Boards
NBA Playoffs 2014
It is time.
Some thoughts as the regular season ends:
-I have properly grown to hate the fucking Knicks. I cannot believe quite how much those raggedy ass motherfuckers were force fed to me this season, I already have enough terrible shit to deal with with the Cavs, I don't need that too. Biggest market in the league or not, they can gladly fuck off for the summer. Melo also needs to get out, I'm not buying that Phil Jackson as President of Skyping In With Advice bullshit and he shouldn't either.
-I'm gutted that the Suns didn't make the 8th seed, their hyper brand of basketball was perfect for the playoff environment and would have been fun. Never the less, Hornacek deserves COY, they've got something good with that guy.
3 most looking-forward-to match-ups:
1. Toronto/Brooklyn
I've softened on Brooklyn. I don't know how it happened. But this looks to be a great series, and I'm happy for the Raps in general. Series most likely to reach a game 7.
2. Miami/Charlotte
This isn't gonna be like a sweep of the Bucks, Charlotte have a top 5 defense and Al Jefferson has been an absolute machine for them this season. You have to expect Miami to clinch it, but it'll be fun to watch 'em sweat.
3. Clippers/Golden State
Clippers are my wild card to win the title, I think they pose a legitimate threat to every single team in the playoffs but it's clear they're missing a piece. This match-up should be an up and down the court thriller, in which the Clippers will win because let's be honest, GS are missing more than a piece.
Also keep an eye on: Atlanta/Indiana (try not to fall asleep) just because if Indiana get knocked out in the first round, that'd be hilarious and based on their recent calamities, that's a serious possibility. Chicaco/Washington is bound to be solid.
WHATEVER HAPPENS. The Heat cannot win again. Nobody wants to see that. As usual I'm rooting for San Antonio but I'll take just about anybody else at this point.
As a side note, there's a 30 for 30 on Thursday night on the Detroit bad boys. Looks good.
I'm going for the Clippers, though as you say they are missing a piece. I think they can sneak it though.
I always felt cold about that team
but I think they came out this year with a new vibe about them. in a way less flash, more professional. and the first season Blake has actually looked worth his price tag.
If they were to win the title it would really be another kick in the nuts to this Lakers season too...
All over tonight's 30 for 30.
The playoff match ups with the Bulls were absolute wars. A young whippersnapper NikMak reveled in the brutal competitiveness of it all.
Rooting for the hometown Raps and hope they continue their impressive play. They've been superb since shifting Rudy Gay. Should have enough to beat Brooklyn but their vets have been there and done it all.
must say the Knicks are pissing me off too
been a horrendous season. LET'S GO BLAZERS
someone give me a team to root for
the Bulls
nobody wants to face them in the playoffs because they take it out of you, always fighting hard and scrappy. Good enough to be fun to watch, lacking enough to be considered a playoff underdog. They had the most exciting playoff series' last year too.
so boring tho, no offense at all
and last year they were saved by INCREDIBLE performances from Nate Rob and some nice minutes from Bellinelli, now they are gone and their offense is even more boring.
they don't have a flashy offense
and i think they average 90ppg or something like that
but i like the hustle. i like that they drain teams.
amazing coach and he drains everything he can out of these players
i do like noah as the point center, thats a good look.
Blazers
hipster underdogs ;)
considered the Blazers
cause I love Portland, but I'm not sure it's worth following a team that'll play most of their games at 3am GMT
yeah that's the annoying thing with West Coast teams
tbh by the time we get to the finals they're all 1/2am
I like the Raptors because they have the most ridiculous/brilliant logo
ok?
their 90s logo/unis were way cooler
Also: good hype video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9xnS9EJmRU
Been crying for two days straight since the Bogut announcement.
Hate the Clippers beyond words.
get ready for flop city, CP/BG turn the flopping up ten notches in the playoffs, makes them unwatchable.
Playoff time!
Bye bye sleep & work productivity!
