NBA Playoffs 2014

Nuri Sahin

Shocking offensive call on Wall.

Wizards win

They head back to Washington 2-0 up.

dmrules

Great game...home advantage now...

The Answer

Well done Wizards. Nene, Beal and Wall are a lot of fun to watch. Nene in particular outplays Noah yet again.

ButtersSuki

Put the house on Atlanta covering the spread last night. I am now homeless.

I know people pointed pout that "The Wiz"* were a bad matchup for the Bulls but did anyone really see it being 2-0 to The Wiz at this stage?


*everytime I say that all I can think of is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkwSqNDJbM

For Forks Sake

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I know people pointed pout that "The Wiz"* were a bad matchup for the Bulls but did anyone really see it being 2-0 to The Wiz at this stage?

No.

mixery

told ya. #gowiz

PizzamanIRL

Beautiful team chemistry

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24536698/report-lance-stephenson-and-evan-turner-involved-in-practice-fight

Nuri Sahin

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Put the house on Atlanta covering the spread last night. I am now homeless.

I know people pointed pout that "The Wiz"* were a bad matchup for the Bulls but did anyone really see it being 2-0 to The Wiz at this stage?


*everytime I say that all I can think of is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkwSqNDJbM

Ah dude, please tell me you're joking :S

After you had asked, I threw pre-game bets as follows, so at the very least you should have gone 2-1:

ADΞ™ @The_Real_Ade 14h

NBA Playoffs 2014 Bets (22/04/14):

1) @ATLHawks +8.5 @ 10/11, $220

(Tweeted earlier, now 7.5 the spread)

2) @Raptors -3 1H @ 11/10, $200

ADΞ™ @The_Real_Ade 14h
3) @WashWizards +5 @ 10/11, $220

Regarding the Wiz, Simmonds has put his hex on them I heard on radio last night on my way to work. It's set up for now they'll win Game 3 before losing the next 4, and Wall and/or Beal will suffer a serious injury with some here taking great delight in it. Simmons predictions, like that fool Bayless worry me!

Nuri Sahin

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Beautiful team chemistry

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24536698/report-lance-stephenson-and-evan-turner-involved-in-practice-fight

Not mentioned it before due to lack of credible source AFAIK, but there's been tentative rumours one of the players slept around with a teammates wife. Given PEEEEEGEEEEEE's stories and Hibbert's spectacular regression, I wonder.. or maybe Bynum has gone from coaches wife like at the Cavs to a teammates wife at the Pacers :pac:

I don't care what anyone says. Getting rid of a leader and someone who is well respected in that organisation like Granger was one was stupid, especially when all you get in turn is Even feckin' Turner who has always been streaky as hell at best and plays little defense, unlike Granger.

PizzamanIRL

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Not mentioned it before due to lack of credible source AFAIK, but there's been tentative rumours one of the players slept around with a teammates wife. Given PEEEEEGEEEEEE's stories and Hibbert's spectacular regression, I wonder.. or maybe Bynum has gone from coaches wife like at the Cavs to a teammates wife at the Pacers :pac:

I don't care what anyone says. Getting rid of a leader and someone who is well respected in that organisation like Granger was one was stupid, especially when all you get in turn is Even feckin' Turner who has always been streaky as hell at best and plays little defense, unlike Granger.

Bynum, if he did that again he's some ****head.

They had great chemistry before they got rid of Granger. I'm sure they realise they messed up but they'll never admit to it.

buyer95

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Not mentioned it before due to lack of credible source AFAIK, but there's been tentative rumours one of the players slept around with a teammates wife. Given PEEEEEGEEEEEE's stories and Hibbert's spectacular regression, I wonder.. or maybe Bynum has gone from coaches wife like at the Cavs to a teammates wife at the Pacers :pac:

I don't care what anyone says. Getting rid of a leader and someone who is well respected in that organisation like Granger was one was stupid, especially when all you get in turn is Even feckin' Turner who has always been streaky as hell at best and plays little defense, unlike Granger.

Wow man thats akin to slander without a real source. I don't have any great love of the pacers but theres no need to resort to hearsay.

padraig_f

Watched the game this morning, sickener, thought they were gonna win. Seemed to just run out of steam a bit at the end, they extend such effort on defense, and when Rose was there, players could almost take plays off on offense, but not now, they have to work hard there too. Down the stretch they ran some tired looking offensive plays.

