hello friends it's the 2018 NBA Playoffs, a place where dreams GO 2 DIE

https://i.imgur.com/HWeJDuC.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DajogKGWAAAsvS6.jpg

thunder jazz is gonna be a slugfest.

east:
1 raptors vs 8 wizards
2 celtics vs 7 bucks
3 76ers vs 6 heat
4 cavs vs 5 pacers

west:
1 rockets vs 8 twolves
2 warriors vs 7 spurs
3 blazers vs 6 pelicans
4 thunder vs 5 jazz

who ya got

oops xp

popular rappers in 5
celtics in 5
sixers in 4
cavs in 6

rockets in 4
warriors in 7
pelicans in 7
jazz in 7

Not sure the Warriors would've scripted a better path entering the night: Spurs in Round 1, winner of Blazers-Pelicans in Round 2. Jazz-Thunder on Rockets' side of the bracket. They can only face 1 of Utah, OKC, Houston and won't do it until after Curry should be healed.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 12, 2018

top seed all the way down except jazz over okc

east:
1 raptors vs 8 wizards — Raps in 6 cos they have to make things harder than they should be
2 celtics vs 7 bucks — this will be relegated to NBAtv for sure. Celtics in 5 cos coaching
3 76ers vs 6 heat — 76ers in 6 but depends on embiids health
4 cavs vs 5 pacers — Cavs in 6? Pacers will play tough but they are young

west:
1 rockets vs 8 twolves — Rox in 5 wolves will win game 3
2 warriors vs 7 spurs — Warriors in 6
3 blazers vs 6 pelicans — this one is going 7 games, im going with PDX
4 thunder vs 5 jazz — Jazz in 7

im upset that all the teams i wanted to see play the dubs are on the other side of the bracket

raptors 5
celtics 6
heat 6
cavs 7

rockets 4
warriors 5
blazers 6
jazz 5

Bucks Celts is interesting - obviously Boston has the coaching/home field advantage, but don't the Bucks have the best three players in the series?

al horford is the second-best player in the series, so no

and jaylen brown is the best

Watching Harden and CP pick-and-rolls vs MIN, and I think my computer is about to burst into flames. HOU scored 130 points/100 possessions (not a typo) in four games vs MIN

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) April 12, 2018

Raptors 6 - Maybe even 7, still don't trust em
Bucks 7 - Brad Stevens is a thing but all that talent has to count for something
Sixers 6 - They held together very well without Embiid, imagine they're even better now with him back
Cavs 5 - Lebron will probably play defense

Rockets 5 - Would be a sweep but Harden is forever spooky in the playoffs until the day he's not
Warriors 6 - Spurs are scary and Dubs didn't seem awake to end the season
Pelicans 7 - No idea so went with brow.
Jazz 6 - No idea how good OKC are when they're primarily trying to win and not manufacture stats for Russ

schedule:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DakG_TLWAAEFiXj.jpg:large

man the wolves could really use some of those terrible games they lost against total shithole tanking teams like the suns now :/

both dantoni and thibs have been running playoff rotations all year so we pretty much know what we're gonna get here. sounds like mbah moute is gonna miss at least the first round so that's a major blow to their defense, however...

Rockets are 4-0 vs. Minnesota this season, with a 129.8 offensive rating in a sample size of almost 200 minutes. Jesus. Butler played in 3 of those games, tearing his meniscus after 25 minutes in the third. Houston has thrived in this matchup

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) April 12, 2018

yeah you really got to be able to clean those ones up, def a successful nba team habit xp

they would probably be a 3-4 seed if jimmy never got hurt

yeah they were really rolling

fyi the conferenceless matchups:

1 Houston Rockets vs. 16. Milwaukee Bucks
2 Toronto Raptors vs. 15. Miami Heat
3 Golden State Warriors vs. 14. Denver Nuggets
4 Boston Celtics vs. 13. Minnesota Timberwolves
5 Philadelphia 76ers vs. 12. San Antonio Spurs
6 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. 11. Indiana Pacers
7 Portland Trail Blazers vs. 10. Utah Jazz
8 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 9. New Orleans Pelicans

those are just as good

replacing the wizards with the nuggs is an improvement

rappers in 5
celtics vs bucks idk
sixers in 4
cavs in 6

rockets in 4
warriors in 6
blazers vs pelicans idk
thunder vs jazz idk

not sure where else to post this but Javale Mcgee released an album (under the name Pierre) and it's... kinda alright?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csSS1Yaar9M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJK43gaQDtY

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/715wNLf1CSL._SL1056_.jpg

no

east:
raptors in 5 - they'll lose game 1 but rally back. lowry will still be not good.
celtics in 6 - celts will sell out to shut down transition, bucks will struggle to score in halfcourt
76ers in 7 - like everyone's said, depends on the health of embiid. heat are deep and well coached, but the sixers are so much more talented. if embiid misses the whole series, switch to heat in 7
Cavs in 5 - Cavs own the Pacers, Lebron didn't suffer through this season just to lose in the first round.

west:
rockets in 5 - rox are too good, butler will help the wolves grind one out at home.
warriors in 5 - spurs sans kahwi are no match and the warriors bench spent the whole season getting reps
pelicans in 7 - this is a total toss-up and i know that the pelicans don't have much behind their top two, but holiday can lock up whichever of dame and cj is hot at the moment and im hoping for a monster perf by AD, the best player in the series
jazz in 7 - reminds me a bit of the jazz/clippers series from last year, major coaching advantage to the jazz and idk if the thunder supporting cast will be able to match their intensity

anyway, looking forward to seeing how wrong i am

also lol at the pacers still drawing the cavs even in the hypothetical conferenceless playoffs

The Portland Trail Blazers lost the fewest number of games to injury during the regular season with the Pelicans surrending the most.

— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 13, 2018

toronto in 5
boston in 6
philly in 6
cleveland in 5

rockets in 4
golden state in 7
portland in 6
oklahoma city in 6

east:
1 raptors vs 8 wizards -- really want to make this pick after seeing game 1, given the raps choking history, but raptors in 5 seems right
2 celtics vs 7 bucks -- one of these teams has giannis, the other team has coach brad. neither team is very good. celtics in 7
3 76ers vs 6 heat -- kind of unfortunate draw for the philly, but sixers in 5
4 cavs vs 5 pacers -- honestly have watched zero pacers games this year, but lebron has won like his last 17 round one games so cavs in 4 or 5 seems like the smart pick

west:
1 rockets vs 8 twolves -- should be a fun series, rockets in 5
2 warriors vs 7 spurs -- this should probably be the NBATV series.........warriors in 5
3 blazers vs 6 pelicans -- gotta go with an upset pick, so pellies in 7
4 thunder vs 5 jazz -- jazz in 6

Not sure the Warriors would've scripted a better path entering the night: Spurs in Round 1, winner of Blazers-Pelicans in Round 2. Jazz-Thunder on Rockets' side of the bracket. They can only face 1 of Utah, OKC, Houston and won't do it until after Curry should be healed.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 12, 2018
― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Thursday, April 12, 2018 1:08 AM (yesterday)

well, by losing their last game on purpose they did kind of script it...

I won't predict how many games each series will last. I know I'm not smart enough for that.

Toronto
Boston
Philly
Cleveland

Houston
Golden State
Portland
OKC

I have no idea but I’m going Indy over Cavs. Upset special.

wld be a great outcome

yah rooting for drama for sure

oh yeah i'm deeply rooting for the pacers in that one, let's go crazy

salute to lagoon who sticks to his guns and picks against the team with a 16 game winning streak and their best player coming back because he said they weren't that good a couple of months ago

youre gonna be so sorry kevin, incredibly sorry

I respect your unwavering confidence in your initial assessment even in the face of emerging contradictory evidence

matt armstrong never posts anymore I feel like I need to start some beefs, just doing my part

Miss Matt Armstrong. Glad we picked up m@tt and mordy tho.

Pumped to watch 20 hours of basketball this weekend.

maybe i should dm matt to come back for the playoffs

Could easily see the 76ers crashing and burning here. They’ve been running hot but history says the young guys won’t perform at that level in the playoffs. They do have some solid vets but their main dogs are all first time ‘offers. And the heat are just solid and will keep games close. Heat have the worst offense in the league and the 76ers a top 2 defense so .... idk.

Embiid vs Whiteside for a series is bound to get hairy. And I’m calling at least a few dragon vs b Simmons scuffles. Wonder if they’ll put j rich on Ben Simmons and try to cut off the head of the snake.

Am I going to be furtively watching the Dubs/Spurs on my phone during my kid's AAU tournament tomorrow? Probably.

putting a smaller guy on simmons who can get under him and bother him fullcourt cld work, its def a scenario that a lot of young players struggle with

curry attacking the basket this series was very beautiful to watch.

This is interesting. Per @nbastats ...

Curry's 81 drives was 3rd among all players in Conference Finals, behind Harden (144), LeBron (108). Despite getting just 2 FTAs off those drives, he scored the 3rd-most points off drives because he shot 61.7 percent on them.

— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) May 29, 2018

The Houston Rockets have died. pic.twitter.com/5k7IzeXoYL

— perfect angel dan (@dannyteardrop) May 29, 2018

some of steph’s finishes at the rim in that series were nearly impossible

he has to be second behind kyrie among small guys who consistently use the rim as a shield and spin the ball off glass in crazy ways

ya his drives are rad

interesting how he toned down his crazy off the dribble 3pt game after losing to bron in the finals re our convo on harden taking all those stepbacks

some of steph’s finishes at the rim in that series were nearly impossible

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 29, 2018 3:17 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he reminds me a little of MJ actually

jordan did so many reverses feel like this is a forgotten aspect of his game

kinda cant wait for the 10 hour jordan doc. hope it reminds people of his all around game and not just the shrug game, the flu game, the b russell push off and the pass to kerr.

re curry better shot selection: tis nice being able to defer to durant on the 3-4 of those he would've had to hoist up every game. might take a hit on his highlight reel but it's a more sound level of basketball. his all around game is so rounded at this point. an all time great at the peak of his powers. his rebounding in the playoffs has gone relatively unnoticed.

yeah he took that one stepback 3 with Ryan Anderson on him in 3rd qtr and I was like whoa he's really feeling it, whereas couple years ago he was doing that on the reg

some good stuff in the athletic about curry's 3rd quarters:

Without Chris Paul — maybe even with him, as his strained hamstring was a sign of his shortcomings in the endurance category — the Rockets’ decline was just a matter of time.

