OT: NBA Playoffs

[DT_PITT]

Two thoughts:

1) If Skip Bayless thinks he's overrated he is almost certainly underrated.
2) If you are going to have a nemesis, a simpleton like Skip Bayless is a good one to pick.

How about that non-overturned out of bounds call? Worse than the non overturned foul call. And this time, the game turned on it.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

How about that non-overturned out of bounds call?

I haven't been watching tonight.

 

[DT_PITT]

I haven't been watching tonight.

Excuses!!

 

[pittjas]

Excuses!!

Your Blazers.... tough. Not really sure what they do.

Dame is so so good but they can’t even beat the Nuggets without Jamal Murray.

Not sure where they go next.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Excuses!!

You got me to turn it on for the last couple minutes. It seems like I saw Dame Lillard miss more shots in about three minutes tonight than he did all game the other day.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

Imagine of the Nuggets had Murray. They really could play with anyone. Porter has really, really come on. That's an extremely formidable top 3

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

You got me to turn it on for the last couple minutes. It seems like I saw Dame Lillard miss more shots in about three minutes tonight than he did all game the other day.

Yup - it looked like he hit a wall.

 

[DT_PITT]

Your Blazers.... tough. Not really sure what they do.

Dame is so so good but they can’t even beat the Nuggets without Jamal Murray.

Not sure where they go next.

They are "my Blazers" by association, in that they are my Son's team, but I love them now too. I was hoping they could steal round one without Murray. But I knew that would be the best they could do. They can't defend and it showed in the second half. And no one really stepped up when Dame stopped hitting shots. Oh well.

I'm not sure who I'm rooting for now. I really don't like anyone in the east. Maybe the Bucks. I might like the Suns in the west I guess.

 

[HOF Coach]

 

[DT_PITT]

Imagine of the Nuggets had Murray. They really could play with anyone. Porter has really, really come on. That's an extremely formidable top 3

Nokic is truly extraordinary.

 

[HOF Coach]

 

[DT_PITT]

Kawhi ... oh my!!

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Kawhi ... oh my!!

That was one of his all-time best performances.

 

[DT_PITT]

That was one of his all-time best performances.

There’s been a couple of those in these playoffs.

 

[Ski11585]

I feel like this has been one of the better first rounds I can recall.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

I feel like this has been one of the better first rounds I can recall.

Very Enjoyable! I hope the guys that are banged up can play.

 

[Ski11585]

Go Bucks.

 

[lilspainishflea]

The Nets look unstoppable. Beat the Bucks by 40 without Harden.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

The Nets look unstoppable. Beat the Bucks by 40 without Harden.

The performance by the Bucks was absolutely pathetic. Starting the game with a zone was absurd as well.

 

[h2p_5150]

I don't know what the Bucks can do going forward. You're just not going to win an NBA title with Middleton as your second best player, and no one better than Middleton wants to sign with Milwaukee in free agency.

 

[cease10]

The performance by the Bucks was absolutely pathetic. Starting the game with a zone was absurd as well.

Yep...they were sorry. Coach has to take alot of the blame. He's just a regular season coach, can't coach in the playoffs. He underperformed in the playoffs with Atlanta also.

 

[Ski11585]

Yep...they were sorry. Coach has to take alot of the blame. He's just a regular season coach, can't coach in the playoffs. He underperformed in the playoffs with Atlanta also.

He’s going to lose his job.

 

[DT_PITT]

He’s going to lose his job.

It's hard to see how he doesn't unless he somehow wins this series.

 

[PA_Panther]

Embiid is just amazing. 40 tonight just doing it every single way. I got the pleasure to watch the game tonight with my dad tonight who just loves watching these 7 footers do amazing thing.

I have tickets for game five and I just can’t wait to soak in the atmosphere and have some fun at the Wells Fargo.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Jazz-Clippers is going to be a great series.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

Jazz-Clippers is going to be a great series.

If Conley comes back and he's in the form he was in last series, it might not be a very long one. I was very surprised the Jazz won without him last night.

 

[lilspainishflea]

Embiid is just amazing. 40 tonight just doing it every single way. I got the pleasure to watch the game tonight with my dad tonight who just loves watching these 7 footers do amazing thing.

I have tickets for game five and I just can’t wait to soak in the atmosphere and have some fun at the Wells Fargo.

I told my friends on the group chat last night that I think Embiid is the best Sixer in my lifetime (I started watching hoops right as Barkley was traded). Some might view that as sacrilege but I think it's fair.

Iverson is a Hall of Famer - mostly off of being extremely tough and a volume scorer - but Embiid is just more dominant. I'm not sure I've seen a big man with the type of moves and shooting that he has. He can really attack you in so many ways. He's averaging 40 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals against the Hawks. It's kind of a shame that the Sixers 3P shooters (Harris is just average) are all role players because when the Sixers spacing is going they just just can't be stopped.

 

[Ski11585]

I told my friends on the group chat last night that I think Embiid is the best Sixer in my lifetime (I started watching hoops right as Barkley was traded). Some might view that as sacrilege but I think it's fair.

Iverson is a Hall of Famer - mostly off of being extremely tough and a volume scorer - but Embiid is just more dominant. I'm not sure I've seen a big man with the type of moves and shooting that he has. He can really attack you in so many ways. He's averaging 40 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals against the Hawks. It's kind of a shame that the Sixers 3P shooters (Harris is just average) are all role players because when the Sixers spacing is going they just just can't be stopped.

