2018 NBA Game Thread

[HomeRunBaker]

The Knicks, I'll grant you. The Celtics? They had a nice first year under Pitino (going from tankathon team to 36-46) and then showed literally no progress from there throughout the rest of Pitino's tenure, despite adding Paul Pierce.

I'll grant you that the guy was once elite from a technical perspective and perhaps still is. I don't think that's enough.

I think you're really underestimating the job he did that first year. As far as "coaching" the roster he was fantastic in somehow getting 36-wins out of a team with two 21-year old in Antoine and Ron Mercer as your 1 and 2-options while having a starting 4/5 of McCarty and Andrew McClerq. Then he was 19-31 in the strike year with a similar roster plus a rookie in Pierce, got to 35 years when Adrian Griffin and Popapenko were added in his last full year. I'm not sure what type of progress one would expect from a coach with that roster. O'Brien took over after the youngs learned the ropes for a few years and we brought in players to push McCarty and Popapenko to the bench as we actually build a legitimate rotation.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

I think you're really underestimating the job he did that first year. As far as "coaching" the roster he was fantastic in somehow getting 36-wins out of a team with two 21-year old in Antoine and Ron Mercer as your 1 and 2-options while having a starting 4/5 of McCarty and Andrew McClerq. Then he was 19-31 in the strike year with a similar roster plus a rookie in Pierce, got to 35 years when Adrian Griffin and Popapenko were added in his last full year. I'm not sure what type of progress one would expect from a coach with that roster. O'Brien took over after the youngs learned the ropes for a few years and we brought in players to push McCarty and Popapenko to the bench as we actually build a legitimate rotation.

O'Brien did better than Pitino ever did here with a team that was well on its way to being Pitino's worst Celtic team.

 

[NoXInNixon]

I'd wager that the current top 8 teams in the East will be the playoff field. And they have all played fewer than ten games. I wonder if the playoff field has ever been set earlier than this.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

MarshMelo is a legit hall of famer on the downside of his career. Many colleges don’t have one of those. I don’t see anything to be ashamed of.

He went to Syracuse, he has plenty to be ashamed of...




(Jokes the GTown grad [emoji14])

 

[benhogan]

He went to Syracuse, he has plenty to be ashamed of...




(Jokes the GTown grad [emoji14])

We get GTown this year. Jimmy's best team in a long time.

Some of my fondest memories of going to school in lower Siberia was GTown games with 33,000 fans in the Dome...miss the Old Big East

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

We get GTown this year. Jimmy's best team in a long time.

Some of my fondest memories of going to school in lower Siberia was GTown games with 33,000 fans in the Dome...miss the Old Big East

I do too man and agree on the memories.

My dad used to take us to the tournament every year as kids - he was friends with a sports caster for UConn and sports radio down there and a mutual friend of theirs had BC season tickets so he’d pack my older brother and me up on the train, we’d head down and spend the tourney learning how to haggle scalpers to get into the games and then sitting around a smokey hotel suite listening to a dozen writers talk sports while they knocked back drinks. We’d sit there for hours and soak it in. I miss the rivalry. We stayed right across for MSG and I met many players that went on to be NBA players and stars in that hotel. By the time I got to college the rivalry had cooled quite a bit (I unfortunately was there for the Craig Esherick era; so right after Iverson and before our return to the Final 4) so it kinda sucked, but was still great.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

I'd wager that the current top 8 teams in the East will be the playoff field. And they have all played fewer than ten games. I wonder if the playoff field has ever been set earlier than this.

Miami Heat on pace for 31-wins and currently the 8-seed. That is gonna be one helluva race for the final slot!!

 

[Imbricus]

Lakers saved by their bench last night (and Portland's lousy three-point shooting). Rondo +28 and 8 for 10; Lebron -22.

