I went to sleep after seeing the Clippers up by 20 and they choke it away?! Josh Smith led them and Harden was benched? What is this madness lol
NBA Season 2014-2015
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Silly Clippers only the Cowboys are America's choke artists not you with your multiple years of futility and awfulness.
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Damn I bet Pierce is more pissed at himself for missing that shot at the end of Game 4. Then in Game 6 he got a game-tying shot off .1 or .2 seconds too late.
Well both #1 seeds took care of business tonight and happen to be the healthiest teams left. Rooting for the Clippers Sunday night so all my picks make it and they could actually put up a fight against GS unlike the Rockets
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Hawks in 6 but it won't surprise me all that much if the Wizards win. The Wizards are playing great and the Hawks are playing bad.
Cavs in 6. The Bulls aren't playing the Bucks anymore.
Warriors in 5. Sucks about Conley, even if the Grizzlies impressed me in round 1.
Clippers in 7. But if CP3 is hobbling around all series, then Rockets in 7.I'm looking a lot smarter right now than I did after round 1.
I've been hard on the Bulls all year. I absolutely hated the Gasol signing and I still do, even though I'll admit that he played well. It just felt like it represented a huge disconnect between the coaching staff and front office to me when it happened. The way he tends to approach the game conflicts with Thibs a lot, with things like preferring rest over practice. But signing him also created some different problems that I didn't really pay close attention to until the playoffs. The Bulls had a logjam in the frontcourt, a void at the wing outside of Butler, and a severe lack of overall team athleticism. Thibs doesn't scare the league with guys like Gasol, Niko, Dunleavy, Hinrich, and McDermott. He needs athletic freaks that can get it done defensively. The Bulls roster right now seems like it was put together for a coach like Popovich. I think it's a given that Thibs will be coaching another team (probably either the Pels or the Magic) at the start of next season.
But it's not all bad in Chicago. Rose got out of the playoffs healthy, thankfully, so he can focus on his game for an offseason instead of rehab. And Jimmy Butler is a legit stud. I don't feel apprehensive at all to think that he could quickly develop into a top 10 player in the league if he can stay healthy. Everything starts with finding a guy like him.
After watching the Grizzlies grind out yet another tough series loss with a battered Conley, I've grown to realize something about that team. The thing that's holding them back from taking it to the next level is finding a legit wing threat. I think the Grizzlies realized that, which is why they made a desperation trade for Jeff Green, but he's not going to cut it. They have Allen as a shut down defender, but nobody to create offense from out there with any sort of efficiency. Jeff Green, Tony Allen, Vince Carter, Courtney Lee. I have no beef with any of them (except maybe with the value of Green), but none of them can put the team on their shoulders either.
The Wizards surprised the hell out of me this postseason. If Wall doesn't break his hand they might beat the Hawks in 7. It's going to be a sad day when Paul Pierce retires. That guy is something else. Porter started looking like an actual NBA player, and a long term core of Wall/Beal/Porter has a lot more flavor to it than just Wall/Beal. I worry a bit about their aging frontcourt and lack of adequate replacements at a lot of positions. But for next season alone, Wall/Beal/Porter/Pierce/Nene/Gortat could be dangerous. The downside for them is that the team did well enough to keep both coach and GM. As long as Ernie Grunfeld is shaping the roster, chances are that it'll always be a little short on talent.
The Rockets/Clippers series makes me pine for the new free throw rules next season. I really appreciate the Eastern Conference teams not resorting to that trash.
I find the Grizzlies and Hawks to be fascinating test cases in the NBA this offseason. The Grizzlies play like teams you only find out East. And the Hawks play like teams you only find out West.
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Lol, after all lower seeds being up 2-1 they all ended up losing.
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Ooh, only 2 of my picks it through. So if you told me before the season that neither the Spurs nor Thunder would make it to the conference finals, I would've called you crazy. And then both the Clippers and Spurs finished the regular season on such a dominant run to not even make it past Round 2.
I don't think the Warriors will need any more than 10 games to hoist that trophy.
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Rockets on a roll, but Warriors will win in 6. I think that LeBron will lose to the Warriors in the finals, if he can get past the Hawks with all these injuries. If Kyrie goes off though?! Lawwwd, gonna be a sick finals!
