NBA Season - now 24/25
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@voodoo said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@canefan said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@voodoo said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@canefan said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@mariner4life said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@mariner4life said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
Must be time for an NBA hot take
Luka Doncic, for all his offensive skill, is not a player who can lead a team to success. His brand of basketball does nothing for his teammates, and he puts in absolutely zero effort at the defensive end. It might be possible to build a winning roster with Luka in it, but it would need very specific guys to do it, and your star is not raising anyones floor.
hey everyone, laugh at this fucking idiot.
Luka is a killer. A fat eastern european killer who is ridiculous at basketball and will heckle you the whole time he is burying you.
So arrogant he arrives at preseason out of shape, and doesn't use the season to get into shape....
Is he out of shape though? He's averaging 41mpg in this series (and 42mpg for the whole playoffs) and he's looked fantastic in the 4th quarter of each (Hi Ant!). He has also played better D than I've ever seen him play these playoffs.
I actually think he's just figured out how to use his body perfectly. Take this series for example - McDaniels was great last round V Denver, but Luka has absolutely owned him this series - and the difference is about 20kgs of weight. When Luka puts a little shoulder into him, he gets all the separation he needs to shoot over the long bastard. And once he goes around him and sticks his fat ass into him, there is no recovering.
I don't think we will ever see a slim version of Luka unless his body decides it doesn't like the strain.
I was being glib. It was the word from pundits early in the season. In fact, his bulk appears to be an advantage, he doesn't get pushed about so much when he attacks the bigs
Ah, sorry, my bad. Probably obvious in hindsight!
Perhaps I should have added a wink emoji. But you're better than that 😉
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He really isn't
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For once in his life, @mariner4life is right
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The Lively injury is a big loss for how the Mavs rotation was humming and for what he brings. A good mover on switches, so active on the O boards, sets good picks and is an alley option every time so creates oodles of space for Luka and Kyrie.
Gafford stepped up in game 4 but it’s not the same.
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@ACT-Crusader said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
The Lively injury is a big loss for how the Mavs rotation was humming and for what he brings. A good mover on switches, so active on the O boards, sets good picks and is an alley option every time so creates oodles of space for Luka and Kyrie.
Gafford stepped up in game 4 but it’s not the same.
Absolutely massive loss. Kleber wouldn't have played another minute of these playoffs if Lively hadn't been injured. Wild that it took the Kleber injury for Kidd to play the kid!
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Luka came out breathing fire and Kyrie put the foot on the throat.
What a performance by the Mavs. Completely took the life out of the Wolves in the first half and then the bridge was way too far to overcome.
Great to see Lively back and his value when they high trap Luka was on full display.
@voodoo I’m not as critical on JKidd for stick with Maxi because he spreads the floor and is a pretty decent perimeter defender so that helps on the switching. But Lively has been the find of the entire playoffs
From an Aussie watch perspective, I thought Josh Green did a great job with his speed, intensity and heads up plays.
A couple more Aussies get their chance to win a ring.
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@gt12 said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
Well, fuck me gently. That was niiiice.
To stick with my current theme, I don't think we can get past the Celtics.
We've already well over-achieved, but fuck these do give you some hope when they play and defend like that.
How you liking that Kyrie trade now sir?
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@voodoo said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@gt12 said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
Well, fuck me gently. That was niiiice.
To stick with my current theme, I don't think we can get past the Celtics.
We've already well over-achieved, but fuck these do give you some hope when they play and defend like that.
How you liking that Kyrie trade now sir?
Ha ha, you’ve fucking got me there. I like our picks and mid season moves a lot more too.
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interesting to see so many now favouring the Mavs to win the Finals. Recency bias? Hot hand fallacy? Better story?
Yes, they have had to battle through a tough West, and have done so very impressively, beating the Clippers in 6, the Thunder in 6, and then the T-Wolves in 5, while the Celtics cruised the East. But still, only taking 14 games to make the finals is pretty impressive in itself.
The Mavs are significantly better right now than at any point in the regular season, while the Celtics are pretty much the same, but that's because they won 64 games.
I still think Celtics in 6, but not with any real confidence.
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Also, a word, if i may, on the WNBA. Right now it appears to be doing it's best to show that it's not men keeping women down, it's other women.
Caitlin Clark is white, straight, and really good at basketball. And everyone in the league fuckin HATES her for it. She's coping shit fouls all over the joint in a co-ordinated action that is a terrible look for a league that finally has eyes on it.
It's like a real life "stick in the bike wheels" meme.
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@mariner4life will be interesting if Porzingis plays and if so, how close to 100% he is
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@mariner4life said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
Also, a word, if i may, on the WNBA. Right now it appears to be doing it's best to show that it's not men keeping women down, it's other women.
Caitlin Clark is white, straight, and really good at basketball. And everyone in the league fuckin HATES her for it. She's coping shit fouls all over the joint in a co-ordinated action that is a terrible look for a league that finally has eyes on it.
It's like a real life "stick in the bike wheels" meme.
She's not the only one to be fair. Angel Reese was taken down hard in a game recently as well. Instead of embracing the heightened profile that this new crop of rookies has given the league, and the better conditions they are receiving as a result, several of the veteran players seem intent to put the new girls in their place
Clark held to 3 points as Liberty clobber Fever
In the Fever's loss to the Liberty, Caitlin Clark had three points on 1-of-10 shooting. It was the lowest point total and field goal rate (10%) in a game during both her time in the WNBA (11 games) and college (139 games at Iowa).
That is bush league
This too
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@canefan I haven't been following the story or the league, but are the older girls doing anything different to what we would expect their male counterparts to do if in a similar position?
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@Crazy-Horse said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@canefan I haven't been following the story or the league, but are the older girls doing anything different to what we would expect their male counterparts to do if in a similar position?
I don't expect them to roll out the welcome mat, but I don't think you get away with fouls like that without some sort of consequences these days
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@Crazy-Horse said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
@canefan I haven't been following the story or the league, but are the older girls doing anything different to what we would expect their male counterparts to do if in a similar position?
A few of these are non-basketball plays and aren’t they drawing technicals or fines.
I find it really baffling.
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Mavs got absolutely smashed in game 1.
The Celtics do tend to win very big when they win, so hopefully they have a bad shooting night next time up and we can try and get a game to make it interesting.
On today's basis though, we'll be lucky not to get swept.
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@KiwiMurph said in NBA Season - now 23/24:
There wasn't nearly enough attention paid to the return of Porzingis in the lead up. Dude makes a very good team even better.
Coming off the bench and he cooked any switch with that high post. And that off the dribble dunk on Lively was nice.
Celts shoot so many 3s. Their 8 frontline players can all shoot the 3 with confidence and when your two bigs can do it at 40%, JKidd better have a plan.
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On the WNBA, I’m an unashamed Clark fan and have been since I saw some highlights of her and Paige Bueckers were playing high school.
Yes she is getting the treatment more so than any other recent high profile rookies - but there has never been this much attention of a WNBA rookie, ever. When Plum came in after a big college career, the vets didn’t pull this stuff. Go back to Diana T and Candace Parker - nope none of this.
Clark is bringing huge attention to the game. The ticket sales at Indiana Fever games (home and away) are off the charts.
