2025 NBA Postseason Thread - It's The Offs Baby

My preseason pick was OKC, so I'm sticking with it. But the C's are the defending champs and the most experienced, so they should still be considered the favorite until proved otherwise.

celtics and thunder def seem better than the other teams but who knows thats why they play the games also jaylen browns knee might be fucked

offs time baby. the nba second season. the one that matters. all the marbles. where careers and made. where chumps are exposed. this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JKDedKQ5Zo

voted warriors due to fan duties but the celtics will win the 2025 nba playoffs.

jaylen's knee won't matter for the first two rounds

quick flight to germany and he'll be fine

it has been reported that he received an injection

take it to the juiceman thread

nagging injuries like this are usually manageable early in the playoffs when there are more off days but if this is the type of injury that needs longterm rest or a clean up procedure or something then i could see it becoming an issue when they're playing every other day

nuggets will win the NBA playoffs

jaylen situation feels like one of those ones where we get into the ECF and in game 3 or 4 he is randomly horrible then the next game he is able to lock in but then the one after he kinda looks ineffective and broken down again and you just feel like you have no idea what player you're getting until the games start. feel like we've seen this kinda rhythm happen w/ players like butler, donovan mitchell recently off the top of my head

weird year for jaylen in general, raw numbers way down.

hes been pretty bad recently not moving well but its unclear how much of that was just coasting/taking easy on the knee

one thing that worries me about this celtics team is jaylen and jrue had down years but it was somewhat covered up by other guys having good years the problem is some of those guys are pritchard and kornet who arent necessarily prime playoff contributors, on the other hand maybe zinger will actually play in this years off

really hope we get a game that will be known in the future as "The Payton Pritchard Game" at some point, feels like a reasonable ask. "The Luke Kornet Game" less so but a man can dream

there was a kelly olynyk game so anything is possible

I honestly think Kornet will be a bigger factor in the playoffs than Pritchard.

if zinger and horf are both playing there might not be many minutes for him unless they go with a lot of two big lineups, i would like to see him get a chance tho hes been so good

I love hoops, haters are nincompoops, Luka to LeBron alley-oops...Lakers in 5

xp

right, I can definitely see him getting a fair amount of playtime if Jaylen Brown and/or Al Horford's minutes are limited.

i’m sorta bought into the theory that the NBA is an unprecedented physical grind that makes repeating extremely difficult. i think it was on a recent hoop collective they were talking about how after game 7 of denver minny last year the nuggs guys were talking about how they were worn down and the t wolves just wanted it more. and then you pair that with some of the minor red flags you can find w/ boston as lagoon has outlined

speaking of unprecedented grind, i am conflicted about whether i want the knicks to flame out and fire thibs or persevere against the pistons and see the 4th playoff series win by my favorite team in 20 years.

probably the latter but the former does sound weirdly freeing

that is a tough call, maybe thibs will be fired even if they win a series

is he in the hot seat?

i’m sorta bought into the theory that the NBA is an unprecedented physical grind that makes repeating extremely difficult.

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 4:06 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

champ hasnt made it past the second round in five years or smthn

i know people think knicks-pistons should be competitive but the idea of the knicks losing is just crazy to me. that would be a catastrophic outcome after last offseason. if you had told knicks fans at the start of the season they were fully healthy and lost to the pistons in round 1 they would have burned the city down

anyway, i think we can assume that the knicks are locked into most of this core for the next 2-3 years minimum so they probably need to take their lumps against boston to see where the pain points truly are and what they can do to fix some of it. if boston does have to start trading some guys bcuz of the second apron then it’s possible this knicks team could beat them a few seasons down the line. but it probably starts with them getting their asses kicked

that would be a catastrophic outcome after last offseason.

This is why it needs to happen.

is he in the hot seat?

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ny reporters in the know like stefan bondy have bandied about the possibility of thibs being let go if they flame out in the first or are uncompetitive in the second

i wouldn't be mad at a thibs firing, they need a coach who will tailor his system to the personnel and not stubbornly stick with his philosophy no matter what.

makes sense

not the biggest thibs fan but i think hes done pretty well with this group 5th in offense 13th in defense, not sure how much more youre going to wring out of them, the defensive effort could maybe be better they might be tired of his voice lord knows i am and i can just kinda hear it through the tv

the lack of competitiveness against the real best teams in the league is a concern. they were, what, 0-12 vs the big three? you gotta win at least one of those, man

the starting lineup now has a negative net rating, too, which is remarkable.

yeah i mean theres just flaws in the roster that good teams can exploit pretty easy

not the biggest thibs fan but i think hes done pretty well with this group 5th in offense 13th in defense, not sure how much more youre going to wring out of them, the defensive effort could maybe be better they might be tired of his voice lord knows i am and i can just kinda hear it through the tv

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 2:54 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the 13th in defense thing is a bit of a mirage — there’s a big logjam from basically 12th-24th only being separated by a couple of points/100. all those teams in the middle have traded places a lot over the past month.

i was surprised it was that high

knicks have gotten better on that end since the return of mitch rob

yeah hes crucial wonder if well see the twin towers lineup

it’s the ins which means trae young is on my TV

he is the play-in god

go hawks

yeah this one’s over

cmon hawks

trae young’s hair situation above the neck continues to be a matter of national concern

no one can explain it

hawks are letting me down

Down 20 to the magic. These combined shooting percentages yuck

hawks are letting me down

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 5:14 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

magic are starting cory joseph man, I really wouldn’t worry

theyre just a physical team they play hard hawks are nicer you want hawks

hawks closing the gap hawks baby

Sometimes you just get cooked by Wendell Carter and Cole Anthony

It’s really too bad the hawks don’t have their best player

yeah felt like they were putting something together earlier in the season

Me: the winner of this game will be the Celtics’ opponent in the first round. It’s the Hawks vs the Magic

My daughter: the Magic? More like mad joke!

lol got em

Otm

trae didnt feel like playing this one out i guess

lol trae

gave the ref the okey doke

That was genuinely such a funny way to go out. And even after nutmegging wcj into the sick floater. Solid ejection all around

i think hawks fans can allow themselves a little bit of excitement for the future with daniels and johnson. if they both top out where they are now it's not much of a foundation but that's unlikely, johnson in particular seems to be growing every year, daniels obviously already a difference maker on d but he could totally build on his offensive game. they gotta find a way to get trae outta there though, he's great in his ways but such a tough player to build a serious team around

not many little guys left in the league

And risacher obv

Xp

Ricacher showed promise too. I think traes fine to have while these dudes develop

im humbly requesting a jimmy goes nuts tonight

ja is here tho

Rough start. Moody hasn’t made a shot in like 3 weeks gonna have to knock a couple down

One thing I genuinely love about buddy hield is he hauls ass down the court every time

jimmys doing it

Quinten Post(season) more like it

Horrible end to that q tho

Luke Canard

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, May 31, 2021 1:29 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hahah

lol

Some disastrous Vince Williams minutes there

Wardell

insane backboard pass by ja

That was nuts

Jimmy missing a lot of FTs tonight

Ja ankle roll didn’t look too bad but he’s very ginger on it that really sucks

mustve left behind some land mines in an earlier celebration

Maybe the whole thing is part of an elaborate new celebration, showing the grisly aftermath of all the warfare

lol

weird game

So weird

Honestly a little weird to not have like at least a few Kuminga minutes and see what he can do

Dray foul trouble from the start has had their defense in a funk. Think he got a foul on opening tip

anything can happen in the 2025 nba play-in tournament sponsored by gorton's fisherman

Rigged

This game is insane

this is exactly what you want out of the play-in tournament tbh

lol this game is srsly outta control

Jimmy just shoot the middy ffs

RIGGED WTF

wha

gs got snowed on the podz block and this foul, sheesh

And the dray not overturned call

Never in doubt

Incredible game

steph with a weird smile chewing on his mouth guard sinking huge fts

Congrats to the Dubs, they certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves. It’s nuts how high the stakes were in this game for them… now they are right back into the contender convo