I underestimated the Wizards, they're good, you can't just key on one or two players, Nene, Wall & Beal are all dangerous and Ariza can knock down the 3. Paully was right about them being a bad matchup, the Bulls want to get teams in the half-court, and no-one is quicker on the fast-break than Wall (also Kerr was very complimentary about Wall's maturity last night, in terms of how he ran plays). They're a good 3-point shooting team, and then they have size inside. All bad matchup factors for the Bulls.

The Bulls' limitations are being exposed, Boozer is a waste of space these days (things are so much better when Taj comes in). Jimmy's all round game is good, but he can't knock down an outside shot. He also played all 53 mins last night which didn't help (thin at that position without Deng). Thought DJ and Taj played great, and Noah had a good game, but it's hard to win when 2 of your best performers are coming off the bench.

This is what the playoffs does though, brings out any limitations. Still though, I thought they were unlucky not to win last night, led most of the second half, and I give them a good chance to steal a game in Washington.

Nuri Sahin

buyer95 wrote: »

Wow man thats akin to slander without a real source. I don't have any great love of the pacers but theres no need to resort to hearsay.

Getting accused of slander at 9am is great. It's not as if I'm working in the media myself. I am merely a person on a internet forum. I STRESSED I don't know of a credible source so in turn, so I'd hope there was a grain of salt applied by all, but clearly not.

However, given all the rumblings within the Pacers camp the past three months, there's more than simply just bad form on the court to to explain their complete deterioration at both ends of the floor. Anyone who thinks off the court issues are not in play are kidding themselves. Even Pacers fans on other forums are concerned by some of the off court activities and poisonous personalities in the dressing room.

I remember when the Bynum - Cavs coach story was just hearsay on here, ISH and the official NBA forums at one point too. Likewise the Paul George - stripper pregnancy story a couple of months ago which if I'm not mistaken, you thanked when I had posted it. That at the time and even now could be considered as hearsay, unless I've missed some absolute proof of it being true/false since then.

Nuri Sahin

padraig_f wrote: »

Watched the game this morning, sickener, thought they were gonna win. Seemed to just run out of steam a bit at the end, they extend such effort on defense, and when Rose was there, players could almost take plays off on offense, but not now, they have to work hard there too. Down the stretch they ran some tired looking offensive plays.

I underestimated the Wizards, they're good, you can't just key on one or two players, Nene, Wall & Beal are all dangerous and Ariza can knock down the 3. Paully was right about them being a bad matchup, the Bulls want to get teams in the half-court, and no-one is quicker on the fast-break than Wall (also Kerr was very complimentary about Wall's maturity last night, in terms of how he ran plays). They're a good 3-point shooting team, and then they have size inside. All bad matchup factors for the Bulls.

The Bulls' limitations are being exposed, Boozer is a waste of space these days (things are so much better when Taj comes in). Jimmy's all round game is good, but he can't knock down an outside shot. He also played all 53 mins last night which didn't help (thin at that position without Deng). Thought DJ and Taj played great, and Noah had a good game, but it's hard to win when 2 of your best performers are coming off the bench.

This is what the playoffs does though, brings out any limitations. Still though, I thought they were unlucky not to win last night, led most of the second half, and I give them a good chance to steal a game in Washington.

Given the numerous dodgy calls in the second half in particular, the W was certainly served on a plate for the Bulls.

Nene's impact and him being able to genuinely frustrate Noah which many bigs rarely do is key. Nene has been near flawless this series so far.

buyer95

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Getting accused of slander at 9am is great. It's not as if I'm working in the media myself. I am merely a person on a internet forum. I STRESSED I don't know of a credible source so in turn, so I'd hope there was a grain of salt applied by all, but clearly not.

However, given all the rumblings within the Pacers camp the past three months, there's more than simply just bad form on the court to to explain their complete deterioration at both ends of the floor. Anyone who thinks off the court issues are not in play are kidding themselves. Even Pacers fans on other forums are concerned by some of the off court activities and poisonous personalities in the dressing room.

I remember when the Bynum - Cavs coach story was just hearsay on here, ISH and the official NBA forums at one point too. Likewise the Paul George - stripper pregnancy story a couple of months ago which if I'm not mistaken, you thanked when I had posted it. That at the time and even now could be considered as hearsay, unless I've missed some absolute proof of it being true/false since then.

The P.G stripper story was widely reported at the time, I remember hearing it on one of Grantlands podcasts. George even ahd some quote about "fully embracing responsibilities" or some crap. This is the first I've heard of this story, so I was a bit shocked by it tbh. I may have overeacted calling it slander! I agree that there is something up with them for sure, but I just feel a bit uncomfortable with putting out a story suggesting that a pacer player might be doing a John Terry and destroying team chemistry. Not saying that it's you putting out the story, and I recognised now that you did say that you had no credible source when you made your comment.

