The Swamp

If I could find a "will there be an ejection?" prop in town for tonight's Hou-GSW game, I would be sorely tempted to put $1,000 on the "Yes". The refs are in an absolute no-win spot tonight and I'm sure every call will be met with dramatic remonstrations.

Rams Fanny wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:12 pm If I could find a "will there be an ejection?" prop in town for tonight's Hou-GSW game, I would be sorely tempted to put $1,000 on the "Yes". The refs are in an absolute no-win spot tonight and I'm sure every call will be met with dramatic remonstrations.

It was the exact opposite of that. Now we get to hear Draymond Green of all people talking about how good it was for the game.

I've seen far too many Raptors playoff games where it's one great player surrounded by scrubs.

Fuck Kyle Lowry.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 9:58 pm I've seen far too many Raptors playoff games where it's one great player surrounded by scrubs.

Fuck Kyle Lowry.

That game was the full Embiid experience. Other than Kawhi, the Raptors looked shook tonight. Needless to say, there’ll be a lot of pressure on them (especially Lowry) in Game 4.

He earned that dick punch. Undercuts are never ok.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 10:23 pm He earned that dick punch. Undercuts are never ok.

And he was flopping like a Portuguese soccer player as well.

Now they just need to sign Kyrie and JR and trade Lonzo, Ingram and Kuzma for Tristan and Kevin Love. Get the whole band back together.

Draymond’s mom was not a fan of Steph’s performance tonight:

Draymond also made LeBron’s eye bleed during Game 1 of last year’s Finals, and then demonstrably whined about being called for a foul on the play.

Kawhi, KD, Giannis and Jokic have all been amazing this postseason. The current talent level in the NBA is off the charts good.

Joe K wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 1:00 pm

Kawhi, KD, Giannis and Jokic have all been amazing this postseason. The current talent level in the NBA is off the charts good.

DeRozan was a perennial all-star. But he doesn't belong in the same sentence as Kawhi Leonard.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 5:23 pm

Joe K wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 1:00 pm

Kawhi, KD, Giannis and Jokic have all been amazing this postseason. The current talent level in the NBA is off the charts good.

DeRozan was a perennial all-star. But he doesn't belong in the same sentence as Kawhi Leonard.

Kawhi’s current postseason shot chart is NSFW:

This is surely an unfair truncation of his response, but nevertheless, it’s the type of content I crave.

Kyrie to la as a shooting guard. You heard it here first!

I really think it’s a great fit.

While I'm not watching the game, the box score suggests Kyrie is shooting his way out of Boston.

His 3 point attempt air ball in the 2nd quarter was a masterpiece.

Edit:

Hopefully this stays up long enough for you to see:

The focus will be on how far the Celtics fell short of their lofty preseason hype. (The vast majority of analysts picked them to win the East and their preseason O/U was 59 wins.) But it’s also time for people to realize, if they haven’t already, that the Bucks are a force. They could still lose to Toronto, Golden State or even Houston, but they have the strong profile of a title team.

Yes I agree bucks are really good but I think Hayward’s devastating injury totally changed that franchises trajectory. And of course kyrie sucking doesn’t help.

Kyrie could have been scottie. But he wanted to be more. I get it. But maybe he now realizes Scottie had it good.

Ignore me. I’ve watched 45 minutes of the playoffs this year.

A_B wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2019 10:09 pm Yes I agree bucks are really good but I think Hayward’s devastating injury totally changed that franchises trajectory. And of course kyrie sucking doesn’t help.

One of the many theories for the team’s dysfunction, besides Kyrie’s general weirdness, is that the young guys resented Hayward getting as many minutes as he did when they knew he didn’t have it.

But back to the Bucks, nothing about their roster jumps out besides Giannis. And they’ll have stretches within games where the outside shots aren’t falling and they don’t seem like much. But I swear that every time I watch them they play they inevitably find a way to bury their opponent in the second half. They won over 45 games by double digits this season. Every other team in NBA history that has done that has won the title. And outside the weirdness of Game 1 of this series, their postseason scoring margin is absurd.