Respectfully disagree. It’s way too early to make that claim. AI took a very mediocre team to the NBA finals and basically won a game by himself against an outstanding Lakers squad. Embiid doesn’t have that in him.

In my opinion only three players had nothing to prove this post season: LeBron, Leonard, and KD. Lots of folks have stuff to prove including Embiid.

 

[lilspainishflea]

Respectfully disagree. It’s way too early to make that claim. AI took a very mediocre team to the NBA finals and basically won a game by himself against an outstanding Lakers squad. Embiid doesn’t have that in him.

In my opinion only three players had nothing to prove this post season: LeBron, Leonard, and KD. Lots of folks have stuff to prove including Embiid.

Embiid wins games for them every night, though. They're 71-31 with Embiid and 21-22 without him in the last two years.

It's not like the Sixers are some super talented team. Embiid is the entire show. Simmons is a disaster on offense (literally the worst FT shooter I've ever seen and he even misses bunnies at the rim every game), Harris is fine but is most team's 3rd best player, and everyone else is a role player. I think the talent level between those two teams is similar, but because Iverson played in the iso era it mattered less that there was nobody around him.

Embiid's a better shooter at 7' which is ridiculous, and his career box plus/minus is incredible. He can do everything except stay healthy. Iverson was an absolute warrior and one of my favorite players of all time, I just think the skill/size argument favors Embiid. So if I had to pick one of them for a 7 game series I'm taking the 7' do it all center.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Embiid keeps hitting these jump shots which stops me mid sentence from saying what I want to say (that he should just keep backing the Hawks down, because none of them can remotely stop him.) It just looks so easy when he decides to take a couple of dribbles to back down and dunk.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

If Conley comes back and he's in the form he was in last series, it might not be a very long one. I was very surprised the Jazz won without him last night.

I will be shocked if it doesn’t go 6 or 7 games.

 

[lilspainishflea]

Embiid keeps hitting these jump shots which stops me mid sentence from saying what I want to say (that he should just keep backing the Hawks down, because none of them can remotely stop him.) It just looks so easy when he decides to take a couple of dribbles to back down and dunk.

I really can't say enough about Embiid. Whether the Sixers win it all or not has nothing to do with him. He's on another level right now. It's up to Ben and the rest of the team to get there with him.

 

[Upg bobcat]

I told my friends on the group chat last night that I think Embiid is the best Sixer in my lifetime (I started watching hoops right as Barkley was traded). Some might view that as sacrilege but I think it's fair.

Iverson is a Hall of Famer - mostly off of being extremely tough and a volume scorer - but Embiid is just more dominant. I'm not sure I've seen a big man with the type of moves and shooting that he has. He can really attack you in so many ways. He's averaging 40 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals against the Hawks. It's kind of a shame that the Sixers 3P shooters (Harris is just average) are all role players because when the Sixers spacing is going they just just can't be stopped.

It's hard for me to say that Embiid is more dominant than Iverson. Someone made the the comment that the game has changed with respect to iso ball which is true, but Iverson was such a major part of that team. Another person said that the stats show the Sixers win about 70% of their games with Embiid and just under 50% without him. Take Iverson away from the 2001 Sixer team and I doubt they win 20% of their games.

I could be convinced that Embiid is "better", and to take him over AI for a 7 game series, but Iverson was more dominant.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I loved AI but I'd also give peak Embiid (aka when healthy) the edge because he's also a rim defender, where Allen was one of the weakest statistical defenders among all starters in the NBA. To his credit, Allen has a sense of humor about his defense, and really his career generally, now.

 

[cease10]

If Conley comes back and he's in the form he was in last series, it might not be a very long one. I was very surprised the Jazz won without him last night.

Clippers can't be trusted at all. I wouldn't be surprised if they won the series and wouldn't be surprised if they lost either.

They should've won that first game with Conley out.

 

[cease10]

In my opinion only three players had nothing to prove this post season: LeBron, Leonard, and KD. Lots of folks have stuff to prove including Embiid.

Disagree on KD....a lot of folks like me feel that he needs to win a championship on his own outside of GSW. The warriors were already a championship team without him.

KD knows that he needs to prove it and that's driving him.

 

[Ski11585]

Disagree on KD....a lot of folks like me feel that he needs to win a championship on his own outside of GSW. The warriors were already a championship team without him.

KD knows that he needs to prove it and that's driving him.

A title this year won’t change that perception. Unless Irving and Harden don’t play.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

A title this year won’t change that perception. Unless Irving and Harden don’t play.

Yeah. This. Though, he looks like the best player in the world so far these playoffs.

 

[Ski11585]

Yeah. This. Though, he looks like the best player in the world so far these playoffs.

Definitely. And if he doesn't tear his Achilles two years ago he may in pursuit for his fifth straight NBA title. But running to Brooklyn to play with two other top 15 talent isn't proving anything. People dog LeBron (see the post on the free football board about how he isn't clutch) for needing good talent to win. But KD has needed it way more than LeBron.

Ain't no way KD pulls some of those sorry Cleveland teams as far as they got with LeBron.

 

[cease10]

A title this year won’t change that perception. Unless Irving and Harden don’t play.

Well...the perception will change for me. Brooklyn is a brand new built team and wasn't already a championship team without KD.

GSW won the championship and made it to the finals without KD, not the same as Brooklyn.