Nail in the coffin last night for Portland. Batum finally showed up to play, but way too late for this series. McCollum should be a starter next year unless Matthews recovers. He’s a far better player as a rookie than Afflalo can hope to be.
The ESPN crew and the channel in general are in full Baghdad Bob mode to defend dirty Boston shit. "Oh that’s a totally routine basketball move where there was barely any contact, totally not a fucking MMA move designed to rip someone’s arm off. Headline: Kevin Love’s shoulder spontaneously dislocates out of the shame of standing in the way of more Boston coverage.
Yeah, that looked dirty as fuck. It was probably retaliation for what JR did.
JR was later in the half. I wasn’t quite home in time to catch the Olynyk/Love thing live but on replay it certainly wasn’t something I love to see, and looked to be on the wrong side of the line. There’s been a ton of “tangling” in general in this series; I don’t know if I’d say the refs were letting them play so much as the refs have been uniformly terrible all week. Not surprised (though certainly saddened) to see that things got ugly today.
(Honestly, I still kind of feel worse for Jae Crowder - he’s a RFA coming off the best stretch of his career, and it’s entirely possible that JR, who has made something like $40M in his career, cost him his one chance to cash in if the knee is as bad as it looked.)
The Raptors have hopefully, for their sake, learned what the Wizards learned a few years back, which is that you have to play at least some defense, and Toronto’s “overwhelm you with offense” game simply doesn’t work in the playoffs.
Wow: the Mavericks played a ferocious game at home last night to finally beat Houston. Barea really stepped up in his new starter role. They also held Hardin to 24 points.
That was an interesting weekend. Great win by the Clips. This series is living up to its billing unlike a lot of these other ones. Chris Paul is going to have to do what he did 2 more times if they’re gonna win because nobody else on the Clippers can do anything without Paul breaking down the defense. I just hope he has it in him but history says he’s probably going to have another bad game if they goes 7. Spurs are too good to let him walk over them, Pop will find a way to counter or at least get Green, Bellineli, Bonner, or Splitter to give them at least 1 point between the 4 of them.
Is Washington that good, Toronto that bad, or what? This was an odd sweep, did Toronto have a lot of injuries or something? I haven’t seen either of these teams much during the season, I just know they were usually in the top 4 in the East but they kind of lost their luster in the 2nd half as Atlanta and Cleveland were starting to make a run for the top spots. They totally flew under the radar for me in the last 3 months.
Its really nice to see some teams stave off elimination. Like above, I have no idea if Houston, Memphis, or Chicago are that good or their opponents are that bad. I know Portland’s really banged up, but looks like they took out Mike Conley with them. The latest I heard on the radio was he had fractures on his face and is looking at surgery? If so, the Grizz are done. It didn’t look too bad in real time but then you pull the towel back and there’s blood everywhere. Just a terrible break for the Grizz.
I have to admit at first I thought it was clearly a dirty play, but some of that chatter afterwards swung me back to, I dunno, only 60-70% sure? But what I didn’t get, and what I didn’t like, was that all the people they talked to like Doug Collins and then later on TNT with that crew were almost all in unison saying that it wasn’t, and Collins even seem to throw some shit at Love saying what he said was regretful and it was in the heat of the moment; absolutely no sympathy for the guy who was just taken out of the playoffs. What gives? Why protect Olynyk of all people? If I were anyone except a Boston homer, I would be pissed and call him all sorts of names, I just don’t understand why the TV people seem to give a shit about protecting some unremarkable guy on a bad team. I can’t make any statements as to what was going on in his head, but the non-basketball play itself and the result point me to a dirty play. Even if it wasn’t, we’ll never know for sure, and to reduce shit like this the NBA needs to treat it as if it were dirty and suspend him at least a game.
And what’s with the ref completely missing the guy from the Celtics trying to block Lebron’s inbound pass from out of bounds himself?
Boston is either the leading, or second leading team on ESPN’s “hype and defend” list. Cleveland is top 5 on their “shit on and mock” list.
It’s sort of silly to have such an institutional bias on a sports reporting entity. I mean, are people going to stop watching if they’re a little more even keeled?
I think the Olynyk play was dirtier than JR Smith’s. JR threw a blind fist behind him that if it had caught Crowder’s arm, it would not have been a big deal. I believe JR meant to hit him, yes, but I don’t think he knew he’d connect with Crowder’s jaw.
Olynyk, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t going for the ball. He was completely wrapped around Love’s arm. I can’t understand how analysts defend that as a typical basketball play.
It was the confluence of the Raptors’ less-than-enthusiastic defensive play and the Wizards finally figuring out that if you take a couple of steps back from that midrange jumper you were about to take, not only do you make them at about the same rate, you also get an extra point, not to mention it spaces the defenders out more, opening up all kinds of other plays.
The Raptors got totally destroyed on the boards, and then the Wizards went to a small lineup and Toronto just couldn’t keep up or make any stops.
The only injury issue I read about was Kyle Lowry having back issues since the All-Star break.
The Raptors haven’t played that badly in three years. It’s quite mystifying. Yes, Lowry was hurt and that doesn’t help, but the team played without him much of the last two weeks of the season and at no point did they look THAT bad.
Mini-rant:
I wish people would stop saying the Clippers are playing the most important games of their history right now. I’ve heard people say this was the most important series before it started, and every upcoming game is repeated as the most important. I think Vinny Del Negro took them to the 2nd round a few times, these games are not as important as those. But I’ve heard it on 2 of our local sports radio shows, I heard it on the pre/post game show on either ESPN or TNT and I think I heard one of the announcers in the game say that.
