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NBA Playoffs 2023

ztejas

By ztejas
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2 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I mean I'm not convinced that the Clippers don't win this series with just a healthy Kawhi, much less PG. Where a weird fucking series.

I think It's a trend at this point. Teams with older veteran stars are more likely to be underrated and have less wins due to "load management" and injuries, while these younger, healthier and more energetic teams will win more games out of 82 due to availability and energy.  They get higher seeds, but don't necessarily have the power to beat the lower ranked team that may have ducked some wins due to health reasons. 

 

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ztejas

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Phoenix was just trying to get some rest for once down the stretch of a game and LA was like "nah we're gonna bang 4 3s in a row in" and then Monty Williams really tried to fuck it up by putting Landry Shamet in the game. 

No one is safe this playoffs. 

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Chewbacca

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Durant is so unstoppable that Booker is going for 40 basically every night right now. 
DEN/PHO is going to be fun. 
And then you try and contain Booker and Durant gets 30 anyway. 
We will see how KCP and Gordon can slow down Booker and Durant. Gonna be a fun series. Nugs better bring it. Winner of this series wins the west, IMO.
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ztejas

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13 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I mean I'm not convinced that the Clippers don't win this series with just a healthy Kawhi, much less PG. Where a weird fucking series.

Lue is at worst one of the 5 best coaches in the league and I'd probably put him higher. Westbrook turned the clock back a half decade - and then you look down their roster and they have solid guy after solid guy - a lot of them vets with playoff experience. 

PG was never playing. I don't understand that hypothetical. What if Durant doesn't twist his ankle and PHO gets 10 more games to build chemistry?

I think it for sure goes 6 or 7 with Kawhi and PHO could have wound up on the losing side. But I wonder how much higher their ceiling really was with Kawhi - I mean they played about as well as possible without him and were somehow in every game down the stretch. He would have helped them close for sure. 

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HeHateMe

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7 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Lue is at worst one of the 5 best coaches in the league and I'd probably put him higher. Westbrook turned the clock back a half decade - and then you look down their roster and they have solid guy after solid guy - a lot of them vets with playoff experience. 

PG was never playing. I don't understand that hypothetical. What if Durant doesn't twist his ankle and PHO gets 10 more games to build chemistry? 

I think it for sure goes 6 or 7 with Kawhi and PHO could have wound up on the losing side. But I wonder how much higher their ceiling really was with Kawhi - I mean they played about as well as possible without him and were somehow in every game down the stretch. He would have helped them close for sure. 

Monty’s strength is that the players love him and want to play for him, but some of the in game decisions are head scratching. See Shamet in the 4th qtr.  Monty has struggled more with the addition of KD than the players have.  He lacks depth now and has to be an in game coach.  He better figure that out if they want to be playing past the Den series.  If you put Lue on the Phx sideline, they win the whole damn thing.

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closetohumping

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6 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I think they started the quarter down 10 and ended it up eleventy hundred. All point totals approximate. 
they were fucking awesome. That series next round is going to be amazing. 
hopefully the basketball gods give us KD v Steph with everyone healthy. 

KD vs Bron could work as well

 

love the clippers bench and role players.   Russ went back to being Russ. 

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Kermit

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6 hours ago, aggie08 said:

I mean I'm not convinced that the Clippers don't win this series with just a healthy Kawhi, much less PG. Where a weird fucking series.

A healthy Kawhi Leonard you say? There’s a greater chance of one of us being murdered by his sibling at a casino than seeing a healthy Kawhi Leonard. 

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aggie08

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1 hour ago, Kermit said:

A healthy Kawhi Leonard you say? There’s a greater chance of one of us being murdered by his sibling at a casino than seeing a healthy Kawhi Leonard. 

You are correct, sir. My point wasn't that Phoenix got lucky or dodged a bullet or anything. Just general surprise at how relatively competitive the Clippers kept a gentleman's sweep. I expected them to get get dominated without PG, regardless of Kawhi's status. But, in some alternate reality where Kawhi did play every game, they may have pulled it off.

...which is what I'm sure the front office will convince themselves of when they begrudgingly decide to run it back next year.

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Mitch Cumsteen

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The Phoenix bench is hot garbage, gutted in the KD trade. They are just asking for it playing Durant and Paul and even a younger Booker all those minutes. Once the schedule moves to every other day, it’s only going to get worse with shorter recovery time. It’s not sustainable playing Durant 44 minutes a night. He’s either going to get hurt or be gassed at crunch time. And Chris Paul has always been an injury timebomb ticking.

They should have waxed the Clippers without their two stars. The Suns stars should have been sitting on the bench eating popcorn in the final six minutes of those games. Or at least only needed around 30-35 minutes  total to seal the deal.  And oh yeah, next round Denver plays at altitude. 

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PittsburghTiger

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2 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

The Phoenix bench is hot garbage, gutted in the KD trade. They are just asking for it playing Durant and Paul and even a younger Booker all those minutes. Once the schedule moves to every other day, it’s only going to get worse with shorter recovery time. It’s not sustainable playing Durant 44 minutes a night. He’s either going to get hurt or be gassed at crunch time. And Chris Paul has always been an injury timebomb ticking.

They should have waxed the Clippers without their two stars. The Suns stars should have been sitting on the bench eating popcorn in the final six minutes of those games. Or at least only needed around 30-35 minutes  total to seal the deal.  And oh yeah, next round Denver plays at altitude. 

I too thought it was a bit odd that these games were this close. 

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HookEm

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12 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

I too thought it was a bit odd that these games were this close. 

Switch coaches and those games are all Suns blowouts. 

Ty Lue was able to get every last bit of productivity out of Westbrook.  They were hanging tough by playing crazy hard.  If you add Kawhi and/or Paul George it would have changed the dynamic a lot.  It probably goes seven games, but I still think Suns win.  Curious if the Clippers keep Westbrook.