 

[Cellar-Door]

I think you're really underestimating the job he did that first year. As far as "coaching" the roster he was fantastic in somehow getting 36-wins out of a team with two 21-year old in Antoine and Ron Mercer as your 1 and 2-options while having a starting 4/5 of McCarty and Andrew McClerq. Then he was 19-31 in the strike year with a similar roster plus a rookie in Pierce, got to 35 years when Adrian Griffin and Popapenko were added in his last full year. I'm not sure what type of progress one would expect from a coach with that roster. O'Brien took over after the youngs learned the ropes for a few years and we brought in players to push McCarty and Popapenko to the bench as we actually build a legitimate rotation.

They were fine, but while young that team had a lot of talent.. Walker/Mercer/Billups... Kenny Anderson was still very good then, Barros was 2 years off of being an All-Star, Bruce Bowen, Dee Brown was still decent. It was a much better roster than the previous year, especially at PG.
The next year they added Pierce and some bigs, losing Billup and Knight only from the rotation.... and they win 19 games.
3rd Season... Mercer out... Adrian Griffin in... up to 36 wins
4th season... start 12-22 with the same guys... Pitino is fired, they finish 24-24 under O'Brien

2001-2, essentially the same team except w/ Half a year of Joe Johnson, then traded for half a year of Delk and Rodgers,..... wins 49 games and goes to 6 in the ECF.

There is no evidence that Pitino was a good coach, he was a worse GM probably, but he took a team loaded with good young players to the basement twice in 4 years, and his immediate replacement performed much better in the interim year then took mostly the same roster to the ECF.

Edit- And the big change in that team was coaching. Almost immediately after taking over O'Brien who was ahead of his time, realized that he had a lot of pretty decent shooters and that 3>2. They went from a low volume 3 shooting team under Pitino to by far the highest in the league (amusingly the 2002-03 team was the highest in the league by MILES, and would finish 23rd this season).

 

[Cesar Crespo]

I know someone here was making the argument Jokic wasn't a top 10 player because he has too many nights where he scores single digits. He's coming off back to back games where he only scored 4 points and 7 points... but the first night he only played 22 minutes because it was the 2nd night of a back to back and the 3rd game in 4 days on the road in a blow out win.

Last night he scored 7 points of 3-9 shooting in 29 minutes... of course he also had 10 rebounds, 16 assists/4 TO, and a steal. Jokic doesn't need to score to greatly impact a game. Right now he's at 18.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.1 block, 1.2 steals and 29.6 minutes per game on .519/.379/.848 shooting and his team is 8-1 with a +9.6 point margin.

In no particular order, my top 5: Curry, Durant, James, Leonard, Giannis
My 6-9 in no order: Harden, Davis, Jokic, Embiid.
10th: I'm pretty confident in my top 9, but in the 10th spot I could go with like 10 guys. I'll just go with one of my favorite non Celtics in Oladipo.

Maybe I'm missing someone. Embiid and Jokic have brought their games to another level. Going into the year, I thought Embiid was incredibly overrated but he's made me a believer. It also looks like Davis has improved his playmaking ability a bit although it's still early. He's at 4.8 apg, his career high was 2.3 last year. His stat line this year is insane so far, at 23.8 points, 12.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 3.5 blocks, 2 steals per game. No one has ever put up 20/10/4/3/2, and 20/10/4/3 has only been done 7 times in league history, and Kareem was 5 of them. The other 2 were David Robinson and Bob Lanier.

I could also envision a scenario where James isn't a top 5 player at season's end.

edit: A player averaging 3 blocks and 2 steals has only been done 4 times as well, once by David Robinson and 3 times by Hakeem.

 

[BaseballJones]

Rockets playing 2 ex-Cuse players: Carmelo and MCW. Now I know why they suck. Has any program produced more draft busts over the last decade than Syracuse?

Johnny Flynn, Tyler Lydon, Fab Melo, Wes Johnson, Dontae Greene, Malachi Richardson, Tyler Ennis, Chris McCullough

Dion Waiters should have been so much better. Ugh, dark days for Jimmy B and this Cuse grad

I think part of that is because these idiots leave early too often. In what world was it wise for Ennis or Lydon or Richardson or McCullough to go pro when they did? In none of those cases were the players ready for the NBA. Sure, they made some money. But none of them were ready.