The Kuminga benching is so bold. Utmost respect to Kerr for doing it but boy they could really use another creator

Congrats to the Dubs, they certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves. It’s nuts how high the stakes were in this game for them… now they are right back into the contender convo

Draymond 6th foul was so dumb I still can’t believe he tried that. For a smart player sometimes he’s very dumb

Losing on a 5 second violation wtf, ref ball the whole time. Happy the Dubs were the "chosen team" this time

what a silly game

almost as if Memphis had a brand new coach in charge

Losing on a 5 second violation wtf, ref ball the whole time. Happy the Dubs were the "chosen team" this time

Zach Edey should have been out of the games so many times

at least one egregious phantom call went Jimmy's way, but some hallucinatory reffing down the stretch

I just noticed the ref actually motions each second and whistles on the fifth. Everyone had cues to see. Is that standard?

wrt the five second violation

historically, refs have counted out the five seconds using their forearm/hand, yes. i don't know if that's standard in the NBA, necessarily, but it is at most levels of basketball.

Yes it is

did seem fast tho

it seemed like it was at least 5 maybe 6 seconds based on video replay

it seemed fast tho

time is relative

well in this case the count is relative to how they usually do the count

Even if it seemed fast, you have clear view of how much time you have left. Regardless, after checking the timing, it was at least 5 seconds. It was fair (which I was not expecting). Usually coaches call a TO in that situation if it's getting close, but Iisalo had none left.

herro 16 point 1st q 6/6 fg

he is slaying the bulls

thats why they call him the matador (nb no one has ever called him this)

buzelis seems fun but as usual i have no idea what the bulls are trying to build.

love how lonzo came back and played like 12 games so the bulls extended him then hes like sorry yall im injured again but good luck out there.

well this game isn’t fun

thats why they call him the matador (nb no one has ever called him this)

― kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Wednesday, April 16, 2025 8:18 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they could tho, because of his defense

hero 8/8 23 points

bulls boo'd off the court going into the locker haha

rough

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44705888/nba-says-refs-made-4-errors-late-grizzlies-warriors-finish

oops!

not one of the better officiated games

the non-existent Podz foul was the only one that we mentioned here I think. They caught a late Edey offensive goaltend which did look a bit iffy to me in the moment.

Zach Edey really didn't look like an NBA player that game, no touch or decision-making.

kings, pitiful

blown out at home to the zombie mavs

Mavs winning the 8-seed would be pretty funny. OKC would not feel great about having to see them again.

OKC might welcome the chance for revenge. Lots of size, and PJ Washington is a bogeyman for them, but they're way less scary without Luke and Kyrie.

Plus the non-Chet minutes were the biggest problem last year, and they have Hartenstein to help with that.

I don't think there's a team OKC is actually afraid of this post season. If they're truly championship caliber they'd welcome a revenge match up with a healthy Mavs that still had Luka.

And while the Warriors are getting all the hype as the West sleeper contender, the real sleeper contender are the Clippers with a healthy Kahwi, Harden and Zubac. OKC should worry about them if they can take care of the Nuggets like I think they should

@justesbaraheni

We're somehow watching the Chicago Bulls lose two games in one night.

lol

so if the heat beat the hawks tomorrow they...

give up their 2025 first (likely pick 10 or 11) to OKC but retain control of their 2026 first + the 2028 first they owe to charlotte would remain protected

and if the heat lose to the hawks tomorrow they...

keep their 2025 first but give up an protected 2026 first to OKC and the 2028 first they owe charlotte also becomes unprotected

it's sort of an interesting theoretical discussion ... does the certainty of a top 10 pick in this year's draft outweigh the risk of having two unprotected picks floating out there? i think most people would say no, however this draft is supposed to be very strong. i don't know enough about the 26 and 28 drafts but i think the heat will probably be better next year so i the 26 pick will be worse than the 25 pick, there's also a 10% chance of jumping into the top 4 in this year's draft. however they don't really need another rookie in the rotation.

heat are basically never tanking so theyre assuming theyll be better in the future, i have faith they could find a good player at 10 this year so thats pretty nice, id say lose the game even tho its risky obvs one of the future pick could turn into a great one where this years cant

dame back?

so if the heat beat the hawks tomorrow they...

give up their 2025 first (likely pick 10 or 11) to OKC but retain control of their 2026 first + the 2028 first they owe to charlotte would remain protected

and if the heat lose to the hawks tomorrow they...

keep their 2025 first but give up an protected 2026 first to OKC and the 2028 first they owe charlotte also becomes unprotected

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 17, 2025 5:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i thought the heat's pick would move out of the lottery if they become the 8 seed and hawks move into the lottery, so the 9/10 seed play-in teams can make the playoffs and keep a lottery pick?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

thinkin about this first round trying to figure out who will win who will lose and its really hard which i guess means theyre good series sit back and enjoy

its interesting cause i cant figure out who will win but also the series could end up not being close and then youre like why did i think the rockets have a chance against the warriors or conversely of course the warriors were too old and exhausted to deal with the rockets

i want to pick minny clips rockets pistons not cause theyre nobodies up against glamour teams but i kinda feel like those are the wrong picks except maybe the clippers and then the nuggets arent really that glamorous other than having the #1 player

pistons not cause theyre nobodies

luka playing against gobert i cant in good conscience pick minny i guess finch is giving hints hes happy to bench gobert which is prob the right move but even then one of yr best players is removed from the series thats not great

pistons i think unfortunately just dont have the firepower to keep up with the knicks theyd have to completely physically dominate them to win which i dont think is that easy the knicks have some big capable guys

rockets dubs is some elemental matchup basketball broken down to its base rudiments guys who are good at basketball vs guys who are good at running around, couple weeks ago i wouldve taken the warriors easy but they way theyve looked down the stretch worries me they looked pretty fn exhausted and had trouble beating teams they shouldve easily beat when they really needed to, an exhausted old small team going up against a team of young huge athletic psychos is dicey

also if the warriors win it sets the lakers up to go to the conf finals via playing an even further exhuasted dubs team which is pretty lame, tho there would be some satisfaction regarding the worst trade ever aspect

clips nuggs might be just be more of a classic close series rather than a head scratching conundrum, picking a team with james harden on it is pretty difficult but conversely the nuggets have russell westbrook, also my general feeling about the nuggets all year is that theyre just not that good their players arent good, obvs theyve got the big guy hes good aaron gordon is good other than that ehh jamal murray i think ive finally decided is just not that good he has zero ability to beat anyone off the dribble which is kind of mystifying but true so hes reliant on hitting really tough shots if he wants to get his own, now he is an excellent shooter but its just not good basketball hes not bending the defense hes taking tough shots its not that good, mpj great shooter really not a baller if hes not hitting shots hes not contributing, westbrook lol, the rest of their guys have some charms but just arent good enough at putting the ball in the ring you need more of a variety of supporting guys in order to adjust to game situations, also a new coach right before the playoffs prob isnt great

clippers have two main guys who are completely unreliable in the offs so thats tough, they have a really good coach, if kawhi can stay upright hes an all nba level guy easy, theyve got a very good big man with the heft to bang with the joker, norm powell is better than paul george, theyve got a bunch of role players who can do different stuff, if it werent for not knowing what youre going to get from kawhi and harden might be an easy clips pick, maybe you can just throw out the kawhi part cause whatre you gonna do but harden is a serious concern when he is playing, also obvs jokic is the most reliable of the reliable, remember when people thought he was suspect in the playoffs haha

minny could beat the lakers if ant goes nuts which is totally possible the lakers perimeter d is real bad, but the thing is the lakers can prob just load up on him and live with what the rest of the wolves do, randle doing a lot of stuff prob sounds pretty good to them, wolves could also instead of worrying about matching up with the lakers benching gobert etc just try to win with size and heft beat up on them wear them down dominate the glass, lebrons old luka hasnt looked physically right all year reaves is extremely slow and feeble

love these breakdowns, love how there are so many first round series that you could easily envision going either way (and could totally end in five games).

let's do the annual playoff predix thread!

voted for the thunder to win this year, don't think teams have an answer for shai and the offense with ihart is more fluid this year

2025 Playoff Predictions

feels like the thunder's year yeah

Should be, if they somehow lose before the conference finals again, I'd imagine a "choker" narrative might start brewing. They should at least make the WCF.