Can't believe the Cavs have another lottery pic, fuck I hope LeBron comes back...
Hope Blazers & GSW do well. Anyone but the heat though is fine.
the next month is my holiday from the cavs
just pretend they don't even exist. it's nice.
predix
IND v ATL — Pacers in 6 — snoooooooooooooooore
MIA v CHA — Heat in 5 —wade plays 2 games
TOR v BKN — Nets in 7 —havent watched much of either team tbf.
CHI v WAS — Bulls in 6 —dont care
SAS v DAL — Spurs in 5 — one game of pure dirkin
OKC v MEM — Thunder in 6 — this should be a good one
LAC v GSW — WARRIORS IN 4 — we believe
HOU v POR — Rockets in 7 —all games come down to the last shot
spoelstra would have some mighty balls to only play wade 2 games
but he will have absolute minimum minutes until it's time to hit that switch on his back labeled "2006 mode"
seems like he's been preparing for that all season long
they'll just see how it goes Im sure
the cats aren't a bad team at all. heat in 5 but the games should be competitive
somehow I still haven't got a fav team
in a way it's nice, i can just watch my fav players and not really care about overall results. Yay for being neutral! That said I really wanna see:
- Thompson and Curry go off
- Harden to get fucked up and not get any calls ahaha I wish
- Dirk and Timmy to do it for the old guys
- More of this
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0HfOZFyXK1g/UzRr6pD-8oI/AAAAAAAAEVE/PawdcRSO518/s1600/McRoberts.gif
speaking of which, fav dunks of the year?
I've probably forgotten loads, and most of mine were just nicked from NBA top 10 videos, but I think the McBob reverse and this Gerald Green self-alley oop do it for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKvIxzQNL5I
Gerald Green 2013-14 dunk reel is
awesome to watch.
Didn't seem to be a life affirming murderstyle
Deandre Jordan v Knight / Harrison Barnes v Mosgov type of dunk this year but Paul George open court windmill 360 was pretttttty awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAN6qoW-KGg
lol the color guy sounded like he just busted a nut
i meant harrison v pekovic
still get giddy watching that DJ dunk, he just destroys Knight
the PG one was great too, uncontested dunks are by nature less interesting to me but he pulled it out the bag with that one
probably not my fav but just the most recent to memory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laQG_TAA3Rk
still believe in you big guy
he was the first pick who hasn't really done anything at all, right?
:(
he gets compared to kwame brown, who was another famous first overall that bombed
y not
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K0uLNM-YjGY/T9TXk7BWgoI/AAAAAAAAEBQ/7iiVVaZFleo/s1600/2.jpg
?
today's schedule bst time
5:30 nets @ raps
8:30 GSW @ LAC
12am ATL @ IND
2:30 MEM @ OKC
The two sensible time games out to be tasty
I have essays, whyyyyyyy
that's the best time for sport IMO
Gives an incentive to stay up late
game delay in Toronto
Never expected they needed game clocks this time of year clearly
that shot clock thing was funny
you had one job, toronto
the west 1st round might be better than crispin thinks,
only 1 of your 5 look forward to's being from the west.
well i'm looking forward to all the games!
those were just the ones i had something to say about i guess
Toronto fans being massive
"patterson throws it down"
got me pumped.
great game this
Big finish coming
I hope there isn't anyone on these boards cheering for LA.
'cheering' would be a strong word
but i'm coming around I'M SORRY OKAY
is there any chance of bogut coming back if they get out the first round? i can't remember how long a broken rib means.
Prob out all playoffs.
That 3rd q was inssaaaaaaaane
refs are doing their best to ruin it though
pierce coming alive with his playoff drive killed the raptors
but hopefully derozan will calm the fuck down next game and it won't be so easy for them
!!!!!!!!!!!
