Topic: American Sports

@ZeroE
I pick the same as you except for for Bills in the first one. (Though they've not started well)
Bit more worried for entertainment factor for next week as I know Seattle and Denver deserve their top seed status but they are both more efficient and defensively competent rather than exciting and explosive. But like I said...I'm often wrong.

@Ravix I’ve been keeping an eye on the NFL and NBA but haven’t been watching a lot of games lately. I might tune into the conference championships today. I like seeing some fresh blood in the playoffs. Although the Patriots are hardly new to the Super Bowl scene, but as you mentioned, their turnaround has been impressive after the post-Brady/Belichick rebuild. They continue to have their fair share of luck too though, most recent of which is Denver’s starting QB going down. To me Seattle seems to be the strongest contender but honestly, any of the four remaining teams could win it all. It’s just nice to have a Super Bowl without KC, Phili, or San Fran. Six out of the last eight Super Bowls have had at least one of those three teams and often two of them. And then the only other two SB that didn’t have one of those three teams had the Rams in them, so I’m going to root against them. And the Patriots haven’t been there in seven years, but still, we’ve seen plenty of them in the last 20 years, so I’d like to see Seattle vs Denver for the Super Bowl. We’ll see.

I did watch the NCAA college football championship and it was a really great game. University of Indiana won it in a fairly close one. Their QB Mendoza will definitely go high in the draft and I hope he has good success in the NFL. He seems a good guy and has a great story.

On the NBA side, it’s been good to see that OKC has shown some weak spots from time to time and may actually be more beatable than initially thought. San Antonio has come out as a contender as I predicted. Their success will hinge on whether Wemby stays healthy, which he mostly has this year. I think the Spurs are in fact becoming a fan favorite. It’s tough to judge because both San Antonio and Oklahoma City are small markets and so don’t carry as much national fandom like the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, etc from large Metro cities and with longstanding franchises with lots of history.

I’ve been keeping abreast of the Celtics and I have been impressed that they continue to win and be competitive even during this year which was supposed to be a down year for them. But even you have to admit they dodged a bullet by letting Porzingis go. He’s an anchor around the neck of whatever team relies on him. He’s played in only 17 games out of 45 this season, I think. Currently it’s not even the strange mystery illness that’s got him down, it’s his Achilles. Poor Atlanta Hawks should have consulted me before they took on his huge contract. 😅

The West is going to come down to OKC, Houston, San Antonio, and Denver, I predict. The East is a mess though. Detroit’s playing well, as is Boston, but I don’t know what’s going on with NY, they’re falling apart the last several games. I think they are slacking off because they know even with minimal effort they can probably hobble into the playoffs.

It was the Broncos’ year….

Has a team ever had an easier path to the SB than this year's Patriots?

@Th3solution the east is certainly a mess.

Yeah. San Antonio is small market, but they must have some left over Pops support, stuff like that. But the Wemby effect is perhaps bigger than they could have hoped for. Definitely internationally, but also in America, too, I'd say. He is that unique that he can easily be a huge 'the face of the league' type. He's probably nearly there already, so if they have a good run in the playoffs it could be huge for the game. His comments about All-Star will help, too. He basically said "i'm coming to play hard, if you aren't, that's on you"

Watched some of the patriots game, but I wasn't that locked in. It was good to see a Vrabel team using the 4 man rush again. Basically one of the few reasons the Titans could compete in the playoffs under him was how much freedom that gave the defence. Also the "allow yards - not TD's" mentality keeping games under control. I don't know if that is how they have been playing all year though, they have a very good record and Maye has far more TD's and the team a much better points average than young Brady era.

For the sake of interest it is probably better to have at least one big market team in the Super Bowl, right? People can hate on the Patriots or call them an underdog as well, so it probably generates more interest than Seattle vs Denver would have? East vs West, too. The NFL has kind of lost my interest, though, so i'm struggling to get excited for any matchup

Man, the realisation setting in that we got one game and the looooooooooooong off season begins again. Nothing ever fills the void quite like football does. I try to get into the draft coverage, but that only gets you so far. Every year I try to get into different sports in the hope of finding something I like so I can rotate my sports and never have an off season, but nothing ever hits quite the same. I'll probably end up defaulting back to WWE because the NFL season tends to finish right as the road to WrestleMania is finalised.

