[CBS Sports] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 03:03:22 GMT
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[NBC Sports Philadelphia] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:48:45 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 01:32:00 GMT
Huma Abedin and George Soros son Alex spotted on courtside date at Knicks’ playoff game
[CBS Sports] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 04:22:00 GMT
NBA Playoffs Game 1 winners and losers: Knicks’ Miles McBride breaks out, Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell goes cold
[Yahoo Sports] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:31:00 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:44:00 GMT
- Rowdy Knicks fans take over MSG, NYC streets after Game 1 win over 76ers: ‘We want Boston!’
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[ESPN] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 12:43:00 GMT
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[Daily Mail] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:28:56 GMT
Jason Bateman and Justin Theroux among the stars to watch the Knicks beat the 76ers in the NBA playoffs… as
[NBC Sports Philadelphia] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:34:18 GMT
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[Yahoo Sports] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 15:52:59 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 11:35:00 GMT
Knicks, Rangers fans hoping to party like it’s 1994 as both teams chase championships: ‘It would mean everything’
[NBA.com] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 16:42:01 GMT
Philadelphia 76ers vs New York Knicks Apr 20, 2024 Game Summary
[Yahoo Sports] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 05:48:53 GMT
New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers: live game updates, stats, play-by-play
[New York Post] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 08:24:00 GMT
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[Sports Illustrated] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:43:36 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 20:15:00 GMT
Knicks deliver ‘referee breakdown’ ahead of Game 1 vs. 76ers including on stickler Scott Foster
[PhillyVoice.com] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 13:47:25 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 21:56:00 GMT
Knicks’ Josh Hart thriving as Tom Thibodeau’s do-it-all weapon
[New York Post] – Sat, 20 Apr 2024 21:02:00 GMT
How Knicks could take advantage of other playoff teams’ fates this offseason
[New York Post] – Sun, 21 Apr 2024 09:18:00 GMT
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson credits ‘game plan’ of 76ers after off night
118 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.04.21)”
From the Sixers POV, doubling off him to trap Brunson at midcourt was incredibly successful. They completely stymied our starting lineup, so they will definitely do it again.
The better question is: did Josh Hart do enough to convince himself that he should shoot? We need him pulling the trigger. Even when he shoots and misses, that’s a better outcome than when he fails to launch. The first 3 he took in the 4Q was a miss and Mitchell Robinson got the OREB and we got an open look out of it.
Another question is: how long will it take us to let Hart or Donte bring the ball up?
Philly is picking its poison, but leaving Hart alone and mucking up things for Brunson is also partly why the Knicks got so many offensive boards last night. You can’t expect Hart or Deuce to shoot as well as they did, but the Knicks won the possession battle by a mile and it goes a long way.
That game was freaking awesome. Two years in a row we win game one of the playoffs. Pretty nice.
On the one hand we can’t expect Hart and McBride to hit that many threes but also I think we can expect DDV and OG to hit more. Plus by doubling and trapping Brunson they’re also giving us a huge advantage on the oboards. If Mitch is resurgent and Bojan is on the rise, our role players dwarf theirs and especially if Embiid is hobbled, I think we could take this one in four or five. Brunson will adjust to the pressure and if nurse then decides to not double him so much, he will feast.
But GD McBride, Mitch, Bojan and Hart were freaking awesome yesterday.
Also I know Nurse is a great coach but kind of feel like by doubling and trapping Brunson was his adjustment move and by deciding to do that in game one instead of seeing if they could win game one without doing that, he’s kind of showed his hand. Like what adjustment can he make now?
The most encouraging signs:
1)Mitch looked like Mitch. That is huge, regardless of what shape Embiid is in.
2)Deuce didn’t look afraid of the moment in the slightest.
3)Hart generally didn’t hesitate when open, and the fact that he hit four of those shots behind the arc will hopefully encourage him to keep shooting, whether he makes them or not. Like Hubert and others have said, the problem isn’t when he shoots and misses; it’s when he holds the ball too long when open.
4)We won despite Brunson, DDV, iHart, and OG — our four best players (in some order after Brunson), since Randle went down — having games ranging between quiet and bad.
5)Embiid didn’t look right in the second half. Odds are that there will only be stretches where he is himself, and perhaps not a lot of them.