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Ooh, only 2 of my picks it through. So if you told me before the season that neither the Spurs nor Thunder would make it to the conference finals, I would've called you crazy. And then both the Clippers and Spurs finished the regular season on such a dominant run to not even make it past Round 2.
I don't think the Warriors will need any more than 10 games to hoist that trophy.
so you are saying that the Warriors will dismantle LeBron in 5 games?? yeah… about that
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@Best:
so you are saying that the Warriors will dismantle LeBron in 5 games?? yeah… about that
The Warriors could sweep the Rockets and beat the Cavs/Hawks in 6 or vice versa. There's a few combinations in there to win in 10 games or less but the Warriors don't have a team that threatens them anymore
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ALl my teams have been eliminated! lol
Maybe I'll just root for the Dubs. Or Hawks.
and wow Clips, couldn't have choked any better. (also hope that Thibs coaches the Pels if ever he leaves us) -
The Warriors completely punked the Rockets this year in the regular season 4-0, and have gone 1-1 against the Cavs and Hawks. The Hawks play a full stretch 5 offense that's hard on Bogut, and the Cavs play a very physical defensive system that's specifically designed to counter lots of movement. Neither team is really an ideal matchup from the Warriors point of view. For the Hawks, they really need to rediscover their groove, but if they can hit their shots and Korver goes nuclear they can give anyone fits. For the Cavs, if Kyrie can go toe to toe with Curry and the role players can play like they did against the Bulls, they have a shot.
I do have a bad feeling that the WCF will be a disappointing series, though. I hope the Rockets can prove me wrong. Oh well, congrats to Doc Rivers on becoming the first coach ever to lose two series after being up 3-1.
Cavs in 6
Warriors in 5 -
I want to say the Warriors will sweep but I'll give the Rockets a game…sigh. Echoing Urouge's picks of Cavs in 6 and Warriors in 5
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I wanna say Atlanta in 4 (Lebron hate is real haha) but I'm going for Atlanta in 7, unless they get their groove back. And yeah, Warriors in 5. I want to give Houston more games, but I just don't see how they can defend the Splash Bros.
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@Uncanny:
I wanna say Atlanta in 4 (Lebron hate is real haha) but I'm going for Atlanta in 7, unless they get their groove back. And yeah, Warriors in 5. I want to give Houston more games, but I just don't see how they can defend the Splash Bros.
Hahaha….....Am also going for game 7 win for Hawks but am skeptical. Warriors game 5.
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I want to say the Warriors will sweep but I'll give the Rockets a game…sigh. Echoing Urouge's picks of Cavs in 6 and Warriors in 5
And go figure that Zach Lowe, maybe the only NBA writer these days whose opinion I really respect, wound up going with the exact same predictions as well: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-nba-conference-finals-preview/
Kyrie's injury status after a week off is going to make a big difference, most likely. The Cavs will probably go small a lot, and Lebron vs Millsap will be a series defining matchup. I'm actually starting to look forward to this series because it could really go either way. Unlike the Warriors who I just expect to win and move on. I just don't really want to watch 6 more games of Lebron iso.
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Wow the lottery is today and I'm just hearing about it somewhat in depth. I guess with random background stuff taking up all the news time (Thibs, rumors of Rose/Butler feud, ditto for the Clippers Big 3, even Tom Brady and co. having an effect on how much basketball is talked about)
Of course I'll be rooting against the Lakers! And only a little bit opposed to the Knicks getting #1 since they'd find some way to screw it up.
The T-Wolves getting it would be awesome because then they'd have 2.5 #1s in a row on their roster. Bennett is barely worth half.
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Timberwolves-Lakers-Sixers are the top three lottery picks in that order.
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Damn Lakers, moving up in the draft order and whatnot. I hope they are stuck with Towns since he wouldn't fit as well with Randle.
Anyways, Trevor Ariza has been a boss all playoffs. Chandler Parsons who?
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So many hometown calls it was ridiculous. Curry won't get a foul for shit. Whatever we came out and played. Damn that was close. 40%our fault 60% home calls.
