2022-2023 NBA Season Thread

[Antonin]

Last night's performance by the Cavs was horrible. We were out-hustled, out-muscled, out-coached, out-everything. A tip of the hat to the Knicks. I love my Cavs, but if they get humiliated again Sunday maybe they should take the bus home and make sure to arrive in the middle of the night. Cleveland's Greyhound station is a bleak, spooky place late at night.

[rudel.dietrich]

So many injuries.
76ers look like they will sweep which will give Embiid time to heal.
He can't miss any time against what will probably be Boston. Even missing one game could swing the series.

The Clippers look done yet again, undone by injuries.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Antonin

Last night's performance by the Cavs was horrible. We were out-hustled, out-muscled, out-coached, out-everything. A tip of the hat to the Knicks. I love my Cavs, but if they get humiliated again Sunday maybe they should take the bus home and make sure to arrive in the middle of the night. Cleveland's Greyhound station is a bleak, spooky place late at night.

I can certainly sense - and sympathise with - your disgust at your team's performance. I really thought this series was going 7, with the Cavs having the edge. That can still certainly happen. The list of teams who have been embarrassed in a playoff game, only to come back strong for the next one, is long. Best of luck to ya!

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

So many injuries.

A list of key players who have missed games (or parts of them):

Embiid - knee, missed game 4; assume he'll have time to heal in time for the next round
P George - knee, missing entire series
Kawhi - knee, missing at least games 3 & 4
Giannis - back bruise, missed game 3; not sure about game 4
Draymond - mental shortcomings, ejected in game 2, then suspended & missed game 3
Herro - broken hand, out for the playoffs
Morant - hand, missed game 3; not sure about game 4
Smart - back bruise, may miss game 4

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

76ers look like they will sweep which will give Embiid time to heal.
He can't miss any time against what will probably be Boston. Even missing one game could swing the series.

I alluded to my disgust above. That's with my team, the C's, not winning yesterday in Atlanta. The tell-all IMO will be tomorrow's game 4, as teams with championship level aspirations don't go to 6 or 7 games against a team such as Atlanta. True, 15 years ago a championship-aspiring (and eventually winning) Celtics team had to go 7 games against a significantly inferior Hawks team. However, there was no questioning those '08 C's focus and intensity, which absolutely cannot be said about the '23 C's. And that '08 team was nearly invincible at home. The Hawks just played really well...

The Celtics ability to drift back and forth between championship-level and lazy/sloppy basketball is maddening.

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

The Clippers look done yet again, undone by injuries.

Karmically ironic that this happened to the primary practitioners of load management? Injuries to the very players they were trying to protect.

[Cobra Mgr]

How much of a bonus do the refs earn if Phx advances?

[rudel.dietrich]

Many of yesterdays games were just ugly. Not like that first weekend.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Many of yesterdays games were just ugly. Not like that first weekend.

1st round has been a bore mostly. Kings Dubs has been the one fun to watch. Lakers /Grizz has been interesting mostly for the off the court drama.

[thehef]

I have no problem with Doris Burke as an NBA color commentator, but something she said near the end of Kings-Warriors was just so typical of the stupid things that sports announcers say...

With about a minute to go in the game, the W's seemed to pull away with a semi-safe lead, so Burke said something like, "one team is playing like they've done this before, and one team is playing like they haven't." Obv, she was referring to the W's having all of that championship experience, vs. the Kings being so young. Moments later, Stef Curry called a timeout that his team didn't have, with resulting tech FT + loss of possession & Kings' bucket letting Sac right back into the game. Shortly afterwards Curry also missed a near-gimme (for him) in the lane.

No dis to Curry intended, either. But what actually happened was each team fought hard to the end, each team made some good plays and also a couple of bad ones, and ultimately a bunch of basketball "just happened," resulting in a one point win for the W's in a game that could've gone either way. Attributing the outcome to anything else is just resorting to lazy narratives that don't really have any foundation in reality - which was essentially proven by what occurred immediately after Burke's dumb statement. (Although I'll admit that these lazy narratives are probably convenient if the primary goal is to entertain rather than inform the uniformed viewer.)

