2017-2018 NBA thread

[xskarma]

Imo, the Cavs are a ghost of what they were in the regular season the last few years as a team. LBJ has been the only constant for them and he is going to drive himself into the ground before the playoffs.

An interesting contrast, Toronto's starting 5 is playing a lot less minutes per game and their bench is putting up some pretty damn good numbers.

They seem to have only the vaguest clue about what this "defending" thing is. Celtics were not playing that out of the ordinary and Cavs just got slowly but surely more and more behind. Mostly cause the Celtics would get their defensive stops here and there and the Cavs would not.

There's something to be said about Cavs playing a back to back, in a hostile environment, but they basically gave up on this game with like almost 10 min to go. Lebron James never came back into the game when in reality they might have still made it close. Maybe Lebron and the rest of the team were just too tired and knew they would not be able to hang down the stretch and rather conserved energy, but it was still really weird.

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Oh, and apparently Celtics are now half way through the season. Time flies.

[-aiko-]

I'm having a hard time getting into this season. I guess it's rough when your team sucks a bunch of cold, limp dicks.

Part of me wants to follow the Celtics but I don't want to bandwagon. I've always stuck with my little ol shitty Jazz before.

[Vestig3]

Dont know why but to me it seems the Cavs didnt want to play lol

[xskarma]

Well then. I didn;t realize the London game was this early (I should have) tune in just in time to see the Celtics close the last 7 points. Let's see how they continue the second half.

[Blueobelisk]

The what? Oh. Boston vs. Philli @ London. Do all teams get that or just one pair?

[xskarma]

The what? Oh. Boston vs. Philli @ London. Do all teams get that or just one pair?

No clue.

Celtics tightened on defense and found their shots and blew the Sixers out in the end. It wasn't a very good game to watch, so kind of drifted off and did a M+ while the game was on the other screen.

[Blueobelisk]

Well. I'm watching the TNT Pre game show and some guy named Viktor Cruz was there. And evidently he's a football player or something and he said xskarma's team was going to win the Super Bowl this year.

[Pendulous]

Well. I'm watching the TNT Pre game show and some guy named Viktor Cruz was there. And evidently he's a football player or something and he said xskarma's team was going to win the Super Bowl this year.

He was a long-time receiver on the New York Giants.

[xskarma]

"This is the 7th time the Cavaliers have allowed 60 points by halftime, tied with the Lakers for most in the NBA."

Cavs are pretty much literally a Lebron James away from being a lottery team. Amazing.

[Rennadrel]

"This is the 7th time the Cavaliers have allowed 60 points by halftime, tied with the Lakers for most in the NBA."

Cavs are pretty much literally a Lebron James away from being a lottery team. Amazing.

Anyone who thinks they even have a shot at this point is foolish. I'll be interested to see how the Raptors handle GSW on Saturday night. We hung around and lost a close game to them early in the season but the dominating performance against the Cavs has somewhat validated the system that the Raptors are playing. If they can beat a GSW team that is short Curry without Lowry, then there is zero reason to believe that they can't win the conference this year. Either way, it makes me happy to see an egotistical brat like Lebron suffering with a mediocre team that is full of old guys who can't shoot the ball and they have no one to trade of value for significant return. I'd say that the Cavs window for winning another championship is gone after this season.

[xskarma]

Curry is playing tonight after missing 2 games with a sprained ankle. Raptors about to get a serious test if he plays like normal.

[-aiko-]

Really nice 4th quarter rally by the Raptors but they just couldn't take it home. This could be an interesting matchup to keep an eye on.

[xskarma]

Celtics lose a sloppy game in OT to the Pelicans. First half was pretty damn bad, looked every bit like the Celtics hadn't played in like a week (which was true). Rust came off a bit in the second half, but still couldn;t quite get things flowing offensively. It was mostly a shot by shot thing instead of having ball movement and more open looks.

Ah well, hopefully they play better next game.

[Blueobelisk]

NBA All Stars.

[xskarma]

I heard Kyrie was out earlier and figured it would be an ugly game, then kind of forgot the game was on while I was doing WoW stuff. Seems like I indeed dodged an ugly game that way. Brad Stevens complaining about the offense not playing hard enough today. That's pretty serious condemnation from him cause he's usually pretty even positive and negative.

That's 2 in a row they lost and hopefully that doesn't turn into more games. Celtics have been kind of due a slump though, maybe getting through that jam packed early half of the season and especially Dec kind of set them up for this. We'll see how it goes.

[Demoncrash]

Been out of the loop due to exams. WTF is going on here?

[anakin57]

I'm really happy with my Bulls seeing how Markkannen and Dunn have worked out, but I think they need to deal Mirotic to keep stocking the ranks with young talent.

[xskarma]

Ugh. These ESPN commentators are absolute nitwits. Constantly talking over interesting game action talking about random bullshit no one cares about like the ref/player memo that went out. And then having barely anything interesting to say about the game action when they do follow it, just random hur dur "Kyrie going for loose balls" nonsense.

I thought ESPN commentating was just bad in football but I guess it's a network wide thing.

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Celtics have been missing open shots and missing at the free throw line all through the 2nd and 3rd and 4th quarter yet still somehow within reach of the Warriors.

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Gah. Could have had this game, but several misses in a row with the game within 1, followed by a Steph 3 killed the Celtics. Shame, but drawing the season series with the Warriors 1-1 isn't too shabby. Hopefully a re-do in the playoffs

[Racthoh]

RIP the Clippers also

[xskarma]

Pistons are going to seriously regret that decision, sooner than later I suspect.


Celtics beat the Nuggest, in Denver. Game turned out much tougher than it should have been. I think the combination of altitude and long west coast road trip got to the Celtics in the second half. It got ugly, but they managed to grit it out.