Official NBA Playoffs Thread

[willbcocks]

Lol, Pittman fell on the floor but Stephenson didn't.

[jimij]

Miami may have won the game but they should have a couple of suspensions coming (although Pittman's doesn't matter).

The first flagrant one on Hansborough was the right call. He made a block attempt and got the ball but his follow through went into Wade's head.

The Haslem two handed hatchet to Hansborough was a blatant retaliation with no attempt to play the ball. He should have been thrown from the game immediately.

Pittman's play was just about as dirty as they come. He went after Stevenson with an elbow and didn't even pretend he wasn't playing the hockey goon.

[pancakes3]

bountygate

[closg00]

Regardless of suspensions, the playoffs are a lot about which team has the toughness and grit to grind-out wins. Size and toughness matters. TRob, MKG, Beal, Royce and others, are going to be good playoff players.

[dobrojim]

Kids, jim. Teens especially listen to their peers or try to fit in way more than they hear us "old" folks.

My son is the same way. We're doing youth baseball now. All I can say is he's blending in with his team for the worst.

we're all guilty of not playing perfect basketball all the time. too passive, too aggressive, slacking on d, not moving without the ball, not boxing out, etc. this extends to all sports. we are only human after all. we just get to get nitpicky when someone does it professionally instead of at the gym.

I didn't go into detail. I had no players to sub in. No coach would willingly
tolerate the kind of "not playing the right way" that I'm talking about. If
I had had > 5 players, my daughter would have sat. It's attitude.

[Ruzious]

Miami may have won the game but they should have a couple of suspensions coming (although Pittman's doesn't matter).

The first flagrant one on Hansborough was the right call. He made a block attempt and got the ball but his follow through went into Wade's head.

The Haslem two handed hatchet to Hansborough was a blatant retaliation with no attempt to play the ball. He should have been thrown from the game immediately.

Pittman's play was just about as dirty as they come. He went after Stevenson with an elbow and didn't even pretend he wasn't playing the hockey goon.

The Pittman thing bothers me. Him being suspended doesn't hurt the team. In a case like that, I think there should be some type of team penalty. What that penalty should be - I don't know, but that kinda thing could be bad for the game - and letting Miami get away with that could start a bad precedent. What's going to happen if Indiana decides to up the ante? Do they have a designated thug like Pittman? Haslem's blatant intentional hard foul Much more than made up for Handsbrough's foul - and would by itself be enough to get Indy to consider retaliation, but adding in that much more dangerous Pittman assault... I don't see how Indy doesn't react - even if Stevenson is the immature jerk that he appears to be.

[jimij]

Your absolutely right Ruz, if game 6 ends up not being close in the 4th, the officiallys better be ready for the Pacers to go "Bynum" on the Heat.

[tontoz]

Bird fanning the flames a bit.

“I can’t believe my team went soft,” Bird said. “S-O-F-T. I’m disappointed. I never thought it would happen.”



Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... z1vhxJXRbf

[Severn Hoos]

Miami may have won the game but they should have a couple of suspensions coming (although Pittman's doesn't matter).

The first flagrant one on Hansborough was the right call. He made a block attempt and got the ball but his follow through went into Wade's head.

The Haslem two handed hatchet to Hansborough was a blatant retaliation with no attempt to play the ball. He should have been thrown from the game immediately.

Pittman's play was just about as dirty as they come. He went after Stevenson with an elbow and didn't even pretend he wasn't playing the hockey goon.

The Pittman thing bothers me. Him being suspended doesn't hurt the team. In a case like that, I think there should be some type of team penalty. What that penalty should be - I don't know, but that kinda thing could be bad for the game - and letting Miami get away with that could start a bad precedent. What's going to happen if Indiana decides to up the ante? Do they have a designated thug like Pittman? Haslem's blatant intentional hard foul Much more than made up for Handsbrough's foul - and would by itself be enough to get Indy to consider retaliation, but adding in that much more dangerous Pittman assault... I don't see how Indy doesn't react - even if Stevenson is the immature jerk that he appears to be.

Agreed on all of this. And while I may be biased (ya think?), I actually think the Pitman hit was worse than the Artest/Harden elbow. First, it was absolutely intentional, Pittman wasn't looking at the ball but sought out Stephenson to level. With Artest, however slender the chance, there's at least the possibility that it was "unintentional" (although, as discussed here, in some ways that makes it worse.)

Second - regardless of the outcome, there was greater potential for injury in the Pittman shot. Stephenson was defenseless, and it could have connected in the throat, or sent him backwards to land on his head. In the end, it appears Harden was hurt worse, but it very well could have gone the other way.

There was (to my knowledge) no history between Harden and the Lakers, whereas the Pittman shot was obviously a premeditated attempt at retaliation. The fact that they could be so childish as to think that a choke sign from an irrelevant scrub at the end of the bench warrants such a retaliation is another subject entirely.

Why did it come at the end of a blowout? (of course, LS wasn't in the game until it became a blowout) The Heat wanted to be sure it didn't cost them any competitive advantage. I guarantee that if the game had still been close, that would not have happened.

And then there's the wink.

So while Artest's previous history went into the 7-game decision, I think that in this incident, it was worse than what he did.