[monkeyman576]

Edit

[rudel.dietrich]

Nuggets could not finish off the Wolves in OT after a horrible Wolves collapse.

Denver has never swept a team in their history.

Golden State evens up their series. It has been the best first round series so far.

I thought one of the best would be New York Cleveland with Cleveland winning it.

But their offense has looked really stagnant. Especially in the half court.

Atlanta made it close at times but looks outmatched by Boston.

By mid week their should be a few more series over with and not so many games to watch every day.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Nuggets could not finish off the Wolves in OT after a horrible Wolves collapse.

Denver has never swept a team in their history.

Golden State evens up their series. It has been the best first round series so far.

I thought one of the best would be New York Cleveland with Cleveland winning it.

But their offense has looked really stagnant. Especially in the half court.

Atlanta made it close at times but looks outmatched by Boston.

By mid week their should be a few more series over with and not so many games to watch every day.

Cleveland has been the most disappointing considering the matchup & their health.

Memphis has also disappointed. Phoenix might have been swept if the Clipps were whole.

Atlanta has played above expectations the most to me cause I didn't think they would come close to beating Boston. C's had to play a great game yesterday to prevent a 2-2 tie.

Kings have surprised me in how ready they have been for this stage. I thought their youth would be to GS's advantage. But they have really looked like the better team despite the 2-2 tie.

The breakout star has been Hachimura. Lakers are going to be nearly impossible to matchup with if he keeps playing like $ from behind the arc.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Antonin

Last night's performance by the Cavs was horrible. We were out-hustled, out-muscled, out-coached, out-everything. A tip of the hat to the Knicks. I love my Cavs, but if they get humiliated again Sunday maybe they should take the bus home and make sure to arrive in the middle of the night. Cleveland's Greyhound station is a bleak, spooky place late at night.

There's a youtube video of an English adventurer that thought it would be fun to take a Greyhound from LA to Chicago. He never made it past Amarillo, Texas. He was traumatized, and terrified, and he couldn't hide it. Heh heh heh.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

There's a youtube video of an English adventurer that thought it would be fun to take a Greyhound from LA to Chicago. He never made it past Amarillo, Texas. He was traumatized, and terrified, and he couldn't hide it. Heh heh heh.

You have intrigued me, sir.

Edit: Unless it was a different Englishman, he wasn't traumatized at all & wants to try it again. He only stopped cause the bus stopped due to a blizzard ahead & he didn't have the time to wait it out. At the end he says he wants to try again.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by thehef

I have no problem with Doris Burke as an NBA color commentator, but something she said near the end of Kings-Warriors was just so typical of the stupid things that sports announcers say...

With about a minute to go in the game, the W's seemed to pull away with a semi-safe lead, so Burke said something like, "one team is playing like they've done this before, and one team is playing like they haven't." Obv, she was referring to the W's having all of that championship experience, vs. the Kings being so young. Moments later, Stef Curry called a timeout that his team didn't have, with resulting tech FT + loss of possession & Kings' bucket letting Sac right back into the game. Shortly afterwards Curry also missed a near-gimme (for him) in the lane.

No dis to Curry intended, either. But what actually happened was each team fought hard to the end, each team made some good plays and also a couple of bad ones, and ultimately a bunch of basketball "just happened," resulting in a one point win for the W's in a game that could've gone either way. Attributing the outcome to anything else is just resorting to lazy narratives that don't really have any foundation in reality - which was essentially proven by what occurred immediately after Burke's dumb statement. (Although I'll admit that these lazy narratives are probably convenient if the primary goal is to entertain rather than inform the uniformed viewer.)

I agree. That is why in my home, when the Cavs are on national TV, we prefer to watch the local broadcast if it is available. If the local TV broadcast crew is not available, we often listen to the local radio broadcasters and watch the national TV broadcast with the sound off.

The national broadcasters just don't know our team, and they always try to fill airtime with simplistic (and often wrong) observations. I'm sure other NBA fans feel the same: the local folks are always better.

I enjoy listening to either Van Gundy, but they just don't know our team that well.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

You have intrigued me, sir.

Edit: Unless it was a different Englishman, he wasn't traumatized at all & wants to try it again. He only stopped cause the bus stopped due to a blizzard ahead & he didn't have the time to wait it out. At the end he says he wants to try again.