This doesn't mean that if they stayed, it automatically means they would have been better pros. But so many Syracuse guys leave WAY earlier than they ought. I don't know why they keep making this mistake. All of those guys should have stayed one more year. Not only would it have helped SU a ton, but it would have improved their own pro career prospects (IMO).

 

[Cesar Crespo]

I think part of that is because these idiots leave early too often. In what world was it wise for Ennis or Lydon or Richardson or McCullough to go pro when they did? In none of those cases were the players ready for the NBA. Sure, they made some money. But none of them were ready.

This doesn't mean that if they stayed, it automatically means they would have been better pros. But so many Syracuse guys leave WAY earlier than they ought. I don't know why they keep making this mistake. All of those guys should have stayed one more year. Not only would it have helped SU a ton, but it would have improved their own pro career prospects (IMO).

Maybe they aren't making mistakes, maybe they are cashing in on hype and know they'll never be that good. Often times, staying an extra year can cause you to drop in the draft. Tyler Ennis has made $6.5 mil to date. Lydon has made $3.5 million. Richardson 3 mil. McCullough 3.8mil.

If they had stayed in college, maybe their flaws get exposed even more and they drop out of the first round. "Stay in school one more year and risk it or take a couple million dollars guaranteed and set yourself up for life?" Sounds like a pretty easy decision to me, and one all 4 of them got right. Saying they "made some money" is really understating it.

 

[Sam Ray Not]

I could also envision a scenario where James isn't a top 5 player at season's end.

Super early times, but:

Lakers points per 100 possessions:
LeBron on-court -2.1
LeBron off-court +8.5
Net -10.6

Something to keep an eye on, given LeBron turns 34 next month, and last season went a full year without a pronounced positive on-court impact on his cruddy team (+2.4 net pts per 100 possessions, #12 in the NBA by RPM, despite that metric's extremely generous boxscore correction).

His traditional stats still look elite, but I think it's pretty likely the advanced and plus-minus stats are picking up some significant age-related decline on the defensive end. I'd also note that his ball-dominance and slightly less-than-elite shooting make him a somewhat trickier fit in 21st century motion offenses than the other guys in your top 10 (other than Harden).

At minimum I think it's probably time for the media to stop repeating the "LeBron's the best player in the world" line like Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate mindlessly intoning "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

 

[BaseballJones]

Maybe they aren't making mistakes, maybe they are cashing in on hype and know they'll never be that good. Often times, staying an extra year can cause you to drop in the draft. Tyler Ennis has made $6.5 mil to date. Lydon has made $3.5 million. Richardson 3 mil. McCullough 3.8mil.

If they had stayed in college, maybe their flaws get exposed even more and they drop out of the first round. "Stay in school one more year and risk it or take a couple million dollars guaranteed and set yourself up for life?" Sounds like a pretty easy decision to me, and one all 4 of them got right. Saying they "made some money" is really understating it.

Well yes I grant that part. But the question on the table is why did they not do so well as pros. Tyler Lydon made some several million dollars and that's awesome. But in terms of having a pro career, I think leaving when he did was a huge mistake. If he stayed in college he would have gotten bigger and stronger and increased his chances to compete against the grown men he ended up getting crushed by. Again, staying another year or two wouldn't have guaranteed anything, but I don't think he was remotely ready for the NBA.

And if they simply aren't that good to begin with, they can't really be called "busts", can they?

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Well yes I grant that part. But the question on the table is why did they not do so well as pros. Tyler Lydon made some several million dollars and that's awesome. But in terms of having a pro career, I think leaving when he did was a huge mistake. If he stayed in college he would have gotten bigger and stronger and increased his chances to compete against the grown men he ended up getting crushed by. Again, staying another year or two wouldn't have guaranteed anything, but I don't think he was remotely ready for the NBA.

And if they simply aren't that good to begin with, they can't really be called "busts", can they?

