2020/21 NBA season + Olympics

ButtersSuki

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Boston have quietly been getting very good at the right time lately. They’re 9-3 since the trade deadline, which seems to have gone completely under the radar.

Dallas slipping a little lately and really likely have lost the chance to catch the lakers, which is a shame as they have them at gone twice this week or next from memory. Win both of those however and we have a race.

Portland too have missed chances to close the gap.

Dallas beat LA last night to pull it back to 3 behind. They play them again next. Win that and it’s two. They’ll really regret some of their very bad losses to inferior teams lately if they don’t catch them.

LuckyLloyd

I think you can have subjective opinions on which players you prefer, that's okay. Extending that to trying to denigrate their objective production and greatness is a different matter.

I prefer players who physically dominate their opponents, and I appreciate great defense. As a consequence, I wouldn't be such a fan of Curry, though I fully accept his greatness at the same time. I think he's beloved sometimes because he is a physical underdog - but the NBA is no place for hope.

ButtersSuki

Dallas have closed the gap on LA and have the second easiest strength of schedule finish to the season. They’d be ahead now if they hadn’t lost stupid games lately (Cavs, Rockets etc), could still catch them but probably unlikely, edd as ping LBJ comes back soon.

Portland in trouble late in the 4th as I type this against Memphis which will leave them 1/2 game ahead in the standing BUT they play them again before the end of the season.

Interesting times!

ButtersSuki

LeBron James has come out with some pretty bizarre race baiting comments in recent weeks that would cause a meltdown in the media if a white athlete were to say the exact same thing about any other race. A white athlete would be cancelled immediately were they to say the same things, and yet he seems to be getting a relatively free pass. Very strange.

nerd69

ButtersSuki wrote: »

LeBron James has come out with some pretty bizarre race baiting comments in recent weeks that would cause a meltdown in the media if a white athlete were to say the exact same thing about any other race. A white athlete would be cancelled immediately were they to say the same things, and yet he seems to be getting a relatively free pass. Very strange.

It's possible lebron is uneducated on the subject so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too

Coneygree

LeBron acted the gowl with some comments about China a while back too.

To be fair to him or anyone else, I don't expect athletes to be well versed in political affairs, so I don't pay heed to their opinions on it and wouldn't look to them for guidance or opinion or whatever you want to call it. I know they have a huge audience and they should be a little careful about what they say as many treat their word as Gospel but those people are easily led and said anyway. Anyone old enough and mature enough will know not to listen to them when they're talking nonsense.

nerd69

Coneygree wrote: »

LeBron acted the gowl with some comments about China a while back too.

To be fair to him or anyone else, I don't expect athletes to be well versed in political affairs, so I don't pay heed to their opinions on it and wouldn't look to them for guidance or opinion or whatever you want to call it. I know they have a huge audience and they should be a little careful about what they say as many treat their word as Gospel but those people are easily led and said anyway. Anyone old enough and mature enough will know not to listen to them when they're talking nonsense.

Nor do I but telling daryl morey to shush because he's uneducated on the subject was a bigger issue for me

Coneygree

nerd69 wrote: »

Nor do I but telling daryl morey to shush because he's uneducated on the subject was a bigger issue for me

Yeah he made a right mess of it.

ButtersSuki

Dallas undo all their good work beating the lakers back to back by losing to the slings. SMH. They’ve lost to all seem to lose to every bad team in the league.

ButtersSuki

I only saw this last night but I see daddy’s little girl Austin Rivers tried to undercut Steph Curry’s landing the other day. Having had that done to me in my time I despise anyone I ever see trying that sh*t. It is honestly one of the scummiest things you can do on a basketball court to anyone and should come with a massive suspension and fine. It’s the kind of thing that looks relatively innocuous and even accidental but is just a scumbag move. The fact he didn’t apologise at the time or even pretend to pretty much proves he meant it. Scumbag.

Coneygree

Tatum had himself a game...

ButtersSuki

Dallas back to half a game behind LA and they own the tie breaker. If they hadn't had so many bad losses to terrible teams they'd be ahead by now but this could get very interesting yet down the stretch even with LeBron back. Portland one full game back from LA too.

