2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

heat played bad not impressed with their heat cultured levels blew a chance with nugs on a b2b and murray knocked out they finally woke up at the end of the game but it was 2 little 2 late

it was the end of a west coast road trip for the heat and they started the game down like 20-5 after KCP and MPJ hit a bunch of threes to start, i thought they acquitted themselves well

i don’t think we’ll be seeing another heat-nuggets final but if we do the two things that stood out to me as being different from last year’s series is that the heat have more size and physicality at the point of attack now w/ rozier instead of gabe vincent. i recall denver using gordon in particular to just murder vincent on switches in that series & rozier holds up way better on defense. even bothering the jokic/murray two man game he has a lot more to offer. and of course also way more dynamism with the ball in his hands, he didn’t look entirely healthy (he somehow airballed 4 diff three pt attempts) but you saw at the end the element he gives them as a PG scorer that they haven’t had in the jimmy era

they also looked more capable of holding up physically in this match up bcuz they’re playing jovic at the 4 now. he was -16 in this game but again that was mostly a function of denver getting up 13 points almost instantaneously. at 6’ 11” and with enough strength to hold up now, denver couldn’t do what it did in the finals mashing aaron gordon in the post on caleb martin. spo doesn’t finish games w/ him & i get why but it’s an aspect of their team that i think will need to expand in the playoffs

sick lively dunk on zinger

there’s been several insane plays in this mavs-celtics game already

meanwhile monty williams…

Cavs 45, Pistons 28. 22-6 Cavs run since Detroit went all-bench at the end of the 1st. Starters are back in now

— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) March 2, 2024

lively is really good

23-6-6 in the first half for luka (mavs losing by 7)

dante exum just airballed a top of the key three off to the side of the basket. not sure i’ve seen that in the NBA before

Ant leaves at halftime for "personal reasons" apparently the Kings announcers said his baby is being born

the surging dallas mavericks have lost by 28 points to the boston celtics

antless wolves fall to the foxless kings in a pretty sloppy game for both

inside u are two wolves: an ant and a fox

watched 4th quarter and OT of kings/wolves. those two offenses in the clutch without fox and ant on the court, yeesh

ant did play the first half and didn’t return for “personal reasons” — from what I heard the birth of his kid

Ant playing a single half of basketball on the day his child is born is actually very much in character

broken hands for westbrook and scottie barnes tonight

dang

xpost - yeah the wolves need to figure something out, imo based around Naz Reid as the primary scorer

don't look now but the Bucks actually have the 2nd best defensive rating since Griffin got fired. their offense has been significantly worse though but they've also had Middleton out and Dame has not exactly been lighting it up. idk maybe it'll work out

got some serious offenses over the next ten, see if they hold up

odd turn of events re the offensive and defensive performances flipping like that tho

a third of their games have been against the bottom six in the doc rivers era fwiw

For sure it’s probably an illusion however they were giving up 120+ to some really bad teams and aren’t doing that anymore so who knows

Main thing I guess is since the ASG Bobby and Pat are both playing way better

Asked William’s if he and his staff factor in the turnovers leading to easy buckets for opponents when factoring in improving defense: Said he and his staff are currently doing a study to try and find out how the turnovers impact how the defensive numbers are perceived.

— James L. Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) March 1, 2024

lol what

Lebron got 40k

40k deez nuts

rude

thats the mamba mentality

nugs crunching the lakers in crunch time

yeah i don’t think hachimura & cam reddish are gonna get it done for the lakers in crunch time in the playoffs. back to the drawing board on that one

I seriously doubt I was first to the concept but it’s been at least a decade since I did this “study” for the first time. Took about 30 minutes. Live ball turnovers are VERY BAD for your defense. https://t.co/DFVt3jLh7C

— Anchorage Man (@SethPartnow) March 2, 2024

ok something wild I found out from this broadcast is that Bron's scoring milestone games came nearly the exact same time apart from each other. every 10k was almost exactly 5 years apart, minus the current one which is six...BUT there is the shortened season in there, plus for the first time he actually was missing games.

the nuggets are streaking baby

Nuggets have the “switch”

they have jokic man he’s just a cheat code it’s that simple tbh

Yes Jokic has “the switch” I should say

Booker just limped into the locker room. Suns just can’t have their three guys ever

there was a rare on-court double writhing by teammates when booker and one of the other guys were both injured at the same time

Even when they have their three guys, they’re going nowhere. Trying to get my kids into basketball and it’s bumming me out that this Suns team has no heart

Yah pretty blah team with blah vibes

Yah pretty blah team with blah vibes

Devin Booker had a right ankle sprain, x-rays negative, will see how he responds, Frank Vogel said.

Jusuf Nurkic neck sprain.

Royce O'Neale ankle sprain. #Suns

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) March 3, 2024

Big smirk on his face as he was getting pulled away, great summation of the suns’ current vibe of “rich kid who doesn’t give a shit since he’s going to take over his dad’s business anyway”

Suns march schedule is rough. If Booker misses time it could get interesting

Nuggets beat the Lakers opening night, Kobe statue night, and now LeBron 40k night. You are getting a free Jaxson Hayes t-shirt as the promotion next season at the absolute most.

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 3, 2024

nuggs need to just go for custody at this point

yeah i was gonna say great timing on tonight’s b2b vs okc for the suns lol. that one might get ugly

if you’re an eastern conference team who isn’t boston, cleveland or milwaukee are you pushing to get into the 4-5 spot even if it means getting boston in the second round, or are you happy to try and manipulate your seed to end up on the bucks/cavs side of the bracket? you don’t really see teams try and juke match ups that much and my guess would be that all these teams just play this out but the 6 seed is looking like the catbird’s seat to me right now

some good ball on TV today gang

going to watch some for sure

clippers have been fading curious to see if they can get up for the wolves today