ButtersSuki

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Ah dude, please tell me you're joking :S
After you had asked, I threw pre-game bets as follows, so at the very least you should have gone 2-1:

Ah FFS, that's typical of my luck - only had one bet on last night and went all in on ATL. Had gone to bed by the time you posted (had to be up at stupid o'clock). Thought the ATL bet looked as safe as houses. Note to Ade - post your frickin' bets earlier!

BQQ

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Beautiful team chemistry

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24536698/report-lance-stephenson-and-evan-turner-involved-in-practice-fight

No surprise that Stephenson is involved.
That dude is pure poison.

Pushed his girlfriend down a flight of stairs ffs. (And that is not hearsay)

buyer95

BQQ wrote: »

No surprise that Stephenson is involved.
That dude is pure poison.

Pushed his girlfriend down a flight of stairs ffs. (And that is not hearsay)

I have a feeling that Lance could morph into J.R Smith 2.0 next year. Both headcases, both have now had one productive year and both were playing for a contract.

NufcNavan

Taking this into account and taking Roy's comments clearly about Lance into the equation.

Isn't it obvious, Lance is the problem as many have suspected, and he must go. That to me is a given and then we can work on putting this team back together. The team was able to put up with lance for a few years, but that was before he started trying to become the man on the team.

This is PG's team. West seems fine with that. Roy seems fine with that. I'm sure the other players are fine with that. But I don't think they are fine with Lance trying to make this his team.

And no I don't blame the Granger trade. I blame Lance. he's the cancer, he's the problem. I will be very upset if he is back next season, and I'd be shocked if he is back next season.

ButtersSuki

BQQ wrote: »

No surprise that Stephenson is involved.
That dude is pure poison.

Pushed his girlfriend down a flight of stairs ffs. (And that is not hearsay)

Lance was quoted after the incident as saying "B!tch be trippin'"

Ba dum, tish!

I'll get me coat.......

buyer95

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Lance was quoted after the incident as saying "B!tch be trippin'"

Ba dum, tish!

I'll get me coat.......

That is actually quite funny. Glad we have no neo-nazi feminists on the basketball thread or it would be world war 2 all over again.

ButtersSuki

buyer95 wrote: »

That is actually quite funny. Glad we have no neo-nazi feminists on the basketball thread or it would be world war 2.

I do try.

NufcNavan

Having said that though, when Lance gets going, the Pacers play on a different level.

This post on another forum sums it up fairly well.

1. Fights aren't a good thing per se, but not uncommon. Jordan got in fights, Isaiah Thomas broke his hand over Bill Laimbeer's head.
2. My suspicion, admitting that I was not there, is to put the bulk of the 'blame' for the fight on Lance just because of history, and the fact that many players (including Granger, if I recall correctly) thought he needed to pass them the ball and in general found him irritating at times.
3. I wish people would stop it with the idea that trading Granger was somehow a 'betrayal.' The Celtics traded a former Finals MVP in Cederic Maxwell and won two more titles. The Pistons traded a former league scoring champ in Adrian Dantley and that pushed them over the top. Getting a quality young player for a player like Turner who is declining and never plays, is a no brainer. It's on the players and coaches to make it work IMHO.
4. Was Danny really the glue guy people seem to be implying? I'm not saying he was a cancer or anything, in fact he seemed well liked but I also got that he was quiet and didn't put in the work in the off season he needed to improve. Hardly a huge leader.
5. This was before game 1. We've had two playoff games and are coming off a big win. In basketball time this was already an eternity ago. I'm inclined to shrug it off. At least there's some passion there.
6. And as far as Lance goes, I agree there's some concern there but I think he brings a lot of important things to the table with this team. He could mess things up but I don't know if we can win without him as presently constructed.

padraig_f

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Given the numerous dodgy calls in the second half in particular, the W was certainly served on a plate for the Bulls.

There were bad calls on both sides, Wizards had theirs, but the Bulls had theirs too, e.g.

- Andre Miller falls over driving to the rim, Jimmy is guarding him in Joey Crawford's sight-line, Crawford can't see that Miller has fallen, and calls the foul on Jimmy.

- With 3 mins to go and the Bulls up 6, Wizards knock it out of bounds, and get the ball. Can't review it cos you can only review stuff under 2 mins. Real arbitary rule....we'll review any obvious call under 2 mins, but get a contentious one with 3 mins to go, and can't review it. Ariza makes a 3 from the resulting possesion.

- Then the jump-ball at the end, Taj had it, called timeout not given, refs give jump-ball. Then Nene holds Taj's arm down on the jump-ball, not called.

