Topic: American Sports

@Th3solution did every team sitting on rest (top seeds/home teams) lose the first game? 😅 well, Houston didn't even get there, but you know what I mean. The three favourites.

I doubt the other two teams did so due to absolute brain failure like the Celtics, however 😂 JT ISO vs Robinson, paint open, better shoot another 3 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ JB ISO wing. Better shoot another 3 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I assure you, this is not how they have played all year. So I'm not sure why they are playing this way now. Instead of driving to the paint and finding the open man, the only drives to the paint were so the stars could force up bad shots or get stripped 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ barely any Kornet pick and roll. Barely any ball movement.

I'll let them off as playing Orlando forced them to not shoot threes and they must have missed it so forced it vs NY. But they were not good threes, which is more like the 2023 Celtics rather than 2024 or 2025 Celtics.

I didn't look at the stats or any analysis. But I bet assist numbers were the lowest of the low. And we've been consistently getting 25+, 30+ when actually playing the right way. To the eye, the second half especially, just looked like they forgot their identity. Very strange.

I quite liked Joe's savage first half tactics though, that was a new wrinkle and should have worked if the second half was anywhere near competent. I'm talking Hack-a-Robinson and shut down KAT and Jalen Brunson.

We didn't even need to do any of that in the regular season though, which shows just how poor they were last night.

@Ravix What is happening?!? I know it’s just game 1, but if you would have told me Cleveland, Boston, and Oklahoma City would choke in game 1 then I would have never believed it. I guess I’m a fool for having thought it was a foregone conclusion that it would be those three teams coasting past everyone else.

I’m not as surprised by Boston getting caught with their pants down at home, but I’m really disappointed with Cleveland and OKC. The easiest explanation is the old adage of “rust vs rest” where these teams that dispatched their first round opponents so quickly are probably having to shake off a little rust. And in the case of OKC and Boston, they just didn’t have the killer instinct in game 1 and didn’t close out the other team when they had a chance. Cleveland is more of a concern where they essentially got beat handily the whole game by Indy.

I expect them each to bounce back for game 2, but at least we know now there’s not going to any sweeps in round two, barring Golden State or Minnesota going on a roll. I honestly see that series being my a tight one though. I’m probably leaning toward the T-Wolves but I could see it going either way. Did you watch any of the games?

@Ravix Lol, I was writing my reaction at the same time you were. 😅

Ah, it flowed as if it was a quick response. Great minds think alike 🫡 haha @Th3solution Boston aside, I caught the start of OKC but was too tired. I saw a decent amount of the game 6's and 7's though, although it's all a blur now.

Weirdly, I kind of expected the Cleveland seriess to be mad, as I was pondering the teams who are left that can win with either offense or defence or both. And I just thought Indy and Cleveland is more of a matchup of offense vs offense and that is very unpredictable.

Whereas Boston s*** the bed plain and simple, but the game still stayed close and NY is probably only ever going to win close games like that. Boston should be buckling down and winning by 20 in the games and despite missing the most threes in playoff history and that second half being the biggest s***ing of the bed offensively since OKC in the regular season, it was still a one possession game. And the reason they were up at HT was defensive gameplan JT and JB playing decently for a quarter each, and Derrick White being the one who could actually shoot.

Win or lose, they have shown they can lock down the NY stars, and logic dictates they should blow them out in game 2 if they can remember the style of play that brings success. But logic and the Celtics don't always see eye to eye 😅

I'll have to check out OKC highlights at some point, as after an initial slow start they took over and looked like they would go on to destroy Denver with lockdown defence and pace. So I'm interested what changed. Joker got mad, I assume? haha.

@Ravix Yeah, I didn’t see the games, rather was just score watching, but it appeared that OKC had everything under control most of the game and then fell apart toward the end. Apparently the OKC coach decided to start fouling Denver intentionally with the lead in the final minute. I’ll try to give him the benefit of the doubt but obviously that ended up being a horrible tactic. Denver made all four free throws and then with his team still up by 1 point, Holmgren misses two free throws and then Gordon hits the game winning 3 pointer with 2 seconds left and the choke is complete. To me, a lot of that responsibility lies on the coach. For one of the best defensive teams in the league to resort of intentional fouling strategies at the end is just a display of poor confidence. But yes, Jokic definitely did his part with 42 points and 22 rebounds. Holmgren has a lot to learn from the Joker about being clutch and missing those two free throws was the other piece of the OKC botch.

