They have something like $151 mil tied up for Beal/Book/KD and IIRC, zero 1st round picks through 2030. I'm glad they got swept. I wanna say they don't deserve Vogel. BTW: for those that didn't watch it, MIN was up 4 with around 1:40 left, and Conley's taking the ball up court near the sideline, crosses the 8 sec line with Booker on him, and Booker stupidly fouls Conley, who gets checked hockey-style, into MIN coach Chris Finch, who goes down hard, and has to be helped off the court to the locker room. They said Finch is 54 years old; he looks 64 to me but whatever: I can't remember if I've ever seen that. Booker had a chance to notch 50 in the closing secs, with the game lost, but his shot was blocked. Meanwhile, Ant (40 points) looked a lot like MJ in the 4th Q. Q: Where will whiny mercenary weak-a** can't-stay-off-of-(anti)-social media KD go next? Let's spin the wheel shall we folks? Round and round she goes, ladies 'n germs, where she stops...nobody knows...and...it looks like...Toronto? What? Naw, that can't be right... EDIT to add: just found out coach Finch ruptured his patellar tendon when Booker checked Conley on the sidelines and Conley ran into Finch. OUCH! That's some major pain and probably surgery-repair: hope he's able to come back. It looked really bad. You could tell the T-Wolves players knew coach was in enormous pain. This could further galvanize a team that's cookin'. Or not. I'm reminded of the Jack McKinney bicycle crash.
Meanwhile what’s going on in MIL? Is Dame done for the year? What a turn of events man. They were dominant half the season then suddenly collapsed into themselves. Maybe it was the whole coach transition. Wouldn’t surprise me he’s a damn leprechaun. Just checked, they went .500 after Doc took over. Yikes
I was very, very wrong about the Timberwolves, they look legit. As others have pointed out, Ant looks like young MJ / Kobe out there, just so fun to watch. He also seems pretty likeable.
Really bad luck: Giannis injured, then Dame's achilles. But before that: they hired Doc, so it's been a rough turn of events for them. Middleton can't do all the scoring, although he's done a good job trying: those 2 buzzer-beating 3s in Game 3 were insane. Only to lose on Halliburton's clutch runner in OT. Wow.
me too. never figured conley would hold up as long as he has (even though i strongly advocated trading russ for him). wrong. didn't think ant was going to become a superstar. wrong. was worried about KAT as both a playoff disappointment (he has been in the past) and because he was coming off an injury, but he's been solid. figured gobert would get played off the floor in the playoffs yet again (this could still happen, imo). BUT...i thought it was a bit silly to pay naz reid big money with all that cash wrapped up in KAT/gobert, but it was smart because if rudy does get played off the floor, you can still have a big out there. so tim connelly:
For me the difference with the Wolves is ANT. He went from being on the periphery of being a star launching into full superstar mode in a year AND willing to get after it defensively. Did he learn that on Team USA? Cause it looked like he picked it up on that team and catapulted those efforts into his season with Minny. If he's not their leader, I still wouldn't be sold on the twin towers but because they're less reliant on them and the roles have down shifted, it's working.
Game 5 of DAL @ other LA team, series tied 2-2, Luka says his knee is "not good" but will play: pivotal. Of course, being a fan means (quite often) being petty and spiteful, and of course I am when it comes to Ballmer's team, so I'm hoping DAL can pull it off. Kawhi is listed as OUT, as if Hardaway for DAL. What's weird is: LA has played pretty well w/o Kawhi this year. I'd like to see a 1 for 9 game from Brick, but hey: that's just me.
In a must-win game at home, PG13 goes 4 for 13; Beardie 2 for 12; Brick 2 for 11 and 6/5/0 in 16 mins. Enjoy your $120,000,000,000, Ballmer.
we'll see how it goes. luka's pretty injured, and the clips play better without pressure, which is now completely off. PG and harden both had huge games in game 4, i think because there were low expectations. after that game, expectations were high, now they're back in the cellar.
