The basketball thread

[Warma Sheen]

It is a conspiracy. They only cancelled this season to keep the Warriors from retaking the championship this year.

[Ganymede]

@Warma-Sheen said in The basketball thread:

It is a conspiracy. They only cancelled this season to keep the Warriors from retaking the championship this year.

I'm a bit saucy because my local team is amazing and had a legit shot of winning the entire NCAA tournament this year.

[Arkandel]

Look, I don't want to overreact or anything.

But Doncic might be the best player in the NBA. And he's 21 years old. Goddamn kid, that was a legendary performance tonight.

[Ganymede]

For me, the story so far is the Raptors dominating without Kawhi.

And Kawhi struggling with George against the Mavericks.

Think it was all Kawhi still?

Raptors have seriously dangerous depth with role players that can take over games.

[Arkandel]

@Ganymede The Raptors were the first team since 1978 to have five players average 15 or more points a game in the regular season. And there are no defensive liabilities on their roster.

That's a tough, experienced team to beat. Their one issue will be to figure out how to close tight games when the ball gets hot.

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said in The basketball thread:

Their one issue will be to figure out how to close tight games when the ball gets hot.

You hammer the other team with energy.

I remember watching the Dayton Flyers make it to the Elite 8. Their team was often out-sized and, on paper, out-matched. But they were deep and energetic, and out-hustled and out-gamed everyone by hanging in there.

I see that with the Raptors. They can come at you hard for 48 because they are deep. You've got to contend with the Ibaka-Gasol-Siakam trio in the paint and the Lowry-VanVleet-Powell trio in the back court. This team straight-up beats you with energy and defensive ball skills.

Now they are embarrassing them by putting the bench in. And they are still putting up double-digit points.

Edit to add: The Raptors' bench just posted over 100 pts. against the Nets, an NBA record.

[Arkandel]

NBA players have chosen to put their money where their mouths are. And good for them.

It's only a shame the break from Covid-19 will possibly diminish the impact of canceling the NBA playoffs due to racial injustice, since the season was already disrupted before. But it's a powerful message regardless to speak with one's actions.

[buttercup]

@Arkandel

Good on them!

As a long-time shameless suffering Suns fan though they should just award them the bubble championship and pack it up!

No, seriously though I hope they are done with sports for the year in the name of racial equality across the board. (NFL, etc.)

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said in The basketball thread:

NBA players have chosen to put their money where their mouths are. And good for them.

It's not the players that should be making the stand.

It'd be nice if the owners spoke up and threatened to remove or sell their franchises if something isn't done.

They demanded that the Clippers be sold, and it was.

[Arkandel]

@Ganymede What is admirable about the players is that the ones who walked out first (the Bucks, playing in a super racist city) and the two LA teams are all among the absolute favorites, with sports legacies on the line.

These aren't underachieving first-round exit teams with little to lose by making a grand gesture. LeBron wants a championship badly. Giannis is chasing his first. Toronto looked like the champions they are, and VanVleet was talking about the need to make personal sacrifices for days. The Clippers just smashed Dallas and were about to close the series out.

I just really wish this had happened on a healthy season so it could be felt more on empty stadiums and a billion dollar industry coming to a screeching halt because of it.

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel

I don't mean to diminish what the players are doing. What they are doing is fantastic.

I mean to say that the owners now need to step up because it's the right thing to do.

They've done it before, and they can do it again. Sterling was trash and was tossed out.

The Bucks could make a statement too: If there's no change, we're moving, bitches.

[Arkandel]

@Ganymede For sure.

But you know what I 'like' ? It probably doesn't belong on a basketball thread but fuck it.

I like what big hypocrites people are when it comes to literally innocent people being murdered by police without any consequences.

You shouldn't make a gesture by kneeling during the anthem, find another way to protest!

You shouldn't march, find another way to protest!

You shouldn't use social media to talk about it, shut up and dribble, find another way to protest!

You shouldn't boycott games, find another way to protest!

Like... at what point are these folks basically saying they're okay with the murders but not with reacting to them?

[Arkandel]

Imagine how Adam Silver feels about these two scenarios:

Battle of L.A. (Lakers vs Clippers) leading to Lakers vs Celtics finals. Huge ratings.

Lakers vs Nuggets leading to Heat vs Nuggets finals. 2020 ratings.

[Arkandel]

Damn but Jimmy Buckets played a hell of a series. But unless he went supernova in each game the Heat didn't really stood a chance to win it.

I don't even think they could have with Dragic fully healthy. That Laker defense was suffocating.

[Arkandel]

[Testament]

@arkandel Giannis I think has cemented his legacy, at least in Milwaukee, he's a giant both literally and figuratively. Because his stat lines are incredible.

Points: 50
FG: 16-25
FT: 17-19
REB: 14
BlK: 6

• Only player in NBA history with 5 All-Star selections, 5 All-NBA selections, multiple MVPs, 1 Finals MVP and 1 DPOY before his 27th birthday

• Second season players born outside the U.S. won MVP (Nikola Jokic), Finals MVP (Giannis Antetokounmpo) and DPOY (Rudy Gobert) along with 1993-94 when Hakeem Olajuwon swept all three awards

• Joins Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as only players to win MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year since the DPOY's inception in 1983

• Fifth player born outside the U.S. to win Finals MVP, joining Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon

• Ninth player to win multiple MVPs and a Finals MVP in his career. The only players to do this at the age of 26 or younger are Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[Arkandel]

@testament Yep, the dude is getting a statue outside that stadium even if the team never even makes it to the playoffs for the rest of his career.

Also in this age of instant super-teams he stuck it out when he could have gone to any number of much sexier cities to have gotten himself a ton more money then won with Middleton at his side after 8 years of these guys playing - hell, practically becoming adults - together. That alone is legendary.

[Testament]

@arkandel In the post-game news conference, Giannis had some words regarding the need to sign that 5 year deal.

"I couldn't just leave. Coming back, I was like, 'This is my city. They trust me. They believe in me. They believe in us.' ... Obviously I wanted to get the job done. But that's my stubborn side. It's easy to go somewhere and go win a championship with somebody else. It's easy. ... I could go to a super team and just do my part and win a championship.

"But this is the hard way to do it," he continued, pounding the dais for emphasis, "and this is the way to do it, and we did it. We f---ing did it."

Not for nothing, but I feel like he just low-key threw shade at Lebron and Durant for doing it the 'easy way'.

[Paradox]

This was one of the first years I really enjoyed the Finals because I feel both teams are built and not bought. Yeah, you bring in Free Agents to fill things out but Booker and Ayton are Phoenix. Giannis and Middleton are Milwaukee. Both are markets you don't see as necessarily the 'premiere' markets.

Personally, I think this is good stuff, made it really enjoyable to watch and root. The fact that I found myself going from neutral to pro-Milwaukee surprised me. I suspect it' because as the series wore on I grew tired of Chris Paul and the antics of Crowder. But the fact that there were fresh storylines rather than the standard LeBron was outstanding.

[Arkandel]

@paradox The narratives I don't like the last few years are all about 'asterisks'. What if KD/Klay didn't get injured? What if the playoffs weren't in the bubble due to Covid-19? What if AD/LeBron/KD/Harden weren't injured?

You play the team that's in front of you, that's it. Availability is the best ability. It's part of what makes a great team, well, great and yes, sometimes (bad) luck becomes a large factor.

More to the point, very top-heavy rosters are by definition vulnerable compared to ones that can take a twisted ankle on a starter without completely falling apart. The Bucks closed out their Conference Finals pretty much without Giannis, after all.