The NBA

[Lady Whistleup]

26 minutes ago, Carey said:

And the Nets did the exact opposite.  Oddly enough, the pregame talk (not necessarily TNT but other places) basically mentioned Griffin as a glorified role player.  Not the dominating force he once was.  Man did he show up tonight!

Monday should be interesting, but beyond that, it will be.  If James is week-to-week as opposed to day-to-day then I'll have an idea of how dominant Brooklyn can be off of a road game.  Tonight's pummeling following the loss of a key player in-game was a tad bit surprising, but the outright win was not.

No Harden, no problem it seemed (at least in Game One)!

I think Harden will be back but they might rest him if Nets win again Monday.

Bucks' Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton just disappeared today. If it werent for Giannis and Brook Lopez game would have been a blowout.

[LexieLily]

Harden's injuries this year have me scratching my head. He missed more games with the first hamstring injury (twenty give or take) than he did combined in his eight years in Houston. 

[cambridgeguy]

5 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Harden's injuries this year have me scratching my head. He missed more games with the first hamstring injury (twenty give or take) than he did combined in his eight years in Houston. 

Harden wasn't exactly in peak physical condition when he started the season in Houston, so that definitely didn't help.  Hamstrings are also tricky - rush back and you'll just strain it again. 

[Lady Whistleup]

I love the tiny-but-tough PG's like Trae Young. They always look like they're going to snap into half at any minute but then you look on the scoreboard and they've knocked down 30. He's going to be hell for the offensively weak Sixers.

[Maximum Taco]

Ok I freaking love the Hawks. They're trying so hard to be the villains of the East and I'm all about it. All the shushing is just amazing, thought it was just gonna be Trae trying to antagonize the opposition but now Bogdanovic getting into it too. 

My Raptors aren't in this postseason so I'm jumping right on the Hawks bandwagon. 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Maximum Taco

[Court]

That 4th quarter had me on edge. They almost blew a 17 point lead. 

[Lady Whistleup]

Ben Simmons is going to have to see a sports psychologist because his free throw woes are getting worse, not better. And teams are just hacking him every time he has the ball. You can see it's killing his confidence. But shooting 30% from the line (as he did today) is horrible for a PG who is the chief ball handler.

I mean, at this point his struggles are as bad as Shaq's.

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Ben Simmons is going to have to see a sports psychologist because his free throw woes are getting worse, not better. And teams are just hacking him every time he has the ball. You can see it's killing his confidence. But shooting 30% from the line (as he did today) is horrible for a PG who is the chief ball handler.

I mean, at this point his struggles are as bad as Shaq's.

Dwight Howard saw a sports physiologist for a few years and that didn't do him much good but this is the first time in my basketball-watching career that I can remember where a team purposefully did the Hack-A-[Name] on a point guard.

Embiid clearly isn't right but I didn't expect Atlanta to lead by 20 for three-quarters of the game. (They did try really hard to blow it at the end, though, thankfully they didn't.)

[Maximum Taco]

7 minutes ago, Court said:

That 4th quarter had me on edge. They almost blew a 17 point lead. 

Sometimes, when you're the villain you gotta let the heroes think they have a chance, before you crush their dreams with the dagger!

[Lady Whistleup]

7 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Dwight Howard saw a sports physiologist for a few years and that didn't do him much good but this is the first time in my basketball-watching career that I can remember where a team purposefully did the Hack-A-[Name] on a point guard.

Embiid clearly isn't right but I didn't expect Atlanta to lead by 20 for three-quarters of the game. (They did try really hard to blow it at the end, though, thankfully they didn't.)

Free throws are one of those things where I don't get why some people are so great at it and others struggle.

Like I don't know why 7 footers like Joel Embiid or Kevin Durant rarely miss from the line but other bigs like Giannis and Shaq struggle. Why Kawhi Leonard shoots well from the line but Ben Simmons, Luka or Lebron struggle.

But seeing Ben Simmons' face turn white after every foul was really painful.

