NBA Regular Season 14/15

NufcNavan

That was a terrible shot by Rose, bad shot selection all round before that Copeland 3.

padraig_f

[good thing I didn't taunt Pacers fans before this game like I'd intended to]

NufcNavan

We've the lead lol. Haven't seen anything like this in a long time.

20-0 run, Copeland what was that

Paully D

16 straight Bulls misses, I've rarely seen anything like it. A 20-0 Pacers run. Bloody hell.

NufcNavan

Can't remember a frantic a game ever. Neither team can make anything now.

Edit: Gasol get's the bounce.

padraig_f

Crazy game, that was the Bulls first field goal in the 4th quarter, with 3:30 left.

NufcNavan

I think Vogel should have yanked the bench earlier. I understand you want to reward them and all but I want to win the game..

NufcNavan

The refs screwed us there. At least another second on the clock.

Edit: Oh well, hell of a game. Glad we came back.

Paully D

Phew! That was way, way too close for comfort. Pacers should have had way more time on the clock but Thibs will be having fits over that last play anyway with Watson getting an open shot for the win.

I don't think we'll ever see many quarters as bad as that first 9 or 10 minutes in the 4th from the Bulls again.

Cracking game considering it looked all over by the end of the 3rd.

padraig_f

Phew! WIDE OPEN CORNER 3 from ex-Bull CJ Watson to win.

Bulls lucky to win that, played a real sloppy, arrogant game. Rose had an absolute shocker. Might not have been a bad thing to lose, would've been a bit of a wake-up call. Thibs will give them hell anyway, attitude wasn't right tonight.

Good defending from the Pacers, made it tough in the 4th quarter!

NufcNavan

Yeah good game folks. We rode the bench a little too long. Copeland got us back into the game but made a series of really bad plays once we got level.

Butler was very good and Rose has had better days. The Bulls depth should help them win out in the East though.

padraig_f

Yeah, I knew I read this somwhere, from Brian Windhorst:

“There’s a growing tension … between the players and coach David Blatt. There’s been a disconnect there that has been increasing. It may be something the organziation has to deal with either giving David Blatt a vote of confidence, or maybe looking at the position again … They have completely abandoned his offensive system. Lebron has taken over point guard without even consulting David Blatt.”

LeBron and David Blatt Not Getting Along, Could the Cavs Fire Him?

ButtersSuki

And don't forget LeJon has only signed for 2 years…………..you know he'll likely to bolt if things aren't to his liking in that time.

ButtersSuki

Boogie throwing down another monster dunk last night amongst the trees.

Itssoeasy

Just watched the pacers Bulls game. Jesus I wouldn't have liked to be a bulls fan watching that.

Paully D

Chuck Garfien ‏@ChuckGarfien 37m37 minutes ago
Lost in Jimmy Butler's incredible season: He's committed only 41 turnovers playing the most minutes in NBA. LeBron James has 111.

GoldFour4

Paully D wrote: »

Chuck Garfien ‏@ChuckGarfien 37m37 minutes ago
Lost in Jimmy Butler's incredible season: He's committed only 41 turnovers playing the most minutes in NBA. LeBron James has 111.

Does Jimmy act as playmaker for the Bulls? Don't get to see much Bulls ball so don't really know. Anyway was looking at the stats for turnovers this season on basketball reference and it kinda seems clear that the more a guy acts as the "main guy" and handles the ball the most, he's gonna have a lot of turnovers too.

James Harden and Stephen Curry are both having MVP calibre years and they're both in the top 8 with Harden leading the league.

BQQ

Paully D wrote: »

Chuck Garfien ‏@ChuckGarfien 37m37 minutes ago
Lost in Jimmy Butler's incredible season: He's committed only 41 turnovers playing the most minutes in NBA. LeBron James has 111.

malistheman wrote: »

Does Jimmy act as playmaker for the Bulls? Don't get to see much Bulls ball so don't really know. Anyway was looking at the stats for turnovers this season on basketball reference and it kinda seems clear that the more a guy acts as the "main guy" and handles the ball the most, he's gonna have a lot of turnovers too.

James Harden and Stephen Curry are both having MVP calibre years and they're both in the top 8 with Harden leading the league.

+1 Mal.