6)Bogey seemed completely comfortable in the flow of the offense, and Thibs didn’t seem afraid of leaving him out there for a while.
The most concerning things:
1)Nurse’s defensive scheme, coupled with the length of Oubre and the general tenacity/annoyingness of Lowry, really bothered Brunson. I have faith that he and Thibs can figure out a better way to attack, but that was not inspiring from our 1A guy.
2)Thibs took too long in both halves to insert Deuce, and was generally slower to adjust than Nurse was.
3)Maxey didn’t have an efficient game overall, but he could seemingly get to the rim at will, especially whenever Deuce wasn’t on him.
4)Those moments when Embiid looked like himself were terrifying.
Gotta give Thibs big props last night, he pushed all the right buttons. Leaving Donte on the bench in the 4th quarter and going with Deuce, giving Mitch 30 minutes vs 18 for I-Hart.
For a supposedly inflexible guy, he was pretty damn flexible!
Oh and the Garden was crazy last night, and the scene outside afterwards was equally insane. The Knicks own NYC right now.
There were a few Embiid plays in the first half-especially the one basket he scored going right through Mitch-where it looked like nobody on earth could have stopped him. But he also cannot jump at all, and it would be good if our guys figured that out.
Still, Jalen Brunson played probably the worst game of his career and we won a playoff game by 7 points.
Bojan was only 4-12 but I really liked his aggression yesterday. He had 7 rebounds, as well, and some strong outlet passes. Philly really doesn’t have anyone to punish him when he’s on the floor, and any play they run away from Maxey or Embiid is a blessing for us anyway.
And Deuce, man. Oh my god. I mean, Quickley’s definitely better but would you rather have Deuce at $4MM or IQ at $20MM+? I almost feel a little bad that we totally snookered him on that contract extension. Turning IQ into OG and replacing IQ with Deuce was an incredible piece of business by Leon.
Maaaaaaan listen…I was so proud of Mitch yesterday. The way he literally fought Embiid was so nostalgic. No shade to Hartenstein, who’s also a beast in his own right. But Mitch is a literal monster of a man-child when he’s locked in like that, and I don’t think Embiid was ready for that from him because he’s never really got to face this version of Mitch. He’s gotten it in small doses, but dating back to last season where we started seeing this Mitch consistently, Embiid didn’t face much of it. We’re not gonna stop Embiid, but this version of Mitch is a huge problem for Embiid. We have 2 starting caliber centers and Achiuwa and Sims (when needed) to make it tougher for him without doubling alot- now we just need to figure Maxey out. We also have extra perimeter length to throw at Maxey sitting outside the rotation in Burks and Milton if Thibs ever needs to- much like Nurse deploys Oubre. I feel really good about our options against Philly with the depth that we have. This is a good matchup when our bigs are playing the way they did yesterday.
This feels alot like a 90’s playoff series, doesn’t it?
Hard to imagine Embiid being healthier than he was pre-fall, and even then he had no lateral movement and little hops. It’s a testament to his greatness that despite the almost best-they-can-do efforts by Mitch and IHart, he still had his way offensively until the 4th quarter.
I’ve always thought that Mitch does pretty well against Embiid. In past games he’s had foul trouble against Embiid eventually, but he’s big and strong enough to get in Embiid’s way if Embiid doesn’t have a head of steam already. And he’s fast enough to bother Embiid’s shot.
I thought Clyde said it best about Embiid on the broadcast yesterday, he started missing as soon as the Knicks forced him to move. He’s good enough that he can still make shots if he’s stationary, and Hartenstein was giving him too much space to do that. Mitch guarded him much closer and used his hands to bother those shots, and whenever Embiid tried to attack him in the 2nd half it was clear he just didn’t have his legs to do it.
I’m sure Nurse will try to figure other ways to exploit this, but I’m also confident Thibs will make his own adjustments like he did yesterday with Deuce, Mitch and Bojan getting more minutes.
At least we know he’s not Darvin Ham, who gave an interview saying he didn’t want to “use all his adjustments” in the first game against Denver lol.
We definitely should be excited, but we did only hold serve yesterday, and need to do it again tomorrow. Then the pressure shifts to Philadelphia.
