2024-25 NBA Thread: Finals court designs NBA ordered off Temu finally came in (43 Viewers)

[Orange&Blue]

When I saw Westbrook get the ball and go up the floor I thought for sure he was going to shoot or drive with it and was thinking, they're screwed.

Gordon down the stretch, wow. And that offensive board he got was great, but how the hell was no foul called on his shot attempt? Two guys up on him. In Denver that would've been called.

refs missed calls on both sides. as usual, they sucked. at least they were consistently awful.

 

[ChicoCat]

C's are going to win a game where they shoot the lights out of the building and they're going to lose a game where they can't hit water if they fell out of a boat.

Not for nothing, I'm hoping the Knicks win, but it took a Herculean Brunson effort to scrape that one out.

 

[Capella]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

 

[the moops]

2 snoozefests in the east.

Now here is an all time wrong prediction

 

[ShamrockPride]

2 snoozefests in the east.

Now here is an all time wrong prediction

You left out the all time right prediction which directly preceded it

And I'm still snoozing on the Knicks. It's not competitive once (if...) Tatum comes to the realization that he indeed isn't Kobe, and starts taking the ball to the rim. He did this last year.

 

[Major]

All three home teams lost game 1. Seems a bit anomalous.

Indeed. Crazy start to the second round. Normally I don't enjoy the playoffs as much when my team just gets eliminated but yesterday's games were top shelf

 

[Kev4029]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

And even more egregiously, they did it to Jordan.

 

[Major]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

And even more egregiously, they did it to Jordan.

And Hakeem. Loved seeing him run circles around The Admiral in the playoffs that year.

 

[Kev4029]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

And even more egregiously, they did it to Jordan.

Also, if the Nuggets were to pull out the series win here, it'll 100% be with Jokic outplaying SGA. The MVP is going to be announced any day - it won't be quite as bad as Dirk winning the MVP the same series that the #8 GSW beat Dallas in the first round, but it will kind of have those vibes if Denver wins the series.

 

[Kev4029]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

And even more egregiously, they did it to Jordan.

And Hakeem. Loved seeing him run circles around The Admiral in the playoffs that year.

Hakeem might have been the best player in 1995 but he certainly was not an obvious choice for MVP (he finished 5th in voting and mostly deservingly so) - if anything, it was more like 2nd stint Cleveland Lebron where he was probably the best player but was also only giving it 80% most nights to prepare for the playoffs. In 1993 he finished second to Barkley, but that was one of those years where it probably should have been Jordan and if it wasn't going to be Jordan, Barkley was probably the right choice.

 

[Major]

Jokic showed the world who's MVP tonight.

Yes everybody knows who the best player is but for some reason we have to do this dumb thing where a new player gets a crack at it. They did it to LeBron too.

And even more egregiously, they did it to Jordan.

And Hakeem. Loved seeing him run circles around The Admiral in the playoffs that year.

Hakeem might have been the best player in 1995 but he certainly was not an obvious choice for MVP (he finished 5th in voting and mostly deservingly so) - if anything, it was more like 2nd stint Cleveland Lebron where he was probably the best player but was also only giving it 80% most nights to prepare for the playoffs. In 1993 he finished second to Barkley, but that was one of those years where it probably should have been Jordan and if it wasn't going to be Jordan, Barkley was probably the right choice.

Hakeem was definitely the most dominant player in the league those years. There's a reason Jordan decided to take a sabbatical because he knew he couldn't withstand the dynamic shut down duo of Hakeem and Vernon Maxwell

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Villa-NOVA

 

[SWC]

joel embid should never have won a mvp that should have been joker his stats were unreal and they won the title neither should harden especially poop beard that should have been the first for giannis and westbrook he should never be in the same book let along paragraph let alone sentence as the letters mvp take that to the bank brohans

 

[dickey moe]

joel embid should never have won a mvp that should have been joker his stats were unreal and they won the title neither should harden especially poop beard that should have been the first for giannis and westbrook he should never be in the same book let along paragraph let alone sentence as the letters mvp take that to the bank brohans

Completely agree bropadre

 

[Bob Loblaw]

What an atrocious uniform package the NBA is rolling out in this game. The OKC uniforms may be the worst of all time.

