2026 Playoffs: West Semifinals (1) OKC Thunder Vs (4) LA Lakers

Yeah those guys would’ve aged out, but following that same blueprint would have been great.

 

OKC is clearly the better team but their antics are just gross. This is the most unlikeable team since our 2010 finals opponent.

 

The team is better than people thought, including me at times. The Houston series showed that we have players, putting Luka back into play elevates this particular group IMO. Super Stars are supposed to elevate their team. We just didn't get the chance for him to do that this playoffs.

All we need next season is a couple more vet role players IMO. We don't necessarily need another star, but a couple of younger vets with some playoffs experience, should do the trick.

 

We did the next year, with an even better roster on paper, but injuries to our key players did us in. Not that Rob just tossed the formula in the bleeper.

Then came LeBron’s panic about the Nets’ super team and the whole Westbrook debacle.

 

Yep, like this:

 

i agree, but we have to somehow get them without losing anyone. that's the trick. to me, that's using space somehow for one and using vando/knecht/pick for the other.

wrong thread, though.

i'm hoping we can get a better whistle and some hot shooting at home to at least get a game on these clowns.

 

Before we make a move this summer, I want Rob to ask Silver and the ref association how much of the whistle will travel to the new team. If they can even guarantee 75%, I'll give two first for Dort. If we can have someone foul every play and they only collect 3-4 fouls...that's invaluable.

 

They're beatable. As been stated, Pacers and Nuggets were close. Pacers beat them with a healthy Tyrese.

The thing with OKC is while they're elite, they have blunders. Blunders that refs bail them out with. But if the refs stop bailing them out, teams can make a run and beat them.

https://x.com/RealJayWilliams/status/2052727843340145139?s=20

Jay Williams said it best... it doesn't even feel like basketball anymore when they play. It just feels like an AI basketball game where analytically, they are elite. But watching the game, everything just feels manufactured. There is no emotion or joy watching them play. As a kid, I used to love every playoffs moment and felt excitement in every play even if my team wasn't the one winning. You don't feel that with OKC... you just see an empty soulless robotic team.

At the end of the day, that game 2 was one of the most horribly reffed games when you consider the circumstances. Lakers were neck-and-neck with OKC despite bogus call after bogus call. It's already an uphill battle for the Lakers against OKC. Insert the refs and it just feels like the refs mentally drained the Lakers by the time it hit the closing moments of the game.

1. Caruso, f*** this dude... Way too great of a defender to be flopping calls at the 3 point line.
2. Chet is a f***ing flopper. I saw 3 blatant flops where HE creates the contact, flops when they touch him, and pretends he got hit by an armored vehicle. That b******* flop where he pretended Ayton hit him in the face. Why isn't he getting suspended for that? I've yet to see one reason why the NBA can't suspend players for blatant flops like that... In the playoffs? Seriously? That was two points for the Lakers because Ayton had good position and scored the basket.
3. Shai hooks Reaves arm and that wasn't a flagrant? He tried to injure Reaves... we all saw it, LIVE.. Reaves got overly aggressive, Shai hooked his arm and pulled it. f***ing dirty bushleague play that the refs enabled all year.
4. LeBron gets no calls! How does he play 37 minutes and gets constantly doubled and hacked but only get 2.5 FT's per game? This is b******* lol... If this were Jordan, they would not only call the FT's for him but slide the basket closer to him as well. And we all saw that basket on the continuation that wasn't called...

That game was no fun to watch. What we saw was the Lakers first battling the ref and OKC being just there - a team heavily favorited against the Lakers. Every possession felt like the Lakers were being watched like hawks and getting bamboozled whereas OKC got away with 90% of their shenanigans. Like Jay Williams said, it feels less about basketball and more about who can hustle the refs better and if that's the sad state of the NBA, maybe it is time people start turning this nonsense off. The league, Adam Silver, and refs could stop this easily... Lakers and other teams are 100% sending them video replays showing the flopping, dirty plays, etc., Yet every game, this happens again and again. Nothing seems to ever be done. It's like playing against 10 Draymond Green's but no one gets called for anything.

 

even Paul Pierce compares them to Wrestling

 

I've said since LeBron went West..his foul calls decreased. I always said that he should dish out more elbows and wack people in order to press the issue. He doesn't play like that though, I would if I were him.

 

https://x.com/HaterReport/status/2052639112532803608?s=20

How does this even make sense?

LeBron goes to the rim and Williams 100% clobbers him causing LeBron to fall. No call.

Shai attacks the rim, intentionally collides into Luke, doesn't fall or anything but gets the call.

No wonder Shai is super efficient on the floor.. all the shots he misses are turned in to FT's. So basically any shot Shai doesn't make are if he actually misses a wide open jumpshot or 3 because he is going to get bailed out at everywhere else on the court.

RIGGED... There is no explanation. The league will do nothing, the refs will continue to suck, and this is the sad state of the NBA where teams like OKC are allowed to play a different set of rules. If the Lakers lose, which they likely will, I hope Spurs beat the breaks off of OKC. I will never hate on the Spurs again even though I dislike Pop with a passion.

 

just like wade and harden before him. the efficiency is a mirage. kobe was known for being inefficient. if he got this whistle, he would have looked exactly like jordan, statistically, imo.

 

Same with Kyrie as well.

Never gets FT's and just doesn't complain like those wimps so the refs just let it go.

Kyrie should be averaging 10+ FT's every game. You could make a fair point for Steph as well but with how open he gets because the Warriors set up dirty screens, he probably doesn't deserve them.

 

The officiating was atrocious

 

We just have to win the next game and we are right back in it. We played better in the second game than the final score indicated. The way LeBron is playing if we had Luka it would be an entirely different story but it is what it is. As many above indicated above we might as well foul hard because the refs are calling non-existent fouls any way. Despite fines Lakers and others need to keep calling out the refs. The NBA has always had its darling team that the refs favor but this is at an entirely different level. Ugly to watch.