All the players you mentioned were late 1st round picks. Can a late first round pick even be called a bust? I don't think they are busts. In the late 1st round, you take lottery picks or players with high floors/low ceilings that can already contribute.

Also re: Lydon, he missed all of last year, his rookie season, with a knee injury. There is also nothing preventing Lydon from getting bigger and stronger while in the NBA. That's what our own Jayson Tatum is doing. Had Lydon suffered that knee injury while in college, he would have dropped from being a 24th pick to a late 2nd round pick and costs himself millions in the process. It's also possible the knee injury caused permanent damage and is what is preventing him from having a decent career, not his leaving college early.

I think any college player who has a guarantee to go in the first round should declare for the NBA. The money is just too great to pass up, they are a year closer to FA, and they'll be in a better position to develop their game.

Is an extra year of college ball really more beneficial than being on an NBA roster for a year? I really doubt it and given the controversy around Ben Simmons rookie status last year, I think a lot of pundits do too.

 

[ManicCompression]

Super early times, but:

Lakers points per 100 possessions:
LeBron on-court -2.1
LeBron off-court +8.5
Net -10.6

Something to keep an eye on, given LeBron turns 34 next month, and last season went a full year without a pronounced positive on-court impact on his cruddy team (+2.4 net pts per 100 possessions, #12 in the NBA by RPM, despite that metric's extremely generous boxscore correction).

His traditional stats still look elite, but I think it's pretty likely the advanced and plus-minus stats are picking up some significant age-related decline on the defensive end. I'd also note that his ball-dominance and slightly less-than-elite shooting make him a somewhat trickier fit in 21st century motion offenses than the other guys in your top 10 (other than Harden).

At minimum I think it's probably time for the media to stop repeating the "LeBron's the best player in the world" line like Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate mindlessly intoning "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

Since on/off stats don’t account for quality of lineups, I don’t think there’s much to take away from this. The lakers are deep, their bench units are going to outplay other bench units. They don’t have elite talent outside of lebron, so their starting lineup isn’t going to blow other starters out of the water.

Once steph or Durant or Anthony Davis or giannis take a team as shitty as last year’s cavs to the finals, the media will stop calling him the best player in the league.

He’s going to drop off at some point, but I don’t think it’s happened yet.

 

[BaseballJones]

All the players you mentioned were late 1st round picks. Can a late first round pick even be called a bust? I don't think they are busts. In the late 1st round, you take lottery picks or players with high floors/low ceilings that can already contribute.

Also re: Lydon, he missed all of last year, his rookie season, with a knee injury. There is also nothing preventing Lydon from getting bigger and stronger while in the NBA. That's what our own Jayson Tatum is doing. Had Lydon suffered that knee injury while in college, he would have dropped from being a 24th pick to a late 2nd round pick and costs himself millions in the process. It's also possible the knee injury caused permanent damage and is what is preventing him from having a decent career, not his leaving college early.

I think any college player who has a guarantee to go in the first round should declare for the NBA. The money is just too great to pass up, they are a year closer to FA, and they'll be in a better position to develop their game.

Is an extra year of college ball really more beneficial than being on an NBA roster for a year? I really doubt it and given the controversy around Ben Simmons rookie status last year, I think a lot of pundits do too.

An extra year of college can help these guys in so many ways. Physically and maturity-wise. It's hard enough for many of these guys to go from college to the pros. But college - at least in a healthy program - can at least mitigate the challenges of transitioning from basically childhood to sudden adulthood where you're responsible for your own life and for managing millions of dollars.

There are lots of maturity issues that can obviously impact a person's game on the floor.

I guess we'll agree to disagree. I think for some players, going pro right away is the right move. But for others, it's a mistake.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Re: Syracuse grads. CW says that Boeheim's zone is great for winning college games but not as good for developing NBA players since guys don't learn certain on-the-ball defensive fundamentals.

Wish there was a way to prove this.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Re: Syracuse grads. CW says that Boeheim's zone is great for winning college games but not as good for developing NBA players since guys don't learn certain on-the-ball defensive fundamentals.

Wish there was a way to prove this.