They should go with what they wore in that AT&T commercial

 

[cheese]

How do we not have an obnoxious Knicks fan in here? And we have an Indy fan somewhere, don't we?

I am an obnoxious Indy fan does that count?

Here are some things to talk myself into keeping it going...
Pacers shot 24 uncontested 3s in game 1.
Cavs made an avg of 2.3 passes per possession, the lowest team in the entire NBA averaged 2.7 during the season. The Pacers help less than almost anybody and the Cavs played into it by letting the ball stick. Pacers avg 3.3 passes per poss. Cavs shot off the dribble instead while the Pacers shot off the catch vs closeout.

The game was honestly not very close in starters v starters minutes and crunch time. Mobley was -20 and Mitchell was -19. Pacers entire bench was negative. Pacers will probably shorten the bench at some point and while I think the Cavs depth is impressive, it probably matters less in close playoff games than over the course of 82.

No matter what you think about the context, the shooting will obviously get closer than game1. Pacers are going to have to do better on the aggression/hustle stats. They got beat to every 50/50 ball and now you have a desperate home team. Loose balls, turnovers, steals, long rebounds, need to go way better than game 1 for the Pacers to keep it going. Also, if they're serious about the defense they played in game 1 (i.e. only helping at the rim), Mitchell is going to be successful driving a LOT. Maybe they are willing to live with him scoring 40 tonight, but he probably will.

 

[Moe.]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

I watched a bit of Daigneault’s presser this morning, he says they have the guys “locked in” on fouling up 3. Might need to do some unlocking there Mark.

 

[General Malaise]

Last night gave us a little break betting the faves to win their series. I think Boston was -900 before Game 1, now -300. OKC also -300 now. Parlayed those series up and added the Cavs -210. +162

 

[Kanil]

Last night gave us a little break betting the faves to win their series. I think Boston was -900 before Game 1, now -300. OKC also -300 now. Parlayed those series up and added the Cavs -210. +162

Throwing away money, bro. Flip it to Boston, Cleveland, and DENVER and you have an easy win.

 

[Capella]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

 

[Moe.]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

I think the Thunder are fine with that, especially if he continues to have more turnovers than assists like last night. That’s generally the approach OKC takes with Jokic - make the other guys win the game. I think OKC is fine on defense, their late game offense is what killed them last night.

 

[Capella]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

I think the Thunder are fine with that, especially if he continues to have more turnovers than assists like last night. That’s generally the approach OKC takes with Jokic - make the other guys win the game. I think OKC is fine on defense, their late game offense is what killed them last night.

I don’t think the Thunder are ok with 42-22 and 6 assists. I doubt he has another 7 turnover game but he does touch the ball almost every possession.

 

[Kev4029]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

I watched a bit of Daigneault’s presser this morning, he says they have the guys “locked in” on fouling up 3. Might need to do some unlocking there Mark.

According to Basketball Reference, since 1984 in the 2-2-1-1-1 playoff format:

• 76% of the time teams that win game one win the series BUT if it is the road team winning game one, they only win the series 52% of the time.
• 77% of the time the home team loses game one, they win game two.
• If tied 1-1, the higher seed still wins the series 62% of the time.
• If 0-2, the higher seed only wins the series 14% of the time.

All of that to say, I think I would split the difference between 50/50 and -290 and put it closer to somewhere between -150 and -200. The Thunder are the better team and they have more paths to fix their issues. An optimistic Nuggets fan like myself does have some stuff to point to for confidence going forward - the rebounding disparity feels real (not +20, but a clear advantage), Hartenstein is not a great Jokic defender and Jokic only tends to get better offensively as series progress (7 turnovers for Jokic last night, eek), MPJ had a godawful game but his shoulder should continue to get a little better and he'll be better than THAT for the rest of the series, the Nuggets kept SGA from his spots last night much more than SGA missed shots that he likes, and the Thunder are a weird mix of dependent on shooting threes without being an especially good three point shooting team (they get a lot of good looks, so like Denver their season % is high but their overall ability is middling) AND the Nuggets mostly forced their mediocre shooters to shoot and contested their good shooters.

