( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

gotta say i love that the wizards were invited to the bub and lost a bunch of games and now have a worse winning percentage than charlotte and might fall below the bulls in the next couple days

the suns look pretty damn good. they were playing fast and sharing the ball.

Has anyone written an article about the seeding scenarios? I would assume the nuggets and clippers want the 2nd seed but idk

Nurkic dunks on Bol Bol 😳 pic.twitter.com/IffR5E2mZX

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 7, 2020

an interesting fact about the potential bucks-heat match up is that the bucks defense is designed to give up three pointers and the heat had the highest three point percentage in the league this year

yea I think they really need to clean that up lest they get rocked by fucking Fred VanVleet again

lakers are not that good without bron

i think nurkic is the happiest player in the bubble. dude looks so energized to be playing basketball again.

kyle kuzma is the evolutionary jeff green

btw harden has finally transitioned to a mature hairstyle

Malone benching Jokic in the 4th could cost me a lot of money. I’m upset

matt, are you betting on bubble seeding games? do you need help?

hes playing the fan duel

btw did just regular sorts betting become legal seeing all these ads not sure how i missed that

they need to legalize online poker so i can become wealthy

sports betting is legal in oregon since january there's an app and eveyrthing, been surprised so far that it has not ruined the life of any men i know

i have a handful of vices but every day i thank the higher powers that gambling is not one of them

the few absolute degen gamblers i know are basically unsalvageable as humans

some light wagering here and there is fine but as far as something to ruin yr life with its kinda lane

betting on random prime time games makes them way more fun to watch but you have to find that middle ground between "not trivial amount of money" and "won't hurt much to lose"...for me that's about 20 bucks

Again though I have questions about all of this. I feel like there’s lots of weird jockeying considering home court doesn’t exist anymore

its all about da matchups now baby

tho im sure teams are also trying to balance that with "finding their groove"

feel like the first round will still be dealing with rust but then by the second round teams shd be up to speed, but its still gonna be different than it wouldve been, different teams will be peaking, theres no home court and so forth

Denver never wants to play Houston so they probably have some stats guy running all the scenarios for maximizing that avoidance

sort of feel like houston is less scary to me matchup-wise this year, but yeah I'd still rather not play them

there was an interesting segment on lowe's pod today about the lakers' half-court offense, apparently it ranks 18th or 20th or something in the NBA (they're first by a mile in transition offense), and their offense overall is dead last since the re-start of all the bubble teams

no one is making shots on that roster

*since the return

Utah is probably the 6th seed and they seem to be completely out of sorts so maybe it’s the right plan

interesting contrast watching the heat minus butler beat the celtics and then w/o dragic beat the bucks for 3.5 quarters for running out of gas vs the sixers (fully healthy) struggling to beat the wizards and spurs and now w/o simmons playing the magic even

not sure theres too much to learn from bubble ball thus far. its basically summer league for good players.

except it's not bcuz the games matter and the preparedness of your team is a reflection of your franchise!

it's not a coincidence that the pacers are 3-1 despite losing sabonis and having a gimpy oladipo, the heat are 2-2 vs four of the best teams in the league despite their injuries, and the sixers are going to be lucky to go 3-1 w/ wins over wizards, spurs, and magic. the 4-5-6 battle in the east actually matters, this is an incredibly important season for the sixers -- the coach's job depends on it -- and i don't think anyone would seriously argue the sixers are better off facing the celtics than miami or the pacers. they need to win games, which they are, but they look bad and nobody will deny that, and if they keep playing like this they're gonna get the 6 seed and lose to boston and it will be a miserable offseason.

I'm going to disagree slightly, because I don't think it matters at this point who the Sixers play as they are going to lose.

I mean it's Embiid, a diminished Horford, and a 50-50 chance you get the all-star version of Harris.

i think they'd be underdogs at this point vs the heat, prob not vs the pacers. but the bubble started w/ those teams separated by like 1 game each, and the sixers have *by far* the easiest schedule of the three, to expect them to get into the 4-5 and then maybe win a series and save a little face on the season is pretty reasonable. even still!

i'd also point out that one of the things trumpeted by the front office in defense of the decision to sign horford was that he provided embiid insurance. well he's providing simmons insurance now, at the 4, at a cost of $100 million, and it doesn't appear to be helping the sixers very much at all. i think it's fair to use "how does the sixers roster react to an injury" in judging the front office... again the pacers and heat are going thru the same thing and the results are night and day. it's relevant info to me

also the magic are playing without isaac and aaron gordon

The Sixers had some issues with the Embiid-Simmons pairing and their overall structure and Brand just exacerbated everyone of their problems with the moves he made. It's a guard-driven league you dumbass!

He's the anti-Hinkie.

I really think every team is a different story. Everyone knows the Heat are deep and have great chemistry. The Bucks? Not sure they care about these games really. The Lakers seem to have truly bad vibes.

the bucks have been trying hard save for the second half against brooklyn

the lakers offense has been the worst per efficiency in the bubble, they def have a problem

some teams like the bucks, clippers, lakers, rockets, etc were always only going to be judged based on what happened in the postseason, so in a sense nothing has changed for them in the bubble. but everyone is treating these games as if they are real.

i dont think anyone really wants to play the rockets, too weird

im watching the nba tv show film room where kevin mchale rick mahorn and isiah thomas are watching game 7 celtics pistons 1987 and present day mahorn just got legit heated at a bad call against 87 him lol

I feel like in a seven game series the Rockets are going to run into their usual problem, which is that any really weird-ass team becomes significantly less weird when you get to play them game after game. and now they're weirder than ever, so that issue might only be magnified.

my guess is they don't want to draw OKC, Rox have more talent but the Thunder are smart and disciplined and CP3 would be looking to bust ass on a level that's extreme even for him.

but everyone is treating these games as if they are real.

― J0rdan S., Friday, August 7, 2020 8:17 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

to illustrate: utah's deep reserves really put some heat on the spurs' starters earlier today. everyone is putting their best foot forward whether they're fighting for seeding or a playoff spot or a roster spot next year.

stan van likes the virtual fans

stan van stans fans

otm

celtics came to play tonight

stan van is great... if you heard him on zach lowe pod he does crazy stat prep compared to other ex coach/player analysts (such as his brother)

the celtics play the raptors very tough for whatever reason.

and yeah, stan has been awesome so far as an analyst. he was a very engaging interview when he was a coach as well. it was funny listening to him steal all of zach's planned stats.