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eminence wrote:4th time in 5 seasons that his injuries seriously threaten/end the Bucks PO run. Lucky his team caught the Hawks in the CFs.

The era of bigs may be remembered as the era of the one big who stayed healthy

The Nuggets/Wolves series might be the NBA finals basically.

Wolves match up better with them than anyone else and they seem very hungry for success. Should be an insane series and a dogfight.

This Minny/Nuggets series is gonna be a war. Whoever wins this series wins the championship IMO.

Kawhi looks like a shell. Clippers really had one shot at it which was his first year when covid gave him a rest.

Franz Wagner is a nice player to have. Has 20 PPG and good defense down as well. Orlando tied up the series to make things interesting. Fun team to watch.

Horrid defense from Jokic today. It’s one thing to not be able to jump high it’s another thing to not try to jump at all.

Jamal Murray can be infuriating to watch

This is one of those losses that shows the loss of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green for Denver and how they arent as good as last year

5 bench points for them and all 4 bench players deep in negative plus minus

I think we're sleeping on the Celtics with this MIN/DEN Finals hype tbh

Peregrine01 wrote:This Minny/Nuggets series is gonna be a war. Whoever wins this series wins the championship IMO.

Thunder victims tbh

TheGOATRises007 wrote:Jamal Murray can be infuriating to watch

This is more on Jokic than anything. When he has these games where he comes out extremely passive, the whole team goes passive and you get a stream of weak possessions ending with Murray taking difficult shots. This guy can create a good look on offense at will but sometimes he just coasts.

jalengreen wrote:I think we're sleeping on the Celtics with this MIN/DEN Finals hype tbh

The best record/net rating team in the west continues to be counted out too

OKC are just very inexperienced. Out of their 9 main rotation players (the guys playing 10+ minutes in the play-offs so far) it's the very first post-season for 6 (2x Williams, Holmgren, Wallace, Wiggins and Giddey). Then you've got Dort playing 1 series all the way back in 2020, SGA with 1 series each in 2019 and 2020 and then Joe who played 2 MPG for the Sixers in their 21 and 22 runs. The only one who has actually been to the play-offs somewhat regularly is 10th man Gordon Hayward and even his last appearance was in 2020 as well.

They're an impressive team with a bright future but if they manage to win this year with almost no post-season experience that'd be wild considering the teams they still have to go through.

Dutchball97 wrote:OKC are just very inexperienced. Out of their 9 main rotation players (the guys playing 10+ minutes in the play-offs so far) it's the very first post-season for 6 (2x Williams, Holmgren, Wallace, Wiggins and Giddey). Then you've got Dort playing 1 series all the way back in 2020, SGA with 1 series each in 2019 and 2020 and then Joe who played 2 MPG for the Sixers in their 21 and 22 runs. The only one who has actually been to the play-offs somewhat regularly is 10th man Gordon Hayward and even his last appearance was in 2020 as well.

They're an impressive team with a bright future but if they manage to win this year with almost no post-season experience that'd be wild considering the teams they still have to go through.

Sure, is valid to think unexperienced teams will underperform. But they wouldnt be the first young team to get far like thunder itself did in 2011

eminence wrote:4th time in 5 seasons that his injuries seriously threaten/end the Bucks PO run. Lucky his team caught the Hawks in the CFs.

They wouldn't have won their championship without injuries to the Nets though so it goes both ways

Peregrine01 wrote:

TheGOATRises007 wrote:Jamal Murray can be infuriating to watch

This is more on Jokic than anything. When he has these games where he comes out extremely passive, the whole team goes passive and you get a stream of weak possessions ending with Murray taking difficult shots. This guy can create a good look on offense at will but sometimes he just coasts.

Jokic is literally averaging 29 points on 69% True Shooting, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists (with 2.25 turnovers). IDK what more you want from him

falcolombardi wrote:

Dutchball97 wrote:OKC are just very inexperienced. Out of their 9 main rotation players (the guys playing 10+ minutes in the play-offs so far) it's the very first post-season for 6 (2x Williams, Holmgren, Wallace, Wiggins and Giddey). Then you've got Dort playing 1 series all the way back in 2020, SGA with 1 series each in 2019 and 2020 and then Joe who played 2 MPG for the Sixers in their 21 and 22 runs. The only one who has actually been to the play-offs somewhat regularly is 10th man Gordon Hayward and even his last appearance was in 2020 as well.

They're an impressive team with a bright future but if they manage to win this year with almost no post-season experience that'd be wild considering the teams they still have to go through.

Sure, is valid to think unexperienced teams will underperform. But they wouldnt be the first young team to get far like thunder itself did in 2011

I'm talking about winning the title though, which is a different beast from reaching the conference finals and losing in 5 like the 2011 Thunder did. I don't see this Thunder team getting past the Nuggets or Wolves. Wouldn't call losing to the defending champs with the best player in the league who had the exact same record in the regular season or losing to a team who had just 1 less win and is stacked with the DPOY, 6MOY, an All-NBA 2nd team player and 2 more former All-Stars underperforming in any sense of the word either.

Special_Puppy wrote:

Peregrine01 wrote:

TheGOATRises007 wrote:Jamal Murray can be infuriating to watch

This is more on Jokic than anything. When he has these games where he comes out extremely passive, the whole team goes passive and you get a stream of weak possessions ending with Murray taking difficult shots. This guy can create a good look on offense at will but sometimes he just coasts.

Jokic is literally averaging 29 points on 69% True Shooting, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists (with 2.25 turnovers). IDK what more you want from him

This has been a special offensive performance, but I’ve found his defense to be uninspiring so far. Could be more of a playing the long game thing given Denver’s title aspirations and how they have played the Lakers - but he’s helped the Lakers ORTG out a fair share here.

Special_Puppy wrote:

Peregrine01 wrote:

TheGOATRises007 wrote:Jamal Murray can be infuriating to watch

This is more on Jokic than anything. When he has these games where he comes out extremely passive, the whole team goes passive and you get a stream of weak possessions ending with Murray taking difficult shots. This guy can create a good look on offense at will but sometimes he just coasts.

Jokic is literally averaging 29 points on 69% True Shooting, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists (with 2.25 turnovers). IDK what more you want from him

He’s played most of this series as if he’s playing a scrimmage. It’s ridiculous how easy he makes it look but he hasn’t played with much urgency outside for a few quarters here and there.

A lot of people (myself included) thought Dallas and Clips could have been one of the best first round series of all time. We’re getting this with New York and Philly instead, 3 wire to wire games so far - and some absolutely incredible performances from Maxey, Brunson, and Embiid.