Thought it roughly balanced itself out.

Nene's impact and him being able to genuinely frustrate Noah which many bigs rarely do is key. Nene has been near flawless this series so far.

This is overstated. Noah played him well last night. Nene took jump-shots and made them, which are the shots you want him to take.
Here's his scoring log for the game:

Nene makes 18-foot jumper (John Wall assists)     7-0

Nene makes 18-foot jumper     11-6

Nene makes 6-foot two point shot (Bradley Beal assists)     60-57

Nene makes 5-foot jumper     64-61     

Nene makes 17-foot jumper (John Wall assists)     85-89     

Nene makes 14-foot two point shot     93-91     

Nene makes dunk (Trevor Ariza assists)     95-91     

Nene makes 14-foot jumper     97-91

Need to be careful not to be results oriented. It's more about the quality of shots you force someone to take. I was happy with Noah's defense last night, if the Bulls keep forcing shots like that, he won't continue to make them at the same rate.

Here are Nene's position shooting splits:

Position         FG%
At Rim          .681
3 to <10 ft     .348
10 to <16 ft    .408
16 ft to <3-pt  .474
3-pt            .200

Outside of 3 feet, he's not a high-percentage shooter, and the Bulls allowed him 1 make inside 3 feet last night.

Paully D

Really disappointed with last nights result.

I think the key moment of the game was the Wizards switching Ariza on to Augustin. He was far less productive after that so I felt it was a nice bit of coaching on their part.

We've had leads of 13 and 10 points in the two games. It was imperative that we slow the pace down to suit us once those kind of leads had been built up, but the Wizards kept pushing and pushing it and got us on the backfoot both times.

Felt bad for Hinrich missing those two free throws at the end.

Overall, gutted to be 0-2 down but it's not a shock really. The Wizards are a canny team and as posted before are a bad matchup. That said, if there's any team in the league who will show some resilience and fight until the end then it's the Bulls. I think we've probably given ourselves too much to do now, winning 3 or 4 in a row in any playoff series is tough for any team, but nick the next game and you never know. I feel game three will tell a lot about the Wizards. They'll be expected to win in front of their home crowd, how will that expectation weigh on them is the question.

If you're a Wizards fan you've got to be so optimistic about the future though. Wall and Beal are going to be formidable for years to come.

buyer95

Reports coming out of Indiana saying that Vogel is effectively "coaching for his job" at the moment. On the iPod touch atm so can't post the link.Crazy in my opinon. He has led Indiana to its best season in years (ever? the Knicks would happily take him! Let Phil look after the offense, Vogel do the coaching, specifically defense and nothing could stop the Knicks! A man can dream.

D2D

buyer95 wrote: »

Reports coming out of Indiana saying that Vogel is effectively "coaching for his job" at the moment. On the iPod touch atm so can't post the link.Crazy in my opinon. He has led Indiana to its best season in years (ever? the Knicks would happily take him! Let Phil look after the offense, Vogel do the coaching, specifically defense and nothing could stop the Knicks! A man can dream.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/10827330/2014-nba-playoffs-frank-vogel-indiana-pacers-coaching-job

One playoff win has not eased the mounting pressure on Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Vogel, despite a 56-win season that secured the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, is "coaching for his job" in the wake of a prolonged slide that has stretched into its third month.

After Indiana's 101-85 triumph over Atlanta in Game 2 of the teams' first-round playoff series, sources told ESPN.com that coming back to win the series against the Hawks would not automatically ensure Vogel's safety. After a 40-11 start, the Pacers went just 16-15 the rest of the way before a humbling loss in the series opener to the eighth-seeded Hawks.

Frank Vogel is on the hot seat in Indiana, according to sources.
The decision on whether to retain Vogel at season's end ultimately rests with Pacers president Larry Bird, sources said, but frustration throughout the organization has been mounting thanks to a nose dive that began in February with a loss in Orlando just before the All-Star break and has shown few signs of abating.

Expectations were raised not only externally but also internally after in-season moves Bird made to acquire Evan Turner from Philadelphia and add Andrew Bynum for bench depth on top of last summer's additions of Luis Scola and C.J. Watson. All of Bird's moves, sources said, were made with the intent to get the team at least one step further and back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000, when Bird was the coach.

BQQ

I'd be looking at Bird rather than Vogel tbh.

D2D

I'll be honest, I forgot Heat/Bobcats was on now.......

PizzamanIRL

It's a shame about Jefferson. Was looking forward to seeing how he would play this series. He basically got the team to the Playoffs and now this happens.