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Pretty sure the Timberwolves will be the first team to ever have 3 consecutive #1 overall picks on their team. And the 76ers were never more jealous. You just knew that the Knicks were going to get screwed after Dolan decided to rehire Isiah to run a WNBA team.
I tend to think that Towns and Russell will be the stars of the draft this year. Towns is one of those rare college bigs that does everything at an elite level, including defense and passing. And Russell was a kid who couldn't yet shoot very well on a truly terrible Ohio State team, yet despite all that, I heard some stat that like his all time offensive efficiency is tied with Harden for 2nd, and behind only Curry. You can't teach that sort of command. I think Winslow could be real good too, but he might need to grow another couple inches to be worthy of a top 5 pick. Porzingis and Hezonja will be the wild cards. I'm going to laugh if one of them Milicic's their way into the top 4 (for those who remember, the top 4 were projected to be Lebron, Melo, Wade, and Bosh, and Detroit picked Darko #2 overall).
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Basketball gods just want GSW to win the title. First it was Conley and Allen. Now Howard is injured and they will probably play Cavs in the finals, without Love and with one-legged Kyrie.
Why so much drama with Knicks having a 4th pick? They can take Mudiay, they defenitely need a PG. Yeah they need a Bigman too, but they can take someone in free agency.
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Hopefully Carroll is able to continue the series, he's been outplaying his 4 All-Star teammates for the majority of the playoffs
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The Warriors could sweep the Rockets and beat the Cavs/Hawks in 6 or vice versa. There's a few combinations in there to win in 10 games or less but the Warriors don't have a team that threatens them anymore
That is truly a wrong concept of your's that warriors don't have team that threatens, I still see some great emerging players in their team which have the ability to push it in their favor.
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All-NBA Teams have been announced. And what do you know, only 3 players from the East
But I'm a little confused at Wall having less than have the points of Thompson/Irving. Team record must have had an impact; that's why Andrew Bogut somehow received multiple votes. And/or it just shows how shallow the center position is.
That is truly a wrong concept of your's that warriors don't have team that threatens, I still see some great emerging players in their team which have the ability to push it in their favor.
The two parts of your statement seem disjointed. What exactly are you trying to point out?
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Kyrie was phenominal this season, though his playoffs have been marred by injury. I think the East got jobbed a bit at 20% of the spots. Interesting that no Hawks player made it. I'd have picked Jimmy Butler over Pau Gasol. And John Wall probably got jobbed the most.
Overall I think the All NBA awards this year are far too big man heavy for a league that's become extremely perimeter oriented. The 2nd and 3rd team are both starting 5's and 4's at all 3 forward spots. It just shows the stupidity of having a 2 guard and 3 forward system when over half the league is playing 3 guards at once.
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Atlanta has to take this game. My prediction is that Schröder will kick Lebron´s ass:ninja:
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Looks like we're in for a short conference final. Get ready for June folks
Steph is going MVP all over the Rockets. That box out on Howard was awesome.
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The Rockets did well away from home and I was thinking at least they would be able to pull one back, I guess what they did withe Clippers ain't about to happen for another long time. Hehehehe
This was a rout by the Warriors and these guys had no reply. I guess game 4 is the last one how many predicted that!!!!
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Curry ate the rockets up.
I've often wondered about that myself; seems like being supported by people who only want you there so the world can end in fire (with you going to Hell in the process) would be somewhat off-putting
3DS Friend Code 0044-2806-5284
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That Warriors game was a bloodbath. A Dubs-Cavs Final is all but assured now.
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Rockets lost on purpose. After coming back from 3-1 with Clippers, now they want to come back from 3-0.
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That's only happened about three times in sports history and never in the NBA.
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That's only happened about three times in sports history and never in the NBA.
I was joking xD
Yeah it´s impossible and for this team even more… But if they do it, I will let my beard grow longer than Harden´s xD -
Dellavedufus is the real MVP! Fcktard keeps on trying to injure people. If it's once, I can accept that it's accidental, but it's thrice in 5 games! Someone needs to chop his head off.. we don't need more injuries in these playoffs, and I don't want to see him do that to Steph or Klay.
