NBA playoffs thread

[MisterD]

Apr 21, 2024 4:37:22 GMT -5 lasallejohn said:

It’s crazy the Knicks still needed Miles McBride to go off to win a game with Embiid playing on 1 leg. Even if Knicks end up beating the Sixers, they’re done in round 2.

"The Knicks still needed Miles McBride to go off" because an entire lineup of Knicks (Brunson, Anunoby, DiVincenzo, Hartenstein, Bogdanovic) scored 60 points on 62 shots. Its not like they played their A game and still needed McBride's effort; he just covered for a mess that half the lineup made of the game. If those five collectively play like that again, (1) I'll be shocked and (2) it will bode well for the Sixers even if Embiid is too injured to play for short but super dramatic stretches of time.

[lasallejohn]

Apr 21, 2024 10:20:32 GMT -5 MisterD said:

Apr 21, 2024 4:37:22 GMT -5 lasallejohn said:

It’s crazy the Knicks still needed Miles McBride to go off to win a game with Embiid playing on 1 leg. Even if Knicks end up beating the Sixers, they’re done in round 2.

"The Knicks still needed Miles McBride to go off" because an entire lineup of Knicks (Brunson, Anunoby, DiVincenzo, Hartenstein, Bogdanovic) scored 60 points on 62 shots. Its not like they played their A game and still needed McBride's effort; he just covered for a mess that half the lineup made of the game. If those five collectively play like that again, (1) I'll be shocked and (2) it will bode well for the Sixers even if Embiid is too injured to play for short but super dramatic stretches of time.

Lol
www.crossingbroad.com/2024/04/knicks-fans-chant-we-want-boston-and-burn-a-joel-embiid-jersey-after-one-playoff-win.html

[MisterD]

Right, that’s the path to take here because I’m not going to defend it. Dork shit, just like the inverse with the Sixers fans who truly believe Embiid’s season or career might be over every time he takes a mid-game lay-down break and acts like it’s a miracle when he returns less than a clock hour later.

[theneumann64]

Yeah that's definitely dork shit, but I don't know, from a city that goes into histrionics anytime their national reputation as a fan base is bought up (a lot of which is exaggerated or unfair, some of which is legit), you'd think "Hey some fans did some dumb shit" wouldn't necessarily be a card they'd play.

Neither of these fan bases exactly has a recent history to be brag about. Each of them claim as their signature moment in the last 30+ years things that happened in series they lost (Iverson "step-over" in 2001 NBA Finals, Starks dunk in 1993 ECF).

[JoeFedorowicz]

“Joel Embiid hunts fouls” is very funny if you watched Jalen Brunson that half.

[MisterD]

No one said Brunson doesn’t, right?

[JoeFedorowicz]

I mean I guess. Some Trae Young shit

[MisterD]

LOL. That was totally natural, right?

[MisterD]

Does Embiid go with the signature rip through or just defer to Maxey???

[lasallejohn]

Sad having to root for nova players on the knicks. Lolmets

[thelasallelunatic]

Fuck the process. Why are we taking timeouts back to South Philly? My newborn just pissed all over me. Fuck!

[JoeFedorowicz]

Apr 22, 2024 21:15:08 GMT -5 thelasallelunatic said:

Fuck the process. Why are we taking timeouts back to South Philly? My newborn just pissed all over me. Fuck!

Nurse tried to call four timeouts in the last minute, none of which were granted.

Maxey on the inbounds
Lowry on the floor
Prior to inbounding the ball
When they crossed half court (which is why Maxey was confused he had to do something)

None were granted, but I think the referees were confused by the continuous ‘Fuck Embiid’ chants echoing those hallowed grounds.

Sixers in 6.

[thelasallelunatic]

+340 for the series if you're confident, Joe.

[thelasallelunatic]

Maybe coqui or Mr D can answer this...Has Lebron played defense at all, this decade? Like has he defended since 2021?

[MisterD]

Brown claims he tried to call timeout on the inbounds (true, but then he stopped?) and then again with the live ball but the video clearly shows him not making T hands until possession was already lost. Also this is humiliating …

[MisterD]

Apr 22, 2024 21:52:14 GMT -5 thelasallelunatic said:

Maybe coqui or Mr D can answer this...Has Lebron played defense at all, this decade? Like has he defended since 2021?

I don’t know how to answer this because 2021 is only a few years ago?

[thelasallelunatic]

Apr 22, 2024 22:13:23 GMT -5 MisterD said:

Brown claims he tried to call timeout on the inbounds (true, but then he stopped?) and then again with the live ball but the video clearly shows him not making T hands until possession was already lost. Also this is humiliating …

It is chicken shit to file a grievance. The Knicks may get smoked on Thursday night though.

[MisterD]

I honestly don’t know. If Embiid really is completely unable to play inside or jump and Brunson has been horseshit, doesn’t that mean only one of those can change and it benefits the team up 2-0?