@Pizzamorg what you need is basketball. Objectively it is a better sport (okay, subjectively 😅 But in the sense that more happens per minute, and game pace it can't be denied) there are also 82 games for a team's regular season, and much, much, much less downtime.

Get league pass, pick a team (with good local broadcasters, say... the Boston Celtics) and give it a try. Inside the NBA is also a good show to check out for casual interest, as it is mostly an entertainment show. If you have Sky Sports then the NBA is back there this year anyway, but league pass is great for following a team and local broadcasts, rather than just watching whatever is on.

@Th3Solution help me out on my pitch, here 😁

I have tried to get into basketball, I saw they had some live games on Amazon Prime, but as someone going in blind, and the game is so fast and unrelenting, I just kinda bounced off of it to be honest.

@Pizzamorg it is understandable, and having a team certainly helps a lot. I do find the local broadcasts really help follow stories and events way more than just watching some random televised national games spread over 3 different national broadcasters with multiple commentary teams. That would definitely be overwhelming to know where to start as there are a lot of teams and a LOT of games. Even I can't keep up with the league outside of Boston unless it is a big newsworthy story.

Boston Celtics do play Portland Trail Blazers tonight, and I know it is on Sky Sports+ in the UK (i'm not sure which broadcast they will use for that, though) but league pass is far better anyway, and overall it is a great value service. Maybe it would be worth a free trial to try out and see how you go as the newest Celtics fan and watch along the NBC Sports Boston broadcast 😛

Celtics fans are pretty lucky, too, as NBC Sports Boston has an Emmy winning broadcast, I imagine if it was a lower quality, less interesting set up i'd find myself less engaged week to week. Sometimes national games can be a bit less fun to watch depending on who is on-the-call.

(And honestly, my go-to tip is to watch American sports on a delay and skip all the 2 minute breaks, and catch up to the live broadcast by the 4th quarter. Easy for basketball as timeouts are pretty uniform events and there aren't lots of injuries or substitutions and stoppages like in football)

Maybe try it out. What's the worst that can happen? Haha

Ah yeah if I do it through Prime, I get a free trial and then it is only 14.99 a month, which isn't really much more than Netflix is to be honest. Maybe I will give it a go.

@Pizzamorg Like @Ravix said, I think the NBA is the league that is the most fun to watch. The action is non-stop, quick paced, and it does look a bit chaotic at times but there’s a method to the madness.

Many of the athletes are almost artistic in the way they move, shoot, run, and dunk. And just like other sports, they are physical specimens that are simply jaw-dropping when you can actually see how big and strong they are. Some are simply monstrous in size if you were to see them in person. Also, it’s one of the sports where you get to see the players faces, and therefore get to know them, instead of them being covered in a helmet as little specks on the field.

And like Rav says, the guys on Inside the NBA (Shaq, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, etc) basically invented the goofy pre-game and half-time shenanigans which many sports are now copying because of the entertainment value.

I find Ice Hockey / NHL to be entertaining as well, but there’s so little scoring, like soccer you really have to like one of the teams to keep your interest. You will be in luck this year though as the first part of NFL off-season will be the Winter Olympics. Those start next month I believe and that’s always a thrill.

@Ravix As far as the Super Bowl, or any league championship, I do think that having large market teams in the games is advantageous for ratings and hype. There’s conspiracies about games being fixed to get the right teams in there to maximize profit. I’m not a tinfoil hat guy, but I have to admit sometimes it just seems too convenient. However, I don’t know if that’s what happened this year necessarily, but I’ve definitely seen times when a random holding call or pass interference call is made (or missed) that decides the game and I have to wonder. The NBA has its share of questionable refereeing over the years, but I think that NFL football the refs actually have more power to sway a game with an untimely call. I see holding on nearly every play, but for some reason they only call it sometimes. Fishy.

Is there a list of teams I should be keeping my eye on in the NBA? It looks like they have about a hundred games on every day looking at that league pass 😂

@Pizzamorg Yeah, there’s a lot of games. I’m not sure how league pass works as I just watch games on ESPN, TNT/NBC, and the major networks. The Amazon games and others like Peacock which are on streaming services are usually the bigger games.

Theres 30 teams and each plays 82 games. So any given team is usually playing 3 times a week, about every other night on average. Sometimes a team plays a back-to-back and sometimes they get 2-3 days off between.