[Court]

I really want the Clippers to lose since they dumped games to play Dallas. But Dallas has to be more than Luka and they are not there yet. 

[Maximum Taco]

3 minutes ago, Court said:

I really want the Clippers to lose since they dumped games to play Dallas. But Dallas has to be more than Luka and they are not there yet. 

Luka's cooking in the first. 

I think Luka Magic might take the Mavs past the Clips, but I agree I don't think they have the horses to win the West. 

[LexieLily]

If the Clippers with all their aspirations for a championship lose to Dallas for the second year in a row, this year in the first round instead of the second, do you think they run it back or try to trade PG for whatever good package they can get?

Jason Kidd No To Portland Gig.

So Jason Kidd pre-emptively turned down the Portland coaching job a day after Dame said that Kidd was the guy he wanted. Hmm.

ETA: @Maximum Taco reminded me that the Clippers lost to the Nuggets last year in the bubble, not Dallas. Ooops. My bad :P.

Edited June 6, 2021 by LexieLily

[Maximum Taco]

2 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

If the Clippers with all their aspirations for a championship lose to Dallas for the second year in a row, this year in the first round instead of the second, do you think they run it back or try to trade PG for whatever good package they can get?

They beat the Mavs last year, they lost to the Nuggets.

But both years they have STRUGGLED in the first round. It's not a good sign for a team with Championship aspirations to be going 6 and 7 games in round 1. 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Maximum Taco

[LexieLily]

Delete.

Edited June 6, 2021 by LexieLily

[LexieLily]

16 minutes ago, Maximum Taco said:

They beat the Mavs last year, they lost to the Nuggets.

But both years they have STRUGGLED in the first round. It's not a good sign for a team with Championship aspirations to be going 6 and 7 games in round 1. 

Right, now I remember. They went 6 against Dallas in Round 1 and 7 against Denver in Round 2, when they lost after being up 3-1 in the series.

[Lady Whistleup]

Luka is great but the Mavs are a bit like the Blazers -- fun to watch during the regular season because of their freewheeling offense but without the depth to go deep into the playoffs. 

[emma675]

The Mavs are going to have to clean house if they ever want to get out of the first round. Luka can't singlehandedly drag an entire team into the finals no more than Dame can. But Kristaps Porzingis has a massive contract I can't see any other team wanting to take on, especially with his shaky knee. The Mavs front office is going to have some decisions to make in the off season.

[Lady Whistleup]

1 hour ago, emma675 said:

The Mavs are going to have to clean house if they ever want to get out of the first round. Luka can't singlehandedly drag an entire team into the finals no more than Dame can. But Kristaps Porzingis has a massive contract I can't see any other team wanting to take on, especially with his shaky knee. The Mavs front office is going to have some decisions to make in the off season.

I think the Mavs sort of lucked into Luka and for two years were buoyed by Luka's heady offense and crowdpleasing skills. But now it's clear that a one-man show can't advance far in the playoffs, as Lebron and Damian Lillard found out this year too. 

They don't even need another star, but a solid role player. I don't know why they traded Seth Curry -- he's the kind of shooter that they needed. He's not a GREAT player but he can make it rain buckets when he gets hot.

[LexieLily]

52 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

I think the Mavs sort of lucked into Luka and for two years were buoyed by Luka's heady offense and crowdpleasing skills. But now it's clear that a one-man show can't advance far in the playoffs, as Lebron and Damian Lillard found out this year too. 

I don't remember the specifics of the draft-day trade deal between the Hawks and Mavs but to your point, Doncic was the breakout star in a way Trae Young wasn't so the Mavs thought they won that deal. These days it's more close to even, tbh.

[Lady Whistleup]

7 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I don't remember the specifics of the draft-day trade deal between the Hawks and Mavs but to your point, Doncic was the breakout star in a way Trae Young wasn't so the Mavs thought they won that deal. These days it's more close to even, tbh.