 

[Moe.]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

I think the Thunder are fine with that, especially if he continues to have more turnovers than assists like last night. That’s generally the approach OKC takes with Jokic - make the other guys win the game. I think OKC is fine on defense, their late game offense is what killed them last night.

I don’t think the Thunder are ok with 42-22 and 6 assists. I doubt he has another 7 turnover game but he does touch the ball almost every possession.

Well, it’s not like they have anyone else to guard him. I’m talking more conceptually - yeah it’d be nice to limit him whenever possible, but it’s Jokic so what are you gonna do. Doubling him all the time is going to get you killed.

We’ll see on the turnovers - probably the thing that OKC is best at is forcing those. I think it would be unwise for the Thunder to make big strategic changes - they had the game won, they just didn’t close. OKC’s problems are on offense.

 

[Anarchy99]

I saw a breakdown of the BOS / NYK game. The combination of BOS shooting 25% from three while NYK making 45% from three had something like a 0.82% probability . . . and the Knicks only won by one possession. The positive takeaway for the Celtics was those shooting variance outcomes overlapped, meaning that the Celtics terrible shooting night and the Knicks strong shooting night happened on the same night (if split, it could have impacted two games instead of one). I didn't like how Boston looked in the second half, but if things level off shooting wise, the C's should still be able to win without playing at their best. They still need to play better. Mazzulla didn't seem all that phased in his press conference. He was very on brand . . . got to hit open shoots when you get them, and in his opinion their shot quality was mostly good. I agree with others that they settled for way too many threes . . . and making extra passes with a couple of seconds left on the shot clock was a big issue.

 

[msudaisy26]

Not sure what the odds are, but betting the Celtics in five and six could be profitable.

 

[Mister CIA]

Not sure what the odds are, but betting the Celtics in five and six could be profitable.

Yeah, I'm not a gambler, but that looks soo tempting.

 

[the moops]

The combination of BOS shooting 25% from three while NYK making 45% from three had something like a 0.82% probability

Yea I doubt BOS changes their approach at all. Saw this

Celtics three-point shooting in Game 1 loss vs Knicks per NBA tracking data:

0-for-0 vs very tight defense
1-for-4 vs tight defense
7-for-32 on open shots
7-for-24 on wide-open shots

14-for-56 or 25% on open to wide-open shots.

In the regular season Boston shot 38% on those shots.

 

[Major]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

Maybe they should trade all those picks for Zubac. He really did a great job limiting Joker.

 

[Anarchy99]

The combination of BOS shooting 25% from three while NYK making 45% from three had something like a 0.82% probability

Yea I doubt BOS changes their approach at all. Saw this

Celtics three-point shooting in Game 1 loss vs Knicks per NBA tracking data:

0-for-0 vs very tight defense
1-for-4 vs tight defense
7-for-32 on open shots
7-for-24 on wide-open shots

14-for-56 or 25% on open to wide-open shots.

In the regular season Boston shot 38% on those shots.

The one thing I think the Knicks did well is they seemed to pick Tatum up closer to halfcourt and usually had other guys hedging so JT couldn't get all the way through the lane. He wasn't able to get to the rim for easy baskets very often, and NY seemed to be able muck up their rhythm and ball rotation. That left Tatum with some awkward two pointers and often Boston had no time on the shot clock and had multiple last second heaves. That coincided with the Knicks making their threes. I don't know if either of those could happen for that long a stretch again, but for Boston's sake, I hope we don't get to find out.