After running around in the first half, off screens, through the clutches and grabs, he knows eventually the defense will get tired. He knows the rotations will be later, the contests on his shot not as strong. That’s what he trains for.

“Performance capacity,” said Payne, owner of Accelerate Basketball. “It’s a playoff work capacity. It is the amount of time you can play at full speed without losing mechanical discipline or losing any speed or accuracy when making on-court decisions. It’s the next level of conditioning, which is what we work on all the time. I don’t care who can simply work fast for a long time. I want players that can perform and win with perfect mechanics with fast and accurate decisions in the late stages of games.”

after this wc finals round I think it's safe to say that marv albert needs to retire.

he can't even identify the star players correctly anymore

was pretty sad hearing him try to explain hardens dumbass nosebleed celebration

cp3 thought his nose was really bleeding lol

what happened to kevin harlan?

i fucking love twitter man. people are saying it wasn't a foul on bell because harden grabbed his arm

― k3vin k., Monday, May 28, 2018 7:39 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's the correct call. The offensive player is rotated when the defensive player comes over the top and pulls him. The defensive player has the opportunity to stop or change direction but declined, and instead grabbed and pulled him in an attempt to draw an offensive foul: https://t.co/S1135VD5BV

— NBA Referees (@OfficialNBARefs) May 29, 2018

huh, bell is clearly moving before harden grabs him but ok

looked like a helluva moving screen when i saw it live and even the slow mo replay was suspect even with the arm pull. still cant belive it wasnt called but it looked like the refs were fed up with harden's theatrics by that point in the game/series anyway.

the really crazy one was where harden got absolutely sandwiched between dray and someone else when he was going up for a layup

the officiating in the second half was an utter disgrace

Scott Foster seems like the most hated ref of all time, how does a guy like that end up reffing huge games in the offs?

just read that steph had zero free throw attempts in games 6 and 7 btw.

funny all this handwringing is happening over the rockets roster or style or whatever, but DESPITE paul being out and harden sucking in the second half again, if it weren't some rigged officiating and a 1/72000 cold streak from 3 they'd probably be in the finals

obv all of life is probability and klay picking up 3 fouls in the first 2 mins of the game and the warriors in the 1H generally looking like they had never played together before are not necessarily things to count on either

i thought the series was over as soon as he got that 3rd foul.

def made it interesting, ultimately the rockets just cldnt play the style of defense they needed to with that few dudes without getting really tired

reffing is an art not a science

to be clear reffing has to be extremely hard, it's so easy for us to say with the benefit of camera angles and slo mo and things of that nature that the calls are bad

reffing is probably like twice as hard now as it was in the 90s

not that thats any excuse to have shitty refs

yeah it's too bad they suck but you have to figure these dudes are at the top of their profession and they are so bad it must just be really hard :(

point is some of these guys cant keep up anymore but because of the union they're here to stay regardless

theres still potential to improve calls without slowing the games down with reviews, like an extra ref either on the court or behind the timers table, tracking technology for out of bounds and shot clock and back court violations

the tech ref needs to be a millennial who consults Twitter for controversial calls.

probably within the next 2-5 years you can train neural networks to figure it all out but what's the fun in that

anyway the reffing was bad but we all lived through the donaghy era and the heat/mavs finals where the refs gave d-wade a chip. i'm okay with the reffing as long as it leans more towards non-calls more than BS calls. it's fine, houston shouldn't have missed 27 3's in a row!

they should have extra refs in the offs like they do in baseball

One ref per player, and they sub in and out when the player does

still cant belive it wasnt called but it looked like the refs were fed up with harden's theatrics by that point in the game/series anyway.

yea I wonder how this wears on refs over the course of a series. they're only human

I’m kind of into cavs dubs round 4 honestly, I really did not want to watch hardens blank faced phony shots and a billion free throws in the finals

Given how close both were to elimination this is almost certainly the last round

i just plugged a usb cord into my basketball and it gave me the data

― ciderpress, Saturday, May 26, 2018 2:06 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

new board description pls

after this wc finals round I think it's safe to say that marv albert needs to retire.

― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Tuesday, May 29, 2018 5:18 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sad but probably true. Also have a theory that he can’t see certain angles that well and it is harder when they shove three guys in the booth with him so obv boot Reggie first

Harlan’s around, they just always go with Marv when it’s down to one series.

I am giddy with anticipation for the 2019 Celtics btw bc at numerous points they just needed one more dude who can score and they have two currently being reassembled

i too am totally stoked for that team

celtics are gonna be legit scary next year

(((( Warriors vs. Cavaliers |||| 2018 NBA Finals |||| Round 4 ))))