Read a good argument on Twitter (can’t find it now) that the Knicks should be going under screens for Maxey, who is not a good pull up shooter above the break. I kind of dig it.
That said, I think they handled Maxey pretty well. He got a few buckets against a mostly prevent defense at the end when they didn’t want to risk fouling, which made his line look nicer than it was. Very deliberate effort by JB to force him left too.
I won’t lie, even as a proud Mitch stan there were points this season I wondered how much we really missed him as long as we had iHart.
L-O-fucking-L. A healthy, dialed-in Mitch still brings a whole lot to the table that no one else on this roster, and few if anyone else in the league, can replicate. I was downright unconcerned when Embiid had the ball as long as Mitch was guarding him, and he was everywhere else on the floor defensively too. Oh, and all those balls he had been getting a hand on but not corralling since he came back turned into offensive rebounds, which had the very minor effect of winning the damn game for us.
Nurse definitely drew up a tough trapping scheme for Brunson and Philly has the personnel to make his life hard, but there were a few missed looks in there he normally makes and I am 100% confident in the abilities of Brunson and Thibs to adjust…which is a weird, unfamiliar feeling.
What a great game to be at! More that made up for suffering through 4 straight losses this year, including devastating losses to PHX and OKC.
Before the game started we were walking through the 100-level food court on our way to our seats and saw Ian Begley standing around. We talked with him about all things Knicks for like 5 minutes, he was super cool! He loved my Willis Reed jersey.
The crowd was totally electric, did that come through on the broadcast?
That’s how I felt as well. I hoped he’d look better with another week back from surgery, but that was better than I dared dream. Close to prime Mitch is a tough matchup for Embiid. He’s still much better, but at least it’s not total devastation. iHart offers other advantages on offense, but they mostly shut those down except for one give-and-go with Brunson. It wasn’t the solution we needed to swarming Brunson.
Absolutely, though it was sometimes hard to hear over the sound of my heart monitor
Embiid went 5-8 against iHart and 2-11 against Mitch. It’s not an injury thing, it’s a Mitch is too big & too strong thing.
Hartenstein is a great C, but when it comes to 1-on-1 dinosaur ball against Embiid and Jokic, you want Mitch in there. That’s why you can’t get rid of him.
Embiid still has the speed/footwork to go around Mitch or draw the foul, but he’ll have trouble doing it on 1 leg. Even before the reinjury, Embiid’s dominance looked to be stalling out and he started catching the ball farther from the basket.
Against Hartenstein he could get position and move through him even if he couldn’t. Hartenstein & Brunson need to figure out something on offense though. Hartenstein should’ve attacked Embiid instead of settling for the floater.
The fact that Embiid has Greg Oden like knees is an absolute crime.
From The Athletic and Katz this morning:
During the second quarter, which the Knicks won by 21, McBride alone outscored Philadelphia 13-12.
His presence, and this is not hyperbole, represented a 67-point swing for the Knicks, who outscored the Sixers by 37 during the 28 minutes McBride played. Philadelphia won the 20 minutes he was on the bench by 30.
From the Sixers POV, doubling off him to trap Brunson at midcourt was incredibly successful.
Nurse definitely drew up a tough trapping scheme for Brunson
why are people saying this? nurse was *not* trapping jalen. close to the opposite. at most embiid would half show and usually just drop. they didn’t trap him at half court at all. this was one of things that kind of hurt us, because we’ve gotten pretty slick using josh as the pivot in those trap situations but when they’re not trapping he instead becomes just a clogger, especially with so many mitch minutes.
what did they do that worked? two things. they used lowry to guard hart and he would just ignore him and sit in the paint waiting for jalen. he is so clever that he is unreasonably effective as the safety here. second, they played the drop like the old harden rules where instead of trying to catch jalen after the screen, oubre or maxey would intentionally shadow and just try to bother his pull up from behind. jalen didn’t adjust well and his move where he stops to draw a foul or cause the fly by repeatedly backfired.
there is definitely stuff we can do to adjust. they were giving up the switch at will, so if we want oubre off jalen we can get it. oubre is tough from behind but jalen can figure out maxey, batum and harris trying that approach. after the first 5 minutes, embiid will revert to deep drop and jalen can get that middy knowing they are hoping he declerate first. we also should get lowry switch onto jalen more bc everyone else will make more mistakes as the safety, jalen will be fine against lowry from behind.