Back in the late 80s I took a Greyhound from Cleveland to upstate New York. I felt like I was in a Tom Waits song or a Jack Kerouac novel. The experience was gritty, bleak, sometimes scary, but utterly fascinating. I drank many, many cups of horrible coffee. All the down-on-their luck types and just plain interesting people I encountered...it felt to me like the real America. I expected to see Charles Bukowski slouched in a corner somewhere, reading the racing newspaper or something like that.

I think Tom Waits once said "It's getting harder and harder to find a bad cup of coffee." One of my all-time favorite quotes.

But getting back to the Cavs, I wonder if something is wrong with Donovan Mitchell. There's just no explanation for how bad he was. There is plenty of blame to go around, but some has to go to the Cavs coaches. You have to make adjustments, and it looked like we made none. At least none that worked.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Antonin

I agree. That is why in my home, when the Cavs are on national TV, we prefer to watch the local broadcast if it is available. If the local TV broadcast crew is not available, we often listen to the local radio broadcasters and watch the national TV broadcast with the sound off.

The national broadcasters just don't know our team, and they always try to fill airtime with simplistic (and often wrong) observations. I'm sure other NBA fans feel the same: the local folks are always better.

I enjoy listening to either Van Gundy, but they just don't know our team that well.

I agree with all of that, except with the Van Gundy's Stan is decent but says some dumb stuff. In fairness, no more than any of the national guys/gals... Jeff is harder to listen to. Especially when paired with Mark Jackson on the ABC telecasts. The two of them together are nothing more than a clown show, IMO. Unlistenable.

At any rate, part of the problem nowadays with listening to a radio (or other feed) while watching a TV (or other video feed) - I guess this has to do with technology - is that back in the day things were simple: TV and radio were essentially broadcasting live. Or, if there was a delay, it was in microseconds; they were essentially in sync. Now, a radio vs tv broadcast can be several seconds off... I've noticed that a basket on an app on my phone is sometimes scored several seconds before I see the ball go thru the hoop on tv...

[Cobra Mgr]

I didn't watch the game, so someone that did tell me: Can Milwaukee letting JB torch them for 56 pts and commit zero fouls in 42 minutes be anything but a humongous coaching screw up by the Bux staff?

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

I didn't watch the game, so someone that did tell me: Can Milwaukee letting JB torch them for 56 pts and commit zero fouls in 42 minutes be anything but a humongous coaching screw up by the Bux staff?

The rest of the team could not hit a shot. You don't want anyone dropping 56 on you. But they denied pretty much the entire rest of the team.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

The rest of the team could not hit a shot. You don't want anyone dropping 56 on you. But they denied pretty much the entire rest of the team.

Early in the 4th quarter, I texted my friend "I guess Butler can't do it by himself." A bit later I had to issue a correction

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

The rest of the team could not hit a shot. You don't want anyone dropping 56 on you. But they denied pretty much the entire rest of the team.

That's my problem. How do you let JB do that on you when Miami has nobody else? I give JB for being the clutch playoff performer that he is. He is one of those guys like Worthy or Miller who seems to get 10x's better when the postseason comes. But dude ain't MJ. Milwaukee may not have anyone to stop him, but they have 5 or 6 guys they on put on him to wear him down. And they should attack him on offense on the other end of the court. He was the only guy that could hurt them and it looks like they did nothing special to address that. IDK if i have ever seen someone get 50+ & 0 fouls before.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

That's my problem. How do you let JB do that on you when Miami has nobody else? I give JB for being the clutch playoff performer that he is. He is one of those guys like Worthy or Miller who seems to get 10x's better when the postseason comes. But dude ain't MJ. Milwaukee may not have anyone to stop him, but they have 5 or 6 guys they on put on him to wear him down. And they should attack him on offense on the other end of the court. He was the only guy that could hurt them and it looks like they did nothing special to address that. IDK if i have ever seen someone get 50+ & 0 fouls before.

He was worn down. He was gassed towards the end.

I am not trying to excuse Milwaukee. It was a terrible collapse. And they are in a real hole now.

If they cannot advance then that changes the east a lot, and this horrible Miami team will advance.