I hear most college systems are bad at developing NBA players outside of Calipari's, especially when it comes to bigs. Colleges also don't necessarily care about developing players who will be gone in a year or two. They want to win now.

 

[moondog80]

I hear most college systems are bad at developing NBA players outside of Calipari's, especially when it comes to bigs. Colleges also don't necessarily care about developing players who will be gone in a year or two. They want to win now.

Right on with Cal, Kentucky players have a really good track record indecent years, and it looks like Monk and Fox are taking big steps forward this year.

 

[benhogan]

Right on with Cal, Kentucky players have a really good track record indecent years, and it looks like Monk and Fox are taking big steps forward this year.

Kentucky, historically, has landed top10 recruits, that in years past would have gone directly to the draft. So I'm not sure Cal deserves all that much credit.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Well yes I grant that part. But the question on the table is why did they not do so well as pros. Tyler Lydon made some several million dollars and that's awesome. But in terms of having a pro career, I think leaving when he did was a huge mistake. If he stayed in college he would have gotten bigger and stronger and increased his chances to compete against the grown men he ended up getting crushed by. Again, staying another year or two wouldn't have guaranteed anything, but I don't think he was remotely ready for the NBA.

And if they simply aren't that good to begin with, they can't really be called "busts", can they?

An extra year of college can help these guys in so many ways. Physically and maturity-wise. It's hard enough for many of these guys to go from college to the pros. But college - at least in a healthy program - can at least mitigate the challenges of transitioning from basically childhood to sudden adulthood where you're responsible for your own life and for managing millions of dollars.

There are lots of maturity issues that can obviously impact a person's game on the floor.

I guess we'll agree to disagree. I think for some players, going pro right away is the right move. But for others, it's a mistake.

​

You can continue repeating this but it remains a weak weak argument for a player to turn down millions of guaranteed dollars to return to college with no guarantees. For this claim to carry any weight you would need to show evidence of a universities training program, along with its NCAA dictated limitations, is more valuable to an athlete than the professional organizations elite training staff, nutritionists and facilities who are also motivated by having millions invested into the athlete. The college athlete does not have access to financial professionals or advisors that they do once they enter the NBA through both league mandated seminars as well as the players team of agents/advisors.

Any player turning down guaranteed money in this day and age is almost certainly making a terrible career decision. If that young athlete isn't capable or being a productive player after training with the NBA team and practicing against superior players I'm not sure there is a viable case to be made for a player to show greater improvement working in an inferior environment under greater restrictions. I'm wording this kindly.

 

[moondog80]

Kentucky, historically, has landed top10 recruits, that in years past would have gone directly to the draft. So I'm not sure Cal deserves all that much credit.

I’ve not seen a qualitative study, but lots of top 10 recruits flop in the NBA, Kentucky seems to have a very high success rate as of late, including guys who were not high lottery picks like Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

You can continue repeating this but it remains a weak weak argument for a player to turn down millions of guaranteed dollars to return to college with no guarantees. For this claim to carry any weight you would need to show evidence of a universities training program, along with its NCAA dictated limitations, is more valuable to an athlete than the professional organizations elite training staff, nutritionists and facilities who are also motivated by having millions invested into the athlete. The college athlete does not have access to financial professionals or advisors that they do once they enter the NBA through both league mandated seminars as well as the players team of agents/advisors.

Any player turning down guaranteed money in this day and age is almost certainly making a terrible career decision. If that young athlete isn't capable or being a productive player after training with the NBA team and practicing against superior players I'm not sure there is a viable case to be made for a player to show greater improvement working in an inferior environment under greater restrictions. I'm wording this kindly.

This is especially true now that the NBA is pushing the G league. Lydon played 15 games in the G League last year and averaged 31 minutes a game under the watchful eyes of the Denver Nuggets. While the G league doesn't really tell you much about big men, it tells you more than CBB does. Since joining the league, Lydon has allegedly gained 10 pounds of muscle, too. Anything he could do basketball wise in 1 more year at college, he could do in the NBA while getting paid millions to do so. It's not like being in the NBA has stunted his growth.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

I’ve not seen a qualitative study, but lots of top 10 recruits flop in the NBA, Kentucky seems to have a very high success rate as of late, including guys who were not high lottery picks like Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe.

