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Gotta feel bad for Kemba. He had the assist that should of been game winner in Game 3 and then the drive to the rim with obvious foul that should've been game winner today.

Now, they have to beat the defending Champs in a Game 7. Sure doesn't look like that's happening.

Hard not to admire Marcus smart with the game he had.

316Hornets wrote:Gotta feel bad for Kemba. He had the assist that should of been game winner in Game 3 and then the drive to the rim with obvious foul that should've been game winner today.

Now, they have to beat the defending Champs in a Game 7. Sure doesn't look like that's happening.

He had the worst game of his career tonight. Hoping he bounces back in game 7.

Diop wrote:Hard not to admire Marcus smart with the game he had.

Smart proving why the Celtics held onto him through multiple point guards. Kyrie, IT, Kemba if I'm remembering. No doubt teams made offers. On a redraft you could argue Smart is #2 behind Embiid. There's a team who can navigate a draft. The Tatum - Fultz deal further illustrates it.

Kemba needs to step up. Celtics fans are already crying about 30 million dollars.

I really hope the Raptors win game 7.

Eh, I'm pulling for Kemba. It would be nice to see him win more.

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:Eh, I'm pulling for Kemba. It would be nice to see him win more.

I hope he wins it all, but I'm glad we didn't give him a max extension.

Rondo has done a complete 180 from game 1 and been fantastic the last three games. His offense was still pretty shaky in game 2, but he played great defense and hit a couple clutch shots in the 4th. Kuzma has also been much better since game 1 and the Lakers defensive adjustments have really took the Rockets off their game.

LAL looks to be in complete control of the series. Houston made a late run in game 4 after LAL checked out a few minutes too early, but LAL was in complete control for the entire game and Houston looked ready to give up. The Lakers absolutely abused them on the boards and scored at will in the paint.

Braggins wrote:Rondo has done a complete 180 from game 1 and been fantastic the last three games. His offense was still pretty shaky in game 2, but he played great defense and hit a couple clutch shots in the 4th. Kuzma has also been much better since game 1 and the Lakers defensive adjustments have really took the Rockets off their game.

LAL looks to be in complete control of the series. Houston made a late run in game 4 after LAL checked out a few minutes too early, but LAL was in complete control for the entire game and Houston looked ready to give up. The Lakers absolutely abused them on the boards and scored at will in the paint.

But centers are dead right?

luciano-davidwesley wrote:

Braggins wrote:Rondo has done a complete 180 from game 1 and been fantastic the last three games. His offense was still pretty shaky in game 2, but he played great defense and hit a couple clutch shots in the 4th. Kuzma has also been much better since game 1 and the Lakers defensive adjustments have really took the Rockets off their game.

LAL looks to be in complete control of the series. Houston made a late run in game 4 after LAL checked out a few minutes too early, but LAL was in complete control for the entire game and Houston looked ready to give up. The Lakers absolutely abused them on the boards and scored at will in the paint.

But centers are dead right?

Fwiw, the Rockets with Clint Capela took the Durant Warriors (arguably the GOAT team) to 6 games in 2019 and 7 games in 2018.

Edit: To be fair, though, Westbrook being awful is probably the biggest reason why they are worse now. Maybe the micro-ball strategy could have worked against a league with no insane Warriors super team if they still had Chris Paul, but even with Paul its hard to imagine them being any better than the 2018 team with Paul and Capela that was up 3-2 against the Warriors before Paul got injured.

Either way, trading Paul and a bunch of picks for Westbrook and then going all in to accommodate him is looking like an absolute disaster. I think it was bad either way, but you could maybe see a rationale for making a big risk like that if you were trying to find a way to beat the Warriors/Durant super team, but that squad was obviously breaking up and they could have just ran it back against worse competition and been much better off.

MasterIchiro wrote:

Diop wrote:Hard not to admire Marcus smart with the game he had.

Smart proving why the Celtics held onto him through multiple point guards. Kyrie, IT, Kemba if I'm remembering. No doubt teams made offers. On a redraft you could argue Smart is #2 behind Embiid. There's a team who can navigate a draft. The Tatum - Fultz deal further illustrates it.