i also though jalen adjusted poorly in the minutes without hart, when he had bojan, deuce and og. he knew he had shooters so he was dishing but the sixers weren’t sagging as much and he was passing too quickly. he also had maxey in complete iso a few times and rushed his release. as good as hart was, i think we should play a few more minutes without him and really stress their defense with three shooters.
we definitely had a the fluke shooting edge in the game but i don’t think they did anything brilliant against jalen. when mitch is in the game jalen does need to look for the lob at least once or twice, not just bc it is open but because embiid is fucking ignoring it. the matchup zone they tried a bit in the second half with embiid stapled to the paint didn’t work great for them, but i think it might be tough in future games.
we are the first team in at least 50 years to shoot under 36pct from 2 and score 110 pts in a playoff game
On Deuce. Those numbers you give are insane. Even if Deuce is not shooting “lights out” every game, the guy is just solid-solid-solid now. I had no inkling this was possible. Good for him.
On Mitch, yes, TNFH, this was the revelation (reminder?) of the night for me too:
I too had fantasies of the iHart offense being an upgrade — “ooh the passing we will go” — and I might have been eager to count the players Mitch could bring back in a trade (sacrilege). BUT — I totally forgot you sometimes just need the bigger body on D. Embiid is a great player, but I like our chances with Mitch on him.
EDIT: ptmilo bringing the coaching heat. Thibs, are you reading?
Fantastic post, ptmilo, and specifically great read on Brunson. I’m confident they will figure it out.
Great analysis, pt. That’s what I saw, especially the pressure from behind on his pull-ups.
Ptmilo once again makes a great point specially about how good Lowry was. Even on that crazy Hart 3 at the end of the shot clock, Embiid was at Hart and Lowry on Deuce, Deuce passed and went to screen Embiid, Lowry immediately recognized the play and jumped Hart right away, thankfully he hit the shot anyway, but it was incredible defense by Lowry. He’s going to be a real problem.
Crazy part was Mitch looked awful his first few mins of the game! Reed grabbed a couple of offensive rebs and scored over Mitch but by the end of the 1st half Mitch looked like his old self out there.
Hart mentioned after the game how Philly in the last 2 games against them completely ignored him so his mindset going in was to be aggressive and ready to shoot 3s.
It felt like they were half a dozen times in the 3Q I was worried Brunson was going to get a backcourt violation because he was trapped. It was usually Oubre coming off the wing and they used the midcourt line as a third man. Once he even got stripped cleanly and they took it the other way for an easy layup.
Folks seem to forget how excellent of a player Lowry is. I mean, yes, he’s 38 but it’s not like he is shot. That was an awesome pickup for them, and Miami is gonna miss him for sure.
It felt like they were half a dozen times in the 3Q I was worried Brunson was going to get a backcourt violation because he was trapped.
i can’t think of a single play in the entire game where they trapped him at half court and threatened a back court violation. is it possible you were sitting behind z-man’s volleyball champion progeny?
the oubre steal i’m guessing you are thinking of wasn’t a trap, he just picked jalen clean like a napa valley grape. this one right?
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=575&GameID=0042300111&Season=2023-24&flag=1&title=Oubre%20Jr.%20STEAL%20(5%20STL)
Great stat I just read: Knicks made the 2nd most corner 3pters during the regular season, last night they were 0 for 9 shooting corner 3pters!
We shot 14/23 at the rim and 4/21 inside the paint and I think at least some of that was our guys acting like Joel could jump. He’s obviously still enormous but with his limited mobility and verticality you would hope we can get better at scoring inside as the series goes on.
Yep that was the one. Guess it was a false memory of him being double teamed.
I-Hart’s missed floater in the Knicks’ second possession of the game is a good example. There was no way Embiid would contest him trying to dunk or get a layup, but he was still scared into hoisting a floater from too far.
We never look for the lob, haven’t all season. I’m unconvinced Mitch is capable of completing a lob out of the roll right now.
I am enjoying the euphoria of grinding out a win with our secondary players stepping up, knowing that Brunson is going to respond with a better game next time. But this next game is pivotal.