But let's not forget the 2007 Dallas Mavericks went 67-15, had the MVP, and lost in the first round, so who knows.

(all time series that one btw, no bias - okay maybe a little bias)

funniest and best outcome would be thunder losing to luka again then luka getting his ass beat by boston again

i think it would be best if the thunder did acquire a choker narrative theyre so young theyve got time and then once they do win like next year itll be that much better for everyone, if they win this year people are just going to be like who are these guys

it's this OKC team's second playoff appearance ever, can't think of another team ever winning it all this quickly

i dont think another team has ever been this good this fast but yeah playoff experience is real imho so its def an open question as to whether theyre ready, but on the other hand they were so so good this year

yeah throughout the playoffs there's a lot of matchups and potential matchups that will come down to wily vets with a lot of mileage on the tires against untested guys that might be able to run them off the floor. in summary it will be interesting to see who wins the NBA playoffs.

the only real tangible weakness i can see in okc is their offense is super dependent on shai, and i guess a second one is theyre kind of small hartenstein and dort are their only massive guys

yeah reliable secondary scoring will be a question mark. I think Boston would be a very tough matchup for them if they both get there.

could be an epic series if everything falls right

nu-dubs took two playoff outs before winning it.

this seems too early for the thunder. im not fully sold on this team? i just stare at dorts shooting numbers in awe and i just cant accept it. their rotation guys on a whole are shooting like 38% from three its insane. can that sustain when defenses are turning up and key'd in. chet and j will have to maintain what theyve been this season and even raise it a level, last year they werent ready. dont think shai really has another gear (not sure he needs it) seems like a team that's been running at their ceiling all season. on the other hand, their defense seems sustainable, tons of dudes to throw out there and muck things up, and they have a closer. and the addition of ihart and caruso is good for versatility and bringing their collective team IQ up a level.

im not saying id be surprised by them walking through but i also wouldn't be surprised if they lost in the 2nd round.

if they make the finals vs boston id still take boston.

jay dub really has to show up this time

Okay decided to check some history here. Here's the recent Finals winners and how many years their cores took before taking it home:

Celtics: 9 playoff losses (8 if you start on Brown's rookie year, 7 if you want to start at Tatum's rookie year)

Nuggets: 4 playoff losses

Warriors: 2 playoff losses (I almost consider the 2015 Warriors a bit of an outlier here)

Bucks: 5 playoff losses

Lakers: 0 (They won after not even making the playoffs the year prior. Just LeBron/Laker things)

Raptors: 5 playoff losses (Kahwi that 6th year certainly helped, along with LeBron heading to the Lakers).

Most of these teams lost at every round of the post season before winning it all (Celtics get bonus points for losing a Finals too). The Lakers and Warriors are the outliers here for winning it so quickly, and the Warriors did it without a proven winner like LeBron. Of the rest of the teams, I think only the Nuggets failed to get past the 2nd round outside of their championship year.

So yeah, the traditional consensus here is you are going to lose at least a few times in the post season, realistically 4-5, unless you have a top 2 player of your generation without a 2nd apron. Honestly, given this data, I kinda agree that the the Thunder (as well as the Rockets) are too green, despite the success this year. However, the Cavs are interesting, this will be their 3rd playoff run with their current core and with a new coaching staff. If there's any parallels it's with those 2015 Warriors. If it does end up Celtics/Cavs in the ECF, that's going to be a great matchup and a more balanced one with talent and experience than people might expect.

I should mention that for the Warriors 2022 season, it was the same core that won in 2015, so using those years prior to 2015 instead of 2020 and 2021, as that core and coaching staff knew what it took.

Also the X factor team, the Clippers, have a core including Kahwi who knows what it takes to win and took a new team (the Raptors) to a championship his one year there, they also have a coach, Lue, who has won as well. Key thing for them though is health.

I think it's a year early for the Thunder - they'll be able to keep the same core next year, but adding Nikola Topic. It'll get trickier with salary cap after that, as Chet and JDub come off rookie deals. It'll be hard to keep good young players like Cason Wallace, who probably deserves a bigger role somewhere else.

I don't necessarily agree they've been running at their ceiling all season, though. Chet was out for many games and has been inconsistent since he's been back. They've used Caruso sparingly, but will probably ramp up his minutes in the playoffs. And they've beaten OK teams while resting a bunch of guys. I think they still have something in the tank and they have enough depth to try different lineups - expecting to see some small ball in the playoffs.

Of the rest of the teams, I think only the Nuggets failed to get past the 2nd round outside of their championship year.

ahem, nuggets made the conference finals in 2020

lol

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b2kutgxqlltwc6lhs724cfwr/bafkreiauetbzxukxt4eixtymtpp6pvxdbgu4qjgsharbgvmztqyuoqjley@jpeg

I don’t really believe in the paying your dues thing, sort of a woo-woo concept imo. mostly you just want to have a really good dominant team. sometimes you win it all quickly, sometimes it takes a lil longer it’s hard to say why, though teams simply getting better, having a top 3-5 player, and getting some good luck probably explain >90% of it

i think theres a more grounded explanation for playoff experience which is that the playoffs test yr game in ways that the regular season doesnt, like the year the celtics lost to the dubs in the finals the dubs loaded up on tatum and he just couldnt make enough plays out of the double team, they found a weak part of his game that hadnt really been an issue for the celtics up til then, fast forward to 2025 and tatum can make those reads in his sleep because he recognized the deficiency and worked on it, theres prob also an aspect of just getting used to the level of intensity in the playoffs particularly the later rounds, if youve mostly played in the reg season its going to be an adjustment, and all this prob works on a team level too some stuff that youve relied on in the reg season just doesnt work in the offs, some favored lineups may end up being flawed, your coach might choose to double luka doncic and he kills you with lobs and passes to the corner

yeah i def believe in playoff experience

experience and needing to “pay your dues” are pretty hard to disentangle, and both could in many cases be chalked up to just getting better. celtics, warriors, nuggets, bucks all had good teams whose best player ascended into superduperstardom in the time between losing and finally winning (taking account delays due to injuries for the latter two). lakers and raptors just added top 5 guys

part of that getting better is recognition via playoff failure tho, like zach lavine has never had to get better because hes never been to the playoffs

and fwiw tatum def didnt ascend to superstardom between the losses and the win he was already at star level and has been on more of an incremental progression since, the celtics did get better players tho

all in all i do like the thunders chances this year they were so dominant 68 wins near record point diff, i am going to ding them a little for lack of experience but theyve got dominance to spare

ill be surprised if they dont roll through the western conf at least

I don't think it's about "paying your dues" it's that in the playoffs the mental/emotional focus and endurance required on top of the physicality is hard to "get" quickly, especially when you're going up against long established teams or players who have "done" it already.

Of all the teams listed above, only the Warriors really "got" it quickly with a core bereft of prior champions in the startling lineup, hence them being an exception. But they also had a lot of luck: Their western conference opponents of the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Rockets lacked stars who had won (Howard got close, though). Do they beat the Spurs that year? Do they close out a fully healthy Cavs? Maybe not.

