2021-2022 NBA Game Thread!

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
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Watching Brooklyn and Milwaukee shoot free throws for 20 minutes was a pretty shitty way to finish that game.
The last two nights should be a wake-up call for the rules committee……and we aren’t even in the playoffs yet! Get ready for brutal!
 

128

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It's not even the midpoint of the second quarter, and the Knicks have missed 10 free throws against Philly. Ten!
 

Average Game James

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It's not even the midpoint of the second quarter, and the Knicks have missed 10 free throws against Philly. Ten!
NY and Philly have combined to take 41 FTs in the half. Harden/Embiid will be effective, but nit exactly exciting to watch.
 

azsoxpatsfan

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May 23, 2014
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Warriors have won 62 straight games when they’ve led by 20+. Were up 21 on Mavs tonight, currently losing 106-101 with 7.9 left. Wild game
 

Sam Ray Not

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Warriors have won 62 straight games when they’ve led by 20+. Were up 21 on Mavs tonight, currently losing 106-101 with 7.9 left. Wild game
Up 93-74 with 9:45 left in the 4th … at which point the Mavs went on a 26-1 run. Very glad I wasn’t watching — just looking at the play-by-play stresses me out.
 

Kliq

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Luka putting himself in the MVP conversation now. Huge game from Dinwiddie as well.
 

BigSoxFan

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Solid 11 turnovers from Westbrook/Bron in first half tonight. Westbrook is just so bad now.
 

Kliq

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The Lakers suck but I like this New Orleans team more than I thought I would. CJ has played really well since coming over, Ingram is a good scorer who has developed more as a creator. Valanciunas is a good big man who has developed a three point shot. Herb Jones has been great as a rookie; and Jaxson Hayes has made some improvements in his second season and is an interesting prospect. Zion obviously is the elephant in the room in New Orleans, but if he does come back this season and New Orleans can sneak into the play-in, they will be an interesting team to watch.
 

ElUno20

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The Lakers suck but I like this New Orleans team more than I thought I would. CJ has played really well since coming over, Ingram is a good scorer who has developed more as a creator. Valanciunas is a good big man who has developed a three point shot. Herb Jones has been great as a rookie; and Jaxson Hayes has made some improvements in his second season and is an interesting prospect. Zion obviously is the elephant in the room in New Orleans, but if he does come back this season and New Orleans can sneak into the play-in, they will be an interesting team to watch.
Ingram needs to play with another true scorer. Cj is perfect for him.

Only 3 back of the lakers. If lebron wasnt chasing Kareem, id give them a shot at catching them
 

GB5

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now normally I would expect that we would be closing in on Lebron's season ending lat strain/groin injury/calf inflammation injury but as noted above where he needs to accumulate points to catch Kareem, he may keep playing and go gunning for empty points. Will be fun to watch.
 

HomeRunBaker

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now normally I would expect that we would be closing in on Lebron's season ending lat strain/groin injury/calf inflammation injury but as noted above where he needs to accumulate points to catch Kareem, he may keep playing and go gunning for empty points. Will be fun to watch.
Not as fun as reading how a recent Assist per game league leader is an unconscionable gunner solely concerned about his stats.
 

ElUno20

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now normally I would expect that we would be closing in on Lebron's season ending lat strain/groin injury/calf inflammation injury but as noted above where he needs to accumulate points to catch Kareem, he may keep playing and go gunning for empty points. Will be fun to watch.
If I'm remembering right, lebron checked IN to like a 20 point game last night that was well over.

I think he decided a few years ago to go for Kareem. That would be like another title for him. I can't blame him.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Hasn't that always been the case? You are talking about RWB right?
RWB is dead to me. The talk of LeBron being a numbers chaser is simply too amusing to pass up.

If I'm remembering right, lebron checked IN to like a 20 point game last night that was well over.

I think he decided a few years ago to go for Kareem. That would be like another title for him. I can't blame him.
He checked back in with 4 min to go in the 3Q. The game was far from well over.
 