In a way, I hope that Embiid feels just well enough to play but not anywhere near 100%. It reminds me of how unsettling it was to have Randle out there with a bum ankle vs. Miami. It’s gotta be hard for the Sixers to really game plan, knowing that the guy who their success is built around is not only compromised, but could go down any minute. Whereas if he is ruled out, they would at least know what they had to work with.
The only thing I hate about the lob is that it’s the kind of play that guys get hurt on, especially ones with lower extremity issues.
Some fun stats from Macri:
the Celtics are obliterating the Heat… not surprising.
The Heat are so well coached it’s ridiculous. And now that they are without Jimmy for sure, they all have an opportunity to step up. I am hoping beyond hope that this is at least a long, grueling series.
There’s just an absurd talent gap between these two, the Heat are going to keep grinding but it’s just too much to overcome this time.
Yeah, it is just sickening to watch, especially seeing KP killing it on both ends.
I have revised my hope to anything but an easy sweep.
At most, I think Miami will win one game. I think this is going to be a pretty easy series for Boston. Even with Butler, I think it would have been fairly easy for Boston but without him, I think they will cruise through no problem.
Nice dirty screen by Bam.
bam hasn’t fouled out of a single game this year yet i’ve never seen him commit fewer than 4 in one possession
Even WITH Jimmy Butler the Heat would be undermanned against the Celtics. Take him and his 4.6 BPM out of the mix and they’re Bam Adebayo and a bunch of journeymen. Some of them are overachievers, but that team does not have much of a talent base. This should be an easy sweep.
Shocking to see a Heat player almost injure Tatum.
I see the Heat as tenderizer, kind of like one of those kitchen hammers you use on a cutlet…
The thing about the Celts is that no one feels like he has to be on for the team to win. They just seem so relaxed and confident shooting the ball.
The Celtics before Porzingis and Holiday were very beatable because the Jays played some brain dead basketball and often went into those random slumps at the same time. Porzingis playing like this just kinda removes that out of the equation. I’m very annoyed at this team.
As you can see in ptmilo’s video clip, Philly was running a lot of 1-2-2 zone. This did lead to Brunson being trapped at times. The easy adjustment to make is to have someone else bring the ball across midcourt and run Brunson in off ball action more.
I am happy not to be facing a fully motivated James Harden
seems like we may need to up deuce’s minutes some…let him bring the ball up more…josh can bring it up when he’s not doing so…
So who do I root against – the team with the douche Kyrie Irving or the team with the douche James Harden?
I’ll root against the Mavs, I want Luka to get all disgruntled
I expect Embiid to play tomorrow, but Katz nonetheless reports this:
“Joel Embiid is listed as questionable for Game 2 against the Knicks with left knee injury recovery.”
I find Kyrie far more insufferable than the Beard. Go Clips!
Yeah, I won’t say I love Harden but I can’t root for Kyrie in good spirits.
If Kawhi ever gets healthy this Clippers team might be the biggest challenge to the Nuggets. They might also all get injured and get destroyed, who knows with them.
Think this Harden’s way of saying f-u to Kyrie for not making it work in Brooklyn.
I hate both players but a motivated Harden is tough to stop. He just doesn’t show up all the time
Ivica Zubac destroying the Mavs is not what I anticipated in this matchup
Clippers seem to be playing good team ball. And I know Harden isn’t that likable, but he’s better than Kyrie and Harden was put in some difficult positions too. Kyrie didn’t have any excuses.
Rangers finish off a nice MSG weekend.
i wish giannis was playing this series…other than our own, i’m most interested in this one…
indy can really score, and the bucks don’t always defend…
after yesterday’s game, the thing i was wondering on most:
donte + deuce >>> mikal
wondering if that’s true…
considering versatility and salary, i think having those two at the shooting guard position may just be more valuable than mikal…
I agree with you Geo the emergence of Donte and Deuce makes adding Mikal superfluous at this point. I think our major offseason acquisition will be adding a healthy Randle. Then if we resign OG and Hartenstein, our rotation is set. Then we can use our picks to strengthen then end of the bench and build depth for the future.