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@Uncanny:
Dellavedufus is the real MVP! Fcktard keeps on trying to injure people. If it's once, I can accept that it's accidental, but it's thrice in 5 games! Someone needs to chop his head off.. we don't need more injuries in these playoffs, and I don't want to see him do that to Steph or Klay.
We need to go back in time and make sure he never plays rugby
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The hell? Those injuries are coming after diving after loose balls. He's a former rugby player and seems to win those collisions. I've even seen a bunch of Bulls and Hawks fans who've given the guy a full pass. And the only reason he's playing so much to begin with is because Kyrie is hurt.
But anyone who's diving for a loose ball can't be focused on crushing a guy's knee or ankle. They'd be just as likely to wind up hurting themselves. This is especially reinforced by the fact that he tends to wind up with the ball, meaning that his focus is on getting the ball.
Moving on though, I'm not really digging the conference finals this year. Two potential sweeps? Really?
Edit:
just to make my point, here's your "dirty player" in action. All 3 incidents.Taj:
Korver:
Horford:
Meanwhile, the Hawks are taking far more cheap shots at him than he has at them:
Ironically, Korver's the only one who was innocent and he's the one who really got hurt. But honestly, that one was his own fault for not diving for the loose ball like every coach back to grade school will teach you. Not diving both lacks hustle that doesn't win loose balls, and it's apt to get you injured by players whom are actually diving. Get down or get out of the way.
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I really don't understand how people are blaming Dellavedova for the Horford incident. He is arm-locking Delly and pulling him down, and he even trips over Carroll. What could he have possibly done to not land on Horford's legs?
The one thing I didn't like by Dellavedova in these playoffs is the leg-lock on Gibson, but anyways I think that was more smart than dirty.
The Korver one is totally accidental.One Punch Man ITALIAN scans: [http://mykommunity.blogspot.it/searc…/one punch man](http://mykommunity.blogspot.it/search/label/one punch man) (READ ONLINE: http://www.batoto.net/read/_/141870/...h1_by_no-group)
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Wow wow and wow. That was amazing game by Harden!! If this turns out like the Clippers comeback by the Rockets it would be a HUGE disappoint for the Waariors!
Hack-a-player strategy aint working hehehehhe.
And the landing of Curry probably helped them stretch out the Lead[emoji16] [emoji16] those 12 minutes.
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Props to Houston for shooting absolutely lights out. You got your one, now prepare to lose at Roaracle.
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The Hawks were no match for the Cavaliers and had no answer for James, who nearly averaged a triple-double in the four games. I didn't really see them sweeping it four love it was a short one now let's wait for the west.
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I didn't think the Hawks would get swept, but once they dropped both games at home and Korver got hurt they were toast. It was impressive that they nearly won game 3 in spite of all that. Korver's too important for the way he can bend a defense. The Hawks are a good team, but they're small and Teague looks like the only player who can actually take over a game (and Millsap at times, but he wasn't healthy in the playoffs). They also stopped doing what made them great, which is relentless, pristine ball movement. In they playoffs they were doing a lot of Iso, 1 or 2 pass kind of offensive plays, which is par for the course for the NBA but not for that Hawks team. A lot of that had to do with the defenses they were playing, though. Defenses played the Hawks largely for the passing lanes in the playoffs in order to force the guy with the ball to make the play.
Golden State's pristine ball movement works so much better than Atlanta's in the playoffs because Curry can force a double team just by calling for a screen at the 3 point line. Then he passes out of it and it's 4 on 3 against a scrambling defense. The Hawks don't have anyone who can single handedly break the defense like that up top.
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I wonder if this the first time a 60-win team got swept. Like the broadcasters have raved about all playoffs long, especially in this series, the Cavs defense is looking really good. This is coming with Mosgov, who isn't elite on defense, manning the middle for a little over half the game. The other 20-25 minutes Thompson has been playing center. Pretty astounding how the Cavs have been disrupting teams. Even with James Jones playing some minutes(mostly with Thompson at center) I think we all have reason to believe that they'll give a competitive series to the Warriors since there's no big man to defend against. And by competitive, I'll acknowledge that the Cavs won't get blown out but sticking with my recycled 'Warriors in 5' prediction
It's been about a month since we've seen Love play and it doesn't seem like he's worth the price tag to keep around. Thompson's performance could obviously be a bit of fool's gold but it'll be smarter to keep him around and find a 3rd guy to fill into the 4/5 off the bench. Varejao seems perfect for that role if he can get back to form but I could see his contract being a toxic one that ultimately holds the team back from resigning Mozgov going forward.