Will OKC be more like the 15 Hawks? The 07 Mavs? The 09 Cavs? Or the 15 Dubs? I'm betting on the former, but who knows. Looking forward to this post season. Honestly, OKC winning it all wouldn't be shocking or unprecedented, but it would buck a trend.

Even the greats take their time: Jordan took 6 years of losing in the playoffs, LeBron took 6 as well, including 2 Finals losses and had to go to a new team.

And oops, Kev, you're right - the Nuggets did make it to the WCF! So very typical buildup.

Man I don’t know about this Hawks offense

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

it's unusual for a team with this little playoff experience to go far, but it's also very unusual for a 68-win team or better to not make the finals, and I think every other team with a +12 point diff or better has won it. Thunder ended at +12.9, best in NBA history. So, something unusual is going to happen, which is cool.

The Thunder's regular season dominance looks a lot more like the +10 67-win 2015 Warriors than it does like the 2015 Hawks. Though yes I still find it hard to envision them solving Boston.

this game's getting fun

yeah

Dyson Daniels doing the thing

good game rip hawks

Davion couldn't miss

davion mitchell has been kinda incredible for the heat since they’ve gotten him. i don’t think he’s a starting PG on a good team but he’s an amazing point guard defender, the outside shot has been pretty true and he is capable of making some plays off the dribble

he shot 50/45/70 after the trade, you have to assume the first two numbers are gonna come down but if he’s even a high 30s three point shooter he can play that 3 and D PG role a la gabe vincent very capably. and it’s the kinda guard you need next to herro too

he shot 50/45/70 after the trade, you have to assume the first two numbers are gonna come down but if he’s even a high 30s three point shooter he can play that 3 and D PG role a la gabe vincent very capably. and it’s the kinda guard you need next to herro too

he shot 50/45/70 after the trade, you have to assume the first two numbers are gonna come down but if he’s even a high 30s three point shooter he can play that 3 and D PG role a la gabe vincent very capably. and it’s the kinda guard you need next to herro too

some ridiculous shotmaking by randos in that game, pretty entertaining stuff

it would be fun if road crowds did the fire nico chant when the mavs played there

Hawks/Heat was really fun, kinda had the feeling things were gonna go sideways for Atlanta after they went up 6, one of those moments where they seemed to be celebrating a bit too much to lock in

this game however is very boring but I do enjoy seeing Nico's dumbass scowl, it looks so silly with that plastic surgery he's gotten. he's got that handsome Squidward look goin on right now

glad he's suffering too, such a disgrace man, how could you give the Lakers another star in one of the final years of Lebron's career

was sort of rooting for the mavs for the lols, too bad

davion mitchell is a guy I had my eye on as a possible nugget role player. he can do some stuff

cutting to Nico after AD begged off the court was diabolical. Everyone on the Mavs must absolutely hate his guts.

Missed the hawks game but pretty stoked about okongwu’s development this year

Zach Edey was really good this game, way better decision making helped by the fact that Dallas had nobody interested in boxing him out. And JJJ has such a quick release, when his shot is going it's deadly.

Hawks Heat was such an awesome game. Davion another guy thriving after leaving the kings who have now clearly moved back to a bottom ~three run franchise.

mitchell obvs just on a lil heater on the heat, prob ultimately a situational bench guy, he is very small tho admittedly feisty

cutting to Nico after AD begged off the court was diabolical.

― symsymsym, Saturday, April 19, 2025 12:22 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

and then the tv guys listing the different parts of his body ad has grabbed in pain throughout the game

davion is playing like a guy who is finally on the right team. i’m excited to see him guard garland and mitchell, the stuff he does getting around/over high ball screens is kinda crazy and like legitimately fun to watch

def a great defender mr off night so small tho switching is a big issue

its dame time, soon

FROM SHAMS:

Just in on NBA Countdown – Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard is expected to make his return in Game 2 or Game 3 of series against the Indiana Pacers, sources tell ESPN:

Hell yea

def a great defender mr off night so small tho switching is a big issue

i wouldnt call the cavs guards tiny mitchells not tall but hes very strong and athletic with freakishly long arms, garland is actually kind of small and slight tho, theyre def undersized as a duo, if davion mitchell can guard donovan mitchell im just noticing they have almost the same name thats pretty nice for the heat, seems like its doable tho cavs mitchell might be a lil too massive and good at basketball

i don’t think davion is going to be the donovan mitchell stopper or anything but he’s similarly built, they’re both kinda like fullbacks out there, davion is just a bit smaller. he’ll be able to play up in mitchell’s chest without being overwhelmed physically. i’m sure donovan will still have a great series

herro has also been incredible the last two games and the cavs guys don’t really guard much. if the heat won more than a game i’d be flabbergasted but i’m curious if they can poke at some of the cavs weak spots

ya he could have a nice series

Hopefully Dame returning will jump start this Buck offense more. They look extremely anemic today.

Da offs are underway

kyle kuzma does not belong in the postseason. david stern would’ve done the right thing and vetoed any trade that would’ve taken him off the wizards

otm

tough start for the bucks

LOL I was thinking similar with Kuz - he so clearly doesn't belong on this court right now

even with dame coming back it really feels like the bucks are swimming upstream in this series. and if he doesn’t come back until game 3 then they’ll prob have to win 4 of 5

giannis on the floor in a playoff game with kevin porter jr, aj green, gary trent jr and bobby portis. look how they’ve massacred my boy

post-ring bucks are a masterclass in hustling backwards

if he doesn’t come back until game 3 then they’ll prob have to win 4 of 5

they say it isn't a series until the home team loses. but as much as I love Dame Time in the playoffs, their seeding feels like an accurate predictor of the series outcome.

the announcing in this game feels super disjointed, it's like the NBA Live announcer

dope Giannis block

patty c whatre u doin man

Excited about this Nuggets Clips series. I actually don't know who to root for?

joker shd take a lot of three this series seems better than battling with zubac

i hate the man who uses ai because hes nervous about meeting his gfs dad who works for nasa i want to kill him

nuggets new coach looks like the grinch

do the nuggets know about defense

this is bad man

james harden

nuggets are familiar with the concept of defense, it’s the thing they go against when they’re on offense

theyve seen defense

they've looked at defense from both sides now

clips taking turns running to the rim

simmo the savage is fascinating, really urgent distributng

he does not want that ball

he wants all his teammates to shoot as soon as possible. and he's creating good looks!

it is possible a good defensive team could scheme against this vulnerability however

the famous dont guard ben simmons defense

nuggets played defense

harden dumbass picking up his 4th foul flopping

just realized that if the nuggets win this we'll see a series between the two MVP contenders, possibly with the award being handed out midseries.

game is fun

it’s not fun!!!!

clippers should stop playing so good

kinda sucks that one of these teams gotta go I think they're both deserving of a second round

Jokic channeling crunch time Giannis I see

something's wrong with my TV, it just showed Russ hitting a go-ahead shot in the last minute of a playoff game

ahhh that's better

wtf was that

LOL your TV fixed itself

dude what the fuck

why would he throw the ball off someone’s foot instead of trying to throw it up lmao why??? what is wrong. with this fucking moron’s brain

Just Westbrook things. If anything, blame Jokic for trusting him in that moment.

Hey only the 2007 Warriors can say "We Believe"

5 on Harden you'd think they just wanna go right at him for the rest of the game

Braun may have thrown the dagger there

this game is insane I want to kms

Really getting the full Westbrook experience here

Nice win, Nuggets! Clips clearly looked good though, this is going at least 6.

I never doubted russ or the nuggets!!!!

congrats bigman!

