In playoff news, sounds like Mike Conley wants to play as soon as his eye is no longer swollen shut. Even though his face will need around 6 weeks to heal, he might be able to play with mask or something when the swelling improves.
I thought the Grizz may have lost all momentum last night about the time ZBo was getting Teed up and they had blown a 13 point lead. I’m rooting for them in the West, so glad they pulled it off.
Wow, I just turned on the Bulls-Bucks game. That would be an embarrassing score for a college team.
Well, THAT was fun. If those Bulls show up every night they won’t lose another game. Having seen how badly they are capable of playing, though, I would rate them as only very slight favorites over the Cavs. Really looking forward to this series.
I did not watch, what the hell happened to the Bucks? 66 points? No Buck in double figures??? I guess that’s what happens when Khris Middleton is your starting SF.
In other NBA news, the Rockets have fired their social media director. As the Rockets were about to put away the Mavs, he tweeted from the Rockets official twitter an emoji horse and an emoji gun. The comment said, “Shhhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon.”
Although I think it’s pretty weak sauce, the guy who got fired is saying all the right things.
One bad game and one great game last night. I may be…yes, I’m starting to feel it…the CLIPPERS can win!!! :eek: Seriously, I was expecting them to fold up after that heartbreaking loss, but the basketball gods must be liking what they saw and decided to reward us with another game. That last basket interference call that mirrored Jordan’s from the other night (and don’t let any player tell you that was not that big of a deal, I’m looking at you Blake >_>) saved the game for the Clippers, and it wasn’t even anything to do with skill, both of them swiped at it, Diaw just got it a split second before. What a series!!!
Not looking forward to Glen Davis’s injury report. They showed a replay and it seemed he sprained his ankle first while guarding Splitter at the 3pt line. But he still sprinted back to the basket and blocked him before falling down in pain. Dare I say it? This Clippers team has heart! It has guts! It has mental toughness! Houston better watch out!
Blake’s just been amazing. He’s averaging like 25/10/5 or something crazy like that for the series. Chris Paul has been pretty great too with a few duds. Last night he had 15 assists and only 1 turnover. Blake had like 7 assists with no turnovers. Is this the best Clippers team ever? Damn, what I wouldn’t give for the Lakers to be good and seeing them battle each other in the WCF.
I never like it when people take one or two stats out of the game and say “Well, next game so and so won’t be playing this bad, or this good, so the other team’s gonna win”. That’s just lazy analysis. One night its “Tim Duncan won’t score 28 points again so the Clippers will win next”. Yeah, but the next night, Leonard scored 32. And a few nights ago it was “Green, Belinelli, and Bonner won’t score 0 points from 3pts again so the Spurs will win next”. But those guys were bolstered by another time-defying game from Timmy along with 14 from Ginobili and 18 from Leonard.
So maybe next game Chris Paul will shoot better, but he gets more turnovers. Maybe Leonard will have another off night, maybe Timmy’s knees creak a little more. Anything can happen. We could see another career night from Austin Rivers. Danny Green could make 5/5 3 pointers. Jordan could shoot 80% from the free throw line. There’s no momentum in this series and home court means nothing. Both of these teams are tough, both are great, and damn it, one of them has to lose. Forget the fight, I’ll watch highlights of that boxing match on Youtube an hour later, we’re getting a heavyweight match in the NBA in the first round!
I get that criticism. There’s one side that says basketball is about skill, and a great player must be skillful: shooting, moving, passing, hand-eye coordination, jumping, etc. And there’s another side that says if you are simply bigger and taller than everyone else and use that to your advantage, that makes you great. But I think we must judge people by their accomplishments. If Shaq was smaller, then yeah, he probably won’t be as good. But he wasn’t smaller, and he’s won rings and accolades and money. To me, that makes him great. We can knock him for his shooting, his slowness in his later years, or just taking up space. But not his accomplishments.
Where was this McCollum guy hiding all season? I never heard of him until this series! He was better than their all-stars!
I was surprised how loud it was in there even with the home team down 40 points. Is Milwaukee normally a pretty good crowd?