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No, the Hawks did nothing historically awful here. 96 Magic and 98 Lakers both got swept with 60 win seasons, and 07 Mavs lost in the first round with a 68 win season.
As for Cleveland, it wouldn't be wise for them to rely too heavily on Varejao, who's on the wrong side of 30 and coming off an Achilles tear. Having a 3 man front court rotation of Love, Mozgov, and Thompson over the 2nd half of the season worked out great for them since Thompson can play both positions. Most people who actually want to see the team succeed expect to see them bring all 3 players back. The luxury tax is a formality for them this season. Hard cap is the only thing that matters.
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Thompson doesn't seem like a guy who has any sort of ego but I'd hate to make the 12-15 million he could end up getting and have to come off the bench behind Love.
Most people who actually want to see the team succeed expect to see them bring all 3 players back.
That's very well put
No, the Hawks did nothing historically awful here. 96 Magic and 98 Lakers both got swept with 60 win seasons
Prime Shaq swept twice?! Damn, well now he's not alone. All 3 instances have occured in the conference finals btw.
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Hmm, to be entirely honest, even when Love was healthy and Thompson was coming off of the bench, Thompson was more apt to get starter minutes while Mozgov was more apt to get 6th man minutes. But you might as well have the 7'1" guy out there for the jump ball.
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Mozgov's minutes are still around the same now in the playoffs actually. Even though rotations shrink in the playoffs compared to the regular season, is plugging Love back in to the Cavs machine next year worth 20 million? The power forward position is pretty talented in the NBA; I think the Cavs could find someone to shore up their depth if Love goes. It's a pretty good situation to be in though. Who would have thought that Tristan Thompson would be playing this well? It's not like he's some cliche volume scorer that tricks teams into giving a fat contract then takes it easy. Just an improving two way player with a rebounding skill that will eat up all these small ball teams that we see more and more often
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Lebron's been playing a lot of minutes at the 4 in the playoffs to cover for Love's absense, which is fine because it's the playoffs and everyone empties their bags. They've also been trying to get away with a lot of Miami-esque tricks like bringing James Jones in to play the 3 on offense and the 4 on defense to save Lebron a bit of wear. That's not a solution they want to rely on for an 82 game regular season, though. They want to camp Lebron comfortably at the 3 for the duration of the season, where he doesn't have to grind with the David Wests of the world.
Love is ideal because he can bang with any 4 in the game down low, and outrebound damn near all of them, and still space the floor as well as any big in the game. Love's numbers suffered when he teamed up with Lebron just like Bosh's did as they both saw their roles diminish in a huge way, but the combination of spacing and rebounding he provides is invaluable as he still averaged like 17 and 10 and kept his defender out of the paint. Those are all star numbers for someone who didn't already establish himself at 24 and 12 or whatever, but people only see the regression in the numbers. His defense isn't great but it is average, and Mozgov and Thompson both play good defense, so they make a great 3 headed monster overall. They may never have the number 1 ranked defense with him on the floor, but they could very well have the number 1 ranked offense with him on the floor. But the bottom line is that if they let him walk, they still have to replace him with another 4, and that's not exactly an easy task. If that happens then they're looking at wooing guys like Aldridge and Milsap, which is fine, except that those guys are like 6 years older and no cheaper, and come without bird rights.
In the end it'll all come down to what Lebron wants, most likely. If he wants the Cavs to devote a huge portion of their cap space to Love to keep him, they'll do it without a second thought. And considering that Lebron specifically went out and recruited him after they played on team USA together and gave up Wiggins for him, he clearly has a ton of respect for his game. Thompson is pretty much a lock to stay at a huge pay day since he shares the same agent as Lebron.
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LeBron's got his work cut out for him. If he leads the Cavs to a victory, he's the best player in NBA history. More likely, this year's finals go the way of the 1998 World Series.