Kliq

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Statistically, LeBron is having a pretty typical season for himself. Throughout his career, we have seen LeBron be able to drag any supporting cast to a very competitive level. There hasn't been a noticeable drop-off in his play (at least on offense) so why hasn't he been able to drag these Lakers to competency? Is his supporting cast really that bad?

I think it says something about the way the game has evolved over the past ten years; its harder for just one player to completely dominate the game. I think it was a little different a decade ago; there was more of a premium on having that one dominant player and you could get more out of them. In today's NBA, with so much spacing and quality shooting; even lesser-talented players can have big offensive games. As the Pacers showed yesterday, even a pretty bad team can look like an offensive juggernaut if their threes are falling.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Statistically, LeBron is having a pretty typical season for himself. Throughout his career, we have seen LeBron be able to drag any supporting cast to a very competitive level. There hasn't been a noticeable drop-off in his play (at least on offense) so why hasn't he been able to drag these Lakers to competency? Is his supporting cast really that bad?

I think it says something about the way the game has evolved over the past ten years; its harder for just one player to completely dominate the game. I think it was a little different a decade ago; there was more of a premium on having that one dominant player and you could get more out of them. In today's NBA, with so much spacing and quality shooting; even lesser-talented players can have big offensive games. As the Pacers showed yesterday, even a pretty bad team can look like an offensive juggernaut if their threes are falling.
I dunno……even aside from the RWB Experience this is one awful supporting cast compared to prior seasons when you remove a healthy Anthony Davis. The Lakers have lost 8 of the last 10 that Davis has missed and had earlier lost 5 straight without AD.

They won a title with Davis, Kuzma, Pope, Bradley……two really good players and two veteran role players. Last night they started RWB, Reaves, and the corpses of Dwight Howard and Trevor Ariza. Yes, his supporting cast right now is that bad.
 

Kliq

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I dunno……even aside from the RWB Experience this is one awful supporting cast compared to prior seasons when you remove a healthy Anthony Davis. The Lakers have lost 8 of the last 10 that Davis has missed and had earlier lost 5 straight without AD.

They won a title with Davis, Kuzma, Pope, Bradley……two really good players and two veteran role players. Last night they started RWB, Reaves, and the corpses of Dwight Howard and Trevor Ariza. Yes, his supporting cast right now is that bad.
Yeah but LeBron made the Finals with Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ronald Murray as his best teammates. Obviously it's unrealistic to expect LeBron to be as good as he was back then, but at least statistically, he is still "in his prime" even if he is clearly older and less explosive. And prime LeBron used to mean 50+ wins alone, even with a dreadful supporting cast. The fact that without Davis this is a lottery team is interesting. This isn't just the case for Lakers either; more using them as an example of broader changes in the league that in some ways make teams less reliant on individual stars.

We've seen it with the Celtics plenty of times over the last couple of years, where they have Tatum and Brown and yet lose games to lesser teams that don't have individual players as good as Tatum or Brown.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Yeah but LeBron made the Finals with Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ronald Murray as his best teammates. Obviously it's unrealistic to expect LeBron to be as good as he was back then, but at least statistically, he is still "in his prime" even if he is clearly older and less explosive. And prime LeBron used to mean 50+ wins alone, even with a dreadful supporting cast. The fact that without Davis this is a lottery team is interesting. This isn't just the case for Lakers either; more using them as an example of broader changes in the league that in some ways make teams less reliant on individual stars.

We've seen it with the Celtics plenty of times over the last couple of years, where they have Tatum and Brown and yet lose games to lesser teams that don't have individual players as good as Tatum or Brown.
Murray wasn’t on that team. One thing about that group is that similar to Iverson’s supporting cast that he dragged to The Finals, they had a ton of veterans who understood their role while still being in their athletic prime. Not only did they have Hughes, who was a 1st Team All-NBA defender the year prior, and Ilgauskas, but Gooden, Snow, and Varejao. Not the most talented group but they knew their pecking order and what they had to do to support LeBron. It was a well structured roster whereas this Laker team is the polar opposite of well structured.
 