The 2018 draft class actually was so loaded with talent. Many of that class are in the playoffs this year either as starters or role players:

- Trae Young

- Luka

- Deandre Ayton

- Bruce Brown

- Landry Shamet

- Jaren Jackson Jr

- Mikai Bridges

- Michael Porter Jr.

- Grayson Allen

- Shake Milton

But as for Trae vs. Luka, I think it's about even. Both are excellent players. Trae has a few skill sets that are good during playoff time though. One is he's an excellent FT shooter. We've seen how if you struggle at the line during playoff time you will get hacked time and again. The other is his passing and ball handling is quick and hard to defend. 

[xaxat]

I think the other problem Dallas had is that they, along with most observers, over estimated the future impact of Kristaps Porzingis. I think the Mavs thought they were getting someone close to Luka's impact (remember when people called him a "unicorn"). He's a solid player, but I don't think he's the kind of second best player who can get you to the Finals.

(The funny thing about that trade is that the Knicks did it in part to clear cap space for Kyrie Irving. We all know how that worked out.)

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by xaxat

[Lady Whistleup]

18 minutes ago, xaxat said:

I think the other problem Dallas had is that they, along with most observers, over estimated the future impact of Kristaps Porzingis. I think the Mavs thought they were getting someone close to Kristaps' impact (remember when people called him a "unicorn"). He's a solid player, but I don't think he's the kind of second best player who can get you to the Finals.

(The funny thing about that trade is that the Knicks did it in part to clear cap space for Kyrie Irving. We all know how that worked out.)

 

There's been a lot of rumors that Doncic and Porzingis don't have a great relationship. Mark Cuban kind of confirmed it.

[emma675]

Yeah, I'm in Dallas and fans are all over the perceived coolness between Luka and KP. They don't have to be besties but they do need to be able to work together on the court. 

Mark Cuban also confirmed to a local reporter yesterday that Rick Carlisle will still be coach next season. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by emma675d

[Lady Whistleup]

2 hours ago, emma675 said:

Yeah, I'm in Dallas and fans are all over the perceived coolness between Luka and KP. They don't have to be besties but they do need to be able to work together on the court. 

Mark Cuban also confirmed to a local reporter yesterday that Rick Carlisle will still be coach next season. 

Porzingis said in an interview that he's "trying to play together and help each other." Which kind of gives it away that it's not currently working.

Longtime teammates don't have to be besties. Like Steph and Klay are not close off the court. Neither were Jordan and Pippen. But when the frosty relationship is spilling over to the game then it becomes a problem.

Then again, maybe it's just a personalities not vibing thing. KP seems very serious and introverted, while Luka is outgoing and emotional. 

[Lady Whistleup]

And right on cue, here;s another article about the Mavs drama:

KP:

Quote

"Good question," Porzingis said after Game 7, pausing to collect his thoughts. "How do I feel? I mean, I'm good. I tried to put in the work, tried to work hard. I do my part, listen to the coaches, what I'm asked to do, and that's it.

"I try to keep it simple for myself, so I'm not overthinking, and I try to focus on what I can control. That's being a better basketball player, going into the offseason hungry. I want to get better physically [and] on the basketball court. I'm going to put that work in to get better, and then the rest of the stuff will resolve itself."

I wonder if Luka has become a bit of a diva. It wouldn't be a surprise if he did: he just turned 22 and he's a good-looking superstar and audiences both at home and during away games go nuts when he makes one of his flashy plays.

[LexieLily]

Harden is out for Game 2.

If Brooklyn can go up 2-0 on Milwaukee without Harden, they can be a little more cautious in when to bring him back if he is medically cleared. 

[Jx223]

I thought that the last two games in the Clippers/Mavs series ended up being pretty competitive and entertaining. I had thought that the Clippers were dead in the water earlier on, but they came back after some strong performances by Kawhi in the last two games. I had wanted Dallas to win that series but maybe they will do better next year.

