Why is TNT trying to turn "Hero Ball" into a marketing slogan?
[NBA Playoffs] First round games open thread
- Thread starter Capt. Factorial
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Pelicans are going fishing on Saturday... And the playoffs are going to become a lot less interesting for Mister Slim.
My only consolation is that a good team remains to beat the Rockets. That's what I'm rooting for once the Pels go down. BOO ROCKETS
They should replace Monty Williams with Mike Malone, before Saturday. Just let an interim coach finish out Game 4, and let Malone take over Sunday morning.
To be fair to Anthony Davis, he has been very productive in the fourth quarters of close games, and at a very high rate of efficiency. There probably aren't three other teams in the league who can give Davis as many problems as Golden State.
Padrino
All-Star
i've seen this comparison a few times in this thread since last night, and i'm not fond of it at all. the kings were a surprise team to start the season; that they were competitive at all against strong opponents was a revelation very few expected. new orleans, on the other hand, is currently a playoff team. yes, they're an eighth seed with no chance at all of beating the warriors, but they're still a playoff team. the kings were a perennial loser attempting to shake off a decade of bad vibes, and they were dealing with the growing pains of learning how to win. they weren't a playoff team, and they likely would have had difficulty becoming a playoff team even if the kings hadn't fired mike malone prematurely...
the pelicans may lack postseason experience, and the western conference may be particularly brutal, but there's a grand canyon's worth of difference between a kings team that had only just begun to string together competitive regular season performances and a playoff-bound pelicans team that features newly-minted basketball god anthony davis. dropping big leads at the end of a couple of tough regular season games early in the schedule is one thing; blowing a 20-point lead in front of a raucous home crowd in the fourth quarter of a tremendously important playoff game is something else entirely. at no point in that fourth quarter did they truly look in control of their fate. in the final five minutes of regulation, they could neither score nor secure a simple defensive rebound. it was total collapse. we'll see how they bounce back next season, but that one's going to haunt their mental fortitude for awhile, i think...
Let's not pretend that we were only blowing leads at the start of the season; we were blowing big leads all year.
Padrino
All-Star
my point was that, before malone's ouster, it was a growing expectation for the kings to get over the hump and close out games effectively. after he was fired, the kings would go on to lose games of all stripes, with fourth quarter leads and without, because they had nothing to play for...
Chubbs
Starter
Do people watch AD just looking to find ways he's less than perfect?
It's fascinating how little respect he gets here. Dude is avg 30 ppg in his first 3 playoff games. Against Bogut and Green. On an 8 seed team against a 1. Do people realize how unreal that is? Apparently not.
The fact he has no goto move should scare the living hell out of the rest of the NBA. Cause he's on pace to be an all time great whether he gets one or not.
He'll get better. He's still only 22.
It's fascinating how little respect he gets here. Dude is avg 30 ppg in his first 3 playoff games. Against Bogut and Green. On an 8 seed team against a 1. Do people realize how unreal that is? Apparently not.
The fact he has no goto move should scare the living hell out of the rest of the NBA. Cause he's on pace to be an all time great whether he gets one or not.
He'll get better. He's still only 22.
Since I was the one on the other side of the debate, I want to be clear that I agree the sky is the limit there. My point is that he's just a very different type of superstar. His stats suggest he's a hall of famer but at this point when I watch him, he seems more like the greatest role player in history (and I mean him than about 10k blank spaces then the next guy) than a superstar that can put his team on his back and make plays. Even when he's "dominating" at the end of games, it feels like a lot of his damage is off of assisted baskets, put backs, and hustle plays then anything else.
To your point, if he's doing that kind of damage now, look out. I just wonder what happens if he never develops that kind of game. He'd be one of the few superstars I can think of that had that kind of game.
gunks
Hall of Famer
Oh no! IT got to them too!!
He definitely has not looked very All-Star like in these playoffs.
