2018-2019 NBA thread

[Rennadrel]

It looks like the only legit series in the 1st round will be 4v5 seed in the East. The rest should be a snooze. The second round though... I'm very excited to see. I think Golden State has a better chance of being defeated within the conference rather than in the finals. OKC is the sleeper team to me but I really don't know how Denver will perform in the playoffs. It's my dream that Westbrook bounces Durant in the 2nd round out of revenge.

I'm kind of relieved there's no LeBron in the playoffs this year. Not that I don't like him but I think the headlines could use some diversity and focus on different stars and narratives. There are a lot of legit teams this year.

That's how I feel too. The NBA is more than just LeBron or GSW. There's some good storylines and most of the great matchups will be in the 2nd round. Like, the East has teams under .500 that will make it into the playoffs, which is dumb.

[xskarma]

Ringer back with another basketball song, this time The Beatles "Let it be" transformed into a James Dolan tribute: https://youtu.be/K6bETR7qv1o?t=91

[xskarma]

Amazing sequence of plays by the Pelicans. What a dumbass way to lose. https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorNBA/...04150817394688

[PhaelixWW]

And that video misses the part where the Pels had the ball up three and couldn't inbound it in time, forcing the turnover which led to the Suns possession in the video.

[xskarma]

Smart and Mook Morris are grinding my gears in this game, more so than the rest of the Celtics, but they're all pretty terrible since the last 30 seconds of the 3rd quarter onwards. Down 10 with not much time left in this game. Need to snap out of it right now or this game is just going to be another one on the large pile of dumb losses this year.

[Pendulous]

That's like, the entire lineup. I was gonna say that it's been sucking lately for Utah with Rubio in and out, I think Neto missed some time, and Thabo missed more time again this season, but with Ironman Jingles, Gobert not missing significant time this year, and Favors looking to be ok, I guess I don't have any room to complain.

[xskarma]

The Sixers playing Boban against the Celtics is a BAD plan. Celtics took advantage of him all over.

[Espo]

The Sixers playing Boban against the Celtics is a BAD plan. Celtics took advantage of him all over.

Yea I'm not sure the 3 minutes against Boban was a big deal. I'd say it's everyone on the Celtics shooting like Steph Curry that is the bigger thing tonight.

[xskarma]

Embiid is a dirty player. He's lucky Smart is a hot head cause other players would not have retaliated and he would have just gotten away with it. Glad smart reacted though. Embiid is just a bully that thinks he can get away with it otherwise.

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Sheesh this game. Celtics just letting themselves get played out of the game by Embiid's dirty play now. Need to collect themselves and play like they did before.

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Damn that was beautiful. Basically every game this season when things started going south the Celtics just didn;t respond, or made it even worse. But every so often, they'd have a game like today where they actually keep their head up and compete and get back in it. Wish they did this more consistently. Praying they take this into the playoffs.

[Espo]

Embiid is a dirty player. He's lucky Smart is a hot head cause other players would not have retaliated and he would have just gotten away with it. Glad smart reacted though. Embiid is just a bully that thinks he can get away with it otherwise.

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Sheesh this game. Celtics just letting themselves get played out of the game by Embiid's dirty play now. Need to collect themselves and play like they did before.

Come on man.

1. Stop overreacting to the Celtics lead barely getting into single digits.
2. Get out of here with that Embiid is a dirty player shit. He's like 30th in the NBA in technicals. What you mean to say is that Embiid talks shit and owns real estate in a lot of players' heads. That's like me saying Horford is a dirty player because he owns the same real estate in Embiid's head and makes him do dumb things.

Your homerism is showing. And you're possibly bipolar judging from the sequence of your post.

[xskarma]

2. Get out of here with that Embiid is a dirty player shit.

Embiid IS dirty. He's constantly physical and expects to be fouled, but he hands it out as much as he gets, but doesn't get called for it. He literally elbowed Smart on a screen and brought him to the floor, didn't get called, said something to Smart while he was down and then Smart exploded. In the end that cost us the game cause now we had to put someone else on Butler in the 4th quarter, which would have fallen to Smart otherwise.