I hope the league suspends Haslem for at least one game and Pittman for at least two. They can throw in a game for Hansbrough too, if they want to maintain the illusion of "fairness". But if either Pittman or Haslem are allowed to play in Game 6, the NBA has officially reached MMA level.

[montestewart]

Lol, Pittman fell on the floor but Stephenson didn't.

Especially since Pittman outweighs him by probably at least 100 pounds. I was one of the more cautious in characterizing Artest's elbow to Harden's head, but Pittman's was a sickening hit. It's maybe a little comical that Pittman rather than Stephenson hit the floor, but that seems a measure of how much force Pittman awkwardly tried to apply to the hit. Were Stephenson not as wiry and agile as he apparently is, and had he hit Pittman a little differently, there's no telling how hard he might have hit the floor.

As to a Pittman suspension, it is disappointing that there may be a Heat team mentality that encourages such behavior, and losing a 12th man may be the only consequence. If Haslem is suspended along with him, with Bosh already out, then the team might notice the consequences.

As far as the Hansbrough call, I didn't mind that he wasn't ejected, because it did look like he was fouling hard while trying to make a real play, but not being a Pacer fan, I wouldn't have been shocked or exceptionally upset if he was ejected. I understand that refs have to reign things in before they get out of hand, but from my view, Miami naturally plays that way.

Maybe Indiana went "soft" as Bird has said (I imagine that criticism was meant to motivate more than to denigrate) but if they truly stood up all the way to the Heat, there might be a Royal Rumble.

[jivelikenice]

Your absolutely right Ruz, if game 6 ends up not being close in the 4th, the officiallys better be ready for the Pacers to go "Bynum" on the Heat.

Can't blame them if they did.
1. Wade flagrant on Collison
2. Haslem flagrant on Hansborogh
3. Pittman flagrant on Stephenson
4. Howard going after Stephenson twice

Yet the Heat preach, "let's just play ball" to the media and they eat it up and blame the Pacers for the physicality of this series. What a damn joke.

[closg00]

Pittman suspended for three games.

[queridiculo]

Haslem for one, Pittman for three games, just suspensions in my book.

[jimij]

I think they NBA got the suspensions just about right. Haslem deserved a game for the retaliation and Pittman definitely deserved more but not up to level of the 7 games that Artest got since he doesn't have a past history.

The funniest thing I've seen on this was on the general board where someone suggested that the most fitting punishment would be that instead of suspending him, Miami should have to play Pittman and play him a lot.

[Shorty]

I think they NBA got the suspensions just about right. Haslem deserved a game for the retaliation and Pittman definitely deserved more but not up to level of the 7 games that Artest got since he doesn't have a past history.

The funniest thing I've seen on this was on the general board where someone suggested that the most fitting punishment would be that instead of suspending him, Miami should have to play Pittman and play him a lot.

That elbow was only a few inches away from sending Stephenson to the emergency room. Coupled with the apparently premeditated nature of the assault, I don't care that it's his first offense. Good thing for him that he only winked, as opposed to, say, entertaining his teammates by pretending his hands were pistols--then he might have been deemed unfit for an NBA court for fifty games.

[Ruzious]

I think they NBA got the suspensions just about right. Haslem deserved a game for the retaliation and Pittman definitely deserved more but not up to level of the 7 games that Artest got since he doesn't have a past history.

The funniest thing I've seen on this was on the general board where someone suggested that the most fitting punishment would be that instead of suspending him, Miami should have to play Pittman and play him a lot.

I laughed. Miami could run out of bodies. If Indy doesn't go to inside time after time after time - especially to Hibbert - Bird needs to fire his coach. That's what they should have done last game. It was like they have no plays to get the ball inside - and this is a team that can pass - and Hibbert showed at G-town that he can pass - he was skilled enough to run the Princeton offense through. More importantly, he's got a great touch from 10 feet in, and he's 7 freaking 2.

[dobrojim]

nice game by Philly to force game 7

I hope Wall was playing attention to how Jrue played Rondo.
No reason in my mind why Wall shouldn't be able to play RR as well.

[Ruzious]

I only watched parts of Philly/Boston, but I thought it was... really awful playoff basketball. I'm used to watching playoff basketball and seeing the huge difference between the teams competing vs the way the Wiz played all season. But I watched that game thinking - the Wiz could beat either team if they're playing close to their best in a 7 game series. Boston's always been slow, but they're really ssslllloooowwwwwww...wwwwwwww... wwwww... wwwww now. Allen can't move anymore. Even the one athlete you can always count on to look good - Rondo - looked slow. Jrue Holiday went around him at will. That's not supposed to happen. And Philly still couldn't run away and hide. A good team would have trounced Boston by 30. Philly's athletic, but there's still very little flow to their offense - it's mediocre at best - and last night they were - mediocre and that was at their best. Iggy's playing surprisingly well at times, but he can't even make foul shots. This is the playoffs - you can't have guys not named Shaq and Howard missing tons of foul shots. And Philly's defense doesn't look much better than their O. Boston just missed a lot of easy shots.

[dobrojim]

Philly just doesn't have any real shooters from range unless you count
Lou Williams and/or Holiday, both of whom can be pretty good or really
bad.

Iggy at the FT line looked worse than Vesely.

[7-Day Dray]

The BOS-PHL series is a snoozefest. Some of the least exciting basketball I've ever seen.