And speaking of big men, surprise, surprise that Porzingis was out for most of game 1 with a ‘mysterious illness’. Is he intentionally pretending to be sick so he can do the whole comeback song-and-dance and hog all the attention, smiling and waving to the crowd like some kind of hero? 😂 (I haven’t got my KP jab in lately so figured I better mention that… 😜)

@Th3solution I think there might be something genuinely up with him. It was so weird that they couldn't work out why he was ill for weeks in the season, and eventually they just said "upper respiratory" I don't know if he ever got Covid initially and if it's some kind of long term damage related to that. Hopefully he just had the sh**s for this game though, but he hasn't looked himself in a few games in the post season, so it makes you think he is struggling internally with something that is affecting him. Last year he was the most efficient player in the post, but every time I've seen him in the post this year he just seems rushed or flustered, and sometimes a slight worry in the back of your mind about something else is all it takes to destroy your decision making abilities. It's a strange one, and from a human side I hope they find out what is going on, because something is clearly going wrong with his regular health. Injuries are one thing, but mystery illnesses are another matter. This year there's been Wemby and Lillard with blood clots too, I don't know if that is common in basketball but two big name players in one year kind of highlighted that.

@Th3solution are you going to watch any of the games coming up now there's a little spice to the match-ups?

Also came back to mention, as I've just accidentally stumbled down a random Celtics rabbit hole and found out a bit of strange information:

Joe Mazzulla/The Celtics this season hired former child chess prodigy/brazillian jiu-jitsu grandmaster/champion/blackbelt Josh Waitzkin and he is now Joe Mazzulla's most trusted confidant. So the cult of Joe gains some more weirdness, and yet it somehow doesn't surprise me 🤷‍♂️ apparently the film "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is about this guy as a child chess prodigy, no idea if its a popular/well known American culture movie or not. And the fact he left the world of chess to fight and later coach martial arts seems like he is very much cut from the same cloth as Mazzulla.

And then there's this 🤣

I think it gets funnier every time, especially nearer the end 😂😭

@Ravix I do think I’ll try to tune in, as these matchups all have some drama now.

And yes, although I’ve never seen it, Searching for Bobby Fischer is a well known movie, well… at least it’s known by me because I have a buddy who has tried to get me to watch it for several years. 😅
It is fairly interesting that he’s brought in that kind of consultant. I don’t know Waitzkin but it does seem to fit. I think sports psychology is a very interesting field.

Halliburton 😱😱😱

What even is basketball? This year's playoffs are getting towards collective all-time territory, surely.

@Ravix Wasn’t that nuts?! Poor Cleveland. Put together one of the best regular seasons in NBA history and now they’re unraveling. I know it’s not over yet, but what a hole they’ve dig themselves into. And not to put this all on them, I’ll give Indiana credit — they’ve played really well and Halliburton is proving to be one of real clutch players in the league. What a crazy finish!

It’s unfortunate that the injury situation is looming over these series though. If Cleveland has Garland, Mobley, and Hunter (or even just one of those guys!) then we probably have a different outcome. Mitchell looked completely gassed by the fourth quarter, having to carry the team like he did.

Golden State now runs risk of the same issue — if Curry misses extended time, do you really think they can win it all? They made it through the game last night with him missing the second half, but I don’t think they can sustain it for a whole series. Besides, Minnesota looked so sluggish. This is my main issue with Anthony Edwards — when he’s ‘on’, he looks great and like one of the top 10 players in the league, but then he has too many ‘off’ days, or at least ‘off’ moments in games when he makes mental errors or has poor effort.

But still, I predict Minnesota will bounce back with a better game and if Curry doesn’t play, then T-wolves should tie the series up tomorrow. For the Cavs, I’m not confident in them right now. I’ve seen young teams panic and fall apart when they have two heartbreakers like that.

Big games tonight though! Both Boston and OKC should come out swinging tonight and cruise to victory each.