If you look at the list of players he coached in college and how they performed in the NBA relative to where they were drafted and the strength of said draft class, Calipari has done really well.

https://coachcal.com/sports/2017/10/17/nba-players-coached.aspx

 

[HomeRunBaker]

There is no evidence that Pitino was a good coach, he was a worse GM probably, but he took a team loaded with good young players to the basement twice in 4 years, and his immediate replacement performed much better in the interim year then took mostly the same roster to the ECF.

Virtually all teams with good young players lose a shit ton of games until these guy mature as players and when you're pointing to Ron Mercer as one of those players while falsely claiming the Celtics finished in the basement twice in four years well...….

Edit- And the big change in that team was coaching. Almost immediately after taking over O'Brien who was ahead of his time, realized that he had a lot of pretty decent shooters and that 3>2. They went from a low volume 3 shooting team under Pitino to by far the highest in the league (amusingly the 2002-03 team was the highest in the league by MILES, and would finish 23rd this season).

C'mon man. Do you realize that O'Brien was Pitino's protégé? Pitino hired him three times that I recall.....with the Knicks, at Kentucky, and with the Celtics. The guy who was "ahead of his time" (which I don't disagree with as a singular statement) learned how to coach this style from being in one of the games greatest innovators system all along the way. Pitino was the FIRST collegiate coach that I know of to utilize analytics on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball tracking dribble pentration kickouts and defensive deflections in both practices and games with raw number goals to hit in each category. Nobody was doing this stuff back then. The way the game is played today was made fashionable and successful......by Rick Pitino himself as other coaches mimicked his style of eliminating the mid-range game in leading a star-less Providence team to the Final Four with the "3-point or layup" philosophy.

Another correction.....the Celtics were NOT a low volume shooting 3-point team having been 6th, 6th, and 9th in his 3 Celtics years and on pace for a Top-5 prior to O'Brien taking over in his final year.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Greek Freak with a triple double after 3 and probably done for the night. 23 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal, 1 block on 7/10 shooting in 26 minutes.

Bucks beating the Kings 108-82 after 3.

 

[Cellar-Door]

[

Virtually all teams with good young players lose a shit ton of games until these guy mature as players and when you're pointing to Ron Mercer as one of those players while falsely claiming the Celtics finished in the basement twice in four years well...….

His 2nd year they were one of the worst teams in the league, his 4th they were 12-22, near the bottom of the East and he was fired.

You can't credit him as a great coach for getting 36 wins with a group because they were so young, then use youth to excuse a huge backslide the next year with the same core and added vet talent, then a jump back into the 30s (now with a more experienced team including an All-Star) then falling apart again the next. Pitino may be an innovator, but as an NBA coach he never showed an ability to manage players, to find rotations, and generally to adjust. Pro coaches ate him up.


C'mon man. Do you realize that O'Brien was Pitino's protégé? Pitino hired him three times that I recall.....with the Knicks, at Kentucky, and with the Celtics. The guy who was "ahead of his time" (which I don't disagree with as a singular statement) learned how to coach this style from being in one of the games greatest innovators system all along the way. Pitino was the FIRST collegiate coach that I know of to utilize analytics on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball tracking dribble pentration kickouts and defensive deflections in both practices and games with raw number goals to hit in each category. Nobody was doing this stuff back then. The way the game is played today was made fashionable and successful......by Rick Pitino himself as other coaches mimicked his style of eliminating the mid-range game in leading a star-less Providence team to the Final Four with the "3-point or layup" philosophy.