Knicks@&76ers Game 6 in PHI was lit, man. Knicks jump out to a 28-9 lead. Though the PHI front office was pissed off that so many Knicks fans were at Game 4 and noisy, they bought up all the extra tix to try and quell that, Knicks fans were still pretty loud in Philly tonight. Just before halftime, PHI took the lead and were up 3 at the break. At 6:54 of the 3rd Maxey made a running pull-up 28 footer to put PHI up 10. From there PHI were up anywhere from 3-7 until the last 90 secs, when Brunson made a couple of FTs, Divincenzo dunked and OG hit a deep 3: tied at 83 going into the 4th. PHI has to win to extend their season. The crowd was nuts. They traded leads without either team getting a run going. At 6:25 Brunson hit a 3 to put NYK up 3. 24 secs later he hits another deep one: up 6. At 2:43 OG dunks t put them up 8. Then Oubre hits a 3, Maxey a 2 and at 1:11 Oubre dunks: 109-108 Knicks. From there the Knicks scored 9; 76ers 7. Can the Knicks give the Bags any trouble? Maybe. I don't think they have enough though. Brunson: 41 with 12 dimes. Josh Hart: 16/14/7 with 2 icewater FTs made in crunch, when it looked like Buddy Hield was trying to get in his head. Didn't work. Oh yea: he also broke a tie with 25 secs left when he was all alone at the top of the arc and drilled a 3 to basically send the Sixers into their death spiral. He has emerged as one of the all-time "blue collar" players. Embiid: 39/13 on 12 of 25. 13 of 13 from the line. He fouled out with around a minute left. Hield: 6 of 9 from deep: 20 points. Maxey and Oubre: 17; Batum: 16. Brunson's overall game reminds me of Ja Morant's but I'd take Brunson over a thug in a heartbeat. Tobias Harris started for PHI and played 29 mins. He did not score a point: 0/4/3 on 2 shots attempted. Ya wonder what was goin' on there. Kyle Lowry also started for PHI and didn't register a point. WTF? He only got in 13 mins. If I'm a 76ers fan I'm wondering WTF with Harris and Lowry, frankly. Lowry after the game, as quoted in Xitter: "super disappointed that we lost, but that's a 2 seed and they were a 2 seed for a reason and you gotta tip your hat to those Villanova kids. they did their job in this series, and, as a fellow Wildcat, I'm proud of them and I have big love for those guys." (Hart/Brunson/Divincenzo went to Villanova, as did Lowry) Not sure that's what I want to hear after being eliminated, by a guy who gave you ZERO in a closeout game. Maybe he's done? I'm not saying there was anything crooked about this game, or this truly epic 6-game series. For a first round, it was memorable. But a lot of it felt like it was influenced by money, but maybe that's only because sometimes I allow that frame to enter my consciousness as I watch. I hope it was clean. It was a great series, for a first round. Man alive!
Ya know it wouldn't surprise me? Dude looked like a scorer-type when he came off the bench for DAL; how many of us knew he was this kinda scorer if he'd get big starter mins? I mean, the guy can flat-out score. He hit 50 in, IIRC, two regular season games this year. And he's pouring it in now: 40 or more every night, broke Bernard King's NYK playoff scoring record for a game, etc. If you're IND, do you double him and make someone else score? Can OG get 35? DiVincenzo was 5 for 9 from long in a closeout game. I mean, who is their 2nd true scorer after Jalen B?
Yeah I'd trap Brunson all series long and live with the results , I don't think the Knicks have enough scoring and enough playmaking elsewhere but Indiana's defense is VERY bad so Knicks will advance .
yeah, it was everyone, and tbh, if you read the interviews with him, it seemed pretty accurate at the time. he seemed deeply unserious. and i guess he does at times now, too. but he's clearly dedicated to his work; you couldn't improve like he has without a lot of effort and attention.