I do not like Indiana at all
Also I like both the Clippers and GS, why can't they both just win :'(
nah GSW all the way
Much less horrible team
can you imagine being a pacer right now
and seeing larry bird's curmudgeonly face giving you the stare of death from the stands
http://i.imgur.com/1nXHwRn.jpg
fwiw that clippers/warriors game reminded me how much of a bitch chris paul is
he has such a nerve to whine about superstar calls that are so egregious they have to review it, even though for any other player the call would have instantly gone the other way no question
something funny in the air today,
the lower rankers winning so far. reckon it'll play on any okc minds?
great weekend for the most part
Saturday was awesome and Sunday was redeemed by the PDX/HOU game which was an instant classic.
portland/houston, what a game. this series is gonna be amazing.
aldridge with 46/17!!
i'm gonna watch the shit out of every game I can after this week of uni work
what a year to get properly interested in the NBA!
watching z-bo and m. gasol grind down OKC is amazing
more of that please
gross, guys, just gross
tonight really made me hate russel westbrook
he was throwing his body into the defender on every single hastily thought out shot he took. it's so obvious what he's doing and it works. the fact that he tried that half court bullshit at the end and actually got the call too, god he's such a child.
http://i.imgur.com/rI4RLG0.jpg
he is such a weird player
can't say I've seen anything like him. like every game there is at least 20 times you are like NO NO NO YESS YES YES NO NO YESSSS
curry was fouled on both his final two 3 point shots
man the refs fucking ruined tonights basketball for me
this was a hard loss for me.
i mean the fouls were bad, the refs gave them more calls (draymond's 6th foul where blake ran him over) but really we just missed sooooooooo many shots. Curry just can't get open vs these guys and mark jax has no answers at all.
vince :O
i've got this feeling the series might be done for memphis
as incredible as it is that KD has been so terrible, can that really last? i just keep expecting him to finally go off. tony allen did a number on him last night but he was still just not right.
the two things that saved OKC last night were reggie jackson and memphis not sinking free throws, the absence of either of those things would have been the nail in their coffin.
i love this memphis team, they're what the bulls were last year: grinding, committed, with just enough offensive intensity to stick it to anyone. as the current dynamic between them and OKC stands, they could easily take the series....but i got this gut feeling it won't play out like that :/
Donald Sterling
what a fucking throber.
Fuck know's how Doc & the players must feel working for him. Why haven't the league suspended him yet?
Some humans are fucking odd
they need to 'verify that it's him' first
which of course it is, but i'm sure they need that verification for legal reasons.
on that recording he just sounded like a confused old racist, the kind that used to be really militantly racist but now they're too old to really even understand what it is they hate. i just felt pity for him more than anything, but yeah he absolutely needs to go ASAP. no room for that in this league.
i'm a bit confused about where adam silver can take this tbh, can he actually suspend an owner? he'd still legally own the team. but like i said, no idea how these things work.
he does has the authority to suspend an owner
there is no precedent in the NBA for such a thing but it has happened in baseball a couple of times. also, c&p'd from an SI.com article:
"The NBA's constitution, which is confidential, reportedly contains language permitting owners to authorize the league to sell a team without an owner's consent. The language, SI.com is told, only covers very limited circumstances and these circumstances concern team finances -- namely, when an owner can't pay his bills.
There is reportedly no language authorizing the NBA to sell a team because of an owner's hurtful remarks or embarrassing behavior. Even if constitutional language could be construed to authorize a forced sale of the Clippers, NBA owners would likely be reluctant to do so given the precedent it would set."
looks like the weasel will escape with a seven figure fine and maybe a year long ban, which is peanuts for an 80 year old billionaire
how the fuck has nothing been done before about him??:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4187729
'Elgin Baylor, the Clippers GM from 1986 to 2008, filed an age and racial discrimination suit against his old boss alleging, among other things, that Sterling repeatedly expressed a desire to field a team of "poor black boys from the South ... playing for a white coach."'
i guess what you hope for
is that he's willing to do what's in the best interests of everyone, including him, and sell the team. or let the NBA do it.