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f5vknjyo6v6ctlf7hernwc3q/bafkreiap7uqnbthxdvo76hvamlt2progiw7l4eom62tlaq6576e3rrvq44@jpeg

I want to see Detroit beat the Knicks, but having to watch Tobias Harris ball out is a high price.

perfect low stakes team for him they already over achieved if he doesnt show up prob no one will even notice

i will never tire of watching kat jump out at a guy whos already driving on him

detroits taking it to the knicks knicks look lethargic brunson is maybe injured

sick brunson drive

knicks flipped the switch

pistons eventually getting tidal waved was prob how this was always gonna go

missed a bunch of wide open threes

also gave the ball away for no reason on 5-6 4q possessions

yeah they fell apart as soon as the knicks turned up the intensity

one notable development from the 4q was kat actually holding up pretty well when switched onto cade in the pick and roll

kinda love the knicks crew of celebrity regulars and ex players

will be interesting to see if teams employ the celtics luka blueprint hassle him full court stay down on his fakes and go at his defense every time

jaylen had lukas whole rhythm so dialed a true masterwork

NAZ REID

Missing you ums.

I miss Donte. Love what I'm seeing from my guy tonight

rip lakers

That was rough, right? Like how do they respond to this?

luka had 37 and the lakers lost by 20 grimacing emjoi

So here's the question I would like to bbref or an AI or something: how many teams have lost by 20+ at home in the first game of a 7 game series and ended up winning said series?

like to ask...

crazy

‪Kevin Pelton‬ ✧@kpel✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬

The Lakers in 2023 over Memphis are the only road team to win Game 1 by 15+ points and win the series since 2009. The previous 5 such series were won by the Game 1 loser:
2014 Thunder over Clippers
2015 Rockets over Clippers
2017 Spurs over Rockets
2018 Cavaliers over Pacers
2019 Bucks over Celtics

*camera zooms in on nico harrison*

Wow. That's insane!

Very satisfying Wolves win.

Lakers didn’t get their normal calls and the wolves hit everything. Aren’t LeBron teams notoriously bad in game 1s? They looked unprepared for playoff intensity

Also lakers d lol. Drive kick swing swing open 3

Love naz rieds little rocking motion on his shot, real smooth effortless shot he’s got

Also lakers d lol. Drive kick swing swing open 3

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Sunday, April 20, 2025 3:47 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

my main take away, and relatedly ants willingness to make the easy read

im a zach edey skeptic but he is kind of a fascinating player hes still pretty lost as a roll man and memphis passes to him way too much but the rim protection and rebounding are real hes a force down there, obvs theres a lot you can do to scheme against a guy like him but still hes out there doing stuff, hes in much better shape than in college too lost a lot of weight moving around better, he could end up gobertish but with better offense

thunder defense is so crazy

yikes

welp that was a fun series

theyre doubling em up

NBA should probably think about all the 1-8 and 2-7 games being on the same day…

should move towards giving the 1 and 2 seeds byes imo

jk i need to see gsw beat the rockets this year for science reasons

The Minnesota Timberwolves shot 21-of-42 on three-pointers in their Game 1 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Of those 42 three-point attempts:

🏀27 were classified as wide open
🏀15 were classified as open
🏀0 were classified as coming against tight or very tight defense

good job good effort

orlando magic not that good at putting the ball through the ring

well the Grizzlies were worse lol

Desmond Bane with the -51 +/-!

theyre calling derrick white klay thompson who can dribble

wild ty jerome season been a fringe rotation player / injured on four different teams over his first five years in the league now hes a serious contributor for a contender

rockets are doing their thing early, lots of steals

stealing dunking things of that nature

face guarding steph

not a great night for jalen green fans tbh

Pretty cool defensive game. Curry hit 3 impossible 3s and that was kinda the difference. Offensive rebounds gonna be a problem 22 for the rockets

higher seed loses at home. now it's a real playoff series.

too many ja*l*ns

fuckin millennial parents

Jimmy 25-7-6-5 prettttty pretty good

That dubs - rockets game was kinda insane. Steph hitting crazy shots vs rockets with 22 offensive rebounds. Steph and Butler probably glad they have 2 days off before game 2. Not sure what offense the rockets have other than Sengun and putbacks. But it might be enough if the dubs wear down over the series.

rip m bison

There will for sure be a Jalen green heater game, maybe two. fVV will shoot better.

7/34 fg between FVV and Jalen lol

rip m bison

― mookieproof, Sunday, April 20, 2025 11:48 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

wait do u think i was saying that as a jalen green fan? let me elaborate, i thought it was hilarious as hell that he shot like dogshit in his first playoff game, it was exactly as i predicted

such a frustrating player he creates advantages at will but somehow ends up taking the dumbest shots anyway

my reaction to yesterdays games: defense is back baby the nba allows defense again if you like that sort of thing, not sure i do lol

half the teams didnt break 100, heat scored exactly 100

three teams didnt break 90 grizz scored 80

possible the grizz and magic dont score 100 in any game in their cursed playoff runs

wild how no one on the magic besides fanz and paulo could do anything at all on offense might as well have not been there

i call him fanz

You can be in his fanz club, the franz fanz

thats us the legion of basketball obsessives who simply cannot get enough of franz

It is pretty rough, they have all these solid role players but none of them are really offense contributors. Like even their 2 big missing pieces Suggs and Mo Wagner aren’t really that. They need some kind of a shift in their front office philosophy to reach the next level

If Booker rumblings start they should go all in on that

yeah its pretty dire basically exactly the wrong team to put around paulo they should have a bunch of shooters so he can bully defenders in space spray the ball around and so forth

franz has the yips from 3 effed up sitch

they’ve tried to find shooters they’ve just been bad at it. they bet big on jett howard and everyone thought it was an overdraft and that played out, caleb houstan, tristan de silva is another who is meant to be a shooter, we’ll see on him he’s looked ok. KCP flopped etc

their roster is interesting insofar as their two best players can’t shoot but also aren’t centers. you don’t usually see that. wendell carter plays like fake stretch 5, jalen suggs and anthony black are in 3 and D roles as guards. it’s just kinda bizarre

i forget which of the pods maybe hollinger and duncan was alluding to the fact that maybe there are some coaching issues there in terms of the offense, which i hadn’t thought about but prob is at least somewhat true. feels like maybe mosley is one of those coaches who can get guys to buy in and play defense and bring the team up to a certain level of respectability but doesn’t have the offensive imagination to elevate the team on that end

yeah theyre not doing all the multiple action flowing read and react stuff that most teams are these days

players do seem to love him tho maybe they could bring in some hot shot offensive assistant

some nice shotmaking early in this game

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a finish like the one bridges had in the first quarter off of that awkward alley oop reverse

knicks missed some good looks outside, gonna need to start hitting those because the paint is locked down

detroits d looking sharp

nothing that has happened in the last two first halves would indicate that the knicks have any chance of keeping up with boston

not to mention the regular season games between the two teams

i know the pistons defense is pretty good but offense is not supposed to be this hard or anything close to it for the knicks. that is not the formula they’re built off

someone tell og that he is 6’7

to win tonight, the knicks must simply score 21 points in a row

pistons have four assists so far

knicks haven’t scored at all in 4 mins

4 points in 8 minutes of the third q

cade getting deep into the paint at will all game knicks have to have help step up sooner

kat a true ghost in this game, doubt he’s even gotten 5k steps

nice win 4 pistons

schroder saved their asses at the end

bad offensive showing by the knicks, lots of aimless dribbling and zero use of towns and brunson pick and roll

pretty much a complete disaster of a playoffs for the knicks so far. i didn’t think that the inevitable loss to boston was worth an existential crisis over the make up of the team but looking this crappy vs the pistons definitely should. brunson is obv not right but the theory of this team is that there is more than enough offense to carry them without him having to do anything. and that has not played out at all the last two games and given the resources put into the team and the opponent that is inexcusable

thibs is probably coaching his way out of town, so that’s good at least

funny cade fame insofar as he was pretty great but you also saw the issues finishing at the rim that had people panicked a few years ago. he gets into the paint so easily that i think he just needs to add that pull up element that is in shai has and just cut the rim attempts down even further. tho im sure he’ll get more calls as he plays more

game*

he was also completely exhausted by the end, he is a bit lucky schroder stepped up

problem with the knicks having all this non brunson offense is none of those guys are really creators they need more juice off the bounce

voodoo i thought the whole “well if we lose at least thibs will be fired” pre-spin was kinda ridiculous however you may have been onto something

the knicks just seem like they're from another era w/the coaching and roster construction. the really good teams these days have 4 or 5 ways to beat you and the knicks have one lineup and one style of play.