But it took Smart getting ejected and Baynes getting hurt and an uncharactaristically unclutch Kyrie down the stretch for the Sixers to win by 3, at home. I'll take that and just hope Baynes and Horford (who knocked knees with Embiid in the last minute) are okay going forward and don't need extended time off.

I'll ignore the rest of your rude post, cause seriously?

[Espo]

Embiid IS dirty. He's constantly physical and expects to be fouled, but he hands it out as much as he gets, but doesn't get called for it. He literally elbowed Smart on a screen and brought him to the floor, didn't get called, said something to Smart while he was down and then Smart exploded. In the end that cost us the game cause now we had to put someone else on Butler in the 4th quarter, which would have fallen to Smart otherwise.

But it took Smart getting ejected and Baynes getting hurt and an uncharactaristically unclutch Kyrie down the stretch for the Sixers to win by 3, at home. I'll take that and just hope Baynes and Horford (who knocked knees with Embiid in the last minute) are okay going forward and don't need extended time off.

I'll ignore the rest of your rude post, cause seriously?

Hey man--just calling it like I see it. The bipolar comment was harsh, so my bad there (and apologies). But you go hot and cold on the Boston teams all the time. Like you said, it took two of the Celtics' best defenders being out for the Sixers to win, on top of some kind officiating toward Embiid and Jimmy going off. Just relax--the Celtics would still beat the Sixers in a series.

You're still wrong about Embiid being dirty. Him running his mouth doesn't make him dirty, nor does him asking for fouls that may seem hypocritical. You aren't going to find many examples of Embiid doing anything physical that people would consider dirty--he's all bark and no bite. The elbow to Smart wasn't cool (and was called--he got a tech.), but Smart was off balance and sold it just a bit (watch the replay). I still think that comment is a bit of you reacting to Smart being a dumbass more than Embiid actually being dirty.

[xskarma]

You're still wrong about Embiid being dirty. Him running his mouth doesn't make him dirty, nor does him asking for fouls that may seem hypocritical. You aren't going to find many examples of Embiid doing anything physical that people would consider dirty--he's all bark and no bite. The elbow to Smart wasn't cool, but Smart was off balance and sold it just a bit (watch the replay). I still think that comment is a bit of you reacting to Smart being a dumbass more than Embiid actually being dirty.

Eh. I think Embiid is a massive asshole, so maybe I get more annoyed every time I see him commit a foul that doesn't get called, more than I should.

I think he's just the rare case of Big man that gets LESS calls against him when he;s physical with people, most Big men get called under the principal that even the slightest bump against another player will look bad, cause the smaller players will go flying. With Embiid it seems the opposite. People go flying off him and refs seem to think it's those players running into Embiid or something. The Smart elbow is one, but it happens every time I see Embiid play.


Anyway, GG's. I was obviously hoping to see the Sixers in the playoffs, since we match up so well against them, but it seems we are destined for a match up against the Pacers and later, Bucks instead. Maybe we can meet up again in the ECF if you guys get past the Raptors.

[Blueobelisk]

Bucks are fucking good. I just checked the standings since I read that LAL (Lebron) is out of playoff contention.

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Actually I'd love to go to a Nets game if they make the playoffs.

[xskarma]

I go to make some food with the Celtics up a secure 12 points with 5 min to go against the Hornets. Come back to them being 3 points behind...

These Celtics man. >.<

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And then after some miracles Boston has the ball with 23 seconds, and Rozier plays himself into a weird 3 pointer off the mark. This team is so frustrating to watch half the time this season.

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Welp, at least Michigan won tonight, I guess.

[Rennadrel]

Lol @xskarma, the Sixers will be out in 4 or 5 against the Raptors. We've had their number all year, won 3 of 4 this season and each game we won by at least 12 points. The one game they won, was back in December when a few of our starters were out and Kawhi didn't even play. So don't bank on the Sixers getting past us, because they have no hope.