Gee good thing we gave up our chance to play the Pacers, who are currently getting blown out against the Giannis-less Bucks
Not the scoreline I was expecting in Milwaukee
I’m guessing that the guaranteed salaries/cap holds on first round picks are going to be a centerpiece of the calculation re: whether we make picks or kick the can down the road.
Can’t blame Obi though. He’s shooting 50%.
(1-2 in 4 minutes…).
Good thing Knicks are going to have homecourt vs Milwaukee in the 2nd rd.
Giannis been holding back Milwaukee this whole time
Wow, the Bucks seem good! What a masterclass by Thibs to secure home court against them.
That home court won’t matter if they don’t get by Philly
Yeah…. If you knew Lillard was going to put up 70 points and Ind was going to shoot 1-12 in the second quarter, it would have been an easy bet. You are the only “fan” who is pissed being up 1-0.
Small factoid… NBA home teams that win game one in a 7 games series prevail 85.7% of the time.
Missing a lot of size and length on the defensive end, though…
The Knicks are in an enviable position: they are a legit 50 win team, in possession of all their own picks plus a few others, none of their core players are remotely old as this core is good for at least 5 years and they can sit chilly and wait for something to break loose. They are a prime Utah/Dallas team if they do nothing.
A pretty neat spot to be in…..
BPL, Lillard balling out against Indy’s shitty defense isn’t exactly the most shocking outcome. Neither us Brunson struggling against Philly’s great defense, against which he gas struggled all year. We passed up the best possible matchup for our best player in favor of the worst.
Most home teams in a playoff series are favored to actually win the series. We aren’t. Our one home won based on our worst shooter hitting a series of impossible shots is far, far less predictive of success than the typical higher seed’s 1-0 lead. We are 50/50 to win now at hest, and when we lose game 2 we will be rightly considered massive underdogs. Even if Hart continues to shoot like Curry somehow, winning a game if Russian roulette doesn’t make it a smart decision to have played.
Oh Fabiano that was painful.
pagliacci, if you are going to be an inveterate troll who doesnt give a shit about being purposely annoying, why not just change your handle back to dogrufus? For a while there was some daylight between the old and new you. Now, not so much.
Yeah, Lillard going for 35 in the first half of a playoff game against anyone actually is a tremendous outlier when Bobby Portis is the #2 threat.
So… even if we sweep Philly, it is going to be a terrible decision because it is “bad process?”
We’re up 1-0 over the unstoppable unbeatable Philadelphia 76ers juggernaut, who were supposedly going to crush us mercilessly in four games. Considering we achieved the miracle of winning one game against this GOAT-level team, at this point you have to think that anything is possible.
“The NBA announced the finalists for 2023-24 Most Valuable Player. The finalists are Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.”
Crock of shit.
Dogrufus has united us all by being the more annoying, less intelligent iteration of E
No doubt about it.
Rilassati, Pagliacci. Quest’anno stiamo ottenendo ottimi risultati nonostante i nostri infortuni. Siamo una squadra con più di 50 vittorie SENZA Randle. Il futuro è luminoso anche se non batteremo Philly (ma lo faremo).
Funny stat of the day… Lillard has 35 points thru 3/4 and has played 31 minutes and they are +1. In the 5 minutes he has been off the floor they are +10
Bobby P is a fuckin baller
Knicks Bucks gonna be an epic 2nd rd series.
middleton really unlocks their offense…
doc put pat bev in the starting lineup…and it worked…
maybe the pels will be the surprise of the first weekend…
Obi having a hard time just hitting the rim on his 3pters.
Hali taking only 5 shots?
looks like the pacers couldn’t find a second and third scorer…pascal was the only one shooting and making any shots…myles missed a bunch…
i’m fairly confident jalen we’ll figure a way to get 20…i’m also believing 2 of: OG, Bogey, Donte, Deuce will get an efficient 20 plus…we have some balance…
gotta imagine a really BIG philly focus on rebounding – whoever they have out there…
in game 2 it is going to get even more physical around the rim…
He’s 4 for 5 too
oh, and who doesn’t love Bogey’s serious face out on the court…like a gunslinger out there, get the man a hat…
smart to go long on Bogey…the health stuff definitely creates a challenge towards good performance…plus, maybe leaving family/friends behind after a trade…
figuring out where your supposed to be out on the court – especially on defense, with thibs watching your every step…and thibs audibly grimacing throughout…
i love how Bogey is wildly flaying his arms about while guarding folks – it’s beautiful to see…like a turkey trying to fly, with no wind…
my Rick Carlisle is overrated agenda is thriving
will he make the adjustments
Even without Giannis this has to be the best team Lillard’s taken to the playoffs. I know he’s not 28 anymore but he made it to the conference finals with CJ McCollum, Enes Kanter, Mo Harkless, and Al-Farouq Aminu as the 4 other starters. We should probably set our expectations of Milwaukee accordingly.