At first you probably want to just watch games involving the top ranked teams in each conference. Even then, there’s some awesome players in the lower ranked teams too (Giannis “the Greek Freak” on the Bucks, Steph Curry on the Warriors, etc) but for now the top 3-4 teams in each conference would be good to start with. You’ll get to see Rav’s beloved Celtics, the 7’4” (rumors is that he’s grown another inch though) phenom Frenchman Victor Wembyama for the Spurs, the Serbian great Nikola “The Joker” Jokic on the Nuggets (although he’s injured presently), Kevin “The Slim Reaper” Durant on the Rockets, and of course LeBron “King” James and Luka “The Don” Doncic on the Lakers.

There’s lots of sites that will have the current standings so you could better select games that have meaning. NBA.com is a reasonable site to start with and shows conference standings and win-loss records. If you watch a few games and grow to like a certain team then just start following them. They’ll have a game every couple days. The All-Star Break is coming up soon too, and those festivities might be entertaining to you. Personally I don’t care for them; the All-Star game is a bit of a joke, but it would introduce you to the top players through the league. The slam dunk contest is usually pretty fun.

@Th3solution @Pizzamorg

For us in the UK i'd start with East Coast teams/games, as it is just a lot easier to manage time wise. Slim pickings this year in the east, and The Celtics are on a down season with their franchise player Jayson Tatum out injured since the playoffs last year (and they also offloaded 4 top players before the season) and yet they are still competing near the very top with 19/22 year old rookies and second year pros alongside the remaining starters. This is why i'd recommend a local broadcast, as you get a good feel of the ins and out on a more personal level. But the Celtics have a choice of 'Celtics Home' coverage and the national coverage tonight on Amazon, it seems.

Knowing that i've mentioned them being competitive this year almost guarantees a loss tonight, too 😅 and this is how it usually goes.

I wasn't sure how league pass worked via amazon but you do still get a choice of broadcasts. Not sure if the pre and post-shows are included, but they might be.

Sol makes a great point about having to see the players to believe it. Jaylen Brown is about 6 foot 6, but will look relatively small or undersized against a 7 foot center, and when you see the kind of things they can do at these heights it is truly unbelievable. The most regular guy on the Celtics is Payton Pritchard and he's a 6 foot and a bit guard, but he will still body 7 footers and shift them off their spot to get up shots in the paint, he is the type of player i'm drawn to, as are a lot of the celtics, luckily, as they just have this winning, grinding attitude about them now and there are a lot of these unique player types. Hugo Gonzalez is 19 and played about 3 minutes a game for Real Madrid until someone spotted him and drafted him to the Celtics, and he plays like a seasoned veteran in a lot of ways, with the occasional error. Derrick White is a point guard who defends like a shot blocking big man. Joe Mazzulla, the coach is a pure stats sicophant and general lunatic who says things like "being choked out in an MMA ring is where he is happiest" as it allows him to problem solve how to survive under pressure 😬 and that is just a few of the more unique elements of that team.

To me, it all adds to the personality of the team, and when there are so many stories I am always invested in what happens next for them. It has been the most fun Celtics team to watch in years, even though they recently won a championship a few years ago and won't be anywhere near that level in terms of star power and top tier guys, the more rag-tag group finding new ways to win other than pure talent is actually much more entertaining.

I was going to say something else to Sol in this, but I went off on one about the Celtics again and forgot what. My bad 😅

Perhaps if we three 'Group watch' that game tonight, I can answer any questions you may have tomorrow? 😛 (like, how did they blow that lead? How can Hugo Gonzalez's eyebrows be so impactful. And why did Joe Mazzulla try to triangle choke a referee) 🤷‍♂️

Can I talk about WWE in here? Not really a sport not really a TV show I dunno. But I just got done watching Saturday Night's Main Event from the weekend, I mostly watched it because I had heard good things about the Styles / Nakamura match.

And I thought their match was okay. It is definitely the kind of match that sorta means more to wider wrestling than necessarily me loving the match itself. To a certain generation and certain type of wrestling fan, Styles and Nakamura are incredibly important and formative figures, and seeing them go for one last time, and even reference back to past encounters, it is just cool. Wrestling allows for things like this in the way other forms of entertainment just can't, and I think it is special, man.