ButtersSuki

I have to be honest, I was one of the people who didn't think Phoenix trading for Chris Paul was the greatest idea in the world but wow has it worked out well for them, at least in the short term. They're now leading the Western Conference with 9 games remaining. I doubt even Paul's biggest fans would have seen that coming.

LuckyLloyd

Paul is just living an immense career.

ButtersSuki

Big changes last night in the west.

Denver leapfrog the Clippers to go 3rd with the same number of games played.
Dallas leapfrog Lakers to go 5th with the same number of games played.
Denver would still play the Lakers in the first round of the play offs as things stand.

Clippers v Lakers would be insane as a first round match up with the consequences for a loss being absolutely massive for the Clippers.

So we have a real race now.

LuckyLloyd

The Lakers record held up as well as could be expected missing their two main men. 3 games or more for LeBron and Davis to properly get their wind and you'd think they'd start winning out at a higher pace than Dallas can compete with.

eagle eye

LuckyLloyd wrote:

The Lakers record held up as well as could be expected missing their two main men. 3 games or more for LeBron and Davis to properly get their wind and you'd think they'd start winning out at a higher pace than Dallas can compete with.

How good is LeBron going to be though? An older player takes a lot longer to get back to his best and sometimes they don't get back near their best.
Even LeBron himself said he won't ever get back to 100%.

ButtersSuki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The Lakers record held up as well as could be expected missing their two main men. 3 games or more for LeBron and Davis to properly get their wind and you'd think they'd start winning out at a higher pace than Dallas can compete with.

There’s only 9 games left though and Dallas have the tie break.

ButtersSuki

Giannis with 45 and still 6:36 to go against the Nets. And yet he looks like he’s playing within himself. Strange.

Also, he looks like a professional bricklayer when he shoots free throws.

jk23

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Giannis with 45 and still 6:36 to go against the Nets. And yet he looks like he’s playing within himself. Strange.

Also, he looks like a professional bricklayer when he shoots free throws.

Getting into the paint very easily, Brooklyn going to struggle to get out of the east of they don't figure how to clog the paint or get better together defensively..

ButtersSuki

Mother of God Mark Jackson is an annoying commentator. He talks some amount of horse manure.

jk23

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Mother of God Mark Jackson is an annoying commentator. He talks some amount of horse manure.

Is even worse when LeBron is playing.."mama there goes that man!" ... Irving went for a crazy 3 there when they didn't need it there...

ButtersSuki

jk23 wrote: »

Getting into the paint very easily, Brooklyn going to struggle to get out of the east of they don't figure how to clog the paint or get better together defensively..

I’m watching this thinking Embiid will average 45 and 20 against the Nets if they play them.

ButtersSuki

jk23 wrote: »

Is even worse when LeBron is playing.."mama there goes that man!" ... Irving went for a crazy 3 there when they didn't need it there...

The Sky UK analysts are annoying as hell too.

ButtersSuki

Durant shot very early there. He had a lot more time on that play.

Good win got the Bucks.

Gregk961

ButtersSuki wrote: »

The Sky UK analysts are annoying as hell too.

So bad. They fail at both analysis and entertainment..

ButtersSuki

Gregk961 wrote: »

So bad. They fail at both analysis and entertainment..

They’re trying way too hard. It’s very forced and unnatural. Feels like they’re trying to “soccertize” basketball hype wise in typical Sky hype everything to the max fashion. It’s atrocious tbh.

jk23

ButtersSuki wrote: »

They’re trying way too hard. It’s very forced and unnatural. Feels like they’re trying to “soccertize” basketball hype wise in typical Sky hype everything to the max fashion. It’s atrocious tbh.

Really miss the grantland series that Bill Simmons had with Jalen Rose... It was very good and had alot of content. The starters was on for a while and wasn't bad but got cancelled a couple of years ago...

steve_r

jk23 wrote: »

Really miss the grantland series that Bill Simmons had with Jalen Rose... It was very good and had alot of content. The starters was on for a while and wasn't bad but got cancelled a couple of years ago...

Those guys are on the Athletic now as NoDunks, they do a daily one hour podcast which is live on Youtube also

jk23

steve_r wrote: »

Those guys are on the Athletic now as NoDunks, they do a daily one hour podcast which is live on Youtube also

Cool, thanks for that, will look it up...