Not saying Butler isn't having a great year, but that stat is meaningless.
Lebron handles the ball a lot. Butler doesn't.
Rose does that on the Bulls team and has a turnovers per game slightly less than Curry (playing less minutes).

Paully D

Fair (and very good) points lads. Admittedly I just saw the stat and said I'd throw it in here without really considering any underlying factors. It is a fairly meaningless looking back at it :pac:

Bulls streak snapped by the Nets last night. Lopez was superb. Our home court advantage is surprisingly non-existent so far this season at 8-6. Strange as we are usually so good at home.

GoldFour4

Durant back for the Thunder tonight against Phoenix, disaster!

Paully D

New LeBron article from ESPN detailing his knee soreness, that video with D-Wade and his commitment to the Cavs:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12104838/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers-misses-second-straight-game-knee-soreness

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James will miss his second straight game because of soreness in his left knee, sitting out his team's game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. But he wants it known that he'll be around for the Cavs for the long haul.

James was a late scratch Tuesday because of the knee, which previously caused him to sit out a game Dec. 11 in Oklahoma City. He re-aggravated it on Christmas Day in Miami while jumping over a row of courtside seats while trying to track down an outlet pass from Kevin Love.

Even though James was not required to speak to the media because he was out of the lineup, he made himself available to answer a slew of questions in the locker room prior to the Bucks game about his health and the controversy surrounding his commitment to staying in Cleveland beyond this summer.

"It's been hurting pretty much all year," James said of his left knee. "I've been playing with it and it goes away and comes back. So, the one in Miami kind of re-aggravated it when I came out of the game in the third quarter."

James said he was hopeful he could play Friday in Charlotte, but if not, is looking towards Sunday at home against the Dallas Mavericks. He said he is not concerned about the injury in the long term.

"I'm not concerned because all the tests and everything I've done with the doctors, everything has come back negative," James said. "So, I got 41,000 minutes in my career including the playoffs. You (try to) drive that car in the winter time (and see how it feels)."

As for his future with the Cavs, James addressed a video showing a conversation between him and Dwyane Wade after the Cavaliers' loss to the Heat on Christmas Day that went viral. In the video James can be clearly heard telling Wade, "We're going to reunite again and do some bigger and better things, alright?" Some websites interpreted James prefacing that statement to Wade with the caveat, "If we aren't better this year ..." however the audio is muffled.

"I've seen the clip just like you've seen the clip," said James. "I don't know exactly what I said at the beginning, either. I know I said, 'We'll get back together and do some bigger and better things,' but it had nothing to do about basketball. I mean, if was going to tell him that, I'd tell him the night before. Come on, guys. I'm not stupid. I know I didn't go to college but I'm not stupid. I wouldn't say that on Christmas with a hundred cameras around. I would have told him the night before at his house.

"But, it's just me so I get it. I get it. But it had nothing to do with leaving here and reuniting with him. It had everything to do with just talking about other things more than just basketball. Everybody gets so involved in basketball, our friendship, obviously, you guys know, is bigger than basketball. So, you know, our last four years couldn't be bigger and better even if we did get back together. But, whatever. It's crazy."

James also reaffirmed his commitment to Cleveland.

"I'm here to build something great in the present and in the future and that's the reason I'm back," James said. "I got no other reason to have to continue to talk about things that's so outlandish. I'm here. This is where I'll be and this is where I'm comfortable at."

When asked about James' investment in the Cavs, coach David Blatt said James' intentions are obvious to him.

"I know why LeBron James came back to Cleveland and I know what his commitment is to this team and to his teammates," Blatt said. "And I also know exactly what he wants to do here."

James admitted that his patience has been tested through the Cavs' underwhelming start, including three losses in their last four games. "My tolerance for patience is not that great and it's something I knew I had to work on," James said. "Especially coming here, it's going to be the biggest test of my career just being with a bunch of young guys and helping them understand what it means to have a professionalism and a work ethic every single day, so that's been testing and I understand that.

"Obviously with my injuries and other guys being out and us not capable of what we're capable of playing to (it is testing), but the inconsistency I kind of knew (would happen). I figured it would happen. And that's why I try to stay patient. I try to not have my body language be as bad as it can be sometimes. I just try to keep my communication up, keep my spirits high and understand that once we get fully healthy - obviously without Andy (Varejao), we know he's not going to make a return this year - but if we keep going through the process, we'll be fine."