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MNLonghornFUKM

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The Phoenix bench is hot garbage, gutted in the KD trade. They are just asking for it playing Durant and Paul and even a younger Booker all those minutes. Once the schedule moves to every other day, it’s only going to get worse with shorter recovery time. It’s not sustainable playing Durant 44 minutes a night. He’s either going to get hurt or be gassed at crunch time. And Chris Paul has always been an injury timebomb ticking.
They should have waxed the Clippers without their two stars. The Suns stars should have been sitting on the bench eating popcorn in the final six minutes of those games. Or at least only needed around 30-35 minutes  total to seal the deal.  And oh yeah, next round Denver plays at altitude. 

Denver’s bench is nothing special. I agree with Derka that Bruce brown is really good and stood out. But then it’s Braun a rookie and old Jeff green. They’re younger than Phoenix so that should be an advantage. Durant and Booker are gonna have to score 30 each and get good contributions from Ayton. Good thing jokers a statue
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SilasCoade

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The broader point that the load on KD and CP3 is not sustainable remains. It's clear that KD is locked in though. He's playing good defense (most of the time -- still gets lost on rotations and doesn't close out hard at times), creating easy buckets for role players, and still getting his at a ridiculously efficient clip. Barring injury this Suns team is my pick for champs.

Regarding their bench, Biyombo is such a schizophrenic player for them. There are times he's the instant energy, solid defense guy, but there are also stretches where he's the worst player on the court and getting exploited over and over. They need to have him use all 6 fouls guarding Jokic, being physical and staying attached to him. 

Getting Cameron Payne back should help depth (assuming he's able to recapture some of the post-season magic from two years ago).

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Vic Mackey

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I too thought it was a bit odd that these games were this close. 
I think it was a mindset thing. Especially once Kawhi went out, they didn't need to exert a ton of effort to win these games. They could put it on cruise control and win in the end. Might not be pretty but it got the job done with 4 straight wins. They knew this. And played accordingly. But now it's going to ramp up for sure.

Phoenix vs Denver will easily be the most compelling series on paper for me in the 2nd round.
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BigOrange1

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2 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

The Phoenix bench is hot garbage, gutted in the KD trade. They are just asking for it playing Durant and Paul and even a younger Booker all those minutes. Once the schedule moves to every other day, it’s only going to get worse with shorter recovery time. It’s not sustainable playing Durant 44 minutes a night. He’s either going to get hurt or be gassed at crunch time. And Chris Paul has always been an injury timebomb ticking.

They should have waxed the Clippers without their two stars. The Suns stars should have been sitting on the bench eating popcorn in the final six minutes of those games. Or at least only needed around 30-35 minutes  total to seal the deal.  And oh yeah, next round Denver plays at altitude. 

i actually think next year has a better shot of being the year for phoenix after they have a summer to address their lack of depth.  hard to see them winning it all this year if KD, booker and cp3 are going to have to average 40 mpg  

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Mitch Cumsteen

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51 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

i actually think next year has a better shot of being the year for phoenix after they have a summer to address their lack of depth.  hard to see them winning it all this year if KD, booker and cp3 are going to have to average 40 mpg  

They have an interesting off season coming up. CP3's $30 million contract is only partially guaranteed for $15 million next year, and there's a team option for the year after. Durant, Booker and Ayton are locked in for multiple years at big numbers. Booker has a supermax deal that kicks in after next season. Brooklyn owns their first round pick, so no help there. Shamet and Payne along with two other guys at the end of their bench are the only other guys under contract. They got rid of Saric for cap purposes and ended up with Darius Bazley, who is a RFA. I would imagine they want to bring back unrestricteds Craig ($5m) and Okogie ($2M) but I don't think they can get them at those prices. Craig is having a really good playoff run for them. 

The new CBA rules could really hinder them from building out their team. They are about $8 million under the projected line (including CP3's $30 million) with 6 roster spots to fil. If they are over, then the taxpayer midlevel exception goes away as does their ability to sign guys in the buyout market. Or take back more money in a trade. Outside of a ring chasing vet willing to take the minimum, I'm not seeing a ton of ways to make this team better. 

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Chewbacca

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1 hour ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Man, this is sort of amazing if it ends up:


NY/MIL + PHI/BOS on one side and the Dubs/Lakers and PHO/DEN on the other.  That might be the most fun quarterfinals I've ever seen in the NBA if it ends up that way.  

I wouldn't pencil in MIL yet.  Not by a longshot.

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Wulaw Horn

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14 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

I wouldn't pencil in MIL yet.  Not by a longshot.

Oh I said if in there.  MIA is actually favorite to win the series now. I'd take MIL +120 though for series odds. But yeah- that's an if. I'm also not penciling in the warriors yet either.  

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Chewbacca

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39 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Not sure if this is true or not

https://denversports.com/2104830/cops-called-after-anthony-edwards-postgame-outburst-in-denver/

If it is, classic money grab and every coloradian should be embarrassed to live in the same state

Lulz.  If it is true that Ant threw a folding chair that hit 2 security guards, he's gonna have to open his wallet.  You new to America?  I don't know why that would make me embarrassed to live here.

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Chewbacca

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21 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Draw your own conclusions

 

 

 

 

And if that's all there is to it, then he's in the clear.  Why don't we just let the process run its course?  Honestly, I don't care one way or the other.  T-Wolves are done.  I don't care about them anymore.

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ztejas

ztejas 43418

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8 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

i just want the winner of denver/phoenix to win it all. #breakingnews

Anyone but the Lakers, Warriors or Bucks and I'm honestly good.

So the only suspense remaining is which of those 3 teams gets it done. 

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