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

the flops in the last minute were a fucking masterpiece

honestly one of the funnest and wackiest endings, i half expected them to start bringing out legal counsel to decide the foul on the inbound

chris paul just like, oh thats the call? lemme get the nbpa on this shit.

just the perfect lil bastard performance, lots of lu darts (these are what i call 3s by lu dort), harden with his signature CLUTCH DEFENSE the fuck i need to go to bed

cracking up at that channing frye video

Hah maybe they should’ve had one of the 10 best passers off all time throwing that in huh.

as much as i love Shai - and i love him a lot - he looked like a deer in headlights on all those inbounds attempts. Billy definitely should've replaced him.

i just don't understand why you don't run your most foolproof "get Adams a layup against a 6'5" guy" play and let Paul make the pass. sheesh.

CP looked like he didnt want the ball at the end either. he'd been cooking roco all series why didnt he just do his normal moves and get a quality look.

their spacing was bad on that play, cp3 got caught too far along the wing and westbrook was able to help off the short side corner w/o actually leaving his man, which is why cp3 got caught in between and ended up jump passing to no one. i agree w/ you completely about what should have happened, but the plays earlier in the game where he was breaking down covington were true clear outs w/ paul more or less at the top of the key. the thunder were just awful at the end of that game from a mental standpoint, donovan was terrible, nothing worked right, it was all bad. and it's especially funny given how much everyone talked about their clutch performances and cp3's whole thing about how some ppl were born for game 7s and others weren't.

also have to give credit to covington for making a few threes in the fourth even after cp twisted him up, it seemed like the thunder were gonna play him off the floor but he made his case

he was the best player on the rockets last night. 21-10-2-3-3

the thunder were just awful at the end of that game from a mental standpoint

The inability to get any kind of a shot off, let alone a clean or good one, reflected horribly on Donovan. But I do think part of the issue is CP3's maximalist, utilitarian philosophy to winning by any means necessary. Even if its just a small percentage of his brain that's trying to draw fouls, mess with the other team, etc., it has to sap some from his focus on trying to actually get a good shot in the game.

RoCo is easily the most likable player on the Rockets. Jeff Green seems like a nice enough guy but no one who has ever had to depend on him as a key scoring option on their team could ever find him likable.

i still like mike dan tony and would be sad to see him end his career without ever making it to the finals. you have to think this team is his last chance

his last chance with the rockets was the last two season imo. this team isnt nearly as good as those were.

i do think the rockets are the more interesting match up for the lakers... but that's also in a world where russell westbrook is healthy and not playing like hot trash and james harden can make a shot

lol Anthony Davis' best defender, at least statistically, this season is literally PJ Tucker

data via @nbastats https://t.co/6qXGdusbRF pic.twitter.com/88omOEF215

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) September 3, 2020

its certainly a worse chance this year but i don't think it's anywhere close to 0% yet

i'm open to the idea of them upsetting the lakers except for the part where james harden would win a clinching game 6 or game 7 over lebron james. fair play if i see it w/ my own two eyes but until then it's like trying to imagine godzilla being real or something

they wouldn't take more than a game off the clippers tho

rockets have to win game one. lakers have had a long layoff. just gotta punch em real quick before they remember what's going on.

yah until harden and/or westrbook prove that they can make sound decisions in tight closeout games i will never believe in either of them

yelling at lebron "what's going on is basketball!" and now the rockets have no chance

good job, good effort!

lol

(Let's try this again)

On the play where Butler threw the ball away to Lopez, the NBA found THREE mistakes.

Kyle Korver fouled Butler, uncalled.

George Hill was out of bounds when he touched the ball, uncalled.

Butler was out of bounds before the turnover.

— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) September 3, 2020

lol

Mike D'Antoni and long playoff run are not compatible. Wins a ton of games in the regular season and is entertaining to watch, but they usually cannot get over in the playoffs. Not unlike...

Got to say, considering how bad the sports talk guys were talking OKC were going to be, Billy Donovan was able to put the parts together to be a pretty scrappy club. Unfortunately this probably puts them in the same spot the Pacers and Jazz are year to year, where you got a team full of pros that do the right thing that is good enough to win 50+ games in the regular season and then gets flayed in the playoffs because they don't have enough firepower to hang with the superpower clubs that can afford to have 2-3 big players.

NBA playoff first round...where dreams still happen for mid-market fan bases.

The Blazers played their way into the WCF last season and the Spurs fans can still recall getting some championships, but, yeah, I get your point.

i think that's pretty unfair to d'antoni... in his two best shots at making the finals he took probably the two greatest nba dynasties post-kobe/shaq lakers to the absolute brink. like, game 7 last minute brink. i don't think there's a lot of shame in having fallen just short of the teams that beat him

Is TO a mid-market fan base? Is Cleveland?

i guess some ppl take it as an indictment of d'antoni's style that the rockets missed 27 straight threes in a game 7, and i was just posting the other day about whether they'll think about trying to get some mid range in harden's game for the playoffs. all that having been said, d'antoni didn't miss 27 three pointers, and if a few of those go in we're not having this discussion. it's such a slim margin that i can't hate on him for it

btw i love the rumor of d'antoni to indiana. i don't think he'd be able to make the finals there but oladipo, brogdon, warren, and turner in that system is fun to think about

is that an actual rumor? that would be a good team for him yeah

i guess i assumed he was old enough that he'd hang it up once the rockets don't want him anymore

too proud to go out like this.

Well yeah...Shaq/Kobe also probably had a +5 point advantage in that they were going to get 2-3 calls that the other club won't. That BS that went down in the series with the Blazers, Pacers and Kings leads me to think of them as illegitimate. People forget now, but I know I was not the only NBA fan that went f-k it and quit watching it at that time because the calls were so suspect.

D'Antoni seems to be perhaps more of an influential coach than successful as I do think he was the guy that cracked open the NBA in using that European style open offense, which has become like the 'west coast offense' in football, everyone has to adopt to at least some point. That said, he always seems like a coach that has to force his club into that shape and when he was in the Lakers and Knicks, he could not make it work as he did not have the people to fit. To me, while I can acknowledge what D'Antoni has brought in to the NBA, I think of him as a lesser coach than say others including Billy Donovan this year and many others that could change their style and make it work to what type of players they had. Then again, all D'Antoni has to do is win it all and all is forgiven and he will be an all time genius. It could happen I suppose.

is that an actual rumor? that would be a good team for him yeah

― ciderpress, Thursday, September 3, 2020 6:38 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

seems like via reporting that hes indys first choice, doesnt seem like anyone knows what dan tony wants tho

I like the idea of a guy named Mike Dan Tony <insert last name here>

the last name is chris paul

ehhh i think 2 years ago is a good example of d'antoni showing the ability to adapt his style for the roster, that team played really slow paced iso ball and almost made the finals

actually i'm not quite right about that, they were middle of the pack in pace, but still

the difference between how that team played and the previous year is night and day, he was absolutely not running the same system

Players get better when they play for D’Antoni which is the main thing you want from a coach

I think the big problem he had in LA is that kobe was very stubborn and there was nothing really to improve with him. And the injuries obviously

I think Indiana has potentially the best starting 5 in the NBA, I’m all in on them

d'antoni does one thing really well imo which is cede control of the offense to a superstar player.

my friend met m0nte m0rris at the phx airport pre covid and he said he likes denver ok but he really wants to play under dantoni

fucking insane play by kemba. pure magic.

Goddamn I hate Boston but that was dope as hell

dammit

Oh shit