nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

Incredible that he was such a non entity while on the Bulls

and the thunder

i still don’t understand how he’s good, nothing about his game looks right. but i guess you can’t argue with the results at this point

the amazing thing is that given his journey out of and back into the league he carries himself like he’s the best player on the court

maybe thats all he needed? just to get his confidence up. his quickness is really off the charts, he can get by anyone without resistance.

i dunno, i can't say i was deeply familiar with his nba work prior to this stint but from what i remember confidence never seemed to be an issue for him. i think his decision making has improved so that he is actually able to use his quickness to greater effect. the tutelage of the point god can't have hurt in that respect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUQDIdRBJCA

great DN Spottie

ty, lebron blessed us

Portis just did a Mario-style buttstomp on Trae

whoa that off-the backboard pass from trae, can’t remember seeing someone do that from an angle like that before

Trae to Collins Level 2 Gamebreaker pic.twitter.com/feACr2AmAw

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) June 24, 2021

trae is going nuclear

Bucks do not seem prepared for this

if Middleton gets hot they should win

btw i'm a 60-something sportswriter just itching to jam out my "in game one we saw a giannis who refused to impose his will" column i've had percolating for three days

yea in the 4th alone he's committed 2 bad turnovers, had one really dumb foul and blew 3 layups, also he keeps doing that thing where he tries to take on all 5 defenders at once

hawks are looking tired

keep on taking those 35 footers Trae

he doesn't want to go at giannis for whatever reason

yeah they seem out of their depths xp

if jrue can feast like this it's over

Hawks making some crazy plays though

these conf finals games have been pleasingly well matched so far

if the bucks lose this game.....

solomon hill is a guy who is playing crunch time minutes in an ECF game

realistically giannis should have 80 points and 35 rebounds, like just look at the guys the hawks are rolling out

bucks switching is kind of helping yet kind of fucking them up

the very thought of pat connaughton airballing a crunch time 3 in a conference finals game

oh my god Pat

oof, tough look for pat

what a total fucking disaster these last few minutes have been

not shocked the hawks are about to lose this game tbh, we know who they are. they won the last round because KD’s foot was on the line

what was that play down 3??? seriously wtf

the bucks lost the plot a bit

hawks bucks

i mean i know i'm being silly on one hand but otoh if giannis doesn't average 60 ppg in the rest of this series he should retire

gave up 4 offensive rebounds in the last 3 minutes leading to 7 points

tbf capela is just one man but he did a decent job in this game defending the paint

the hawks may get out of the east by virtue of having no psychological damage affecting their team

― call all destroyer, Sunday, June 20, 2021 10:36 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bucks missed 28 3-pointers and lost by 3

has to be an annoying loss for the bucks but i didn't see a ton in that game for them to be worried about. they didn't really have anyone who can check trae which is weird given holiday but he's not going to score 48 in every game obviously. bucks couldn't make a three but still got mostly whatever they wanted on offense especially w/ giannis as the roll man. they need to make some threes and not get killed on the glass again but those other factors should be more friendly to them moving forward

this was basically a draw from 3, 8/36 bucks vs 8/32 hawks.

yeah I think the bucks are a team that are going to punch below their weight in the playoffs, we know this, they’ll probably still take this series but neither team is a very inspiring finals team. man what a weird year

xp true but the Bucks were getting much better looks

agree that they shouldn't be too concerned but still losing Game 1 at home sucks, especially since it looks like the Suns are gonna cruise to the finals

trae will prob singlehandedly win the hawks another game and the bucks could choke away a third game so who knows. game 1s often play tricks on us tho. both of these teams have like 4 good players at this point lol. bucks need more lopez

it just frustrates me to no end they keep having Giannis bring the ball up where he has to take on the entire defense at once instead of just putting him in the paint where he's at his best. when Bud started running those lob plays out of timeout it felt like he accidentally figured out his own offense

i feel like that’s a giannis problem and not a bud problem. like giannis doesn’t think of himself just as a rim runner and post player even tho that’s prob the best way for him to play

giannis can be good driving but at least like run a play get the defense moving just dribbling up to a set D is not the best

athletic article today says philly didnt have the trade with phx in place when they drafted mikal bridges they took with the intention on keeping him

While the fallout from the trade was bizarre to watch as it played out, the deal itself was odd too. The 76ers had no intent to trade Bridges when they drafted him, according to multiple league sources.

The circumstances around the trade had been peculiar. It’s rare for a trade to happen on draft night after the original pick had already been made. “It doesn’t,” one league source said. “Usually it’s pre-arranged; 95 percent of the time it’s pre-arranged.”

that trade turned out really bad but it seemed fine at the time, they swapped similarly rated players and got an extra first round pick out of it and then the guy they got broke his foot and nearly died of an allergic reaction before he ever played for them. so idk. i mean, the allergic reaction did happen from food he ate at the team facility so maybe you put that one on the sixers but it was a pretty wild series of events that happened after that trade