Topic: American Sports

@Metonymy same old Dallas. Every year, it never fails. That team just can't push through in the playoffs. Been happening for way too many years now. I understand they got a bad matchup 1st round and their fans will prob moan about that. But it doesn't matter. You can't be a Stanley cup winner and not beat the elite teams. It would have been Colorado round 2, which is much harder then Minn. So their fans can cry all they want, the matchup didn't mean nothing. They just always crap the sheets in playoffs. Plain and simple.

@StitchJones You called it! Choked hard. And Edmonton’s toast now too. It wasn’t even close. Speaking of fans, they’ll be blaming the goaltending but we’re up to something like seven goaltenders now going back to Smith. At what point does it set in that there’s deeper issues with how you’ve built the team? McDavid nailed it post game, “We’ve been an average team all year.”

@Ravix Dude, will somebody please stop Tyrese Maxey! 😅

I realize that’s easier said than done, especially when PG is heating up and Embiid has returned and so there’s only so many ways defensive scheming that can be done if they’re all three in sync. But still… it’ll be a shame if Boston’s amazing season is cut short like this.

@Metonymy You're right about EDM. Their gm has no clue. They signed Jarry. Wasn't Jarry on waivers and cleared at some point last year? I heard that, but dont remember the particulars. Mcdavid took that team friendly deal, but with the FA market real thin, esp with goalies and Edmonton not really having good assets to trade away to get some guys, where do they go from here? I didn't want to believe this because he's mcdavid and they also got Leon, but I don't think those 2 are ever winning anything in Edmonton after this year.

The Rangers have a really good goalie who will finally backup Igor now that Quick has retired. Its almost like a reverse Vladar/Wolf thing in new york. But Igor is still in his prime, so this kid will never be a starter in NY. He is prime trade bait and could get a great return, esp to a team like EDM. Prob is, I look at EDM system and roster and they don't have anybody I would want back in a trade. Unless they are willing to part ways with a bigger surprising piece since goaltending has been such a thorn.

The rangers can really use another high scoring puck mover on the backend. So if they were willing to give up Bouchard for our goalie Garrand and a younger Rangers D-man to fill Bouchard's spot, I'd do that. IDK if EDM is willing to give up Bouchard to address goaltending, but you have to give to get.

@StitchJones Yeah, I’m getting that sinking feeling that the window has closed. Rivalry aside, I feel for some of those guys. I can’t remember the finer details but Edmonton received Jarry in exchange for Skinner and Kulak. It was a lateral (some might argue deficit) trade that did little to change their trajectory.

Bouchard would be a great get, for scoring, a healthy and happy Hyman could be also be nice addition. We’ll have to see how the lottery and draft play out here, I think that will determine a lot going forward. At the end of the day, I don’t see Edmonton blowing too much up as long as McDavid and Draisaitl are still both around.

@Th3solution mate... I really hate being right 😭 Boston has only played one good game in the series and I stand by my assessment that the first 32 point win showed signs of a nonsense series being inbound.

Honestly, I was shocked Joe hadn't had enough and put the bench mob in sooner. 4th quarter they showed a bit of fight with those guys. Far, far too late. All season any time there was hints of nonsense he'd pull everyone and shove in the bench players. This is why they had such a good season. And reverting to not doing that feels horrible, to me.

I don't get the league wide perception that game 1 was good. I heard it described in the opening footage of game 6 by a commentator clip where they said "A+. No notes" I had tonnes of notes from game 1, it was an awful blowout win 😂 it sounds dumb on the surface, but it is so true if you know the team and their body language, mentality etc etc.

The problem at the moment isn't Maxey, per se. He cooks us in his own without Embiid with his pace and we can sometimes deal with that by having Walsh on him. But we cannot defend the Embiid high pick and roll at all where the screen takes out the defense. It has forever been our achilles heel. Old series vs Miami being one obvious standout. I still shiver when I think about Struss bombing threes behind screens and dribble hand offs. So you get Maxy in tonnes of space to hit long shots, or he gets a head of steam going right at slow centers. I don't know if we can solve that...

But we can Solve letting Oubre and George cook us for long periods. (I believe I mentioned pre-series Oubre always plays well against us. I wish I didn't like him, but apart from his flopping, I kind of do 😭 I swear he shakes his hair to sprray sweat on players too. He is such a wind up 💀 and also how George could do with having his ban extended, as it was bound that he would suddenly fit in and be good in the playoffs) The series will probably now come down to whether they can stop everyone other than Embiid and Maxey and keep up some kind of offensive momentum to force them to need to score over 125 or something. I haven't seen us being capable of doing that with any kind of effort (beyond bench players) so it will be if we get lucky and hit 25 threes instead, which is back to bad Boston basketball, which we did so well to move past.

This season has been a ball movement masterclass. Post-season is now static and Iso ball and so slow and casual it hurts, even when the shots do fall it has not been playoff intensity at all.

Tell me that people on the outside have finally realised the nonsense we have been playing this series 😅 I could not believe people were writing Philly off, have they seen their lineups? On paper you could say they are the better team. They have a top 3 with Embiid, Maxey, Playoff P, and they have far more intense 'others' at the moment.

And if we aren't going to be relying on our bench we are actually just trying to beat all that with Tatum and Brown, an out of form White and a lack of Jrue, Big Al, KP and Kornet... And it is showing that our starting line-up is not good enough for this match-up as it stands, Walsh of Sheierman are still on the bench rather than being our version of Oubre and also because Queta can't stop fouling. I guess he just doesn't understand the nuance between being physical and making silly fouls, yet. Which is a shame as he has been so good, and is an intelligent guy, and has picked things up fast all year. But then again, his match-up is Embiid.

At least Vucevic and trades saved us a bunch of money this year 😭 I can't see a way he has a career in this team. It just doesn't click. They keep saying "well he shoots and thus spaces the floor" when Garza literally had the best 3 point percentage on the entire roster for the season, and Vuc adds nothing defensively, they are both clumsy and can't stop Embiid or Maxey. But Garza will at least offensive rebound like a man possessed, which would be a nice bonus to have ahead of Vuc in the line-up, imo.

I ranted, I guess. But there are so many nuances to why it has been going wrong that the media don't cover 😅