"We're going to Disney World!" NBA to resume season July 31 at WDW

The Social Chair

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Feb 17, 2010
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Ingram is going to have a long career as a numbers guy on bad teams. He is to the Pelicans as Monta Ellis was to the Warriors.
 
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Kliq

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The Lakers relying on Dion Waiters to be the primary ball-handler when LeBron sits isn’t going to fly in the playoffs. Then again, the Clippers are currently using the corpse of Joakim Noah to check Anthony Davis isn’t going to go well either.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Why am even watching baseball and basketball? It’s obviously going to be a MFY+MFL coronation, like every other sh*tty thing about this year.

Edit: shut up, Reggie and Harlan.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Reggie and Harlan have orgasms every time the Lakers have the ball and use the Clips’ offensive possessions to talk about other shit.
 

JCizzle

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Clips and Lakers aren’t doing the political-statement-on-jersey thing? I guess I just assumed every team was doing that.
It's up to each player. Some players on each team have them, e.g. Morris has the education reform message
 

Jed Zeppelin

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During the run of play, you don't miss a crowd at all. There's a fucktonne of sound in basketball, squeaky shoes, bouncing ball, players and coaches all in close proximity and talking all game long, and a FAST pace that demands a lot of talk from the booth.

Gonna miss the roar of someone getting postered, or a momentum three, coach calling a desperate TO, etc, but this is as good as it gets without fans. Hockey and football both have great natural sounds of the game too. Baseball has a harder time overcoming that air of lifelessness.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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The Clippers are the deeper team and better coached.

The Lakers have the two best players. Talent wins in the NBA. Even with James having an off night, Davis is picking up the slack and been the best player on the floor tonight.
 

Euclis20

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The Clippers are the deeper team and better coached.

The Lakers have the two best players. Talent wins in the NBA. Even with James having an off night, Davis is picking up the slack and been the best player on the floor tonight.
Regardless of how tonight turns out (and the Clippers are missing some of their good depth right now), the fact that LeBron is 3-6 in NBA finals I would think is proof enough that having the best player isn't enough to win it all.
 

Kliq

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Maybe it’s just me but LeBron doesn’t get nearly enough shit for being such a world class whiner. It’s the defining trait of his game.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Breen having orgasms that LeBron bricked his shot so badly it bounced right back to him for an uncontested lay-in. Blehh.

Lakers by 1 over a Clips team without Harrell and Williams. Yay.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Not the two best players in the league. Giannis is a hair better than Lebron at this point and 10 years younger. But the best two players in the Clippers rivalry. Unless you think Kawhi is better than Lebron, which some do apparently.
I think you can make a case for Kawhi as the best player on either team. He's the defending Finals MVP, the best perimeter defender of the four, and the best of the four at creating his own shot off the bounce (a good quality to have in the playoffs). I think you can also make the case that a 100% healthy George is roughly as good as 35 y.o. LeBron and AD. He rated #1 in the NBA by RPM last season. His shoulder was messed up to start the season, but apparently the time off has helped it heal.

AD did look awesome tonight, tho. Is it too late to clear cap space for him?
 

Kliq

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Several smart NBA people have mentioned throughout the season that the Clippers carry themselves like a team that has already won a championship and understand what it takes to win in the postseason, and they can afford to kind of slack off a bit during the regular season. This explains why probably the most talented team in the league is not running away with the #1 seed. The thing is that outside of Kawhi (and Doc) nobody on the team has actually won big in the postseason before, and this combination of players hasn't won jack shit. Sometimes you see that, especially in games like tonight.

Some notes:

- I don't think Anthony Davis is better than Kawhi, but tonight the Clippers had no answer for him. He might just be a bad matchup, but you can't reasonably check him with Zubic and Noah; he is way too quick for those guys and that is how he kept getting to the line. Perhaps with Harrell back he will be a better option, he isn't a great defender but he is quick and will work hard. I think in a playoff series we might see Kawhi on Davis a lot because Kawhi can do anything..

- The Lakers closed with LeBron/Caruso/Green/Kuzma/Davis. That is asking a lot from Caruso and Kuzma, who hung in their tonight. It is possible as young players they make a leap and prove that they belong, but they are going to sink or swim this team. If they can play reasonable defense and make threes, the Lakers will probably win the title if LeBron/Davis stay healthy. If they make a lot of mistakes LA is likely doomed, at least until Bradley comes back because he can take a lot of the Caruso minutes and guard smaller guards.

- Down the stretch you saw a big difference in who could get the desired matchups. Despite the fact that the Clippers had Kawhi and George, the Lakers were able to work switches to get LeBron one-on-one against Jamychal Green, and LeBron beat Green twice for key baskets, including the eventual game-winner (well, the brick off the rim that fell right to him).