Beyond James' knee, the Cavs were also without Kevin Love (back spasms) and Shawn Marion (sore left ankle) on Wednesday, making for another challenging night for Cleveland while playing the second leg of a back-to-back.

James said that he and the team simply must stay the course.

"Just stay even keel and knowing that there's always sunshine on the other side of the mountain, man," James said. "I don't get too high or too low, especially in the NBA season. It's too long, it's too many emotions, it's too many things, it's too many storylines that if you let yourself get involved in it too much that it can bother you mentally and I've been able to just stay away from it."

PizzamanIRL

0.7 seconds left in the Spurs v Pels game and I'm 90% sure Asik just tipped the ball into his own net to send it into OT which the Spurs went on to win. It's the year of the Spurs already

Actually I'm not so sure now looking at this but he certainly helped it go in

https://vine.co/v/OwUmj60u3vX

Andy_rse

Hi,

Apologies if this post doesn't suit the thread, thought it would be as good a place as any.

Does anyone have any material that would be good for a novice to look at to get a better understanding of the game? I can watch a game and have a decent understanding of whats going on but would like to know more about the likes of player positions and roles, different plays, more in depth rules etc. Just to broaden my knowledge.

Cheers

GoldFour4

Andy_rse wrote: »

Hi,

Apologies if this post doesn't suit the thread, thought it would be as good a place as any.

Does anyone have any material that would be good for a novice to look at to get a better understanding of the game? I can watch a game and have a decent understanding of whats going on but would like to know more about the likes of player positions and roles, different plays, more in depth rules etc. Just to broaden my knowledge.

Cheers

Hey,

Apologies for the title of this website but it gives a good brief introduction to the positions. Positions breakdown

This is actually quite a simple little breakdown of the rules that you'll see in action when watching a game. Not sure if you wanted something more complex. rules breakdown

The NBA also has this on its website which is a lot more in depth on some of the more complex rules in place. complex rules explained

Finally, the salary cap and salary rules in place in the NBA are quite complex to follow. It leads to some strategic decisions being made by teams when it comes to future salary implications. This link is extremely detailed and I really wouldn't advise reading it all unless you want to confuse yourself. It's quite handy though if you don't understand the details of some trades/signings etc. Larry Coon salary cap faq . Larry Coon is a legend for putting that together and keeping it up to date.

Hope those links help and don't cause too much confusion!!
They might be of use to other users too btw!

Andy_rse

Thank you, that looks like some good information there. I'll stick the head in this later or maybe next time I'm watching a game.

If there's any other information that you or anyone else thinks "noobs" should know to make the game more enjoyable then fire away (though I don't really want to take this thread way off topic)

Thanks again!

buyer95

Andy_rse wrote: »

Hi,

Apologies if this post doesn't suit the thread, thought it would be as good a place as any.

Does anyone have any material that would be good for a novice to look at to get a better understanding of the game? I can watch a game and have a decent understanding of whats going on but would like to know more about the likes of player positions and roles, different plays, more in depth rules etc. Just to broaden my knowledge.

Cheers

Zach Lowe of Grantland writes on the game better than anyone I have read. He has an unbelievable knowledge of the whole league, and I always feel like I've learned something after I read his articles. Check out his podcast "The Lowe Post" which is also good.

GoldFour4

Don't know whether people saw this or not... Phoenix was beating Philly handily in the closing moments of their game and Zoran Dragic was in the game. Zoran got his first NBA basket off an and 1 from Goran. Pretty awesome feeling to get to assist your brother in scoring his first NBA basket.

http://gfycat.com/BleakWarmheartedIcelandichorse

NufcNavan

Stacey King was showing Evan Turner some love on the Bulls broadcast. There was my annual reminder of why Stacey King is the absolute worst.

D2D

Very sad news yesterday that Stuart Scott, ESPN anchor, died aged 49 after battling cancer for the 3rd time:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9cSX5XPY70

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

padraig_f

Cavs trading Dion Waiters for JR Smith (!) and Shumpert. Interesting. OKC involved too, seems like Reggie Jackson on the way out there.

Report: Cavs trade Dion Waiters to Thunder, get Knicks’ JR Smith and Iman Shumpert