funny cade fame insofar as he was pretty great but you also saw the issues finishing at the rim that had people panicked a few years ago. he gets into the paint so easily that i think he just needs to add that pull up element that is in shai has and just cut the rim attempts down even further. tho im sure he’ll get more calls as he plays more

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 21, 2025 10:21 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

def takes a lot of tough layups where hes not quite at the rim but is at a weird angle, feel like a lot of young players jump too early and need to figure out how to be physical and take that one last step so theyre actually at the rim, and yeah a better in between package is good too so weird tough layups arent the only option, cade seems pretty crafty tho i think hell figure all that out

you know whos amazing at getting exactly all the way to the rim is shai hell be practically under the basket before he jumps

clips planning on losing this series by turning the ball over for no reason

you know whos amazing at getting exactly all the way to the rim is shai hell be practically under the basket before he jumps

― lag∞n, Monday, April 21, 2025 7:33 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah he’s really good thanks for noticing that bro

for sure cade can def just get craftier and more creative/fluid w/ his body in the air. i think you can tell he’s still used to being bigger than everyone on the court and just banging into whoever on the way to the rim but that’s not his game in the NBA

happy to introduce you to a non jokic player haha faced xp

I really hate (jk Iove it) to point out but jokic being on the floor makes a huge difference on both ends

kawhi leonard

jamal murray weird

refs are casuals smh mispronouncing braun

theres absolutely no reason to respect german culture

Fair point

jesus christ the refs are wilding tonight

ref didn’t seem to know Dunn’s name when handing out flagrants

cold blooded killer kawhi is so fun to watch

denver’s spacing with russ out there is so bad. tho not sure christian braun would really be guarded either

so funny how Kawhi has absolutely no reaction to hitting an end of half buzzer beater and multiple 4th quarter 3s. especially with Murray and Russ going crazy when they do anything on the other side

this is a fun series (if you are completely neutral)

does Joker usually just pass on open 3s like that?

but yeah this has the makings of a really great first round series but I think the CLips need to win this one

awesome basketball game

tight one coming down to the wire

does Joker usually just pass on open 3s like that?

― frogbs, Tuesday, April 22, 2025 12:27 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes its very frustrating

james harden staying completely out of the way on offense btw

smart

lmao the one possession harden takes he barfs up a horrific shot

welp

you could tell he wanted to give it to kawhi but kawhi wasnt coming to the ball xp

stone cold classic kawhi playoff performance legit didn’t think we were seeing that again

insane kawhi game

39 on 15/19

being able to play pop a shot from mid range out of iso will always be the ultimate playoff cheat code

also just easily get open on those shots because youre the strongest person

Kawhi masterclass wow. And some very dumb plays by the non Russ nuggets players down the stretch, Jokic throwing up a no prayer shot with like 10 on the shot clock, mpj starting a fast break but just handing it to the other team and hurting his shoulder in the process, Gordon huge missed dunk, Jokic at least two very bad turnovers at the end. Cool game tho. Playoff kawhi is a different beast

that was a humbling game. pretty worried about the rest of this series now, esp if MPJ’s shoulder is going to be an issue

just way too many mistakes

dame time

Chris Haynes‬
chrisbhaynes.bsky.social‬

BREAKING: Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard will make his return tonight for Game 2 against Indiana Pacers after dealing with a blood clot that sidelined him for over a month, league sources tell me

xp if kawhi stays healthy its pretty worrisome. feel like the nugs need to prioritize getting zubac in foul trouble, there is a chasm between his ability to defend joker and the next man up, be it simmo the savage or whoever

idk it feels about as even a series as you can have through two games

to me, the nuggets have more reliable offensive production via the jokic-murray two man game whereas the clippers are heavily reliant on the single most unreliable playoff star we've ever seen and/or kawhi being superhuman. that certainly *could* be enough to win it, but that is not a stable foundation imo

however denver has basically four players, one of whom might be fucked up now, and there doesn't seem to be an answer to how to counter act the defensive strategy of westbrook and braun being left wide open, aside from just hoping that they make the shots. if MPJ is actually hurt then their spacing may become untenable

clippers have a better roster 2-7 or whatever but to me it feels like a question of which duo is gonna bring it home and i still fall back on jokic/murray and the way they play together being the trump card

i think we really really need to take a step back and remember that we're heading towards a game 6 and possibly a game 7 in which james harden is going to be prominently involved for one team. i'll repeat -- we're heading towards a game 6 and possibly a game 7 in which james harden is going to be prominently involved for one team. do not take this warning lightly

he showed a lot of growth in just passing it to kawhi in crunch time

his lay up attempt at the end of the game last night was so funny i'm laughing again thinking about it

I was thinking about the harden thing and then thought well maybe some of that is offset by the other team employing and relying on Russell Westbrook.

Caught the last qt of that knicks game. Really terrible offense. When Thompson fouled out with like 5 min to go I swore Brunson would start smoking Schroeder every play. He got him a couple times but looked way too gassed. Also pretty sure KAT barely touched the ball down the stretch

they don't run any sets, which puts massive pressure on brunson to create on every play

Also pretty sure KAT barely touched the ball down the stretch

― Heez, Tuesday, April 22, 2025 12:13 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

they said on inside the nba last night that KAT had zero points in the second half and didn't attempt a shot in the 4th q

clyde frazier spent the whole game commenting on the lack of cutting and movement without the ball. passiveness from kat, sure, but also hart and og. the coach isn’t gonna adjust so you gotta just hope that brunson starts looking to pass more? idk it’s really embarrassing to watch them play so far beneath their talent level

lmao

FROM SHAMS:

The NBA is fining Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards $50,000 for his “my d--- bigger than yours” comments to the Lakers crowd Saturday night, sources tell ESPN.

more proof that ant will never work for the Disney Corporation

gotta love the ant man

the ant narrative being separated from the KAT narrative was a big development for me personally

ant is good content, i do worry about some of his choices off the court and hope he can stay out of trouble tho

ass-backwards world we live in man you should be rewarded $50,000 for saying that to Lakers fans

so nice when yr two best players have bone bruises great way to start the offs https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lngdsutfuk2h

he's listed as doubtful, sucks

that does suck but the nice thing about the east is it wont matter for the first round, maybe 2.

well it’s not the east bcuz the cavs will have to play for real against the pacers. but for the celtics with the knicks specifically… yeah

ummm Pacers haven't won yet Jordan

kuz blowing layups on the first two possessions

buck defense hopeless

kuz going to the wiz really zapped him of any remaining good habits he had left from the lakers title run

4 straight seasons of collect-the-check yolo-ball

not good for ones comportment

kuzma has a 28 trillion over 1.5 games to start the postseason. that has to be a record

def something

the pacers are a tough matchup for them but the bucks simply do not have the personnel to muster a decent defensive rotation I don’t think

yeah theyve got giannis and brook after that idk

mcconnell’s crossover really might be the most unguardable in the league man. he hits it and he’s instantly at the guy’s hip

yeesh

wonder where giannis will play next year

sources say he is considering the denver nuggets

it would need to be a team that has trade assets

kuzma got a stat

appreciate how much hali loves to beat the bucks

pritchard sixth man of the year go celtics baby

Grizz only losing 17-32 after the first quarter

on pace to lose by 60 instead of 50

yeah they seem way overmatched and Ja is just not feeling it today

watching kevin porter jr dribble around and eventually shoot a 3 off the backboard while giannis calls for the ball in the post…

playoff basketball baby

btw kinda rude for new balance to replace jamal murray with cooper flagg they didnt even make a new ad they just swapped them out