Me too, especially now that we know Love it out for the season. I hope they don’t take the Cavs lightly though, they still have Lebron, he’s been known to do amazing things.
Yes. He also had good really footwork, a range of moves, and a lovely soft touch on his inside shots. I think he could have scored against guys with three inches and 50 pounds on him, easily.
Of course, the majority of the time, the referees were fine with him avoiding all that by just pushing the defender to the ground and dunking over their fallen body. But you can’t really blame Shaq for doing what they let him, even if he was capable of something more skillful.
Parker has been playing like hot trash. Pop should’ve played Patty more in the past games, would’ve won easy. And last night, more Beli. Guy was a volcano. I’m not sure who to root for. I like CP3, despite the histrionics and flopping, but I think the Spurs are much better suited for taking out Cleveland, if they make it there. Clippers have choking issues, a laughable bench (Turkeyglue!), dubious SFs, and they’re depending on Crawford in crunch time.
Been enjoying Diaw’s games too. Another guy with an old man game.
smh @ people crapping on Shaq’s career. Yeah, he’s a thin skinned whiny diva and a big reason why I stopped watching the TNT shows (you can understand why Kobe and him were at each other’s throats), but the dude had a better post game than 99% of the current NBA. Also an incredible passer. No, he couldn’t drain 18 foot pull ups like KG, but do you want Shaq taking 18 footers? He didn’t score 30 and 40 with just dunks.
Fall away
Hook shots
Full court dribbling, first two clips
Shaq makes Dwight look stupid. Granted it was an ASG, but those were always fun when Shaq broke out the point center skills.
At age 36, in his last year in Phoenix, he averaged 18/8 on 60%.
Main criticisms would be his FT shooting, PnR defense, and arguably his work ethic as he exited his prime. His weight was all over the place. And a lot of the time he’d just turn and elbow the defender in the face. I thought it was funny when the refs didn’t let him do that as he got older and he acted all offended.
I think if he were smaller he’d be like Barkley, except without the dumb three pointers.
No, usually Milwaukee is two extra home games for the Bulls, but yeah, their fans definitely showed some pride there at the end. BTW that was only the second game in the shot clock era that a team failed to get at least one player in double figures.
Chris Paul a game time decision tonight. Yesterday he was doubtful, today questionable. So I think that’s a good sign.
The Grizzlies are toast if Conley can’t come back. Not that they have much chance even with him, but their backup PGs are not good. And Vince Carter being ice cold didn’t help, either.
Hooooly crap! What a game 7 by the Clips! There was like 4 or 5 moments when I thought they’d fold up and play dead. The Spur took an early first half lead but they battled back to tie at halftime, Chris Paul’s injury, the Spurs taking a later lead in the 4th quarter, all those 3 pointers that they hit. This is a team that’s traditionally folded up, lead by a superstar that’s had a multiple first round exits. Everything was going against them but fuck yeah, they beat the defending champs!! Paul is amazing, Blake is amazing, DJ should have been defensive player of the year, Reddick got hot, we don’t need no stinking bench, and Doc is a terrific coach!!
But…but, all those things will mean nothing if they go ahead and just lose to Houston. I think a Clips vs. Warriors WCF would definitely be a good cap on the team’s season, they won’t panic and make stupid moves if they lose to the eventual champs, but they would if there’s another first or second round exit. Like the Spurs series, I don’t know who will win but I think the Clippers are slight underdogs. Houston’s great now that they’ve gotten Howard back and what seems like full strength, they didn’t even look like they needed Patrick Beverley at all in their dismantling of the Mavs. And they know now that Paul is on a mad quest to pull them into the finals by himself and Blake is consistently excellent. They’ll probably focus on Paul and Blake and Howard kind of cancels each other out. We gotta slow down Harden somehow and make the other guys beat us.
Funny thing is, the Clippers have 3 of the top 5 free throw shooters on their team in Paul, Reddick, and Crawford. In this series, there will be some of the worst FT% leaders in DJ, Howard, and Josh Smith. I hope nobody employs the hack because this would be unwatchable
Warriors took care of business as expected. I really don’t think the Grizz have a chance without Conley. Warriors are too good and completely healthy to let that team stop them.