That's the thing, though: this isn't a wheel. We keep moving forward, and seeing something new is inevitable. Nobody ever played like Wilt, until Wilt. Nobody ever played like Oscar, until Oscar. Nobody ever played like Maravich, until Maravich. These things happen; they don't happen often, and when they do, they tend to invite criticism and skepticism, but there comes a point when you have to realize what it is that you're seeing.
HereWeBoogie
Hall of Famer
Die Clipper scum!!!!!!!!!!!!!
K
KingMilz
Guest
What? The Pelicans had no business being in the playoffs not Dallas......honestly had Dallas never made that terrible Rondo move and just inserted Harris into a the starting line up they would have been better imo. Dallas won like 50 games how did they have no business being in the playoffs?
Compared to last years first round (which was just pure insanity) the match ups and key injuries this year have made this one far less interesting in particular the best potential round 1 series which imo was Memphis vs Portland. Maybe we had to much of a good thing last year and the basketball gods evened it up.
# I'm actually really enjoying the Raptors getting trashed by Paul Pierce again, dude must be the most hated human in Toronto, two years in a row he's killed them with dagger after dagger.
#Leonard has stepped it up again, some off the off the dribble moves with fakes he was making have been unreal this kid is just a freak.
Sac.Kings
All-Star
I hope the Clippers get crushed 4-1 so they are forced to break things up a little... maybe we can swoop in and take Jordan off their hands. That would be ideal!
Dallas is a shell of what they used to be, there is just something missing with them. They are probably going to look to shake things up considerably come summer time. I actually like Ellis if they would be willing to let him go, he has played a lot better with Dallas. Pelicans are just young and inexperienced, but they have talent. Davis is beasting, but still has to fix some of those holes in his game (he's got plenty of time). I find myself rooting for the Wizards, they are playing great. Brooklyn has no chances and man, I feel bad for Deron Williams, he has just completely fallen off (I really liked him in the Jazz days).
Dallas is a shell of what they used to be, there is just something missing with them. They are probably going to look to shake things up considerably come summer time. I actually like Ellis if they would be willing to let him go, he has played a lot better with Dallas. Pelicans are just young and inexperienced, but they have talent. Davis is beasting, but still has to fix some of those holes in his game (he's got plenty of time). I find myself rooting for the Wizards, they are playing great. Brooklyn has no chances and man, I feel bad for Deron Williams, he has just completely fallen off (I really liked him in the Jazz days).
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
They won 50 games....big deal! they are done as contenders and inserting Harris wasn't going to change the outcome in this series. Dirk has maybe 2-3 years left in him and Dallas just has too many me first players...that's the issue here. They are not fun to watch, at least not to me personally.
If the line for whether or not a team has "any business" in the playoffs is whether they are a legit contender, you might as well skip the first two rounds, and just have a Final Four of NBA basketball.
Eh, that's just going to have to be one of those YMMV things. I am not particularly concerned with "key injuries," because there's no team that has "key injuries" whom I actually wanted to see win, anyway. I mean, sure the Thunder have had key injuries, all season long, and it ultimately cost them a trip to the playoffs... but my general attitude towards the Thunder is, **** the Thunder, so them not making the playoffs doesn't bother me at all. You could make the case that Portland and Houston have had key injuries, but I wouldn't have rooted for them, regardless of circumstances. The only team who have had what you could call a "key injury" that I care about are the Pelicans, and they wouldn't have won, anyway.
I think it was Brian Windhorst who postulated that, if Paul Pierce is not the most hated basketball player ever in Toronto, he's certainly the most hated player in Toronto who never actually played for Toronto.
This Bucks/Bulls series is interesting to me; even though it's kind of a stretch to say I "grew up" there (and I definitely wasn't born there), I did go to high school in the sleepy little town of Zion, IL, which is almost exactly equidistant between Milwaukee and Chicago. I find myself wondering, had I actually been raised in Zion, which team I actually would have rooted for.
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