Also the Nets have really been laying it on the Bucks in the first two games of their series. And without James Harden at that. I had seen some analysts predict that the Bucks would win this series before it began, but I had thought that the Nets would win it. They are simply too talented and deep as a team.

I have been really impressed with Blake Griffin lately. He has been doing a pretty nice job of contributing to the team and he seems very comfortable playing with them.  I think it helps that he surrounded by the talent that he is in players like KD and Kyrie. He plays well with them. 

I think that this series could end up being over quickly for the Bucks. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Jx223

[Carey]

The Nets nearly had a 50 point lead, but garbage time lead to a 39-point victory.  Sure Milwaukee finally gets to go back home, but there is no optimism that they can regroup well enough to regain hope that they'll win this series.

Personally, say the Nets lose on the road.  If they're both close losses, there really isn't any reason to rush Harden back.  If James can return, maybe do it on a limited basis.  That way, Brooklyn will be more than ready to win out

[Lady Whistleup]

Ok the Nets are a tough team but that was a garbage effort by the Bucks. Come on. The "we have one healthy starter and even he's a covid long-hauler" Celtics put up more fight than this.

Giannis's free throw woes are almost as bad as Ben Simmons. You never want to be that guy teams think "oh we can just foul because he'll miss free throws." 

What the hell. I wanted a good series.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Lady Whistleup

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, Lady Whistleup said:

What the hell. I wanted a good series.

Everyone was saying a week ago that this was going to be the Finals. Lol

[emma675]

I'm kind of surprised how crappy the Bucks have looked against the Nets. It's like they put all their effort in the regular season and first round and totally didn't prepare for the Nets, which is not a team to overlook. 

[Lady Whistleup]

10 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I'm kind of surprised how crappy the Bucks have looked against the Nets. It's like they put all their effort in the regular season and first round and totally didn't prepare for the Nets, which is not a team to overlook. 

They should have known the Nets can rain buckets if you slack off on defense, which is why I was shocked to see them not really hustling while guarding KD or Kyrie or Blake Griffin. It's like they had an opening when James Harden went down, didn't capitalize on it right away, and then gave up.

[LexieLily]

I also don't understand how Giannis and the Bucks still haven't figured out to stop shooting threes when they've spent the last two games bricking most everything they shoot.

[Lady Whistleup]

Hack-a-Ben or Hack-a-tokoumpo? Which will become more cringe?

[LexieLily]

3 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Hack-a-Ben or Hack-a-tokoumpo? Which will become more cringe?

At least Giannis has the excuse of being a center and there are plenty of centers before him that purposefully were hacked to put them at the line at the end of a close game. Ben is a guard.

[Lady Whistleup]

14 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

At least Giannis has the excuse of being a center and there are plenty of centers before him that purposefully were hacked to put them at the line at the end of a close game. Ben is a guard.

True. It's hard to watch though. Looking at all those bricked FT's from Luka, Ben, and Giannis reminds me of the years of watching Sasha Cohen fall in competitions.

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, Lady Whistleup said:

True. It's hard to watch though. Looking at all those bricked FT's from Luka, Ben, and Giannis reminds me of the years of watching Sasha Cohen fall in competitions.

Doncic wasn't great either in the Clippers series at the line, was he? But he made up for it with the rest of his game, at least.

[Lady Whistleup]

2 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Doncic wasn't great either in the Clippers series at the line, was he? But he made up for it with the rest of his game, at least.

Luka missed a bunch of FT's. At one point his 3 pt % was actually higher than his FT % which is a stunning statline. But yeah, at least Luka can make it rain buckets. Giannis isn't looking so hot even without the free throws.

[LexieLily]

This Denver/Phoenix game is the first game of the conference semis so far that actually looks worthy of a second-round series, i.e. not a blowout,

[Lady Whistleup]

6 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

This Denver/Phoenix game is the first game of the conference semis so far that actually looks worthy of a second-round series, i.e. not a blowout,

Holy shit this series is going to be so good I can tell. Two very strong teams, well-matched. The Suns audience energy is amazing.

