-20 last night, still taking those ill-advised 3s, had more turnovers than made shots, and I'd be more surprised at him having a good shooting night than another bad one in the next game. OKC as a team have made 10 3s over two games, Russ is 1-10 from 3. Lillard alone has made 9 over the two games and he's not exactly shooting open shots either, carrying on from Game 1 look at the difficulty of these shots he's making:

    giphy.gif

    Russ also gets Dame fired up like no one else, in fact look at this entire sequence. Dame strips Russ, gets him to take a bad shot, celebrates the miss, and then drops a bomb on them seconds later.

    https://streamable.com/lvici

    That shot also forced OKC to take a timeout, of which they only had 3 coming into the second half, and so after that they only had 2 remaining timeouts for the final 19 minutes of play and couldn't do a whole lot to readjust.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,842 ✭✭✭Morrison J


    Westbrook had really been doing a good job of taking less bad shots this year too.

    The problem is that he's got a massive ego to feed and come play off time when the lights are on him he's going to go back to his selfish self and force bad shots. Thats why you won't win with him.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Morrison J wrote: »
    Westbrook had really been doing a good job of taking less bad shots this year too.

    The problem is that he's got a massive ego to feed and come play off time when the lights are on him he's going to go back to his selfish self and force bad shots. Thats why you won't win with him.

    I'm not sure Russ is that egotistical, I mean it seems rather unlikely that PG13 stays around if he's worried about another players ego getting in the way of his success. It's not as if OKC & the accompanying endorsements etc outweigh LA.
    Apparently Russ is well liked so ego I'm not convinced


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,842 ✭✭✭Morrison J


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    I'm not sure Russ is that egotistical, I mean it seems rather unlikely that PG13 stays around if he's worried about another players ego getting in the way of his success. It's not as if OKC & the accompanying endorsements etc outweigh LA.
    Apparently Russ is well liked so ego I'm not convinced
    If its not ego driven though then what is it? He just turns into a low IQ point guard in big games?

    Either way its very damaging to his teams chances of actually progressing. Needs to go back to being more of a provider like he was in the regular season.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    Morrison J wrote: »
    If its not ego driven though then what is it? He just turns into a low IQ point guard in big games?

    Either way its very damaging to his teams chances of actually progressing. Needs to go back to being more of a provider like he was in the regular season.

    Ego has a wide range of interpretations so perhaps it's an issue of semantics, ego in the sense of I, the little Cartesian Theatre behind the eyes and all.

    Just from what you said in terms of "feeding his ego" and "selfish self" though. My opinion would be that I don't get the feeling that Russ is egotistical in the sense that he simply wants to laude up all the praise for his teams success, centre of attention etc.
    That type of character is not the type of character I suspect PG13 would have stayed around to compete with.

    He may be ego driven in that in those moments he simply feels that he has a greater ability than anyone else to win a game.
    That is the ego that I think exists so although it's not true and other players such as PG13 may lead the team to success, I think it simply comes from a desire to win as a team.
    It's not perfectly altruistic by any means but I just don't think he's the type of guy that does it because he wants to be the one who did it, rather he thinks he's the only one that can do it.

    Just my thoughts by the way, total conjecture, completely open to him being an egomaniac in any sense too :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    OKC lose two games to a team they dominated this year (and Russ played very well in all of those from memory, he certainly had some big closing moments in more than one of them) and Russ is getting almost all the blame whilst people ignore the fact that PG (who was for a large chunk of the season a Top 4/5 player in the league) is clearly injured.

    I honestly don't get the level of hate the guy gets. I've been critical, at times very critical of him in the past (look at my posts back when Durant was on OKC), but the guy plays so frickin' hard up and down the court every single possession. OKC have no even average outside shooting capable of playing heavy minutes outside of Paul, but hey, it's all Russ's fault.

    I'd rather have that level of effort and a 20point triple double every night than some lesser (above average) player who plays within himself. They may lose in the first round of the Play Offs but he'll still deservedly make All NBA this year.

    And people say I'm just a hater. :confused::rolleyes:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Hitch2222


    OKC lose two games to a team they dominated this year (and Russ played very well in all of those from memory, he certainly had some big closing moments in more than one of them) and Russ is getting almost all the blame whilst people ignore the fact that PG (who was for a large chunk of the season a Top 4/5 player in the league) is clearly injured.

    I honestly don't get the level of hate the guy gets. I've been critical, at times very critical of him in the past (look at my posts back when Durant was on OKC), but the guy plays so frickin' hard up and down the court every single possession. OKC have no even average outside shooting capable of playing heavy minutes outside of Paul, but hey, it's all Russ's fault.

    I'd rather have that level of effort and a 20point triple double every night than some lesser (above average) player who plays within himself. They may lose in the first round of the Play Offs but he'll still deservedly make All NBA this year.

    And people say I'm just a hater. :confused::rolleyes:

    I'd reiterate it again Butters, I don't understand why you continue down this path of framing yourself of being persecuted.
    Nobody has called you a hater other than LBJ related stuff, you don't need to continually place that caveat as often as you feel you need to.

    Personally I'd far rather a player who plays within himself of doing so was to the benefit of the team. Everyone admires Russ and his achievements but playing hardest is not the goal here.
    Take any sport, playing smarter > playing harder in many situations, that translates to training as well as games.
    Passing up a situation with a higher probability of success for a lower probability of success but being happy with that result because more energy was exerted is obviously ridiculous.
    Shooting 5/20 in a playoff game and many poor decisions by your alpha deserves criticism irrespective of effort.


  • Registered Users Posts: 53,028 ✭✭✭✭ButtersSuki


    Hitch2222 wrote: »
    I'd reiterate it again Butters, I don't understand why you continue down this path of framing yourself of being persecuted.
    Nobody has called you a hater other than LBJ related stuff, you don't need to continually place that caveat as often as you feel you need to.

    Personally I'd far rather a player who plays within himself of doing so was to the benefit of the team. Everyone admires Russ and his achievements but playing hardest is not the goal here.
    Take any sport, playing smarter > playing harder in many situations, that translates to training as well as games.
    Passing up a situation with a higher probability of success for a lower probability of success but being happy with that result because more energy was exerted is obviously ridiculous.
    Shooting 5/20 in a playoff game and many poor decisions by your alpha deserves criticism irrespective of effort.

    Where did I say I’m being persecuted exactly? I didn’t, and that’s an enormous leap to make from what I said.

    Re. “Hater” - I have been called this many, many times on here in relation to almost any criticism I have leveled against one particular player.

    Re. your comment on playing smarter, I get that in theory but Westbrook even with his flaws is a Top 20/Top 15 player in the league. As for his 5/20 shooting, pick any player who’s had a bad night shooting and they’ll look bad. He gets overly criticised IMO, and overly blamed. PG is clearly injured, that’s a large part of the problem here. And they’re top heavy with no depth....that’s not his fault.

    LeBron loses and it’s because he has no support. LeBron wins and it’s all him.

    It seems that the opposite narrative is the case for Russ.....lose and it’s his fault, win and it’s a team effort. Go figure.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 18,689 ✭✭✭✭K.O.Kiki


    Ben Simmons just TORCHED the Nets, goddamn!
    31 points incl. 9/11 FTs. 3 blocks, 2 steals.


This discussion has been closed.
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