We followed him when we lived in Portland and his leadership on that team was unquestionable. Management of the team was awful, however. It’s hard to be cohesive when you know you might be shitcanned at any time for no particular reason. It’s a lot of pressure for a (then) young player to try and shoulder that sort of responsibility. It’s to his credit that he hung in there for as long as he did.
Good to know.
From my limited understanding, rather like Kevin Garnett during his long Minnesota years.
Could be, though I’m unfamiliar with the team during that period. Lillard had an occasional off game, like all players have, but in general he was consistently brilliant in Portland. The same can’t be said for his partner guard C.J. McCullum. You never knew who was going to show up with him. In addition, Lillard was mentoring Nurkic into being an effective center, which he was definitely not when he arrived in Portland from Denver.
LeBron is down, 3-0. No NBA team has come back to win from that deficit. The Nuggets, despite being down at halftime in all 3 games, have been just too much for the Lakers this series.
Tonight the Lakers collapsed defensively, and the Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon had a personal best playoff game, 29 points and 15 rebounds. It was insane how often the Lakers left Gordon open beneath the basket for easy layups and dunks.
Orlando completely crushes Cleveland in game 3 121-83 to make it 2-1 in favor of Cleveland. This game makes me think maybe we shouldn’t have choked away homecourt advantage the last week of the season.
Joel Embiid, who, quite frankly, should have been ejected in the first quarter, scored 50 last night to lead the Sixers over the Knicks. This was a fun game to watch.
Yeah, hate to see that kind of behavior rewarded with a win. Enbiid shot more free throws than the entire new york team.
I didn’t see the game or any reporting on that. What happened? A video link would be good.
Best I can find is a link to a reddit post about it.
From appearances, he flopped, got pissy, and then yanked Mitchell Robinson down by his ankle while Robinson was in mid-air. Draymond Green-level bullshit.
ETA: I hadn’t see the hip check on OG Anunoby with a minute left in the game, and apparently there was an even more Draymond Green-level nutshot.
I know I’m a bloodthirsty sports fan, but it could be worth it for Embiid to get some Bad Boys Pistons treatment to start off Game 4. That’s all toddler trash.
Here’s a YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUEWmI87e7Q
Paolo Banchero is the first player in NBA history to have a playoff game with:
30+ PTS
10+ REB
5+ AST
In less than 30 minutes played.
Definitely a flagrant 2. What an asshole move that was, and designed to hurt the guy.
Pacers were up by 19 at one point in the first half of Game 3 against the Bucks, but Milwaukee came roaring back to force overtime. We won in overtime, though, on a Tyrese Haliburton three-point play.
Khris Middleton was absolutely fucking clutch for the Bucks. He hit the game-tying shot to send it to overtime, and hit a game-tying shot with a few seconds left in the overtime period before Haliburton got the win.
Pacers up 2-1. Game 4, Sunday.
Middleton was clutch, especially near the end of regulation, where on his 3-point jumper he was off balance and rotating his body as he launched his jump.
Nothing but net.
Wolves are up 3-0 after last night’s victory over Phoenix. The Suns made a 3rd quarter run to try to catch them, but no dice. Gobert and Edwards both had stellar games. MN hasn’t had a playoff series victory since the 2003-04 season when they beat Denver. Don’t choke now, boys.
What did I hear yesterday? I think it was yesterday in one of the telecasts that NBA playoff teams that are up 3-0 are 151-0 for taking the series. I think it was 151. So if anyone chokes now (Minnesota, Denver), they’d be the first of 151 teams.
Remember the ‘04 Red Sox? Really it’s the ‘04 Yankees who lost to this Red Sox in ‘04. Those Yankees may not have been the first team, I don’t recall exactly, but they were up 3-0 and then the Red Sox came storming back.
I haven’t followed baseball since junior high, but that’s pretty bad. Interestingly, when MN made it to the second round in 2003, it was over the Nuggets. That would be an interesting revenge matchup in the western finals.
Not only were the Yanks the first team to lose a series after being up 3-0, they remain the only MLB team to do so.
Orlando once again absolutely crushed Cleveland 112 to 89 on the strength of a 37-10 third quarter. Series is tied 2-2 and goes back to Cleveland, but after two extremely demoralizing loses I think momentum is definitely with us.
That’s the only time it’s happened in the baseball playoffs. It’s happened four times in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Los Angeles Kings did it in the first round in 2014. The Flyers did it 2010 in the third to last round as did the Penguins in 1975. The Toronto Maple Leafs did it in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1942