NBA Playoffs 2014

D2D

Pacers don't deserve to get through this series if last night's game is anything to go by. Hawks were missing shots all over the place and still got the W with 38% shooting??? George and Stephenson again had double-doubles but Hibbert was just poison for the Pacers last night.

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

I suppose if OKC do get bounced in the first round, the FO might act and fire that fool, Brooks. Grizzlies up 9 with 5 minutes remaining.

Awwwww, the 1st playoff rant on Brooks:)

PizzamanIRL

Comment on the video - "LeBron asking for the exact opposite"

Perkins had 5 fouls
Randolph had 0 fouls

Didn't see the game but I'm just throwing that out there

Nuri Sahin

Soby wrote: »

Sums up the game. In fairness thats more Westbrook than Brooks. Think a new 6th position needs to be made for him as he sure as fook aint a point guard

Or it's Brooks job to help in maturing Westbrook's game. A Pop, Thibs, Rivers, etc would have coached a lot of this idiocy out of Westbrook by now if he was fortunate enough to have them as his coach. It was obvious what Russ was going to do numerous times down the stretch. Jack up ridiculously long 2's and 3's, I forget it who it was from the Grizzlies, one of them said pre-game they don't mind if he's (Russ) the one doing jacking up shots, so long as it's not Durant.

Also, no to Westbrook being a 6th man. No way, and he's capable of playing at the point guard. It's when he goes hero ball mode, his judgement is clouded.

Nuri Sahin

Dare_2_defy wrote: »

Awwwww, the 1st playoff rant on Brooks:)

Imagine how they'd be under a good coach though?

If OKC doesn't reach the finals and at worst, lose in a nail biter, he should be fired.

Nuri Sahin

Bad loss for the Warriors last night, like a few ball clubs, a must win Game 4 you feel.

Nuri Sahin

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Comment on the video - "LeBron asking for the exact opposite"

Perkins had 5 fouls
Randolph had 0 fouls

Didn't see the game but I'm just throwing that out there

The refs were okay in that game to be fair to them for the most part.

Highlight from The GOAT last night was him using OKC Killer aka Mike Miller as a chair.

ChicagoJoe

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

To be fair, only a fool would write them off. They have players who can hurt any team, and I really like their starting five, well four out of five anyway. My concern for them is like with the Raptors, experience.

Yep and that's proving to be very much the case. Bulls in real trouble. Apparently only three teams in NBA history have come back to win after losing the first two games at home. In fairness the Wizards just made some great plays but that's playoff style basketball, I guess.

Paully D

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Fair play to Memphis, no thanks to Tony Allen

Kobe names him as the toughest defender he has ever faced.

Nuri Sahin

ChicagoJoe wrote: »

Yep and that's proving to be very much the case. Bulls in real trouble. Apparently only three teams in NBA history have come back to win after losing the first two games at home. In fairness the Wizards just made some great plays but that's playoff style basketball, I guess.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bulls notch a W tonight, tbh. Let down spot for the Wizards, first game back after a road trip and typically more impressive on the road too, chance for the Bulls.

Off topic: Your from my old stomping ground I see

Dublin Red Devil

It's do or dire for the Bulls tonight. If they win, the series goes 2 - 1, they're back in the mix. If they lose, the series goes 3 - 0, they're probably facing a 1st round 0 - 4 sweep.

Paully D

He's not wrong on Brooks to be fair.

Paully D

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

It's do or dire for the Bulls tonight. If they win, the series goes 2 - 1, they're back in the mix. If they lose, the series goes 3 - 0, they're probably facing a 1st round 0 - 4 sweep.

Type of game this Bulls team live for tonight. Backs against the wall and really needing to pull something out of the bag.

This game will be interesting to see how the Wizards cope. A young side who will have a lot of expectation on their shoulders in front of their home crowd after winning 2 in a row on the road. I'm hoping the pressure will be a little bit too much for them against an experienced Bulls side who are good on the road.

On another note, though Thibs is obviously a brilliant coach, he's not beyond reproach on how this series has gone so far either. Despite the talk of not burning out players, Butler is absolutely shattered and is probably looking at another 48 minute stint tonight, while the 4th quarter line-up has gone for six points in the last six minutes in game 1 and 0 points in eight minutes in game two. Slight adjustments surely need to be made, but he's stubborn too and probably won't. Wittman has made some nice adjustments such as putting Ariza on Augustin when he was getting hot which paid off, the Bulls haven't made any adjustments as of yet. It might prove to be the difference.

Paully D

Paully D wrote: »

Kobe names him as the toughest defender he has ever faced.

has always been massively underrated i miss the days of him, nate robinson and big baby coming off the bench for the celtics

Paully D

Myla Shallow Sunblock wrote: »

has always been massively underrated i miss the days of him, nate robinson and big baby coming off the bench for the celtics

He's done a very good job on KD so far.

ESPN Stats & Info ‏@ESPNStatsInfo 2h
Kevin Durant has struggled when guarded by Tony Allen this series. KD shooting 34.4%, including 4-14 from beyond arc when guarded by Allen

padraig_f

Noah's pumped up: Joakim Noah gets in heated exchange with Wizards’ security

PizzamanIRL

padraig_f wrote: »

Noah's pumped up: Joakim Noah gets in heated exchange with Wizards’ security

That makes the security guard sound bad but at the end of the day if it's time for the Wizards' shoot around then it's time for you to go, instead of being a rude fool.

padraig_f

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

That makes the security guard sound bad but at the end of the day if it's time for the Wizards' shoot around then it's time for you to go, instead of being a rude fool.