but if he tries to take a 'punishment' in terms of a fine a temporary suspension, and keep the team, the clippers might be screwed. this team will slowly leave and they'll struggle to lure good free agents. at least i hope so, it'd be terrible if it just got buried and forgotten.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/10857580/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers-owner-receives-life-ban-nba
banned for life
good riddance
Well done NBA for acting fast.
now let's get the clippers out of LA and into seattle
prob won't happen but it just makes so much sense, LA doesn't even need two teams.
fuck, this first round has been obscenely good!
it's also looking like a distinct possibility that the wizards could reach the ECF
z-bo come on man :(
sad that the game 7s went the way they
were 'supposed' to
yeah it was so anticlimactic
at least the blazers are still in it
lillard's control to get in shooting position at a moments notice is really impressive
but overall i don't see their defense being able to handle the consistency of the spurs offense. should be a good series all the same, but i'd expect spurs in 6.
blazers and wiz
are the only dogs i have left in this fight.
Gonna be cheering for miami over nets tho. and okc lac should be a ridiculous series with plenty of scuffles.
Mark Jackson gone
although the Warriors did threaten this all along, it still seems like a mental decision
on paper it doesn't make sense but the reality is he's not getting the most out of their offense
they go after pringles i reckon
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO
http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1008958/14.gif
do want: G. karl, maybe steve kerr
go away: mark jackson, d'antoni
no more coaching that can only address one thing at a time, we need a bad ass motherfucker who will just lay down the law across the board. i realize this statement does not apply to steve kerr but with griffin as GM...dunno, gut says it makes sense.
Too bad they wasted a season but still
good move. i could see george karl over there. kerr is going to NY pretty much a sure thing at this point. warriors most likely to get stan van which is EXACTLY who i was hoping for.
looks like SVG wants to be prez too, and the warriors don't want that
so he's prob going to detroit. i like that, detroit is rad.
hhhhhahaha the clippers
cp getting caught up in trying to be smarter than he is like he always does.
not sure i agree with the thunder ball call, but
trying to get a 4 point play from the other side of the court WHEN THEY'E UP 2 AND THE SHOT CLOCK IS OFF. doesn't even begin to make sense.
fouling on a 3 point shot at the end of the game - you're not in college bro, come on
and the final drive he made was just like he assumed he'd get a make up call by simply setting foot in the paint, nevermind that ibaka wouldn't even let him in, he just shit himself.
can't remember the last time i saw one player single handedly give up a win like that. madness.
He really wet the bed bad
whoa kerr to warriors
excited that they got the guy they wanted BUT
whooooo knows how good of a coach he will ACTUALLY be? we can only guess.
alright
spurs in 6
heat in 5
the pacers are so weird.
wouldn't be surprised if they got swept, wouldn't be surprised if they win the series.
OKC sans Ibaka might be an issue
thunder in 7
heat in 5
i would have potentially gone for thunder in 7 two days ago
but without a consistent rim protector in ibaka it puts a lot of pressure on KD and westbrook to go lights out game after game.
without his offensive rebounding/blocking plus his very efficient 16ppg, leaves them with serious ground to cover. steven adams could step in and get it done but if they play him starting minutes he's gonna get into foul trouble ASAP
fuck I didn't realise Ibaka was out for the rest of the playoffs
gonna stick by my initial prediction though. I'll take KD and Westbrook's high ceiling over Spurs' consistent efficiency
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St5PLcxZy44
i can't believe there's 96 replies worth of nba watching users here
there isn't.
good post.
uhhhhh okay heat in 6
With the first pick in the 2014 NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select...DeAndre Liggins.
THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED
i'm gonna wake up in a minute.
the sheer anger from people over this is amazing
telling themselves we'll draft mcdermott with the number 1 to make themselves feel better
cavs seriously do not deserve this at all. we are most definitely drafting wiggins or parker and that is mindblowing.
the worst thing about all this
is that the player that goes to cleveland goes to an organisation with notoriously bad FO and history wasting their picks.