Washington is interesting. That’s all I can say. We all knew Atlanta had issues with their hard fought first round with a below 0.500 team, but it could have been like 2008 Celtics who were dominant mostly but had to play like 20 games to get out of the East. This Atlanta team just seems like it has issues. I don’t know what it is because I haven’t been able to watch a lot of their games, I think this one was on NBATV, but they are not living up to that gaudy record at all and nobody really sees them getting past the Cavs or Bulls
Picks for round 2:
Warriors over Grizzlies: 5-1
Clippers over Rockets: 4-3
Wizards over Hawks: 4-2
Cavs over Bulls: 4-3
Warriors are too strong and healthy to let anyone stop them. Clippers showed me something with their gutsy win over the Spurs, so I’m going to stop doubting them so much. Hawks have not looked impressive at all and Wizards have. Cavs over Bulls because despite being not so healthy, they have Lebron and he’s been to 4 straight Finals. When you have a record like that, they get the benefit of the doubt until they lose.
Again, I hope nobody on TV starts blabbing about how this is the most important series/games for the Clippers. They’ve been here before, its no bigger than a couple years ago when they played Memphis, I think, or OKC. If they can go up 3-2 or 3-1 on Houston, then I’ll call their next game the biggest in their history, but until then, please stop with the hyperbole. They’re a good, entertaining team to watch, can’t we just enjoy that without having to artificially inflate their worth?
I figure as LeBron ages he’ll have to move to full time PF. He’s a turn over machine this year, sloppy handles, and struggles to get past perimeter defenders in the half court without a screen. Might be better if he let Kyrie handle the offense and played more like Blake Griffin, maybe go out on the perimeter if they put a big guy on him. Only problem is he’s still not comfortable going to the post over and over again.
Right now I’m watching dueling hack a Shaq. Thank Naismith for DVR…although watching Dwight brick is actually kinda entertaining.
Holy shit, Clippers win without Chris Paul! I’m starting to believe in this team!
Didn’t get a chance to watch the Cavs/Bulls game. Were they missing JR’s shooting or Kevin Love’s size?
Blake did everything but serve popcorn. But do white people really get to claim him? Chappelle needs to come back and hold another racial draft.
I wonder who the scapegoat will be if Houston loses the series. It’s a target rich environment. Harden, Dwight, McHale…
The Cavs problem last night was that the Bulls came out red hot early. The Cavs missed the outside threat that JR and Love both provide. Mike Miller and Shawn Marion just aren’t getting it done.
I didn’t realize Joakim Noah was such a terrible free throw shooter. Watching him try to bank one was pretty funny.
Doesn’t Noah have that weird, sideways spinning free throw?
They have no one to guard Gasol at 15 feet.
Yeah, this! I think they really need to rethink that defensive strategy of “when Gasol gets the ball, everyone run as far away from him as possible”. Seriously, it was just amazing in the second half how consistently he was getting shots which “wide open” hardly even begins to describe.
In general, the Bulls were getting high percentage shots on most of their possessions; I think Thibodeau may end up being the MVP of this series if this continues.
Noah really isn’t a terrible free throw shooter in general, but his whole game is in a slump lately. From the Tribune this morning: “Noah was booed every time he touched the ball, mostly by Cavs fans”.
Yeah, he kinda pushes it with both hands. There’s no arc to it. It’s ugly.
Is Tristan Thompson not a good defender? He’s a good rebounder. I was surprised he didn’t get the start over Mike Miller. He did play 37 minutes, though.
Bottom line for the Cavs, they need more than 19 points from LeBron. He was back to his early season tricks, trying to be a facilitator. Butler played tough defense, but LeBron’s got to figure a way to score. Especially without JR Smith and Kevin Love.
The Rockets gave up way to early last night. They were down 10 with 2 mins to go and the guys were just standing around, not working hard, taking quick shots, ignoring their offenses. I think in game 2 of the Clips/Spurs series, the Spurs were down like 8 with about 45 seconds left and they played the hell out of that game, tied it for overtime, then won. Rockets just gave up, wtf was that?
The “5” should be a “4” of course unless this is best5 out of 9. 