It’s a tad concerning for the rest of the west. Could make things fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Skied Bandini Mountain
Printable View
It’s a tad concerning for the rest of the west. Could make things fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Skied Bandini Mountain
Lucked into some courtside tickets for Friday’s Clippers-Hawks game. I did not realize how many former big names the Clippers had amassed - and to boot they had Van Gundy as an assistant coach, lol. In news that matters, the Cavs had their 16 game win streak snapped which I guess had to happen sooner or later. Might be time to start load managing and tweaking with playoff-focused lineups and plays.
Almost didn’t watch the nugs-dubs game tonight when I saw Jokic and Murray were out. Expected the opposite outcome, but Gordon, Westbrook and Watson came to play!
Dubs needed that win. Now they play the Bucks to try to stay out of a play in spot and Curry looks gassed.
Gordon was a beast. And for all of his faults, Westbrook still can play.
What’s going on Cleveland? [emoji639] straight losses?
Denver is a very weird team. They beat OKC handily and then lose to the wizards and blazers. lmao. I want to believe they can just flip a switch when the playoffs start but idk.
No Jokic for wizards and blazers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadams_
On the other hand, they have been off and on. I kinda think they’ll show up for the playoffs. The 2 or 3 seeds is a big deal compared to the 4, however.
Cavs trying to get all those last losses out before the games start counting.
Don’t worry, the jazz are here to help any team break their losing streak
Does the complete disarray that the nuggets have been in the last 5 games without Jokic make his MVP case more compelling
Can I just say how great the play-in tournament format is? The games themselves are fun, but more so it creates a real dog fight amongst teams coming down the stretch to land in the 5-6 seed and avoid being 7-10. It's pretty great. Look at the West right now.
Agreed, the play in is a great new wrinkle that creates many more meaningful games in March and April
Lillard out indefinitely with a blood clot.
Jokic still pretty good at basketball
Final 12.6 seconds of Bulls-Lakers:
https://x.com/chicagobulls/status/1905472863957614674
^^^ Holy shit
Everybody needs to watch that. One of the few times where somebody says “wait till the end” actually pays off.
that's insane. I read about it last night but seeing it is something else.
and the announcer with the Redd Foxx call was hysterical.
Hell yeah, although it got closer than I would’ve liked, watching the Pistons beat the Cavs was fun. No Cade, no Tobias, no problem.
Great games out west tonight with teams trying to stay out of a play-in spot. I've sat my ass down all night watching GSW vs Griz and Nuggets vs TWolves and don't regret it at all.
Nikola Jokic, good at basketball
But Westbrook loses them the game
Crazy. Great games.
Westbrook doing Westbrook things.
he's definitely been a net positive for them but that was bad.
I finally drag myself to my first NBA game and WTF Celtics?!?!?!
So does Ja get a fine or suspension? How goofy is this private school wannabe gangster?
I watched it live and on a bunch of replays, and one does show Buddy Hield kinda egging him on a little bit at first. Nonetheless, if Buddy did, he shoulda waved it off and gave Buddy the eff-off, but noooooooo…Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
Apparently, Buddy Hield was doing the “ice in his veins” thing (which actually makes sense since Butler was shooting free throws), and then Morant replied.
I don't see Ja getting a suspension at this point of the season and where theyre at in the playoff race, unless he does something really dumb which is entirely possible because we are talking about Ja Morant.
Hilarious Nuggets sat their entire starting lineup for the Spurs, hilariously.
Malone does not give a fuck.
I actually don’t think Ja should be suspended or fined. Dude is just a clown. Also has this bitch ass still not learned that you don’t come at the petty king? Steph dropped [emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]][emoji638] on his head.
Cavs magic number for the 1 seed in the East is down to 2. Hopefully they get it and can rest sooner.
I liked Coach Malone but I guess somebody has gotta be the fall guy when Jokic isn't winning multiple ships
Wow, surprised about Malone.
Holy shit, and the GM got the axe too.
Did not expect Malone to get the axe before the foums died.
Crazy. Seems like the fall guy for their shitty bench… despite them having cap space below the second apron. Cheap ass owners - sorry Denver fans.
Lol @ EWGI had Browns Suoer Bowl win on the bingo card before that AND the forums dying.
I would say I'm a Nuggets fan and I didn't want Malone gone, at least not now.I think Malone has some weaknesses and is stubborn in his rotation/commitment to vets at times, but overall I didn't think that the Nuggets were poorly coached. A few guys would have their head in the clouds at times, but I never felt like they weren't playing hard.Of course, like everything else with the Nuggets, though, it's hard to tell how much of that is down to the coach and how much it's down to Jokic, who ensures order every time he's on the court and always plays hard, which sets a tone.
I do think Malone never really figuring out an offense for the non-Jokic minutes that was at least semi-decent is suboptimal coaching. Even when Murray was on the floor with two other starters, they never were really able to put something together that was even a net neutral. I think he trusted too much in Murray's ability to create. I think they needed to switch to a much more structured offense in those minutes. It might limit its upside, but when you have Jokic, you just need not to completely crater in those periods when he's not on.
Malone's biggest recent player development sin in my mind was his use of Zeke Nnaji, who looked promising as a versatile 4, but who Malone desperately tried for almost 2 seasons to make a small ball center, where he just wasn't good. I have no major complaints about the minutes he played Braun, Watson, and Strawther, though. I've thought them appropriate for developing them. Pickett too really, though like many Nuggets fans, I'd like to see more of him.
What I really thought the Nuggets needed was a top class defensive assistant. They started the year playing drop on pick and rolls, but they quickly found that without KCP, none of the Nuggets guards could navigate a screen to save their lives. Braun and Watson are actually pretty good isolation defenders, but still pretty poor at screen navigation. Murray's never been that good. So teams had too much space/time with Jokic dropped. So Malone countered mid year by having Jokic go with the ball handler off the screen and try to keep them from turning the corner until the guard could get through, then rotate back to his man. But that hasn't been super successful either as he isn't super fast and it takes him really far onto the perimeter away from his man if the ball gets out and limits his ability to use his intelligence/hands to play the passing lanes. Could the team have learned to rotate faster if they'd planned to play that way from pre-season? Maybe. They looked a bit faster last game. But I'd love to see a defensive genius assistant and what they'd come up with.
But overall, every team's fans have some complaints about the coach. Nothing that was happening said to me "Change coach now!" with four games before the playoffs and Murray having been out a whole bunch lately and Gordon being in and out and really not looking his previous best, especially on defense (though he has been shooting really well).