On the flip side, the Clippers failed to do this of offense. In the final minute, two times they tried to get Kawhi into a favorable switch and they failed, because the set a shitty screen. A key point was on their third-to-last-possession, when Landry Shamet set a terrible screen while LeBron was guarding Kawhi, where Shamet didn't even touch LeBron. A good screen there and Kawhi is one-on-one with Caruso, instead he had a less-favorable matchup. On the final possession they didn't get anything going because they again set shitty screens, forcing no switches or productive action at all, leading to a messy final shot. Just bad execution that really cost them the game.

- I still like the Clippers because of their depth and because if they do have Williams/Harrell that gives them another wrinkle on offense and the Lakers are pretty one-dimensional with LeBron/Davis PnR and praying the perimeter guys hit their threes. I think the Clippers haven't shown their full hand, and something like Kawhi on AD is something you break out in a playoff series. However, the inconsistency of the Clippers and the lack of success as a core would worry me if I was a fan.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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The Clippers at full strength and with something to play for seem like a different team than we've seen to date. Williams and Harrell are huge impact players.

As a side note, I need a "Behind The Bubble" on this Laker team. What a fascinating cast of NBA characters on one roster...opened up because of the loss of another hired gun.
 

Red Averages

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Two great games last night.

A week into the return of half of the Big 4 US leagues and it's already a great reminder of how significant sports are to distract us from life. I didn't realize until last night, but that was the first night I wasn't consistently checking the Stock Market action every 15 min during the night, and instead was focused on my draft kings account. I felt like I took a vacation from work, and all I did was watch sports without distraction. Probably a good sign that I need a vacation, but you have to think so many people stuck at home will get similar benefits over the next few months.
 

JCizzle

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Looks like we had our first scare recently. I didn’t really think about it, but the article raises a good point regarding how to handle this if it happens the day of a playoff game.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29571771/kings-player-cleared-inconclusive-covid-19-test-result

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The Sacramento Kingshad to quarantine a player for two days after an inconclusive coronavirus test result on Wednesday, but successive negative results on Thursday and Friday are expected to allow for his availability against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night, sources told ESPN.

Inconclusive tests -- or "false positives" -- require an individual to register two consecutive negative tests in the next 48 hours for clearance, according to NBA protocols. The process of clearing players from these inconclusive tests is a significant concern for teams in the bubble; they worry that this scenario could cause a key player -- or players -- to be lost for a game or more in seeding or playoff games.
 

JCizzle

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Orlando has put up 114 on Brooklyn with 10 minutes to go. Blazers-Grizzlies is going to be fun, very competitive start with a nice dunk from Nurkic
 

Sam Ray Not

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Orlando has put up 114 on Brooklyn with 10 minutes to go. Blazers-Grizzlies is going to be fun, very competitive start with a nice dunk from Nurkic
Got it to 128-100 with 7 minutes to go ... and then got outscored 18-0 over the last 7 minutes. Stuff like that makes me glad I don’t bet on hoops...
 

Tony C

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Maybe it’s just me but LeBron doesn’t get nearly enough shit for being such a world class whiner. It’s the defining trait of his game.
Lebron can make an argument for being the GOAT or in the top 3 or 5, anyway. On this site about 50% of the posts about him regard him doing what every player in the NBA does -- complain about calls.

In other words...yeah, it's just you.

Dunno why....whether it's Brady or Jordan or whomever (including LeBron), it just chaps my ass when all one hears about athletic greatness is whining. You're a fan of the sport and when you watch greatness you literally think whining is "the defining trait of his game."? Get real.
 

Kliq

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Lebron can make an argument for being the GOAT or in the top 3 or 5, anyway. On this site about 50% of the posts about him regard him doing what every player in the NBA does -- complain about calls.

In other words...yeah, it's just you.

Dunno why....whether it's Brady or Jordan or whomever (including LeBron), it just chaps my ass when all one hears about athletic greatness is whining. You're a fan of the sport and when you watch greatness you literally think whining is "the defining trait of his game."? Get real.
Part of my post was tounge in cheek, I have no problems saying LeBron is an all time great.

When I watch LeBron, and I watch him quite a bit, the thing that honestly stands out the most to me is how frequently and how dramatically he complains about calls. That is probably me taking his brilliance as a player for granted, having become accustomed to his incredible playmaking and flawless fundamentals, but even by NBA standards his complaining is elite. Last night he made the game winner and instead of celebrating he immediately went to complain to the refs because he thought he was fouled.