Meanwhile the Celtics have been in their own heads all year. How do they expect to get through the playoffs?

[xskarma]

Lol @xskarma, the Sixers will be out in 4 or 5 against the Raptors. We've had their number all year, won 3 of 4 this season and each game we won by at least 12 points. The one game they won, was back in December when a few of our starters were out and Kawhi didn't even play. So don't bank on the Sixers getting past us, because they have no hope.

Meanwhile the Celtics have been in their own heads all year. How do they expect to get through the playoffs?

Most of the Celtics faithful and the team seem to think that they'll just turn it on in the playoffs and everything will be smooth sailing. I'm not so sure. If we end up 5th and Indiana has homefield advantage, there's a good chance the Celtics get bounced first round. Either way I have a hard time seeing us get past the Bucks even if we do get past Indy.

Giannis has been basically unstoppable all season and nwo his supporting cast is much better than last year too. Celtics played better last year, and it took them 7 games to get past Giannis then. I just don;t see how the Celtics would beat them when they have homefield AND Giannis AND a better support around AND better coaching.

I think this season is just destined to have Bucks/Raptors and Denver/GSW in the conference finals.

[Rennadrel]

Most of the Celtics faithful and the team seem to think that they'll just turn it on in the playoffs and everything will be smooth sailing. I'm not so sure. If we end up 5th and Indiana has homefield advantage, there's a good chance the Celtics get bounced first round. Either way I have a hard time seeing us get past the Bucks even if we do get past Indy.

Giannis has been basically unstoppable all season and nwo his supporting cast is much better than last year too. Celtics played better last year, and it took them 7 games to get past Giannis then. I just don;t see how the Celtics would beat them when they have homefield AND Giannis AND a better support around AND better coaching.

I think this season is just destined to have Bucks/Raptors and Denver/GSW in the conference finals.

I dunno, the Bucks are going into the playoffs pretty banged up, they might not have as easy of a time as many think, even if they sweep Miami or Orlando (whoever gets in as the 8th seed). It's sad that 3 teams in the East will all have roughly .500 records going into the playoffs. The Celtics might have their hands full with the Pacers though, that should be an interesting first round match up.

[rrayy]

I dunno, the Bucks are going into the playoffs pretty banged up, they might not have as easy of a time as many think, even if they sweep Miami or Orlando (whoever gets in as the 8th seed). It's sad that 3 teams in the East will all have roughly .500 records going into the playoffs. The Celtics might have their hands full with the Pacers though, that should be an interesting first round match up.

The Bucks are actually getting healthy. George Hill and Sterling Brown have already returned. The only players who are still injured are Brogdon, Mirotic and Gasol. Mirotic will be back by the start of the playoffs and Brogdon will be back by the 2nd round. Gasol is not a big deal since he wasn't going to play significant minutes to begin with.

The Bucks finally retired Marque Johnson's number today. This should have happened at least 20 years ago and is another reason on a long list of why Herb Kohl was one of the most clueless owners in sports and why I was overjoyed the day he sold the team.

[Espo]

Lol @xskarma, the Sixers will be out in 4 or 5 against the Raptors. We've had their number all year, won 3 of 4 this season and each game we won by at least 12 points. The one game they won, was back in December when a few of our starters were out and Kawhi didn't even play. So don't bank on the Sixers getting past us, because they have no hope.

Meanwhile the Celtics have been in their own heads all year. How do they expect to get through the playoffs?

Given their recent history, I'm surprised any Raptors fan would feel confident in the playoffs.

Saying the Raptors have the Sixers' number, when they haven't played the Sixers current lineup, and then discrediting the Sixers' one win because the Raptors didn't play their starting lineup is a bit hypocritical isn't it?

Anyway, I do agree that the Raptors would win that series--but I simply don't agree with your logic. Post trade I'd say the Raptors still play far better defense, are better at protecting the ball, and Kawhi still locks down Simmons better than anyone (even the Celtics). But we'll see what happens in the playoffs...very different teams and a bigger emphasis on the starting 5.