 

[Bossman]

Knicks missed 14 free throws. 54.8%
They should have won this game by 10 points without the need of OT.
Not saying they will beat BOS in the series but the Knicks were the better team last night ... on both ends of the floor.

 

[Bossman]

Also, as a Celtics fan, I'd like to say that the late game turnovers by Tatem/Brown are agonizing.
It has been an issue with Brown forever and he doesn't seem to be able to correct it.
Typically happening with sloppy, out of control drives thru multiple defenders.

 

[Anarchy99]

Knicks missed 14 free throws. 54.8%

This is both true and misleading at the same time. BOS intentionally fouled Mitchell Robinson multiple times because he is a terrible free throw shooter. He had 4 consecutive years shooting under 50%. He missed 7 of his 10 free throws. The rest of the team went 14 of 21 (which still isn't great). BOS will likely continue to implement a hack a Robinson approach, as those 5 NY possessions only yielded 3 points for NY. The rest of the team will shoot a little better from the line, but Robinson likely won't. Expect the Knicks to have a low free throw % this series if they are going to play Robinson.

 

[Capella]

Betting markets still have the Thunder as pretty significant favorites, I’m seeing -290. I think it’s closer to 50/50 after last night.

Thunder should be favorites still but they simply cannot guard Jokic with that stringbean and Hartenstein. If Joker puts up 40-20 every night Denver may win this thing.

Maybe they should trade all those picks for Zubac. He really did a great job limiting Joker.

Probably the best I’ve ever seen somebody play him.

 

[identikit]

Knicks missed 14 free throws. 54.8%
They should have won this game by 10 points without the need of OT.
Not saying they will beat BOS in the series but the Knicks were the better team last night ... on both ends of the floor.

Mitchell Robinson

I guess they have no other choice than to have him out there

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Knicks missed 14 free throws. 54.8%
They should have won this game by 10 points without the need of OT.
Not saying they will beat BOS in the series but the Knicks were the better team last night ... on both ends of the floor.

Mitchell Robinson

I guess they have no other choice than to have him out there

KAT was in foul trouble early so Robinson played even more than normal, but yeah he’ll continue to be out there.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Darius Garland (toe), Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb) are all out for Game 2.

 

[msudaisy26]

Darius Garland (toe), Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb) are all out for Game 2.

Cavs really need this game too.

 

[boilerdave]

Darius Garland (toe), Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb) are all out for Game 2.

The Pacers need to make this series 2-0 tonight.

 

[identikit]

Darius Garland (toe), Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb) are all out for Game 2.

The Pacers need to make this series 2-0 tonight.

Last chance in the 4th quarter here...

 

[irish eyes]

I know Cavs are missing a lot of players but Ty Jerome is awful. He is brutal to watch.

 

[Jayrod]

Pacers won't go away. Keeping it around 6-8 pts with plenty of time. Feels like the Denver-OKC game last night.

 

[Beef Ravioli Part 2]

The fact Cleveland is even in this game is an amazing and if they win, they stole one from Indy!

 

[Jayrod]

The fact Cleveland is even in this game is an amazing and if they win, they stole one from Indy!

They were 9.5 point favorites.

 

[Beef Ravioli Part 2]

The fact Cleveland is even in this game is an amazing and if they win, they stole one from Indy!

They were 9.5 point favorites.

How is that possible? Is Indy missing significant players? Cavs are missing arguably their most important player in Mobley, their all-star point guard and their sixth man.

 

[TLEF316]

Jeez. Tough couple of plays for Mitchell

 

[identikit]

Cardiac Pacers

 

[MAC_32]

The fact Cleveland is even in this game is an amazing and if they win, they stole one from Indy!

They were 9.5 point favorites.

How is that possible? Is Indy missing significant players? Cavs are missing arguably their most important player in Mobley, their all-star point guard and their sixth man.

It dropped to 5 after Mobley and Hunter were ruled out, but we were still favored.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

These pacers are like a horror movie villain. Every time you think they’re dead…

 

[Deamon]

OMFGGGGGGGGGGGG