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Thread: Official NBA thread

  1. #7051
    Deity moonslav59's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bellhorn04 View Post
    The abuse being heaped on the Celtics in the Globe is off the charts.
    Something about the Heat.

    It's not the first time they have beaten much higher seeds.

    Jimmy Butler is ruining my position about the non-existence of "clutch players."
    Sox 4 Ever

  2. #7052
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    Will the Celtics be the first NBA team to come back from being down 0-3? Game 6 had the amazing finish. Can they equal the 2004 Red Sox tonight? Hope so.

  3. #7053
    Deity moonslav59's Avatar
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    Not to be.

    My Bucks and your Celts got beat my Mr. Clutch- Jimmy Butler.
    Sox 4 Ever

  4. #7054
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    The Celts got beat by the Celts.

    The most important Celtic players play NY Summer League basketball and if they continue to play NY Summer League basketball they will lose in big series:
    - In the first three games of the Heat Series they played no defense....zero....zippo...nada, not bad defense....NO DEFENSE. The double teams were late. They were often caught in between and reaching for the player they were supposed to double team. Often were caught chasing the basketball around the half court. There is a similarity between basketball and baseball. These guys are professional athletes. If a pitcher throws meatballs down main st pitch after pitch....even the 9th hitter in the lineup is going to clean his clock. If a basketball team does not play tough hard nosed defense mediocre players will take advantage of them. If a team with as much talent as the Celts have even plays just good defense against a team like the Heat.....the Heat would have been done and dusted

    - On the offensive end they come down the floor, head fake from 4' outside the 3 point line as if the defender cares about any of that. All the defender has to do is stand there. Often Tatum or Brown or Smart end up dribbling the ball off their foot or off their noses or off their asses....whatever.

    - Can Tatum move without the basketball.....EVER? Does he not realize that with his talent if he did not insist on taking the ball up the court when everybody on both teams knows what that means he would get much better much more makable shots or does he just insist that he will either launch from Mars or he will bull through three defenders to score?

    - As for Brown....Good grief....since when does setting a screen mean that you just run right through the defender....just crash into him and keep going? Another guy that insists on having half the court cleared for him so he can.....dribble the ball off his nose or off his ass or off his foot.

    - Smart....fine player if he is not throwing the basketball into the first row or dribbling it off his own ass

    - Horford...past it. Used to be a team player. Does not seem to have the energy to play team basketball now. Don't have enough fingers and toes for the number of times a Celtic defender was expecting Hereford to switch and he just stood there

    - Grant Williams....Big Baby with far less finesse and a somewhat better jump shot. Has to concentrate to look like a professional ballplayer of merit

    - Robert William....has his limitations but at least he plays tough D and team basketball. Did not miss a single shot in the Heat series because he knows his limitations

    - D White.....fine player and he plays team basketball. V good defender with a good shot

    - not sure what to say about Brogden other than that he was fading at the end of the season before he injured his arm.

    The rest are not actually worth much comment. Don't have much to say about Joe Coach other than that if your team does not play like a team where do you go to address that?
    Last edited by jung; 05-29-2023 at 11:22 PM.

  5. #7055
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    Quote Originally Posted by moonslav59 View Post
    Not to be.

    My Bucks and your Celts got beat my Mr. Clutch- Jimmy Butler.
    Actually Caleb Martin was a far bigger part of the win last night…

  6. #7056
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    Quote Originally Posted by jung View Post
    The Celts got beat by the Celts.

    The most important Celtic players play NY Summer League basketball and if they continue to play NY Summer League basketball they will lose in big series:
    - In the first three games of the Heat Series they played no defense....zero....zippo...nada, not bad defense....NO DEFENSE. The double teams were late. They were often caught in between and reaching for the player they were supposed to double team. Often were caught chasing the basketball around the half court. There is a similarity between basketball and baseball. These guys are professional athletes. If a pitcher throws meatballs down main st pitch after pitch....even the 9th hitter in the lineup is going to clean his clock. If a basketball team does not play tough hard nosed defense mediocre players will take advantage of them. If a team with as much talent as the Celts have even plays just good defense against a team like the Heat.....the Heat would have been done and dusted

    - On the offensive end they come down the floor, head fake from 4' outside the 3 point line as if the defender cares about any of that. All the defender has to do is stand there. Often Tatum or Brown or Smart end up dribbling the ball off their foot or off their noses or off their asses....whatever.

    - Can Tatum move without the basketball.....EVER? Does he not realize that with his talent if he did not insist on taking the ball up the court when everybody on both teams knows what that means he would get much better much more makable shots or does he just insist that he will either launch from Mars or he will bull through three defenders to score?