Bux making it interesting

Playoff nembhard

hali hitting them with the dame time gesture. i love it

That was great love the chippyness

yeah hilarious how much dame hates it and hali keeps doing it

alright now the main event lets see if the lakers can allow more than 42 open or wide open threes

I have faith

they contested a three

gobert is so bad man why is he playing

Sometimes the key to hoops is just trying harder

Cmon wolves don’t fold

Yuckkkkkkk

Gonna have to beat the refs too it ain’t happening tonight mail it in

sad i didn’t post about it earlier because this was the most obvious 45 point game from luka of all time…

Yah I think he and lebron are bad game 1 players

Naz 4 fouls with 9 min left in the 2nd

might have to turn this one off for a while

Ok it’s 3 I misheard. Donte 3 too

Naz 4 fouls with 9 min left in the 2nd

lol luka loves to iso on gobert too much

cognitive dissonance between the lakers winning and the sheer pleasure watching luka make rudy dance like a marionette

lol xp

its funny theyre using a picture of luka at his most demonic yelling after hitting that game winner over gobert for their lil luka graphic tonight

cognitive dissonance between the lakers winning and the sheer pleasure watching luka make rudy dance like a marionette

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, April 22, 2025 10:54 PM (twenty-six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

Yah it’s something I can get behind

_Naz 4 fouls with 9 min left in the 2nd_


Those were some obvious fouls tbh

haa the revenge of gobert

Ok it’s 3 I misheard. Donte 3 too

ok Gobert got a pretty sweet block on Luka there

Lakers lookin a bit tired

hmmm that shot by Randle should've counted I think

kuminga sighting

Pretty sure dray is responsible for hurting Jimmy

This game is over, hoping Jimmy will be ready to go for game 3. GP2 clanking a dunk is one of those signs ya know?

xp the alternate angle on the replay shows Draymond not at all responsible. He was just standing there.

surprised they ruled jimmy out so quickly looked like he landed on one ass check mostly rather than his tailbone was a hard fall tho hopefully hes back next game

That was a bad fall.

Rockets got one of their Jalen green games

Warriors played pat Spencer in the 2nd quarter of a playoff game and that’s about all you need to know about this game for the dubs outside of the butler fall.

Rockets also going with the method of goading draymond and mauling curry

Steph missed only 2 games with his fall that looked (and sounded) worse. If the MRI comes out decent, I'll be shocked if Jimmy misses more than one game. The Dubs actually kept pace for most of the game after the injury and with a dehydrated, food poisoned Podz playing only part of the time. Definitely not the end of the world yet. If Jimmy misses game 3, I'm curious if Kuminga can ball out and help them win. He once again missed layups and free throws, and you can say "rust", but these are issues he's been battling most of his career and he needs to come out on fire if he wants to keep seeing the floor.

The fact that he's still so bad on the boards makes me think that he'll never put it together.

I honestly feel his issues are mental. It really sucks.

And say what you will about Pat Spencer, but the dude scored 11 (same as JK) on 5-7 shooting and made his one free throw. Hopefully this is the last we see of him outside of garbage time, though

celtics without their best player easily beating the magic is sad for the magic sadface for the magic

im feeling a lot better about jaylens knee

their roster on offense is absolutely dire once you get past franz and paolo. i know suggs is out but under no circumstances should cory joseph be the starting point guard on a playoff team in 2025

they really just cannot score a basket it is outrageous celtics were leaving all of them open from three they looked at the magic and decided they have no players that need to be guarded from three

paulo playing great in the offs second year running tho love paulo free paulo

the big problem is that building your offense around two wings who can't shoot from 3 makes things inherently pretty restrictive. it puts the onus on all three guys including your center to be able to space the floor. most teams have trouble finding 3-5 role players who can really shoot, or it's like a years long development process to build that kinda base up. but the magic need that as like a bare minimum given who their two main offensive players are

everyone wants wing guys but we're usually talking about ones who can shoot to some degree. the only recent analogue i can think of is the raptors w/ siakam and OG and that core got broken up bcuz it wasn't good enough and those guys are both better shooters than either paolo or franz. so i do wonder when the convos start about whether you can have both of them on the same roster unless one of them (franz) fixes his outside shot.

franz shooting is def a huge issue for them and its pretty sad for him because he would be a really good player if he could shoot but he cant and his player type really needs to be able to shoot, paulo on the other hand im not really worried about his shooting one because i think hell get to being passable but mainly because hes not a wing hes a big hes already such a beast at 22 years old and two hes only going to get more physically dominant hell be able to play some center eventually, i think building the slashing big style offense as detailed here technical basketball details etc around him would be the way to go, tho dont think it needs to be as purely that way as say with giannis because paulo shd be able to shoot ok and has more positional/stylistic flexibility, but still paulo bullying people in space with shooters around would be very sick, unfortunately the magic have exactly zero pieces in place to make it happen

franz beating the yips would go so far, praying for him

frans 3pt% by year 35 36 28 30, his ft% has been in the mid 80s every year idk what his problem is

cant believe the nuggs clips is the nbatv game

that is INSANE. they're going up against OKC/MEM!! I get wanting to give respect to OKC but jesus

very excited for pistons fans to get a big one in detroit tonight

this series does have the making of an upset. i like this knicks team but im all for max drama

mobley 1 daniels 2 draymond 3 final placing for DPOY

damn was hoping dray would pull it out

the backlash to his campaign was stronger than the campaign lol

classic spot for kat to try to do too much with disastrous results tonight

why are they booing brunson

are they just booing all the knicks

might be all the snapping his head back every time he gets touched.

knicks are actually playing offense crazy

turns out playing offense is a good strategy

something to think about

brunson doing a three stooges routine over here

this is good hoops

both teams played hard

my god reggie is such a moron hes freaking out about how bad the pistons losing paul reed would be in and altercation that kat was in

hahaha

these playoffs are helly chippy love it

helly chippy

been really physical across the board, maybe too physical

mitch rob has been huge so far

my god reggie is such a moron hes freaking out about how bad the pistons losing paul reed would be in and altercation that kat was in

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 24, 2025 6:40 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ya i accidentally turned on tnt before switching to the msg broadcast, never doing that again

would love to be listening to clyde instead

no clyde tonight sadly, still better tho

oh didnt realize he had gone part time

supposedly, he has a cold tonight and will be back

ah get well soon

wish beef stew was playing

was just thinking the same lol theres been two altercations so far but what if more

kat is so funny to watch. pulls all kinds of faces, weird body movements, massive clumsy feet, questionable decisions

cartoon ass basketball player

constant booing of brunson is probably inspiring him to pass more

this is a good game

Tobias and Beasley 2/15 fg

Reggie’s excitement about any little thing Paul Reed does is hilarious is Reggie his agent or something wtf

think he prob just read the scouting report and only remembered the name paul reed

schroder is good now interesting development

this series has been fun

can’t believe nuggets/clippers is the NBA TV game, cmon man

think they prob feel like cant put the 1 seed on nbatv, but they should

welp

I can sort of understand planning it that way, even though the series was kind of obviously not going to be good, but it’s a bummer they can’t just flex it, the start times are close enough it would be nbd

Tobias and Beasley 2/15 fg

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Thursday, April 24, 2025 9:20 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Typical Harris playoff performance.

he was good last game!

he was awesome in game 2

think he prob just read the scouting report and only remembered the name paul reed

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 24, 2025 8:30 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he prob just loves the nickname bball paul

great nickname tbf

he was good last game!

― brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, April 24, 2025 9:49 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was awesome in game 2

― gestures broadly at...everything (voodoo chili), Thursday, April 24, 2025 9:49 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That be fools gold, that be.

WHY WOULD YOU MISS THAT ON PURPOSE

like what???

WHY WOULD YOU HAVE DUREN INBOUND IT

is this what eastern conference basketball is like all the time?

Memphis are maintaining the series trajectory to win game 3 by 10 and game 4 by 40.

That was the least exciting never-say-die ending. Pistons never really had a shot and yet the final minute took 7 hours

knicks almost played like a normal basketball team for 48 minutes, but they could only make 47

is this what eastern conference basketball is like all the time?

― brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, April 24, 2025 10:03 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

its the dunn gordon shootout we all anticipated

why are the fans in the clippers wall section wearing bathrobes

raincoats?

grizz are up 27

Morant just took a brutal fall, probably out for the rest of the game at least. Crazy that Tatum, Butler, and Morant have all taken hard game-ending hits in the air.

these playoffs have been really physical

clips balling out

it’s not good

pippen jr doing some karate out here lol never seen that before

I’m not having a great time over here

tough out there

the 'offs never go according to plan. losses happen. just keep cheering them on and know you've done all you can do.

nuggets help heavy defence is not really working out

they’re dead on arrival

Grizz are really going to blow a 30 point lead huh

i dont see how they dont

SGA shoot 50% from the field in the playoffs challenge

Edey really got a Frankenstein's Monster thing going on huh

basicwllly feel the same about this nuggets team as I have the whole year or at least the last couple of months, bunch of guys who aren’t good enough and don’t play hard enough. jokic has been awful by his standards too but honestly who cares

not a good record for installing an interim coach two weeks before a playoff series, so far

doubt it matters that much tbh. wish I could say differently. there are too many fundamental flaws

maybe for Denver, I think Memphis would have been marginally less embarrassing with Jenkins. Especially at the end of close games.

That loss for Memphis was brutal. Tough to see ja go down like that. Too many dudes getting knocked out of the sky

Pretty awesome Caruso being Caruso minutes tho

not a good record for installing an interim coach two weeks before a playoff series, so far

tbf that type of action lowers a lot of expectations.

thinking about that edey vs dort jump ball rn

lol that was a mess

Canadian-on-Canadian violence

i really dont understand why edey is getting so much burn, espesh in crunch time? is jjj at the 5 not their best shot???

jayson tatum

He's pretty good

dece player

I might even give him a dece+

maybe so

Dame has legitimately sucked since getting back, thank god for Gary Trent Jr.

not a great game by the boston celtics!

Magic letting franz shoot a 3 on their last three possessions after cooking porzingis twice in a row to get to the hoop someone please get that team an offensive coach and some shooting

btw kinda funny thing at the end of the game the celtics called time out down by two with fractions of a second left on the clock and the celtics broadcasters were freaking out about the refs not reviewing how much time was left when the timeout was called so a ref just walks up to them and tells them that its not reviewable

controversial opinion, i'm not even sure i believe it--this wolves team is lame and i'm fine with the lakers beating them

does anyone else notice Luka being kinda lazy on defense

LeBron 3 pointers Jesus

lmao that shot of Luka

Cad what you mean whos your beef with?

kidd said after the game that luka is sick. he didn’t seem right physically and has been bad the last two games — 15-36 from the field, 4-16 from three, 9 turnovers

ant has been the best player in the series so far and figures to be the best player going forward unless luka can flip a switch. if it stays that way the lakers are dead because lebron does not have enough left to carry them vs this team and it has not been a comfortable match up for reaves

it's rough that LeBron gave everything he had in the tank and they lose by 12

jaden mcdaniels another big game lakers defense maybe not so good

two of his six highest scoring games of the year

Anthony Black’s a really cool defender but I do not see consistent offense ever coming from him

the perfect magic player

we're back! did we miss anything

I died but I’m ok now

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consecutive frames, the pertinent moment wasnt captured by the cameras, crazy ass finish, crazy comeback too

One of the best endings I’ve ever seen tbh

Genuinely had no idea if that was gonna count or not

I saw a good clip from above the basket that seemed to get it.

as for the game on now seems pretty obvious that the dubs would be winning this series easily with jimmy, and they might win regardless

have the rockets ever started running a play with more than 12 seconds on the clock

crazy idea

no one should have to watch vanvleet slow walk the ball up the floor. its a crime against basketball

Draymond eats souls in the playoffs

sorry for twitter its in the name of science but despite what malika says this one also isnt definitive they need high speed cameras

A new camera angle of the game winning dunk by Denver Nuggets Aaron Gordon shows he got the dunk off on time against the Los Angeles Clippers. pic.twitter.com/DE6oUHTM7v

— Chris Beasmore (@CBeasmoreSports) April 27, 2025

to be clear im cool with the game winning dunk standing who could argue its just crazy that it was so close that tv cameras couldnt capture it

It was nuts that it came down to that, epic collapse by the nuggets. There were a few possessions in a row in the middle of the comeback where they could barely get the ball across half court, i think they had 3 bad turnovers out of 4 possessions or something. Serious Clippers clampdown. The healthy Kawhi effect, he even rubs off on dudes like bogdan

honestly even with the angle from above there’s no telling what happens between those two frames. think it just comes down to a can’t overturn without conclusive evidence situation

bogdan more like dogban, he was hounding the nuggets but in their defense they were tired

yeah the evidence just isnt there fwiw i think he prob didnt get it off the frame with the light on hes so close to touching it it would have had to turn on at the exact instant the frame was taken

porter had a genuinely heroic game playing with 1.5 arms

I still feel pretty similarly about the series, not great, but it’s a 3 game series now and the nuggets have jokic, anything can happen. though only having 5-6 playable guys is not a recipe for enduring success. 2 days off before game 5 at least

nugs were daring dunn to make a shot and he could not but heres the thing i dont understand why do you need to play dunn at all who on the nuggets requires a perimeter stopper to guard them clips have a fine playoff rotation without him thats what id do

he’s been good on murray all series tbh

playing someone with no offensive game on murray just isnt worth it

good stuff tonight too bad ilh was down for some live reax. that game winner im so glad they let it count it shoulda counted we needed that.

gp2 unlocked the offense in the 4th cutting/rolling to the hoop! always a good strategy. and why everyone wishes kuminga would model his game after gp2. could score 18-20 a night with simple timely cuts off curry action.

one thing I’ve been thinking about but haven’t seen anyone mention re: that gordon dunk: theoretically, if the ball is in his hands until the very last immeasurable split second, shouldn’t the clippers have gotten to inbound with 0.1 left? if you think about it the clock cannot possibly have expired while the ball was in gordon’s hands (or else it wouldn’t have counted) but the clock also couldn’t have expired AFTER it left his hands (because the ball was already in the basket)

kawhi wasn’t great for much of that game until the comeback. conversely joker was pretty bad for much of that stretch and was just able to use his smarts to make things happen in the final few minutes. harden was not great, murray was not great. pretty weird how hapless denver looked on offense in crunch time, could even complete a pass on some of them

couldn’t*

schrodinger’s dunk

one thing I’ve been thinking about but haven’t seen anyone mention re: that gordon dunk: theoretically, if the ball is in his hands until the very last immeasurable split second, shouldn’t the clippers have gotten to inbound with 0.1 left? if you think about it the clock cannot possibly have expired while the ball was in gordon’s hands (or else it wouldn’t have counted) but the clock also couldn’t have expired AFTER it left his hands (because the ball was already in the basket)

― brony james (k3vin k.), Sunday, April 27, 2025 12:16 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think i can answer this one: no

Zeno's dunk

was at a wedding last night so couldn’t watch live but that nuggets putback is one of the best game winners i have ever seen in my life

alltimer for sure

knicks not messing around so far

KAT wyd