I think they’re trying to artificially inflate the importance of the game to an absurd degree. Its completely unnecessary and makes me want to yell at them for the hype. This series is that good without the hype. Defending champs vs. one of the best teams in the last 3 years record wise, you don’t need to keep saying every game is going to be cemented in Clipper history.
Tomorrow night’s game is important for this series. But if the Clippers lose the game and the series, they’ll be back next year with a similar roster. I believe the taint of Sterling’s reign is mostly gone, I doubt there will be free agents that will refuse to come to the Clippers because of ancient history. Ballmer can pay big and they have a pretty young and exciting team. These are not the most important games in Clipper history. They’d have to get to game 7 of the 2nd round to match importance and that’s a long, long way off
Wow, happy to see all this discussion. There didn’t seem to be any NBA interest on this board during the regular season. Bulls are trying to eliminate the Bucks tonight and not let the Cavs get too well rested, have taken a late 1st qtr lead after starting out down 9-0. Thus far they have looked like they are finally healthy and turning into the team they were trying to be all regular season. Rose has looked great, and now with Love out I would have to say the Bulls will be favorites to finally end one of LeBron’s seasons for a change.
I couldn’t watch the game, but suddenly Atlanta doesn’t seem so great. Having a lot of trouble with an 8-seed that came into the playoffs 22 games back. Could it really be the “lack of stars” thing, or is it something else?
Even with the loss that just happened, the Bulls look fairly good I think. They’ll win the series but without Love and JR Smith for the first 2 games, the Cavs will be vulnerable against the Bulls’ size and toughness. With those two out, any Bulls fan want to say they’re the favorites? 
In the last 2 or 3 years, people have always been saying the Bulls are THE team that would give the most trouble to Lebron, first in Miami and now in Cleveland, but always with the caveat that if they were healthy with Rose playing at a high level. Now the tables are turned a bit and I can’t wait to see if that’s true. Even though they lost Deng, they’re still a pretty well run team with a great coach. Gasol’s addition has given them a boost I think, he’s so good at passing and shooting, all qualities he displayed in LA on a bad team I’m glad he’s getting a second chance on a good team
I think 2 or 3 games of this series has been on NBATV right? I haven’t seen much of it at all except that last game, how has Atlanta been losing or Brooklyn been winning? I heard the Hawks couldn’t stop Lopez in the first game but then the Net stopped passing him the ball for some reason
:eek:
Playoff mood swings in full effect. Didn’t see the game, but from the box score looks like Rose had a very off night. I do think that “when healthy” this is the best Bulls team this century. The depth is good and Gasol has discovered the fountain of youth. Sucks that the Cavs will have another few days to heal. Thus far the Bulls have won every game that I have watched this series, so I will be sure to be watching Thursday!
For all of his faults, LeBron outright owns the Bulls, especially Rose. Gasol is a softie. Then again, LeBron’s prime is in the rearview mirror and he lost his stacked team so there’s less chance of him being carried when he goes into brick mode. Unless you think Love is a liability with his terrible D and moodiness and it’s addition by subtraction, which some people believe. It’s too bad though, I really wanted to see how Love would handle important playoff games.
Butler is gonna be busy.
Big thanks to Portland for giving the home crowd a win last night. They played exceptionally well and we’re seeing a major NBA star in the making in C.J. McCollum. Meyers Leonard all but shut down Marc Gasol, which is no small thing. I think Stotts would be smart to think about changing the starting lineup next season, as Afflalo just isn’t contributing much. Lopez does a decent job at center, but he doesn’t have the all-around player skills of Leonard.
Its nice to see some teams dig deep and stay alive for at least one more game. Where was this fight in the first 3 games for Portland and Milwaukee??
I didn’t see Rose’s box score until just now. Ouch, that’s pretty bad. But he makes up for it by using his athleticism on defense, right? Bulls fans, how’s Rose’s D been? Does he have a shot at slowing down Kyrie in the next round? Without Love, the Bulls can just plant Noah, Gasol, and Mirotic in the lane without worrying about an outside big man. I heard on the radio, and agree with the analysis, that this year, due to the injuries and suspension, will be the best chance the Bulls have to win or else their window’s going to close. They’ve been good to great for so long, but they’re always banged up. Now its the other team that is banged up, and if they get past the Cavs, they’ll likely get a Hawks team that’s having trouble with the size of Brooklyn.
I feel bad for Portland fans though. They were clearly the #2 or #3 best team in the West until Matthews went down, and now they’re down a deep hole against a good Grizzlies team. Even without Mike Conley’s face defending Lillard’s elbow, that was still a close game. Off the top of my head, the Blazers are my (I know I’m not Bill Simmons but I’m making this A Thing!) All Injured Team for the last decade. Given what they’ve lost and what they could have achieved, they have to be, right? This isn’t like the Bucks losing Jabari Parker, someone you had high hopes for but didn’t know how good they could be, and this isn’t the Knicks losing Stoudemire because while they were good, nobody thought they were a championship team even when healthy. Imagine this team with Brandon Roy, or a healthy Oden that could play through a whole season, or even just Matthews back. And oddly enough, they had Zach Randolph back in the day until he injured his hand in his last season and the Blazers gave him up. Sometimes the basketball gods just hate a city for one reason or another
Quick playoff predictions for tonight: Houston beats Dallas and the Clippers hold home court (but they’ll lose to the Spurs in game 6)
Yeah, tons of aggravating injuries like sprains, and at least one very serious injury in Matthews. I think every starter except Lillard (who has never missed a game in his three years in the NBA) missed games this season, along with a good percentage of the bench. Aldridge and Batum have been playing injured; Batum has been so unreliable that I’m surprised Stotts keeps starting him; 27 points the other night and nearly zippo last night.
By the way, it was McCollum’s accidental elbow that took out Conley. He had the class to walk over to the Memphis coach before the game started and ask about the guy.