@Th3solution we can but hope. Win or lose, I just hope the C's remember how to play 'less stupid' basketball. I know the stats came back as saying a ridiculous amount of the threes were wide open, but it didn't feel like that. It felt like they were settling, which is something they moved away from since winning it all. And even then, if they hit anywhere near their average it would be a huge blow out win. I'm not one of the people that bemoans the 3 numbers, either. This season it was totally right to average 48.9, or whatever, per game. For the most part it felt like they were in the right and it was the best shot after using ball movement and drives to open up those shots. But the last game, it didn't feel the same. The paint was so open a lot of the time, and I think both Tatum and Brown have stated that, yeah, they should have been smarter and took that open space for themselves instead, and from that point you either lay it in, or kick it out to an open shooter, when the defence collapses, like White, Horford, Pritchard, Hauser, etc etc. If they don't collapse the lay-up is easy, if they do the three is easy. But the three wasn't easy because they earned it in game one, it was easy but lazy.

I doubt Golden State advance without Steph, but then again, they might know how to keep Ant man quiet. We found it easy to throw him off this year, you take away one or two things he likes and he cries about being doubled. That moment this season was big for teams realising he is far from elite. He can be elite, like you say, but he doesn't have the mentality to be elite, yet. A tough playoffs could be what makes him realise, so you can't rule that out either. If Golden State advance, it will be from low scoring games with a frustrated opponent, and I've convinced myself that this could actually be what happens now. But I'd kind of like to see Ant step up now, too. If he doesn't he could be cooked, as the youth like to say. "Couldn't even beat an aging team without their star who have played non stop since the end of the season"

Cleveland was mad, I watched the start and thought, ah, a blow-out. Tuned back in to see and it was all falling apart and the last minute was even more nuts.

@Ravix If the Cavs are mad, then that will work out ok. Indiana plays with a real intensity and they’ll need to match and surpass that. But if anger leads to frustration and despair, then they’ll lose. Often a team on the ropes might panic also and try to over-adjust and become something they they aren’t. That usually doesn’t work out either. They do need to make adjustments within their own personnel and systems, but hopefully they don’t abandon what has worked all season.

Well, the Celtics certainly are stupid. The moment for me was, as they were missing the 14 shots in a row in the 4th quarter 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Tatum had the ball in the corner, Brunson fell over under the basket and Tatum decided to take a 3 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Go and dunk it and step on Brunson's head while you're at it 😅 There was no one guarding under the basket or in the lane 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I wonder if they know that 2 points are in fact better than 0 points in a situation where you aren't scoring any points

Also that chess-jitsu guy is from NY, so sabotage is now suspected, because it makes no sense for them to be that stupid 😂😂😂

What a bunch of idiots 😁

(these playoffs are still amazing. And game 3 needs a very large brawl to break out. It feels like no one is even fighting each other in round 2 🥺)

@Ravix Truly an unexpected turn of events. If it ends up as Indiana and NY in the Eastern Conference Finals, I’m going to be really disillusioned.

@Th3solution at least it looks like OKC did what the Celtics should have: Retaliated! Still can't work out why they have moved away from the style of play they had all season. Did Orlando throw them off so much last series that they forgot how to play? 😬 for a brief moment they ran some Kornet pick and roll in the 3rd, and it was effective. There was still very little drive and kick for open threes, making the extra pass and all the good things that lead to open shots. And after the start where they got to the paint they should have been able to get shooters open more naturally and in the flow, but they didn't. Tatum looked pretty feeble, which is very strange, considering he's got tougher over the last few seasons. And JB started going down blind alleys in the second half and turning it over again, despite starting with purpose 🤷‍♂️

@Th3solution any thoughts on what will happen with the draft and Giannis etc?

I get the feeling Dallas will either do something insane, like draft someone totally unexpected. Or Brad Stevens (Celtics) is going to try and do something unexpected and trade someone to get Flagg if possible, as you know, Rookies are cheaper than 2 supermax contracts. Dallas are potentially an easy mark, it feels like. So I could see someone tricking them into giving it up 😅

@Ravix Yeah, really, really interesting turn of events. The Mavs GM and/or owner may have sold their souls or have some kind of organized crime influence to have saved themselves after the Luka debacle. Unbelievable. They had less than a 2% chance of landing the #1 pick; They will come out smelling like roses even after shipping off the teams future to the Lakers. But like you say, wouldn’t it be hilarious if they traded away Cooper Flagg, an 18 year old phenom and probably future star for the next 10-15 years (although we all know there are no sure things in the draft and a lot of #1’s have been horrible) for an old has-been and some extra bench players. I mean, Giannis is awesome, but I don’t know if I would take a chance on giving 2 young stars away in the same year for older players on the back end of their careers. I think Giannis will be moved, I just don’t know where. You better believe the Mavs are getting calls right now from all the teams wanting to unload their expensive veterans for the first pick.