Speaking more specifically of the match itself, NJPW lets you work at a pace and a level of physicality WWE just doesn't allow for. And obviously both men are a decade older, and have taken many bumps in the time span between the Wrestlekingdom match to now. So with all of that in mind, this is probably the best match the two men have had in a WWE ring at least, and for long stretches here they did just let the men wrestle, which isn't always guaranteed in a main roster match, which are often overly produced and crammed with shenanigans. The way they wouldn't shut up about the looming Gunther match seemed to be telegraphing him getting involved somehow, but they showed the restraint in making sure that didn't happen, and instead they let Styles tell that story physically through the early parts of the match I just thought was cool, cause WWE seem to rarely trust their guys to do that.

Hi, new to the forum

Am a big Ice Hockey fan, have been a Florida Panthers fan since 1995 and been lucky to visit 12 diff cities in USA to see hockey.

Also follow NFL/NBA/MLB

@Th3solution are you keeping up with the trades in the NBA? Quite the busy 24 hours, and maybe more to come.

The Luka for AD experiment is well and truly over in Dallas 😬 they are so lucky they stumbled into landing Cooper Flagg so they can get away with a full rebuild.

And also... i've just witnessed one of the maddest games of the season in the Celtics vs Rockets. Celtics incredibly short handed with JB taking the game off, Simons out as he's being traded for Vucevic, Celtics on the second night of a back to back vs Houston who absolutley blew them away earlier in the year (also on the second night of a back to back after a tough run) Pritchard back to the bench because Simons was the 6th man spark this year, which is probably more valuable to this team than having another ball handling starter, so Pritchard needs to be that guy again. Anyway, long story short, a starting lineup of White, Queta, Garza (double-big lineup when we only have 2 active bigs) Sheierman and Ron Harper Jr (G-League callup) pretty much embarrassed the Rockets.

Durant and Sengun were totally shut down by Ron Harper Jr and Luka Garza. I think they really picked out Sengun's tendencies as he kept getting stripped on the drive. It was a real defensive game both sides, but the Celtics opened it up with White and Pritchard and effort later on. The Celtics rebounded at an insane percentage, especially considering Houston are the biggest team in the league. Ime Udoka got ejected, who knows why as the game wasn't chippy and he didn't lose his cool in an angry way, I think he just said something to one of the refs as he couldnt be bothered any more, then Sengun called the female ref a "silly b****" and also got ejected 😂 what were they doing? They looked like such a good team earlier in the season!? Must be the most embarrassing loss of the season for them?

Whatever happens, Joe Mazzulla has to be in with a chance of coach of the year. He has had to navigate a lot of changes, a lot of young and inexperienced players, and every decision he makes seems to get the best out of what he has available.

@Ravix I’m late to replying, but I’ve only been keeping track of NBA peripherally this season. But now that it’s starting to settle into the sprint to the finish, I’ll pay more attention. The trade deadline being over now, we have better idea of who is going all-in and who is tanking for a rebuild.

I’m getting more and more sold on the Spurs. I’ve gushed about Wemby in the past, but they have a really solid roster even outside of him. And, although he’s missed a few games this season, he’s been fairly healthy and doesn’t appear to be following suit with other 7+ footers who seem to be so fragile [ahem, Porzingis, cough]. I still question his long term durability which will be what separates him from simply being a good player to being an all-time great. Either way, this year in the short term I like the Spurs to give OKC some resistance.

Speaking of fragile players, yeah Anthony “street clothes” Davis definitely has made the Luka trade look like the unmitigated disaster that many fans and sportswriters predicted. Cooper Flagg is the real deal and what I’ve seen from him has been impressive for a teenager. He’s doing things at his age that we’ve only seen from very few other teenage rookies like LeBron and Koby when they were rookies. Oh, and Wemby and Luka too when they were young first year players. He’s been fairly healthy too, although I think they just announced he’s got a foot sprain that will keep him from participating in the Rising Stars game for All-Star Weekend.

As for your Celtics, I have to admit that I’m fascinated at the mad scientist and what he’s done over there. I thought Boston would be a middling 5-7 seed and maybe win an opening round of the playoffs but not really contend this year, but they’ve gotten better as the season has gone on. And I agree that is a credit to the coaching. Not sure if Mazzulla has locked up coach of the year quite yet, but I think he’s making a case for sure. Is there any chance of Tatum coming back by the playoffs? If so, there’s another level they could go and the league should be on notice.

I’ve watched a little of the college basketball league too and I’m seeing that this will be a really deep draft. One sports commentator said that last years #1 pick Cooper Flagg could have gone as low as #7 in the upcoming draft. That’s hard to believe but we’ll see.