NBA Playoffs 2012/13

Paully D

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Stupid from Nazr and he was rightly ejected but what a flop that is!

Paully D

So our offense has been probably the best it can be and the Heat are getting most of their scores from players like Norris Cole, yet Miami go into the half up by 2.

Not a good sign at all.

padraig_f

I think it's a winnable game, keeping them mainly to jump-shots, they've made a lot of them so far, but if Norris Cole keeps taking them, that should dry up at some point.

Hope the Nazr ejection doesn't cost us, so stupid. One of the few advantages we have is on rebounds, and that's made us smaller.

Paully D

Scottie Pippen :cool:

Dublin Red Devil

Give Scotty Pippen a few min:D

Dublin Red Devil

Will The Bulls be able to keep the pace in the 4th. They look drained

Nuri Sahin

I don't understand anything anymore. Nate just rejected LeBron..

Nuri Sahin

Paully D

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Will The Bulls be able to keep the pace in the 4th. They look drained

Nah, probably not. LeBron is going to inevitably go on a decent run in the 4th too.

BQQ

The Birdman coming up big so far in the 4th

Dublin Red Devil

Yeah Bulls will probably fade out in the end. Miami should win

BQQ

Bulls gone stone cold in the 4th.

Bellinelli is 0/4 so far, Butler 1/4

Edit: just as I write, Marco finally makes one.

1/9 3-pointers in the 4th for the Bulls.

Nuri Sahin

Noah fouling ruining my spread bet. Swell.

Heat 2-1 Bulls

Let's go Warriors!

padraig_f

Damn, played a good game in many ways, got the Heat to take the shots you want them to take. If Norris Cole and Chris Bosh are going to make their shots, so be it. Not sure if Nazr's presence would've made a difference, but didn't help, guys seemed to run out of energy in the 4th quarter.

Can't get too down about this one, need to win on Monday to force a game 6 back in Chicago.

ButtersSuki

Just watching it back now - nice play from LeFlop to get a player ejected, back to his old tricks again. No wonder so many people love him.........


And yes, that is sarcasm!


Chances of a flopping fine for LeBron from David Stern anyone??!! Less than zero is my guess.

ButtersSuki

I'm a Celtics fan so relatively neutral here, but to me the Bulls are getting screwed Blythe refs in the last couple of games between calls and the no-calls. Anyone an opinion on this?

walrusgumble

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Just watching it back now - nice play from LeFlop to get a player ejected, back to his old tricks again. No wonder so many people love him.........


And yes, that is sarcasm!


Chances of a flopping fine for LeBron from David Stern anyone??!! Less than zero is my guess.

There was no way Le Bron could really have fallen if he acted like a man. The push was slight. Clever but really embarrassing from Le Bron

The Bulls were full value for their money.They were brilliant, considering (a) the devastating list of injuries , bad enough to be without Rose, but even Hindrick , (b) relied on guys who normally don't get too much responsibilities and (c) some dodgy calls by the ref. Bulls will likely score another win off Miami in this series at least. I would have been pretty proud of the Bulls performance (ability to continue to play hard) if I was a Bulls fan.

The United Center looks savage on TV

walrusgumble

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

was getting very sleepy around that play, my god that bloc woke me up. Pitty Robinson's shooting was not a small bit more efficient

walrusgumble

BQQ wrote: »

The Birdman coming up big so far in the 4th

While the mid term trade was not that busy, this was probably the best transaction during that period in February. He has being great for Miami since joining. A little bit of a redemption period for once a bone fide knucklehead Denis Rodman wannabe (Rodman was not a knucklehead). He looses a few pounds he will deserve another season

buyer95

walrusgumble wrote: »

While the mid term trade was not that busy, this was probably the best transaction during that period in February. He has being great for Miami since joining. A little bit of a redemption period for once a bone fide knucklehead Denis Rodman wannabe (Rodman was not a knucklehead). He looses a few pounds he will deserve another season

Best trades at that time weren't even trades! Birdman and K Mart were the best deals.

ButtersSuki

Flop!

Look at it from all angles, there's a clear two motion sequence there and he looks behind to check his path is clear before falling. Theatrical to say the least.

LeBron is 6'8" and built like an American football linebacker yet we're supposed to buy it that a push from another player sends him 10-15 feet across the floor? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OkCKMksZOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OkCKMksZOo

ButtersSuki

walrusgumble wrote: »

The United Center looks savage on TV

It's a great venue alright, crowd are certainly up for it. This may seem hard to believe but the hockey crowds there are even louder than the basketball crowd - they go particularly crazy when the National anthem is being played which was very weird for me when I went there and didn't know it's a Blackhawks tradition to do so seeing as how well respected he anthem singing is at almost every other event.

Billy Mays

Noah :D:D

buyer95

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Flop!

Look at it from all angles, there's a clear two motion sequence there and he looks behind to check his path is clear before falling. Theatrical to say the least.