[thelasallelunatic]

I love college hoops, but we just watched the best basketball in the world.

The Lakers are done after that.

[JoeFedorowicz]

Apr 22, 2024 22:36:23 GMT -5 MisterD said:

I honestly don’t know. If Embiid really is completely unable to play inside or jump and Brunson has been horseshit, doesn’t that mean only one of those can change and it benefits the team up 2-0?

Dude had 34-10-6.

[theneumann64]

Yeah Embiid was phenomenal last night. Seems like his ability to get up and down the court is really deteriorating in the 2nd half so far in both games. But there’s 2 days off now between each of the next 2 games which may help him.

Brunson hasn’t played well at all yet, certainly not for a full game. But the Sixers have also been doing a really good job swarming him defensively.

Still a lot of series left.

[coqui900]

Apr 22, 2024 21:52:14 GMT -5 thelasallelunatic said:

Maybe coqui or Mr D can answer this...Has Lebron played defense at all, this decade? Like has he defended since 2021?

LeBron had two blocks, two steals and at least one drawn charge last night. And a bunch of defensive boards. He’s 39. And he has to pick his spots more because he needs to stay on the court. But LeBron still plays a lot of defense. We’re lucky we still get to watch him play.

[coqui900]

I honestly believe The Sixers pissed off the basketball gods for how this whole franchises started when the current owners took over. They are the worst good team in sports history.

[thelasallelunatic]

TBH, the basketball gods should be tough on the in your face tanking that the Sixers did for 4 consecutive seasons last decade.

Even so, they butchered the drafts besides Embiid and Maxey.

Hiring Doc Rivers? These are all egregious errors. Many sins to atone for here.



***I'm a Bron hater, but I do respect that he's 39. He just hasn't been a 2 way player in like 4 years. His flopping and bitching at refs gets worse every season. I guess it's similar to watching Kobe just take all those shots at the Lakers peril in his final 2 seasons. You just live with it.

I believe the Sixers get 2 more bites at the apple after this season before Embiid isn't Embiid anymore. After that, the Process can be judged in totality.

[JoeFedorowicz]

There are no basketball gods. The Sixers started a trend for mediocre teams to be great. Presti did the same thing at OKC. The Spurs are doing the same thing now. The Sixers just did it better.

The issue? The guy that had the plan was told 2/3rds the way through that he wasn't allowed to finish it. And then everyone after him made bad, shortsighted decisions that didn't help the team.

[thelasallelunatic]

Do you really think Hinkie could have landed this plane?

[JoeFedorowicz]

I mean we'll never know right? He's definitely not trading a future first to move up for Fultz. He had a plan laid out that he documented and the NBA stepped in and told them that a bad dude in Jerry Colangelo could hire a stupid dude in his son to fly the plane into the mountains.

[thelasallelunatic]

I hear you. I just know that Hinkie pissed off other GMs and agents, so Silver felt he had to do something.

Hinkie is not trading up to draft Fultz though. You're 100 per cent correct.

[theneumann64]

I feel like any team that's about to do a big trade with the Celtics, especially teams in the Eastern Conference (looking at you, Brooklyn) should pause a second and think "If the Celtics are willing to do this trade with me, is that in fact a sign that I should NOT make the trade?

And then hang up the phone and do something else.

[coqui900]

There are reasons why:

1) The NBA had to intervene when the Sixers were process-ing, and they have never done that for any other franchise and a bunch of others have done the tanking.

2) Hinkie has not even come close to sniffing another NBA job.

I think those are signs that a lot of people thought Hinkie was in over his head. Not exactly a great judge of talent, to say the least. See: Trading a 23-year-old Jrue Holiday (who was already dynamite) for what became Nerlens Noel. Drafting Okafor. (Yes, he drafted him, it was not the owners despite the one planted article that claimed otherwise.) There are so many more examples.

Part of The Process was to try and unearth hidden gems (second round draft picks!!!) and he dug up Robert Covington (fully overrated) and Jerami Grant, who was a few years away from becoming one of the most overpaid players in the league.

Maybe he caught a bad break (no pun intended) when Embiid had to miss two years. But if you want to build a team this way, then you have to have the results. I will give him credit for spinning “the draft is a crapshoot” to that the media averse Hinkie fed to the basketball cognoscenti on background interviews to avoid blame for shitty picks. But… he made shitty picks and built a crappy roster, even when he was trying to not built a crappy roster.

Daryl Morey is also one of the great con men in NBA GM history. He certainly got a lot of publicity for pitching himself successfully as the Billy Beane of basketball and for being really accessible to the media. (On top of his on-the-record interviews, I am firmly convinced he’s the “sources said” in a lot of trade rumors.) TBF, Houston did run into the Golden State dynasty and only LeBron at the peak of his powers could beat their full roster, and that took a miracle. But Morey’s track record and collection of insane modern art commissioned pieces of Harden and Embiid hanging in his house does not give me a lot of confidence.