Noah's a cool guy, my guess is the security guard was being a dick for him to react like that.

padraig_f

Will read it later, but good opening paragraph: 33 Burning Questions From Round 1

ButtersSuki

knew I posted on Westbrook gunning before, didn't think it was as far back as these beauties....the more things change, the more they stay the same:

From May 14th 2011:
Westbrooks is playing very selfishly at the moment and whilst he may not cost them the series v the Grizzlies, he will against the Mavs if he doesn't share the ball a lot more. He needs to learn his role on the team (esp. as he's the point guard) and that he has a Top 5 player in the league on his team. Seems to me like he has a major inferiority complex re. Durant and that situation is going to explode at some stage. As I posted previously, the sports press in the US have been saying all year he's going to the Lakers when his current contract is up.

It is SO frustrating playing with a point guard who wants to score first, pass second. With the league leading scorer on your team, why not just take the assists off his baskets and lead the league in assists as a PG Russell? He averaged 6.4 assists this year which is very average for a starting PG. He must have a LeBron-like ego.

From June 17th 2012:
.....and the elephant in the room - Westbrook going back to a shoot first pg in this series, a la what he did in the playoffs last year. Seems to me like he always wants to be the star, but he has to realise that his best chance of winning it all is not him scoring 40; it's Durant scoring 35-ish and him throwing in about 20 and 8 (assists). Magic Johnson said at half-time during game 2 that Westbrook's display was the worst he had ever seen from a starting PG in the Finals. That's pretty strong criticism, especially from Magic, who most of the time talks up everything like he's a Sky Sports soccer pundit

It's fine in high scoring games and your shots are dropping, but in tight games if those shots are not going in, you'll always be in trouble.

From 12th March 2013
WTF is it with Westbrook? Everytime you give him credit for maturing and becoming more of a team player he has a night like this. He took 27 shots last night. This on a team that has Kevin Durant? Come on.

Paully D

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

That makes the security guard sound bad but at the end of the day if it's time for the Wizards' shoot around then it's time for you to go, instead of being a rude fool.

That security guard has previous.

In a visit to the nation’s capital back in January, Miles pulled the same thing, yelling to Bulls players to get off “my court.’’

There was no incident back then, but it was not appreciated nor forgotten.

Wizards PR had to settle down their security guy back on that day, and again on Friday, after Bulls assistant general manager Randy Brown and Bulls director of security Erick Buck also tried to calm the situation.

“Guy’s a clown,’’ one member of the Bulls travelling party said.

He also had an argument with Bulls reporter back in January, per ESPN:

This isn't the first run-in Miles has had with Chicago personnel. He had another verbal altercation with a Chicago-based reporter before the Bulls' shootaround ended on Jan. 17.

buyer95

Just reading Simmons' article on the first round. He brings up some interesting points. Namely, "only MJ, Magic, Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, T-Mac and Aldridge have scored 42-plus points in back-to-back playoff games." Why are we not talking more about this. It's a real kick in the balls for the advanced metric guys who see the game in only 3's and layups, and call everything else an inefficient shot. As Simmons himself explains, "in the playoffs defenses ratchet it up, and suddenly there aren’t as many open 3s and layups anymore. But you know what’s available? LONG TWOS! So when you have a big guy who can make them, it’s kind of an advantage." I'll be staying up tonight to watch the third installment of Houston v Portland tonight anyway, on BT tonight btw lads.

PS: Taken from Simmons' article
“You know when you drive your car and hear a weird sound, but ignore it? Then you hear it again louder, but you ignore it because you’re really busy? Then you hear it constantly, but you are now worried about the potentially big expense that might be represented by that sound, so you ignore it still? Then your car won’t start, so you take it to the shop and find out it’s even worse than you’d imagined, and so many expensive things are wrong with your car that you decide to fix the bare minimum of the problems in order to sell the piece of crap and make it someone else’s problem? That’s Roy Hibbert.”

Paully D

It's so depressing that the Bulls traded Aldridge for Thomas, Jesus wept

Paully D

Raptors leading 23-19 after one. Very physical game, the refs really letting them play. Great to see.

shamrock55

Very hard to call whos gonna win this one again tonight, very evenly matched tbf

shamrock55

De rozan playing well tonight

Paully D

Boozer is a ****ing joke. Honestly it's like playing with 4 players.

Nuri Sahin

Nets fans chanting USA at the Raptors players. That's without failing to know who their owner is and where he is from, ditto the Raptors players.

In work later otherwise I'd have attended the game. Gonna try and sort out a handful of tickets for Game 4 hopefully.

As for the action today, Brooklyn is punishing them in the paint so far. Val Venis getting into foul trouble early doors is a big issue already, clearly.

Nuri Sahin

Paully D

Bulls shooting 68% and still losing. Not a good sign.

Nuri Sahin

KG and Livingston both foul trouble now, both have picked up their fourth.