In fact maybe this is exactly what Milwaukee needed: a series for Dame to rediscover himself as the man while Giannis heals.
The East is wide open
(Except for that one contending team in green that doesn’t have a single damn injury. Oh wait, forgot Luke Kornet)
“Crock of shit.”
You’re kidding, right?
McCollum is a bit selfish out there.
I might have to eat some crow if Milwaukee keeps doing this. I didn’t believe the pundits who said Lillard’s offense will be much more valuable during playoffs than the regular season. That said, Indiana does not have a good defense and doesn’t have much rim protection either, which is great for Lillard to score against.
Even the Pagliacci actual opera is less tragic than this trolling.
(And less tragic than Indiana’s defense too)
“We passed up the best possible matchup for our best player in favor of the worst.”
Pags, make you a deal. When I come on each morning during the playoffs I’ll print this, and that way you don’t have to come on and repeat it over and over. And over. Deal?
Maybe the Haliburton-Sabonis trade was actually a lose-lose trade.
Clearly we should have tanked into the play-in so we would have been the 7th seed and could have played Milwaukee in the first round without Giannis. That would have been the most optimal way to do it.
Dammit, Z, just let me be a homer every once in a while. Clearly Jalen’s value reaches far beyond the boundaries of mathematics.
Remember when we all desperately wanted to trade for Myles Turner?
I am not fond of this crow taste in my mouth
The Bucks were literally -6 in Lillard’s 38 minutes on the floor and +21 in his 10 minutes off the floor…. but pointz
OKC not exactly cruising to victory
This could have been such a cool series with Zion healthy… I don’t think the Pels have enough to hang on through 7 games, but they’re feisty.
Pels let that game get away
They have an elite defesne
I wish the Kings or Warriors had made it instead of the Pelicans, just because I’d rather watch good players play rather than sit in street clothes. Sabonis played his games pre at night and in Sacramento, so he didn’t get noticed enough to make an all star team or probably an all NBA team either, but he had an amazing season and it would be nice if it was still going on.
As for MVP, I just don’t see how it’s not Shai G-A. Watching him is like watching a Point Guard version of Tim Duncan. He is so fundamentally sound, not only does he hit most of his shots, he rarely even touches rim on them. As long as he’s on the floor, OKC is going to be very hard to beat.
I think Shai wins MVP, but I absolutely don’t agree with it. I don’t think there’s a universe where he’s a better player than Jokic, and the MVP should go to the best player in the league. If Jokic got a similar whistle as SGA on the million times he gets hacked during every game, this argument wouldn’t even be a thing.
I’m not sure what the exact criteria for deciding MVP should be, but I don’t think “what ifs” should play a very big part. This isn’t a Karl Malone over Michel Jordan situation . Gilgeous-Alexander led a rebuilding team to the best record in the West, who was 2-5 without him. He’s been phenomenal this year. The only problem is, nobody outside of the super fans of the league even know who he is. So I’m actually expecting somebody else to win it.
It’s a subjective vote, so what ifs, conjectures, narratives, are absolutely a part of the voting. Just like a lot of people argue SGA was more valuable than Jokic because he led a team that in their perception is inferior than Jokic’s to the same record.
In those cases I gravitate towards who I see as the better player, trying not to think about the narrative around the vote. And if I have to choose who’s the best player, I’ll still go with Jokic.
Most valuable also implies that without him his team wouldn’t be nearly as good. That’s true if the Nuggets, not as true of the Thunder. And that’s from someone who advocated picking him in the draft. He’s great, but Jokic is likely top 5 all time.