ATL -Fizdale Fizzles Out in NY

[Bucksfan28]

Do not want Philly as a potential second round matchup. Also, how would you feel if your team is paying Jamal Murray $34M/yr?

[glenn]

Do not want Philly as a potential second round matchup. Also, how would you feel if your team is paying Jamal Murray $34M/yr?

Their D is okay, but nothing about their offense is scaring me that much. I see they're still allowing Horford that forearm push-off.

[rilamann]

It looks like this year's Heat are last year's Raptors, when it comes to pulling close wins out of their ass. Every time I check a Heat score, they're down late, but when I checked back 20 minutes later they won in overtime or won a close one.

[raferfenix]

The Knicks want to hire Jason Kidd to lure Giannis in free agency.

SAS

Saw that. Laughed. Continued with my day. 0% chance that Giannis goes to ever play with Kidd again.

Yes, but not 0% chance Kidd bails on the Lakers assistant job after persuading the Knicks he is the Giannis whisperer, which would be the LOL.

[Bucksfan28]

Heat had two guys with triple-doubles (Jimmy and Bam). They're fun to watch this year.

[drone3]

Heats Robinson was on fire 10/14 from 3 made up for Herros golden egg, got them into OT for the kill.

[rilamann]

Do not want Philly as a potential second round matchup.

One of my fears, looking ahead and assuming we are the #1 seed. Is that Philly slacks off a bit in the regular season and ends up being the #4 or #5 seed, then they get serious in the playoffs and we end up getting a much tougher than we expected match up in the 2nd round.

That said, I am pretty confident Philly gets the #2 or #3 seed, even if they slack off a bit. I don't think Miami can keep up a 55+ win pace over 82 games, same with Toronto. I think both team's ceiling is about 52 wins. I'd put Indiana around 50 wins. I also don't think Boston has the depth to keep up a 60+ win pace, I do think they'll win around 55 wins and get a top #3 seed. I think if Philly can win 52+ it should be good enough for them to void that #4 vs #5 slot and avoid the Bucks in round 2.

[rilamann]

I know my perception probably isn't the reality, but so far this season, it feels like if the Heat had lost every game that they won in overtime or lost every game that they won in which they were training in the final minute, they would be hovering around .500. The game against us being a prime example.

[rilamann]

Actually, my perception is the reality, I checked. The Heat are 3-0 in overtime just this week. 4-0 in overtime overall and I haven't watched many Heat games so far this season, but I watched the one against Brooklyn where the Heat were down 106-99 with a minute left, and won 109-106. So yeah, that would make them 13-11, hovering around .500.

[drone3]

The Latvian Lazer

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[old skool]

I am interested to see how the Lakers handle the 82 game grind. Lebron is playing like he is 27 years old. I don't see how that can continue for a whole year. If it does, the league is in trouble.

I expect him to slow down or be hobbled by injury, but there has been no sign of that so far.

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[DavidDunn21]

Regular season ratings down 20%? Instead of a bunch of gimmicks like a tournaments... Silver needs fix the flow of the games. There are way too many blow outs, way too many games where a team is down like 15 in the first quarter.. there are just way too many swings.

Also, Silver should hand in his resignation.

Out of the four major sports, Silver is the best commish of the whole wretched lot, and yeah, that's a low bar. I think he's been fine, but the restructuring of the season and tournament would be a spectacular own goal. What's your biggest beef with him?

Silver is more concerned about the brand of the NBA than the actual sport of basketball. More interested making money off things like gambling than caring about the game of basketball. Silver thinks the NBA is product that is consumed instead of acting as a steward of an important cultural institution.

Anyone who is paying attention can see that the 3 point shot it warping the league to an unhealthy degree. Blowouts are way up and the games just aren't as close. Silver has been asleep at the switch.

Look at the differences between average biggest lead in a game, they have been steadily rising for a decade:

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/average-biggest-lead?date=2006-06-21

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/average-biggest-lead?date=2019-12-09

Plus the players completely owning him has been bad for the league.

This is very well said. I would also say that interpretative officiating shouldn't be this hard to implement. We take it for granted now that Harden and his children should be allowed to continue to hack the game. This point wouldn't have been conceded ten years ago.

A jump shooter unnaturally leaning sideways or forward to try and draw a call is one of the easiest things to see in real time. They could stop calling that tomorrow. There are a dozen small officiating tweaks that would be in the best interest of the game. Silver isn't interested in any of that.


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[RRyder823]

Hold on. People think that caring more about the brand of the NBA then basketball as a sport, with the #1 priority being to make the owners money, is somehow a bad trait for a commissioner or one that litteraly any other person holding the job title would have?

A commissioners job is to build and protect the brand of the league they're running. That's their job.

The debate with Silver and whether hes a bad commissioner can begin on whether hes accomplishing those things and whether theres a better way of doing it but his job description is NOT to be "acting as the steward of a important cultural institution". Its to make the owners money and put the league in position to make even more money in the future

I'm not even saying hes great. But let's not romanticize what a Commisioners #1 goal is

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[Perseus1966]

I woke up to watch 76 ers ,lost my sleep for a mediocre eurolegue game ,if they play like this against us we will tear them apart and use their bones for toothpicks.

[Perseus1966]

It's weird watching a Clippers game and seeing other teams actually be allowed to play defense on Harrell. Yeah, I'm still annoyed that for whatever reason Harrell gets treated a like 3-time MVP by the officials when the Clippers play the Bucks.

Not only harrell ,same with gobber and bogdanovic they had 20 fts ,bam 13 ft ,if bucks allowed to play defense like raps or celtics no team could score more than 80 pts.

[mcfromage]

I made the mistake of watching Knicks v Blazers earlier. The Knicks are unbelievably bad and disinterested.

[Ruzious]

The Latvian Lazer

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He made a contested 30 footer off the dribble last night - and it wasn't even with the clock running down. He's one of the best pure shooters I've ever seen.

[Sporos]

Ok Westbrook did it with 1 sec on the clock, but what was Young thinking?

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[BroncoBuck]

I am interested to see how the Lakers handle the 82 game grind. Lebron is playing like he is 27 years old. I don't see how that can continue for a whole year. If it does, the league is in trouble.

I expect him to slow down or be hobbled by injury, but there has been no sign of that so far.

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LeBron sat out for a huge chunk of last year and didn’t play international ball. I don’t think he’s going to gas out. I’m terrified of that team.

[Nightfall]

Ok Westbrook did it with 1 sec on the clock, but what was Young thinking?

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Maybe he meant: "That's it. We are not scoring again tonight!" and was just misinterpreted