I think you said it yourself - that the cavs don't deserve to win the lottery for the third time in four years at all, and I can see why fans of other teams are fucking pissed.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aUXvqVYGRYo/U3v07PZshoI/AAAAAAAAGzM/fqXUFyu2XXY/s1600/sim.gif
i think this idea that we drafted badly is bullshit, tbh
kyrie - obviously
tristan - strong rebounder, strong finisher...only pick where i think we could have done better, but it's not a bad pick.
waiters - needed a SG, he was the best available SG with that pick. his ceiling is high and our only 'loss' with this pick is lillard and maybe drummond - we're not gonna draft a PG when we have kyrie and holes all over the place. waiters has a per 36 of 20/3/3, he's trailing beal only slightly in a much worse situation.
bennett - that draft class was weak. yes we picked somebody with the number 1 pick who had a historically shit season, but it's not like anybody else from it went off. if anything bennett's potential is still higher than anyone else from that draft, he's an explosive big guy who can space the floor with midrange and 3 point shots. as he gained confidence this came out and we saw what he's capable of when he's not scared and being stunted by Mike 'Rookie Killer' Brown. i don't care what anyone says, i believe in bennett.
yeah, don't deserve it. but with a new GM and new coach, who knows how this could pan out.
bill simmons tears are delicious btw.
how the fuck do the Cavs keep doing this?
both getting the first pick and then never picking who everyone wants
extremely casual NBA fan, so apologies if this is stupid:
why is it so common for someone like LeBron James to suddenly become amazing in the 4th quarter when they've been pretty quiet all game. surely they'd be better off starting as hard as possible to build a lead? or is it the other team tiring as the game goes on to give him space? or am i missing something?
erm bit of both
you run the risk of burning yourself out though if you start hard
really hard to play 48 minutes like a mad man.
basketball is a game of runs really. get a lead then relax a little then the other team makes a run and so on and so forth. little 9-4 or 7-0 runs back and forth, especially in the defense-first minded eastern conference.
bron usually goes hard all game and has consistent quarter by quarter numbers but the pacers D is seriously legit amazing and he is having to work for everything and pick his spots. I thought wade bailed them out a handful of times last night, hit some hard shots. you saw in the 2nd half they put lbj on george hill cos he is easier to guard which gave him more energy for offense.
ah ok cheers
the only american sport i properly know inside out is NFL where obviously there's no element of an individual having to think about offence and defence at the same time, so that's what i'm going to blame my stupidity on
Not stupid at all.
I watch a TON of nba and play myself a few times a week. I still watch the game and yell at players for taking plays/sequences off. But then I go play and its like ohhhh ok I remember now, this is tiring as hell. At some point you have to gamble and pick and choose your spots, that's where bball IQ comes into play. Thats also why the most special players in the league are good two-way players and do it in heavy minutes (36+ a game)
http://static.cdnzoom.com/resize/527/x/SportsBlogcom/filewarehouse/86508/d5e4009e7078fde9e3c02e2a9cbfcdbb.jpg
my new favourite basketball player
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/5/28/5760004/lance-stephenson-creeps-flops-blows-in-lebrons-ear
can't tell which i like more
lance's face after the blow where he's like "yeah i'm bad as fuck" or lebron's incredulity
steve ballmer based in SEATTLE WASHINGTON has bought the clippers
he's probably not moving the team tho...you don't make 20 billion making decisions like moving your team from LA to seattle.
let's do this timmy
spurs in 7
this has been BEAUTIFUL
not thrilling...but beautiful. watching d. wade fade away has been more pleasurable than i expected, and for the first time this lebron heat looks like lebron cavs.
spurs have been brutal, all you can say really. punished them at every turn. fully expect them to win this at home on sunday, miami is tired.
FUCK YEAH
i would say now begins the drought but i'm so pumped for draft day it's unreal