December 2019 General NBA Game Thread

HomeRunBaker

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There's another angle where you can see that Tolliver clips his left leg. Given that LeBron was making a normal running motion (not kicking his leg out), that's a foul and a slightly dangerous play by Tolliver. Good call by the ref in real time.

(Yes, it would be nice if Tony Brothers could make these calls.)
Glad I’m not the only one who saw this was an obvious that was foul confirmed by replay following the challenge.
 

lovegtm

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Glad I’m not the only one who saw this was an obvious that was foul confirmed by replay following the challenge.
To be fair, I didn’t catch it at first—only saw the tiny hand brush, which definitely wasn’t a foul. Once the leg thing was pointed out on Twitter it was hard to unsee though, and the official had a good angle on it.

I was also probably biased against refs in general at the time, having just watched one of the low-key worst performances I’d seen in awhile with Brothers and the Celtics.
 

HomeRunBaker

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To be fair, I didn’t catch it at first—only saw the tiny hand brush, which definitely wasn’t a foul. Once the leg thing was pointed out on Twitter it was hard to unsee though, and the official had a good angle on it.

I was also probably biased against refs in general at the time, having just watched one of the low-key worst performances I’d seen in awhile with Brothers and the Celtics.
Maybe it was from my burner acct lol.
 

Sam Ray Not

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So Heat losing by 16 to Heat, with over 3 minutes to go. Makes me feel better about Celts laying an egg against Toronto!
Beal was out, too. The Wizards' 123-105 beatdown was led by Jordan McRae (29) and someone named Garrison Matthews (28).

Meanwhile, the Trae-less Hawks, led by someone named Brandon Goodwin (21), took down Orlando.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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The Wizards had seven players inactive. Matthews 28 points was on nine shots. That isn't a typo - kid got to the line like he was Garrison Harden. Ian Mahinmi had 25 points too and SRN-adjacent Ish Smith (one of my favorite examples of how the NBA rewards grinders) had 19 points. McRae, Matthews and Smith all did their damage off the bench.

The Wizards are not an easy draw these days as they are like Golden State - a mostly seasoned group of players who know how to grift and grind every possession. They won't win a trophy this year but they may well upset a few teams before everything is said and done.
 

dhellers

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It was cute and touching listening to the DC broadcasters so happy about beating the hot Heat.
Being a Boston fan ... its been a long time since I have had to enjoy occasional victories so greedily.

And I am going to have to bring my A fanGame when I see them play the Celts on Jan 6. No need for them to get used to this feeling!
 

Sam Ray Not

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Add Shabazz Napier (24) and Jarrett Culver (21) to the above lists of unlikely players leading their scrub teams to victory over (current) Eastern playoff teams. Wolves beat Nets 122-115 in OT.
 

ElUno20

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Nba is such a garbage sport to bet. The odds of 3 teamer with the hawks, wizards, and nets winning today was about 92 to 1. All 3 teams had at least their best player out and won.
 

Rook05

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I someone managed to avoid getting my three teamer nuked by those teams....but then the Blazers had to crap all over me.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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and someone named Garrison Matthews (28).
So looking him up, Matthews played college at Lipscomb, which used to be David Lipscomb and was once a NAIA powerhouse that shot a ton of 3s.

According to this article - https://sports.yahoo.com/garrison-mathews-ready-put-lipscomb-175840854.html - Matthews is adept at coming officks or hand-offs and shooting 3s and he apparently kicks his legs out as well so he got fouled on at least 3 3P shots.

Another grinder. Good for him.

P.S. for those who don't read the article, his grandfather was on 1962 Ole Miss national championship football team.
 

terrynever

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76ers mailed another one in today. Their tanking history comes in handy. Embiid sat with a sore knee. He has now missed eight games. Pretty obvious management wants him healthy for the playoffs, unlike last year.

Horford made 2 of 12 shots today. Not exactly picking up the slack.

A realistic goal for this team is fourth seed. These guys think they can step up in the playoffs. News flash: you’re not that good.
 

lovegtm

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76ers mailed another one in today. Their tanking history comes in handy. Embiid sat with a sore knee. He has now missed eight games. Pretty obvious management wants him healthy for the playoffs, unlike last year.

Horford made 2 of 12 shots today. Not exactly picking up the slack.

A realistic goal for this team is fourth seed. These guys think they can step up in the playoffs. News flash: you’re not that good.
I don't yet know how to back this up, but it feels like the insanely paced-and-spaced era we're in really opens up the gap between haves and have nots for certain types of good teams and not for others.

If you're the Bucks or Mavs and the other team has no answer for Giannis or Luka, the whole game is going to be rolls to the rim, quality 3s, layups, etc. If you're a team like Philly, playing a bad team doesn't really change things a ton--you're still grinding it out on offense and needing to focus on defense.

It's having big effects on the standings, and it makes the Sixers look bad when they don't lock in and bring their A game, but I'm not convinced things are as dire in Philly as they look.
 

terrynever

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I don't yet know how to back this up, but it feels like the insanely paced-and-spaced era we're in really opens up the gap between haves and have nots for certain types of good teams and not for others.

If you're the Bucks or Mavs and the other team has no answer for Giannis or Luka, the whole game is going to be rolls to the rim, quality 3s, layups, etc. If you're a team like Philly, playing a bad team doesn't really change things a ton--you're still grinding it out on offense and needing to focus on defense.

It's having big effects on the standings, and it makes the Sixers look bad when they don't lock in and bring their A game, but I'm not convinced things are as dire in Philly as they look.
I agree with your premise. In this era, you can play good defense for 20 seconds and then give up a long three. Philly seems to let opposing scoring guards go off big.

Horford admits he is not in sync with the offense. That’s a problem, especially when Embiid sits. Can Al learn to fit in, or find his shooting stroke?

When critics say Philly lacks accountability, as Josh Richardson said after Monday’s loss, I look back to the tanking era. Embiid sat and watched for two years as The Process worked itself through. He polished his game during those two years. But there was an implied message in all that losing. Like, it doesn’t matter because we get a lottery pick as a reward. Simmons saw some of the tanking, too. Did it impact his accountability? No one will ever know. I see quotes from these two that do not sit well, like wanting to win Defensive POY, when the focus should be on the next game.

This team reminds me of a couple other 76ers teams of the past, talented and disjointed. Good enough to beat anybody. Relying on a mistaken belief that you can win without working hard every night.
 

pjheff

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This team reminds me of a couple other 76ers teams of the past, talented and disjointed. Good enough to beat anybody. Relying on a mistaken belief that you can win without working hard every night.
It reminds me of the Celtics team from last year, assuming that a collection of individually talented players would cohere into a sum equal to or greater than its parts.
 

terrynever

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It reminds me of the Celtics team from last year, assuming that a collection of individually talented players would cohere into a sum equal to or greater than its parts.
Reminds me of Bill Russell’s last Celtics team. 1969. Went 48-34 in regular season, then won it all.
 

terrynever

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