@Th3solution I mean, Brown and Kyrie like each other and Flagg is a Mass native... I'm just saying. I'd actually quite like to see it happen, because it would be pretty mad, but it's not like it would actually happen.

Also, you must give up your Porzingis voodoo doll, it's getting a bit silly now. It's like playing with 4 players when he's in for some reason. It's not like the virus has made him forget how to shoot because he was fine when he first came back from it, but he rushes all of his inside shots and his rebound timing is off too, something has got in his head relating to his health and wellbeing, and it's the weirdest thing to see. He looks like a literal ghost of himself, and it's the first time he hasn't been smiling since he joined. Something is really not right there. And in basketball terms it's messed up rotations, he must be a big minus in +/- stats just based on how it seems when he's in. I don't think he's even tried to shoot any threes and there's never any of the regular actions to get him shots, either.

I think Tatum is done too, really innocuous injury, probably a ligament/tendon snap. Not a lot that can be said about that, it just looked like it was season over.

So... Indy vs NY the match everyone wanted 😬

@Ravix Yeah, as a basketball fan, I think this season has been a bit disappointing in the sense that injuries have plagued everyone more than normal. I do understand that health issues are part of the game and although I poke fun at KP (and other oft injured or ill players) it’s one thing to have a guy well-known to miss time, but quite another to have so many high profile players get injured or sick, and the timing can really make the difference between a championship run and a lost season.

No matter how well-balanced a team is, if you take away 1-2 of its starters or best players, it’s a completely different team and just doesn’t feel fair. If Brunson goes down, the Knicks are over. If SGA goes down, the Thunder are over. If Jokic goes down the Nuggets are over. Etc, etc. Injury to Steph has ruined the Warriors chances. Now Cleveland in the same boat I think with Mitchell. Boston (along with OKC) is the most well-balanced team in the league, but I just don’t like their chances without Tatum and while KP is playing sick. Ditto occurred for Bucks with Lillard, Grizzlies with Ja. Kawhi finished the season but only played in 37 games (that’s like what, 45%?), Durant couldn’t finish the season, Lebron was in and out all year. Wemby went down at the end of the season. The 76ers, omg what a dumpster fire of injuries there with Embiid and George…. I mean when almost every team’s best players have had substantial health issues for prolonged periods and especially at the end of the season during critical games, it sort of invalidates the final result. I prefer the NBA champions to be the best team, not merely the last man standing in a war of attrition.

As much as we roast the Mavs for the complete absurdity of giving away a 25 yr old perennial MVP candidate for a 32 yr old whose best days are behind him, the vision of what they wanted to do never really crystallized because they were among the most injured teams in the league. Remember at one point they almost had to forfeit a couple games this season because they didn’t even have enough healthy players to even field a team — I think the minimum is 7 players available needed and they played one or two games with the minimum. They pulled guys off the D-league to play for a couple weeks until players started coming back from injury. (Also important to note that we forget before he was traded, Luka had been hurt for the whole month prior.) So what would a team with A.D., Kyrie, and all the other starters have looked like had they had time to play together? Who knows? They might still be playing now.

Which on a side note, it does look almost like a 4D chess move that they basically traded Luka for Cooper Flagg and Anthony Davis. 😂

@Th3solution it is a bit like playing every other day 82 times before stepping it up to even more intensity in the playoffs isn't good for player health. JT will 100% be wear and stress eventually making his ankle give out. He played all but about 2 games last year, he rarely sits any season anyway and has played the most minutes of anyone since joining rhe league, and the Celtics have been to 7/8? Post seasons with him, he won the championship last year, went to the Olympics, went on tour to the UAE for pre season and then it was the start of the season for 82 more games. That is a totally mad schedule for any human.

JB has been playing with pain killing injections in his knee for months and his hip has troubled him all season. But the knee really changed how he plays, he looks way more stiff with his drives and is a lot less agile and hasn't been dunking with the same force, height or frequency.

They still s*** the bed last night though. They panicked or had a collective phase of stupidity and because JT had it going they got stuck in slow ISO basketball as NY came back which went away from the ball movement that got them up initially. The injury just made things bleak for even competing in the next game to make it interesting

Maybe in Dallas it's better to be lucky than good.

I kind of like that most of the teams that legit tanked got screwed though. Phili will be sighing a huge sigh of relief though, it almost went very, very bad for them.