Board 8 > NBA Discussion topic - postseason imminent

(+) Yeah! (+)

i think kawhi gets exactly the amount of credit he deserves. if his body had held up then he'd deserve more, but sadly he has one FMVP from when before he was an all NBA caliber player, several all defensive-worthy seasons including DPOY, an MVP cliber season or two, and an FMVP with an incredible playoff run. he's performed well in the playoffs since then, but in his only healthy run since 2019, he got blown out in a game 7 where he sucked. it's honestly like... a bill walton-level type of resume, maybe?

Oof. Embiid going for a nut shot. I think I can agree with it being a F1, but with what has happened with Draymond Green I can also understand people wanting that to be an F2.

No suspension though. Draymond's suspension was because he was a clown after the stomp and his bad history.

I thought the degree of violence was quite a bit different between Embiid and Draymond. F1 is right in my eyes.

Kawhi has developed from a guy who couldn't shoot into a 50/40/90 guy while still being an elite defender, his journey is pretty incredible

I still wonder what happens in that Spurs/Warriors series if Zaza doesn't ruin his leg. Everyone just kinda assumes Golden State wins anyway, but that Spurs team was so good and they were up big when Kawhi went down.

Embiid might have screwed up his knee

Sixers fans probably wishing they did eject him now!

The Philadelphia Nutcrackers

Okay how did Embiid not get bounced if they are throwing out Harden lol

is Chris Paul playing for the Sixers now

Sevendeez-Sixers

colliding posted...

Sevendeez-Sixers

I like this one

What a goofy game

Bridges cutting to the baseline when they need a three has me laughing still

https://twitter.com/drguru_/status/1649218602594103296?s=46&t=GLvOH2vb-KyGtAIkQT1H2w

perhaps the most surprising stat youll see all year

embiid has been getting away with stuff no one else is allowed to for far too long. hes more reckless than anybody else in the NBA and is much bigger than the usual offenders too which makes his dirty plays more dangerous as well especially when hes straight up falling on top of people

but the nba has no interest in suspending their coddled little MVP whos getting the award strictly out of voter fatigue

tbf one of the issues we take with dray is that he gets away with more stuff that isn't called at all

same goes for embiid though

and i'd argue draymond is most often getting away with more things that are technical-worthy than flagrant-worthy

(mainly screaming at the refs)

changmas posted...

perhaps the most surprising stat youll see all year

the most surprising part is Draymond only has 19 flagrants

For Draymond, it's also when it happens. And it's not like he got a flagrant for punching Jordan Poole.

And also the LOL-worthy excuse that he can't help the swinging motion that caused him to repeatedly kick people in the nuts.

Raptors have fired Nick Nurse

sometimes i guess a coach just is no longer what a franchise needs? i mean i don't really know what the raptors expected with this roster though

Nurse will be scooped up really quickly

I dont know who would hypothetically be on the market that could replace him? Feel like Toronto has to figure out what it wants to do with its roster though

I mean the Raptors also fired Casey the same year he won coach of the year

Houston will throw the bag at Nick Nurse but my guess is hell wait and see if Denver flames out of the playoffs again because I think Mike Malone is likely fired if the nuggets underperform again.

and i presume nick nurse would much prefer a Denver team thats potentially/possibly a good coach away from a championship to a Houston team with some bad habits / that doesnt really play winning basketball

If you're Nurse, I think you wait to see who gets Wembanyama.

https://twitter.com/ClutchPointsApp/status/1649529937152409601

Spoilers Doc that's how it's always been

The amount of people acting like Draymond's outsized reaction was justified continues to be baffling

It's definitely a little disconcerting to me that so many people apparently think stomping on someone's chest as hard as you can is a completely rational, reasonable, stable response to having your ankle sort of grabbed, even if we accept that Sabonis was 100% aware of what he was doing.

its well established that I think the instigators should be punished, but I think Doc is neglecting that Green and Embiid are probably two of the biggest instigators in the league.

yeah if you start punishing instigators Draymond is still going to get his fair share of techs, flagrants, and suspensions

Looks like Kawhi and Embiid have already been rules out for their respective Game 4s

is embiid hurt?

He apparently sprained his knee and had an MRI today

I miss Udoka getting Boston to play defense. Mazzullas Antoine Walker offense is so depressing

eh everyone was raving about time lord in game 1. you're playing the hawks, it's okay to chill

plus, with embiid and giannis at least somewhat limited right now, boston's path is wide open

celtics were playing great D at home. hawks just got hot and got way too confident tonight

the big issue even in the wind was closing out defensive possessions though. capela is one of the great offensive rebounders atm

well yeah I'm not worried about this series. I don't really worry about Philly either - we're a bad matchup for them. Harden playing D in the second half? Embiid guarding 40+ 3PA? It'd be nice if Embiid was out because it would keep the series shorter and less physical, but I think his knee is mostly fine.

Milwaukee, I dunno. Healthy I don't see them losing.

Boston again Mazzulla just thinks 3PA rate is the single most important stat and centralizes his late game plans around it. Watch what it does to Tatum and Brown every time - think about how many good final 15 minutes those guys have had in the postseason the last year+. If you haven't noticed it yet, watch what he does to his offense when the other team starts increasing their 3PA rate.

I looked into my crystal ball and it says that we lose in 6 to Milwaukee and we spend a week wondering if they should have really pushed to trade Jalen Brown for Durant, only for Durant to get hurt in the finals and we hope Jalen Brown didn't pay attention (again,,,)

you're too rational for me lol

ScareChan posted...

Embiid might have screwed up his knee

Sixers fans probably wishing they did eject him now!

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1649567980898975745?s=19

so to be clear i'm not big on the celtics' end of game execution, but i also watched very little regular season ball this year

i don't think udoka was particularly more creative with late game offense though. we lost SO many clutch playoff games last year due to offense and not defense. i think our end of game offense actually looks better this year by a bit (though obviously versus softer D).

That Brooklyn crowd sounded like a Philly crowd

Though his season is over it was nice to see Mikal Bridges explode into his new role. Still wish he was a Sun, but I can't complain about Durant.

Dear god where has this Russ been

On the wrong LA team

Who was it in here that said giannis weighed the team down and the team played more smoothly without him or something?

Let tonight be a lesson to you!

I think the lakers are mad

damn only tied the record for biggest 1st quarter lead in playoff history

move over draymond and embiid, dillon brooks is coming for the crown

It's an epidemic of nut shots

ironically made the grizzlies better because he's not out there bricking shots.

lebron missed a dunk and caused a 5 point swing too, lakers gonna choke

Basketball is the last sport someone would recommend a person wear a cup playing.

Strange times when Nutcracker becomes the league's anthem.

It all started because Chuck talked about juggling balls

Garland single handedly trying to tie this series up

https://twitter.com/AndrewLeezus/status/1649966544347361280

Also Brooks declined to comment after the game last night. Sorry bro, if you want to be a big talker, you gotta be willing to take your lumps at times like this. At least Draymond never backs down from talking.