    - As for Brown....Good grief....since when does setting a screen mean that you just run right through the defender....just crash into him and keep going? Another guy that insists on having half the court cleared for him so he can.....dribble the ball off his nose or off his ass or off his foot.

    - Smart....fine player if he is not throwing the basketball into the first row or dribbling it off his own ass

    - Horford...past it. Used to be a team player. Does not seem to have the energy to play team basketball now. Don't have enough fingers and toes for the number of times a Celtic defender was expecting Hereford to switch and he just stood there

    - Grant Williams....Big Baby with far less finesse and a somewhat better jump shot. Has to concentrate to look like a professional ballplayer of merit

    - Robert William....has his limitations but at least he plays tough D and team basketball. Did not miss a single shot in the Heat series because he knows his limitations

    - D White.....fine player and he plays team basketball. V good defender with a good shot

    - not sure what to say about Brogden other than that he was fading at the end of the season before he injured his arm.

    The rest are not actually worth much comment. Don't have much to say about Joe Coach other than that if your team does not play like a team where do you go to address that?
    Well said.

  7. #7057
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    Quote Originally Posted by notin View Post
    Actually Caleb Martin was a far bigger part of the win last night…
    Caleb Martin was good all series, and the Celtics continued to leave him open.

  8. #7058
    Deity moonslav59's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by notin View Post
    Actually Caleb Martin was a far bigger part of the win last night…
    Jimmy da man, though.
    Sox 4 Ever

  9. #7059
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    Miami vs Denver… Yipeee!

  10. #7060
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    In part the NBA itself is responsible for the ramshackle, NY Summer League state of the game in some sense.

    At the height of the Pistons run, the defensive mayhem allowed in the paint was effectively assault and battery. Lots of hard fouls. Lots of guys beaten to the floor, literally beaten to the floor. Then the NBA tightened up its act because the game was simply ugly...truly ugly at that point. Sure you got to the line if you were driving to the basket AFTER you picked yourself up off the floor if you could pick yourself up off the floor. All fouls were hard fouls. Virtually every foul of that era would be a candidate for the extra penalty today. That is how ugly the game had become.

    But since having eliminated Continuation the offensive player (TATUM for example) drives knowing he has to get to the hoop to score. He might get the AND ONE on a foul but he has to get to the basket. Without Continuation the play continues instead of the inside ref raising his hand on first contact on the drive indicating a foul with the offensive player going to the line either with two shots or one if he made the basket before the whistle blew. So now we see a player like Tatum develop this drive whereby he tucks the ball under his arm like its a football and wards off anything in his way with his off hand, arm, elbow and anything else he can ward off with in order to get to the hole. The Euro Step is actually designed to turn ballplayers into pinball machines with guys banging off of multiple bodies on the way to the basket and assuming they are going to earn a foul call somewhere along the way. Often....NOPE! I am not even sure Tatum knows that half his drive techniques would have been offensive fouls and probably should be now.

    In addition the refs appear to have lost any feel for body contact on drives. Their focus is entirely on what goes on above the shoulder. The only body play the refs appear conscience of is the Block vs the Charge and even that they appear only to be able to discern in the open court.

    You never never saw the great ballplayers even of the Bird/Johnson/Jordan/Bryant eras play with so little finesse. Maybe you would see a hook with the off arm and hand now and again. Even the Aircraft carriers, Shack for example would lean on the defender to make some room for himself and then go up strong on the inside once he had the ball. But they would not bull their way to the inside. They would use their big bodies to push the defender off the spot they wanted on the floor. They would get the ball on the blocks and go up very strong.

    So for guys driving now its feast or famine. Either the ball is tucked under their arms like its a football or its just out there to be taken or bounced off their own bodies. Even their behind the back crossover dribbles hang the ball out there so far that it can be stolen easily. A good ballplayer, somebody that thought he handled the ball good enough to drive would be embarrassed beyond belief to have a behind the back crossover stolen from him. the ball is so far in front of Brown when he drives I simply do not know how he ever gets to the basket without dribbling it off his foot or having it stolen from him.

    Curry handles the basketball the way really good players used to handle the ball. Other than Curry I don't know who I would recommend as somebody that does not have to tuck the ball under his arm or he is going to be stripped of it.

    I would bring back the Continuation because the NBA game is headed for ugly again just not quite based on defensive initiative but instead based on sloppy ball handling.
    Last edited by jung; 05-30-2023 at 10:25 AM.

  11. #7061
    Deity moonslav59's Avatar
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    Great post, Jung.

    The NBA is a shell of what it used to be, and as is often the case, trying to fix a problem, like hard fouls, they go too far to the other extreme.

    The triangle offense seemed to jumpstart the stand around and just watch the stars do their thing and forget about the 5 player team game.

    I’m not sure how it can be fixed.

    The Euro step was an abomination.

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