Why they inviting Ben Simmons? He just became a laughing stock in NBA in recent years, or has this news not yet reached the world of fashion
I may have been very wrong about the Thunder too. Luka being clearly not himself helps, but they still look impressive, more than they theoretically should considering the age of their leaders. BTW, I find the playoffs surprisingly entertaining even with the Lakers out. Some of the remaining teams are playing a brand of basketball I really like, especially the Wolves (if they got rid of Rudy, they may become my 2nd favorite team in the NBA). As long as it's not No. 18 for the green slime, I'm fine with any of those teams winning. Especially now since it seems like Mike, Jamal and Nikola's brothers are heading home haha.
luka's injured. i think the mavs take the thunder if he's not, tbh. if minny continues its play, they'll beat okc, too, imo. i'm just not as sold on them as most. also not a huge fan of SGA's approach. i was hoping the league got rid of the wade/harden "get a step then lurch into backpeddling defender" fouls, but they're alive and well for one guy.
Yeah, Luka looks hobbled at every play stoppage. He's definitely laboring out there. They're playing well enough and the new guys were enough of a boost that if Luka was Luka they're on their way to the WCF. Without him healthy, I don't think they have enough. Unless something drastically changes we're heading to a Minny vs OKC WCF. That's fun for small markets and two teams headlined by a couple of the young stars of the league (although at this trajectory Ant is going to leave them all in his dust and mount a throne on top of the rest of 'em). Minny is too big and physical in a series for OKC (similar to how we kicked their a**) and have the athletic wings to deploy against SGA. Not sure why the league deemed him the next in line to get the refs on his side. Maybe they're worried at his slight frame he can't do it on his own? It'll be interesting to see how they call that one. Do they let Minny's wings get physical with him 94 feet like they're allowing against Murray? That takes us to a Minny vs. Boston finals where Minny will receive a flood of Lakers fans becoming die hard Timberwolves fans for that series. f*** Boston. I'd love to see NY pull an upset and then you have a finals of the two try hards, plus NY finally back to the big stage after the s*** show that franchise has been in for the past 2.5 decades. But I think Boston is too good for it to play out that way unless Tatum or Brown get hurt.
boston's going to cakewalk to the finals. if minny's healthy, that could be a good series, though. they're strong where boston's weak. and i think ant is the superstar people claim tatum is. so minny will have the best player in the series, which is usually how you win. boston can definitely play gobert off the floor, though, so there's that. the SGA stuff annoys me. okc took control of the game in the second when he just started running into folks. i thought none of them were fouls, tbh. why coddle your stars? you saw what happened to harden when the whistle dried up. if he would have been officiated normally, maybe he adapts his game, and you have a better, more entertaining player and product. watching guys gain a slight advantage and then foul bait is boring as hell.
You know how in the NFL coaches will milk those RBs on the rookie contract especially as it's coming to an end. The players at the position have a short shelf life and in today's pass friendly NFL most RBs are not just seen as expendable but interchangeable. You know who's the NBA equivalent of that... He considers resting one of HIS guys only playing him 47 minutes. I mean that's being generous. They're getting four 15 second breaks throughout the game.
This dude wore the winning outfit. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/...ionaire-salmon-heir-Gustav-Magnar-Witzsa.html
But Shaq said that SGA should've been the MVP over Jokic this year! Because of his (juiced up) stats!
yeah, the only shocker is that anunoby went out before hart with some sort of soft-tissue (likely fatigue-related) injury. i feel a little bad for the pacers because i thought the refs screwed them in game 1, and then in game 2 both brunson and divincenzo couldn't miss down the stretch (this doesn't happen as often as you'd think--it was like denver against us). i actually think indy could win both at home, and if thibs keeps running guys down, they could end up taking the series. boston's going to trample either one.
I watched the NY Indiana game. There is a big difference in the level of play between NY and Indiana compared to Minnesota and Denver. In fact the difference was startling. I'd attribute to the difference in competition between the Eastern conference and Western conference.
i only caught the last quarter of game 2, but the officiating there didn't really stand out to me. game 1 looked like it was fixed.