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Holy shit this series is going to be so good I can tell. Two very strong teams, well-matched. The Suns audience energy is amazing.

I'm calling it PHX in 6, what say you? (For the others I said PHI in 6, BKN in 7 and UTAH in 5. But for the East ones I might have to change my answers, haha.)

[Lady Whistleup]

3 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I'm calling it PHX in 6, what say you? (For the others I said PHI in 6, BKN in 7 and UTAH in 5. But for the East ones I might have to change my answers, haha.)

Yeah I'm thinking:

- Nets in 4 or 5. 

- Sixers/Hawks go to 7. Think Sixers will pull it off but Trae Young is going down swinging. Nobody puts tiny Trae in a corner.

- Suns in 6

- Utah in 6

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, Lady Whistleup said:

Yeah I'm thinking:

- Nets in 4 or 5. 

- Sixers/Hawks go to 7. Think Sixers will pull it off but Trae Young is going down swinging. Nobody puts tiny Trae in a corner.

- Suns in 6

- Utah in 6

Yeah, I'm granting Kawhi/PG one game to get flamethrower level and the Embiid situation is intriguing in Philly. He played Game 1 but didn't look right.

[Lady Whistleup]

3 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Yeah, I'm granting Kawhi/PG one game to get flamethrower level and the Embiid situation is intriguing in Philly. He played Game 1 but didn't look right.

Joel looked fine at first, but as the rest of the Sixers shit the bed and he was responsible for more and more of the offense he looked tired. 

I also think the Sixers need more of scoring backcourt. Their guards are currently: Danny Green, Seth Curry, Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle and Shake Milton. Of these only Seth Curry is a good shooter. The rest are all solid defensive players. In the playoffs I do think you need guards who can make it rain buckets. 

This Suns/Nuggets game is everything I wanted the Nets/Bucks to be.

[LexieLily]

15 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

This Suns/Nuggets game is everything I wanted the Nets/Bucks to be.

Watching Chris Paul like this and even last year what he did in OKC makes me sadder every game that it didn't work out with him and Harden in Houston. If only he hadn't strained that hamstring in Game 5 versus GSW, I really think Houston would have won the title in 2018.

Edited June 8, 2021 by LexieLily

[Lady Whistleup]

I'm happy for Chris Paul. I'm happy for all vets who have had a bunch of injuries and yet are still playing well. I mean I love to see young, blazing talent like Luka Doncic but it's also cool to see classics like Chris Paul's teardrop floater, Kawhi's bank shot, or KD's midrange jumper.

[Carey]

47 minutes ago, Lady Whistleup said:

This Suns/Nuggets game is everything I wanted the Nets/Bucks to be.

Agreed.  On one hand, you sorta had to laugh since the blowout went to a whole new level.  On the other hand, while it couldn't be the second of two games tonight, I sure wished it was.  A decisive win for Phoenix, but Denver didn't "give up" tonight

[Magog]

The Nets-Bucks series feels like its over already. I can't imagine how much worse its going to get for the Bucks at home in Game 3. Frankly, I'm only tolerating this series because of Kyrie Irving. The rest of the Brooklyn Nets (especially Kevin Durant) are downright unrootable. 

9 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Watching Chris Paul like this and even last year what he did in OKC makes me sadder every game that it didn't work out with him and Harden in Houston. If only he hadn't strained that hamstring in Game 5 versus GSW, I really think Houston would have won the title in 2018.

If only James Harden would of found a way to win Game 6 or Game 7. The Rockets were winning both games at halftime & Harden couldn't get them home either time. It also didn't help that he & the Rockets were bricking lots of 3 pointers in both games (going 0-27 in game 7). I'm still mad at James Harden for that.

[Lady Whistleup]

Grant Hill made a funny last night calling the Nets/Bucks game.

Marv: "Garbage time has taken over in the 4th quarter."

Hill: "It started in the 2nd."

Marv: "But they didn't know it at the time."

Heh.