Kemba needs to step up. Celtics fans are already crying about 30 million dollars.

smart was kept for his MKG like intangibles, not many teams wanted him at all when he was hoisting 3 pointers at 20 something percent. he has only averaged over 40% fg once so far in his career.

Smart, the No. 6 pick in the 2014 draft, found a quiet market in restricted free agency and, after his camp grumbled about Boston's lack of attention early in the summer, the two sides eventually hammered out a deal.

I'm glad it has worked out for him,

wilson115 wrote:

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

AD is also shooting 17/17 in the paint the last two games.

Braggins wrote:

wilson115 wrote:

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

AD is also shooting 17/17 in the paint the last two games.

The no big strategy backfires when you play a team that can take advantage of that.

LofJ wrote:

Braggins wrote:

wilson115 wrote:

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

AD is also shooting 17/17 in the paint the last two games.

The no big strategy backfires when you play a team that can take advantage of that.

Yeah...the Houston style of play can only take you so far I feel...

Yet at the same time, as I'm late night re-watching a few Hornets games from this year, how fun would a lineup of Graham/Monk/Bridges/McDaniels/Washington be?

The team was playing well right before the shutdown...wins in Toronto and Miami, beating Houston and losing to the Nuggets by 2 at home...was a nice reminder that our season ended up revealing a lot more promise moving forward than what I had anticipated before the 19-20 season began (really thought we were headed towards several very painful years, outlook feels much more optimistic now). The young players we have in Graham, Washington, Bridges, Monk, McDaniels, and the Martin twins are a talented and exciting group that still have untapped potential, have shown the ability to mesh together and complement each other's games, and at the same time should be working hard and taking nothing for granted coming into this next season to prove that they're worthy of being an important part of the equation here. I left Bacon and Hernangomez out because I'm assuming they'll be gone/not a big fan of either player as Bacon very rarely impressed me last year and Hernangomez is too much of a liability on D. The only other two players that really matter are Rozier and Zeller, who are good players, but may not be here much longer as they're included in a lot of the fake trades we've experimented with on here lately.

Sorry for the somewhat long winded post and/or if this is the wrong thread for this sort of reflection of the current roster. Hadn't watched our team play in 6 months and watching a few full game highlights has me pumped for the draft and for the season next year . We're still probably one more year away from really seeing what this core group can do, as Batum will be off the books and we can acquire a player or 2 that may allow us to really make some noise, but we shall see.

Liver_Pooty wrote:

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:Eh, I'm pulling for Kemba. It would be nice to see him win more.

I hope he wins it all, but I'm glad we didn't give him a max extension.

I feel the opposite. I loved what Kemba did here but not a fan of how it went out. I hope he doesn't win anything with the Celtics. If he moves on from there and gets one later I would be fine with it though.

Diop wrote:I get the excitement around Porter Jr, but man he is dumb

and now he is complaining that he isn't getting enough shots. Thank god we didn't draft this dick

Kembas in the ECF.

He was arguably the best player on either team over the course of the first five games of the series, but Toronto really made a point to stop him in games 6/7. They played a box and one defense against him for the entire first half in both games and prevented him from getting a rhythm, but despite his struggles in the final two games, the attention he drew opened up the court for Tatum to take over.

Heat-Celtics will be a good one. Will be interesting to see how they plan to stop Bam. Siakam was bodied by Brown a lot in this series, but I don't see him doing the same to Bam.


Not gonna lie, Lakers-Celtics Final with Kemba and Lebron going shot for shot will be a classic.

316Hornets wrote:
Not gonna lie, Lakers-Celtics Final with Kemba and Lebron going shot for shot will be a classic.

What about Theis and Javale McGee going shot for shot? The NBA has been waiting for this. I'm ready! Are you?

In all seriousness, I'm happy for Kemba. He's a winner and has been a leader on a championship team. He can carry a team. He deserves this.

I have the Celtics winning this series but the Heat are tough and balanced. I wouldn't be surprised if the Heat win.