NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

this is a cursed season for so many good teams

uhh losing to the celtics is not "embarrassing"

Those fouls by Jamychal at the end of the game were tough scenes

dame with 43 & 16 assists and the game winning and one not bad

And Zion with 36 on 12-18 shooting and like 5 straight clutch FTs... and again doesn't touch the ball once on the final possession while Zo and Ingram brick horrible selfish shots back to back. Coaching staff, FO, and the players on that team better wake up and realize who the man undeniably is on that team sooner rather than later...

Absolutely inspired Kent Bazemore game.

Good highlights on that pdx/nop game. Dame is a legit mvp candidate rn

I’m loving Baze.

speaking of good teams having cursed seasons and suffering embarrassing losses, heat just lost to the clippers w/o PG, kawhi or pat bev and then lost to the warriors w/o draymond in a game where steph shot 5-23 from the field. they have the kings tomorrow night on a b2b in the midst of a 7 game road trip and if they lose that one too it will be very messy

they were up by 15 in the 4th. weird team

butlers performance or focus doesnt seem to be stable. he had some uncharacteristic lapses

putting aside the lakers who have the most superhuman basketball player ever the three other teams who made the bubble conference finals are a combined 40-44 so far this year

i know some of this is bc of fanlessness, but honestly with the dissolution of the superdubs and with an influx of young talent, i think some of this is driven by parity driven by improvements in 3-point shooting.

*and by

weird seasons

bubble wasnt normal and this season isnt normal

true

bubble was excusable even admirable tbh but this year giving teams less time to practice before and during the season is not great, they really were just trying to get it over with which from a business perspective fine, but the basketball has suffered

i wldnt really blame the celtics struggles on that tho, they lost hayward and have had a bunch of injuries, and their depth was very poor before all that

There was some officiating in the past two Nuggets games that was kind of embarrassing. Not like biased or anything but just incompetent. The whole season has this loose feel.

yeah it does

im sure the players are generally not performing at their very highest level what with *gestures* all this

good year for some team to fuck around and win. like the league-leading jazz.

yeah if i were them id go ahead and win, great opportunity

kinda funny theyre clicking what with having the big virus drama

right now i’m not sure we have any reason to believe this year is more “real” than the bubble & honestly i might argue the opposite

i’m wondering how much the lack of offseason is affecting those three teams

right now i’m not sure we have any reason to believe this year is more “real” than the bubble & honestly i might argue the opposite

― J0rdan S., Thursday, February 18, 2021 11:40 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

agree w/this

i’m wondering how much the lack of offseason is affecting those three teams

― J0rdan S., Thursday, February 18, 2021 11:41 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

im sure the answer isnt not at all

also bubble had a compressed schedule and this season has a compressed schedule so its a short offseason with more games than usual on either side

true

also anthony davis is having some sort of achilles issue...

i haven’t watched the celtics or nuggets as closely but the heat have just looked raggedy and kinda out of it all season

i have watched the celtics and nuggets and raggedy and kinda out of it pretty much captures it

most notably the celtics have been at least a good defensive team the whole brad stevens era and they are just a mess on that end this year

Bucks are another one, they haven't looked like themselves since the bubble started really

feel like the bucks are experimenting a bit this season? probably a good idea.

new players, good chance to explore the studio space

Cam Reddish on the ASG coming to Atlanta: "I don't know if it's the greatest thing on the planet, but can't hurt. Good luck."

— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) February 18, 2021

lmao

somehow the banged-up Blazers are three full games ahead of the Nuggets. Dame has been ripping it up lately.

dame gonna murder luka next time they meet up

crazy it went to the fan vote on the tie instead of like... team wins

Luka has been better tbh

Luka has been better tbh

What you're calling honesty is just another ILH opinion. It's not an easy comparison. The Mavs aren't very good and Luka handles the ball constantly, carrying nearly the whole load of their offense. Even with Nurkic and McCollum hurt, Dame has still run the Blazer offense very smoothly and efficiently and he gives up the ball early and often.

imo, Dame asserts control over games in ways Luka doesn't -- or should I say, tbh?

their stats are pretty close except dame shoots significantly better from three and the line, dame leads the league in game winning shots, dallas sucks ass while portland is good despite missing their 2 best players who aren't dame, tbh

guess we know the answer as to whether a euro can be a nba celebrity now

There are growing indications that if you remove Ant Davis from the current Lakers roster, they may regress to become rather similar to the playoff-evading Lakers of Lebron's first season.

funny how taking a top 10 player off a team will do that

Which is why the hot take I've seen expressed, that the Lakers should just sit AD for the rest of the season and wait for the playoffs seems bad to me.