Sam Ray Not

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I dunno……even aside from the RWB Experience this is one awful supporting cast compared to prior seasons when you remove a healthy Anthony Davis. The Lakers have lost 8 of the last 10 that Davis has missed and had earlier lost 5 straight without AD.

They won a title with Davis, Kuzma, Pope, Bradley……two really good players and two veteran role players. Last night they started RWB, Reaves, and the corpses of Dwight Howard and Trevor Ariza. Yes, his supporting cast right now is that bad.
The Lakers this season have been only mildly better than their opponents with LeBron on the floor than on the bench.

-1.1 on
+2.6 off
+1.5 net

Both the on-court and the net on-off numbers are career lows by a mile. You have to go back to his rookie (2003-04) season to find anything comparable.
 

Sam Ray Not

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NBA leaders in (cumulative) plus-minus on the season, fwiw.

1.Steph Curry, +489
2. Chris Paul +419
3. Mikal Bridges, +414
4. Jayson Tatum, +397
5. Nikola Jokic +385

LeBron is … wait for it … #455 in the league at -53. :)
 

HomeRunBaker

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The Lakers this season have been only mildly better than their opponents with LeBron on the floor than on the bench.

-1.1 on
+2.6 off
+1.5 net

Both the on-court and the net on-off numbers are career lows by a mile. You have to go back to his rookie (2003-04) season to find anything comparable.
Oh yeah, I’m certainly not claiming that he’s nearly the same player as he was even 5 years ago despite the counting stats being similar. He doesn’t have nearly the same impact on the game as he once did. Having said that….+/- yeah whatever. The team can only be so good with LeBron on the floor and only so bad without him as the pieces around him don’t fit which was my point.
 

HomeRunBaker

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This is a public service reminder that NBA players can be more street hustlers than rational beings.

Watching 1H replay of last Fridays Sixers/Wolves game. Thybulle accepts pass filling lane on a fast break, Beverley slides in for the charge, gains position and is run over by Thybulle..:…BUT his back foot is clearly on the semicircle line which Ed Malloy confidently and demonstratively indicates in whistling him for a block.

Ok, you’re the player (#hubiebrown). You naturally question the call asking if he’s sure. The official says absolutely the entire foot was on the line. You then, a) acknowledge the call, maybe tap the ref on his butt, or whatever to concede the call……or do you b) signal for a review, walk with the ref all the way to the bench pleading for a better explanation, return to the ref asking him to agree that you did in fact have position while continuing to argue until play is about to begin forcing the ref to tell you repeatedly that it doesn’t matter if you had position?

If your answer is B……you may have some Patrick Beverley DNA in you.
 

Kliq

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Ja 22-30 from the field, 52 points and maybe the two best highlight plays of the season.
 

rymflaherty

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My brain is currently short circuiting over a Same game parlay I just lost…
Wrongly assumed it would be a winner and still can’t believe it’s not.
Lost on L.Ball going over 22.5 points. He got to 24 with with like 22 seconds left. I never would have thought they’d put him back in, down by 27 on the second night of a back to back. Seeing that he went back on and scored the last bucket was quite a kick to the gut…oh well…
 

ElUno20

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What is Ja Morant? Ive described him to casual nba fans in my life as like a bigger more athletic Iverson or more controlled d rose mix but now i think... just better than Michael Jeffrey Jordan. I think that's a better description
 

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
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What is Ja Morant? Ive described him to casual nba fans in my life as like a bigger more athletic Iverson or more controlled d rose mix but now i think... just better than Michael Jeffrey Jordan. I think that's a better description
I see a better shooting God Shammgod’s floor game coupled with a young Steve Francis’ finishing ability at the rim.