Another correction.....the Celtics were NOT a low volume shooting 3-point team having been 6th, 6th, and 9th in his 3 Celtics years and on pace for a Top-5 prior to O'Brien taking over in his final year.
I have no doubt Pitino was innovative, but the change to high volume 3pt shooting can be traced directly to the O'Brien takeover.
7th Pitino's first year a .180, 9th his 2nd at .182, 12th his 3rd year at 1.83 So Okay, low is probably an exaggeration, moderate is the better word, but generally the point stands, they were not particularly high volume 3pt shooters, certainly well behind the league leaders. In the first 34 games of his final year there was an uptick... they were at .211 which would have been in the top 5. Under O'Brien they were at .278 which obliterated the rest of the league(over 25% increase on 2nd highest), in O'Brien's first full year it was .289.

 

[luckiestman]

Greek Freak with a triple double after 3 and probably done for the night. 23 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal, 1 block on 7/10 shooting in 26 minutes.

Bucks beating the Kings 108-82 after 3.

How good is the Cs D? Bucks put up 144 tonight. 144!

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

Can’t wait for Lakers-Raptors tonight.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

This Sixers-Nets game is ugly. Nets up 17 after 3 though. Fultz and Simmons make for ugly basketball.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Good Lord, that looked like a 6 year old in rec league's form

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Can’t wait for Lakers-Raptors tonight.

No Kawhi tonight. Jammed his foot the other night and being held out as precautionary measure on front end of B2B.

 

[snowmanny]

Lakers are losing 30-10 anyway

 

[NYCSox]

One of these days the Raptors will play against an NBA team again right?

 

[Kliq]

The Lakers are somehow down 24 points after nine minutes

 

[snowmanny]

Good Lord, that looked like a 6 year old in rec league's form

To add to the mess, his foot was on the line and it wasn't a 3PA.

 

[NYCSox]

I'm going to venture a guess that 30 point first quarter leads are pretty rare.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Lowry turned into an assist machine this year.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

The Lakers are somehow down 24 points after nine minutes

The Kawhi announcement smells very strategic to me only a few hours before the game for the Lakers to suffer the letdown effect upon arriving to the arena.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Serge Ibaka is having an amazing game.

 

[snowmanny]

Serge Ibaka is having an amazing game.

26 points in 14 minutes on 11 FGA (11-11) I see from the boxscore

 

[ElUno20]

The Kawhi announcement smells very strategic to me only a few hours before the game for the Lakers to suffer the letdown effect upon arriving to the arena.

Yeah but to then get handed a 30 point 1st quarter ass kicking? This laker team is suspect

 

[Sam Ray Not]

The Kawhi announcement smells very strategic to me only a few hours before the game for the Lakers to suffer the letdown effect upon arriving to the arena.

Hard to imagine that would work, but if it did, man, that'd be some Wizards-level self-delusion on the part of the Lakers. The Raps are the vastly superior team with or without Kawhi.

On the other hand, the Lakeshow do have the best player in the world, or so I'm told.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

When you wake up Monday morning to a dream.....then quickly realize the dream really is Omar Casspi exposing his inner Shammgod to the world! Wtf!!

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Hard to imagine that would work, but if it did, man, that'd be some Wizards-level self-delusion on the part of the Lakers. The Raps are the vastly superior team with or without Kawhi.

On the other hand, the Lakeshow do have the best player in the world, or so I'm told.

As you said, hard to imagine or not it really happened.....the Lakers came out flat and were quickly down 30 to a team just was a 3-point favorite at full strength. Players are human and react in this manner all the time.

Gamesmanship happens all the time and this just struck me as the perfect timing for it to be successful. The Pels tried similar the other night in Portland with AD to no avail.

 

[bosox4283]

Good Lord, that looked like a 6 year old in rec league's form

If a player spends all day practicing and shooting 100+ shots a day, can this player learn to shoot?

Edit: I have a hard time understanding why an elite athlete that spends hours a day trying to gain a skill seems to be getting worse.

 

[Kliq]

 

[Sam Ray Not]

Omar Casspi exposing his inner Shammgod to the world! Wtf!!

It was such a killer move he instantly took the name of a bad-ass fictional (dead) hitman.

 

[Sam Ray Not]

I'd be pleased with this news if I were a Rockets fan.