I haven’t watched a minute of the NBA this year but I follow NBA analytics guys who are all in on bets for the Bucks to win the title. Their net scoring delta in the regular season was like 8th all-time in the history of the NBA and 6 of the top 7 all won the title.

Why I can't watch people on TV give their takes:

Another good take compilation:

Edit:

Lolz.

TT2.0 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2019 1:43 am i consider myself somewhat of an expert when i say the fix is fucking in. depressing.

just as depressing to watch as i thought it would be two weeks ago. The way that game was called was ridiculously bad.

An annoying thing about that series is that by any measure, Harden vastly outperformed Curry (despite what the postmortem narratives will say). But when you get to play with 3 or 4 other Hall of Famers, you only need to show up for 2 halves out of a 6 game series. In retrospect, Houston probably should have tried to ugly it up and win with defense, like they did in Games 4-5 last year. Instead they played their normal game, executed their offense far better than last year, but couldn’t get stops.

Joe K wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 7:14 am An annoying thing about that series is that by any measure, Harden vastly outperformed Curry (despite what the postmortem narratives will say). But when you get to play with 3 or 4 other Hall of Famers, you only need to show up for 2 halves out of a 6 game series. In retrospect, Houston probably should have tried to ugly it up and win with defense, like they did in Games 4-5 last year. Instead they played their normal game, executed their offense far better than last year, but couldn’t get stops.

That's the thing about team sports, right? Rarely can one star carry a team all the way. The Warriors have to be happy that they could win a big game without Durant. Looks like they will have to get used to that the rest of the playoffs, and probably next season. If they lose both Thompson and Durant, that will certainly change things.

/Bandwagoner

If Portland pulls this out, warriors v blazers would be a TON of fun.

Mark Jackson and Breen were going on and on about how much leadership and trust Lillard and the coach showed by giving another guy a chance to hit the shot at the end of the game. Takes a lot of bravery to let some schlub with over 30 points in the game, averaging over 20 a game for the season, not to much a $20 million player, to take an important shot. Granted, McCollum did go to Lehigh, but he's no Lee Iacocca.

Three straight possessions with a shot clock violation (essentially) in the last three minutes of a one-possession game. That’s the good stuff.

Great finish. Will have no issues rooting for Toronto or Milwaukee to beat the Warriors.

How the fuck do we not put Embiid on the low block and make him operate even once in the last however many minutes?

Figure end it with Toronto knocking us out on a walk-off.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:38 pm How the fuck do we not put Embiid on the low block and make him operate even once in the last however many minutes?

Figure end it with Toronto knocking us out on a walk-off.

Because the late game offense has been running through Butler for months. Greg Anthony was going on and on about the execution while ignoring that Butler badly rolled his ankle with 5 minutes left.

Joe K wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:41 pm

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:38 pm How the fuck do we not put Embiid on the low block and make him operate even once in the last however many minutes?

Figure end it with Toronto knocking us out on a walk-off.

Because the late game offense has been running through Butler for months. Greg Anthony was going on and on about the execution while ignoring that Butler badly rolled his ankle with 5 minutes left.

The Canadian coverage highlighted that injury and referred to it a few times. He was clearly hurt.

I just went back and watched again and it’s amazing how well you can hear all 4 bounces off the rim with everyone in the crowd holding their breath.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:45 pm

Joe K wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:41 pm

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:38 pm How the fuck do we not put Embiid on the low block and make him operate even once in the last however many minutes?

Figure end it with Toronto knocking us out on a walk-off.

Because the late game offense has been running through Butler for months. Greg Anthony was going on and on about the execution while ignoring that Butler badly rolled his ankle with 5 minutes left.

The Canadian coverage highlighted that injury and referred to it a few times. He was clearly hurt.

They noted it on TNT but then somehow failed to draw the connection with how the Sixers were struggling to execute late. It’s easy to say they should run something different but harder to change your habits with just a few minutes left in Game 94 of the season.