LeBron is 6'8" and built like an American football linebacker yet we're supposed to buy it that a push from another player sends him 10-15 feet across the floor? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OkCKMksZOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OkCKMksZOo

I can believe a 250+ pound player was able to knock over a player who wasn't expecting to be shoved. Lebron was going down, but yeah he made the most of it.

GoldFour4

Didn't see the game but just saw the flop there. It's no issue to me. Nazr reacted terribly and went to make a full on push and connected. If it was in gametime its an issue, but not after a foul like then Deserved the ejection.

padraig_f

buyer95 wrote: »

I can believe a 250+ pound player was able to knock over a player who wasn't expecting to be shoved. Lebron was going down, but yeah he made the most of it.

I'd agree with this interpretation, there's a second movement, but it's not an egregious flop in that he's trying to invent something that wasn't there, Mohammed pushed him with both hands. He sold it, but to me it's not a terrible flop.

I'm more unhappy with Mohammed. I thought after game 2, with the Heat's wind-up tactics and the ejections, there'd be a resolution to keep cool heads, but that was apparently not the case (also in evidence when Noah pushed Birdman off Nate).

If the Bulls players think they're going to get favours from the Heat players not to sell things, or the refs not to punish them, they're being naive. Control what you can control, play hard but don't get involved in this stupid stuff.

A lot is made of the physical demands of playoff games, the extra intensity, diving on the ground for loose balls and stuff. But there's also very much a mental challenge to the playoffs, some players don't handle the pressure well and wilt or lash out. I don't think the Bulls team handled things mentally that well last night.

The Bulls were always likely to lose this series, and I'm not giving up yet, but it's still useful as a learning experience. Guys like Jimmy Butler and Marquis Teague, I hope they're learning from this experience. In fairness to Mohammed, he came out today and apologised.

Paully D

It was a flop, but I wouldn't blame LeBron for going down. If a Heat player did what Mohammed did I would be wanting him to go down and force the ejection. You put yourself in that position and you deserve to be ejected for stupidity really.

On the officiating, sure, I think we're getting some tough calls going against us, but I wouldn't say it's overly bad. They're the type of calls teams like us get against the likes of the Bobcats and Hornets, which shouldn't be the case I know, and it says more about the standard of officiating in the league than anything else. For example, the call on Butler for his 2nd foul on LeBron was terrible, but then LeBron also got called for a technical that never was just before Mohammed pushed him which was overlooked in the whole scramble. I get caught up in the heat of the moment (no pun intended) when I'm watching games and post things I cringe at when I look back after games regarding calls against us. I'll have to log off during games I think and post afterwards :pac:

I strongly agree with Padraig when he says this series is a great learning experience. Look at this current Bulls teams players that will be here in the future. Rose (24), Butler (23), Teague (20) Noah (28), Gibson (27), you can say the likes of Boozer and Deng will be off soon due to cap issues, but then you have arguably Europe's best young player in Mirotic (22) to come over along with the first round draft pick from Charlotte. We will also have a chance to pick up a star in 2014 free agency given our cap plans by the front office. Things look very promising in the future, especially with our core young guys getting tough playoff experience under their belts.

Overall, I'm happy with this season. I predicted a 6th/7th seed and a first round playoff exit, yet we've had even more setbacks on the injury front than I possibly could have foreseen and we finished 5th seed, won a first round game 7 against Brooklyn and have beaten the Heat once and given as good as we got in another game, with one blowout. Who knows what will happen in the remainder of the series but we can certainly win one more game to force a game 6 in our house, that would be great. This team have never sulked, moaned or given up when things have got tough. As I've said before, its far from the greatest Bulls team I've ever seen but there's not many others that I can remember giving as much to the jersey as this current crop.

kmart6

Lovely just realized the Knicks game is on Sky later so no having to stream it....although I might have to after listening to Kev and the guys for 5 minutes!

leggo

Paully D wrote: »

Overall, I'm happy with this season. I predicted a 6th/7th seed and a first round playoff exit, yet we've had even more setbacks on the injury front than I possibly could have foreseen and we finished 5th seed, won a first round game 7 against Brooklyn and have beaten the Heat once and given as good as we got in another game, with one blowout. Who knows what will happen in the remainder of the series but we can certainly win one more game to force a game 6 in our house, that would be great. This team have never sulked, moaned or given up when things have got tough. As I've said before, its far from the greatest Bulls team I've ever seen but there's not many others that I can remember giving as much to the jersey as this current crop.

Yeah that's true. If the Bulls get swept from here on in (and tbh that's exactly what I think is going to happen; they're just getting pushed one step too far now with so many setbacks), they can hold their head high for a season that many others would've just written off.

Chicago will be a team to be feared next year. Thibs has figured out the formula for beating Miami, he's just run out of firepower this year. Add Rose and Deng back to the mix though and that could be a different story...

Nuri Sahin

Grizzlies - OKC going down to the wire here.