DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum NBA Continued

Yep. I thought they'd go into OT. Wrong. Great game to watch and the ending was fantastic (I didn't care who won, either).

I got absorbed in this and missed the beginning of GOT.

Darn it.

Just clicking.

I watched the last four minutes, which took 18 in real time. Nice finish.

It was literally the only four minutes of nba that I've watched all year. I prefer high school games in person.

I'm glad Portland and Toronto won. The 76ers are not a very likeable team. I'm hoping Portland can beat GS, but I highly doubt it. I don't care who wins between the Bucks and Raptors, but that should be an entertaining series.

What a shot by Kawhi (and performance) ... rooting like heck for Portland in the west, and just a good series in the east.

My guess: it'll be Bucks vs Warriors

That final shot by Kawhi was pretty sweet. The double (triple?) bounce that finally went in took forever and must have been the longest moment of any 76ers fan. Not quite the straight up assassin shot that Lillard had against OKC in game 5, but still an amazing finish.

When Jurkic went down people wrote the Blazers off. When Lillard hit a slump against Denver, people wrote the Blazers off. Meanwhile Portland has continued to prove people wrong. If they lose Rodney Hood it certainly makes it harder, but without KD, GS are vulnerable.

Yeah, that ball literally hung on the rim ... not sure you could ever replicate that from that angle/arc/etc

Heartbreaking loss last night for Portland. They played well, adjusted their game perfectly, but couldn't finish it down the stretch. I hope they manage to win both games 3 & 4 to return to OAK 2-2, but that loss could be the nail in the coffin as it was deflating.

Yeah, that was as tough of a loss as it gets.

I might be the only one on this board, but I really miss LeBron and the Cavs being in the playoffs.

All I read on here the last year or two were negative comments about LeBron and how awful the Cavs were. I had a different opinion. I actually enjoyed a team that made it to the Finals 4 freaking years in a row.

I still remember a post last year where a dude said he wished we could be the Pelicans. Okie-dokie.

Most folks on here were all about losing LeBron and tanking. How did that work out? I'm actually happy that the Cavs didn't get rewarded for tanking. Neither did the Suns or Knicks. Tanking is despicable. It is the ugly step-child of geeks and is not something any respectable athlete would ever endorse.

There are lots of respectable athletes that endorse it every year. And it works which is why teams in the NBA, NFL, and MLB do it every year.

I agree that it's a problem and I'd expect the leagues (especially the NBA and MLB) to address it more in the near future.

What are you on about? I don't remember one person wanting to lose Lebron, let alone "most".

If anything, people were resigned to tanking only after Lebron said he was leaving, because there wasn't much chance for us to compete anyway, and it wasn't like we would magically sign big name free agents.

Tanking after LeBron leaves has never worked for the Cavs!!!!

Are you telling me that Kevin Durant doesn't want to come to Cleveland?

the Bucks are legit. Not sure they beat Golden State, but they are a tough out

Your memory is way off. What people were frustrated about, me included, were the very bad and short-sighted decisions made by the Cavs over the years. This was masked by how excellent LeBron was as a player (disregarding his influences on coaching and the front office), the clean cap sheet and war chest of future picks stockpiled by Chris Grant, lucking out on getting the #1 overall pick three out of four years (twice with #8 odds!), etc.

I don't think there has ever been a team that had that level of good fortune in such a short amount of time. Add to it LeBron coming back and this could have been an all-time great dynasty. We could be what the Warriors have been, heck, maybe even better. I enjoyed the Cavs run too and the one championship was great, and kept that run from being a complete debacle. However, great teams in the NBA can win five championships or more and that could have been the Cavs if the front office was more competent and LeBron didn't have to get his guys paid.

Yes I know that's greedy as hell, but we've seen it in the NBA with the Warriors, Spurs, Lakers (multiple runs), Bulls, Celtics (also multiple runs), and maybe another team or two that I'm forgetting off the top of my head.

Now we get to see what the Cavs can do from a more ordinary position of luck. Early returns have not been promising but we'll see what they can put together going forward.

Hey Fate, I see you liked his post. I'm surprised because you aren't part of that group.

Go back to last year's Cavs threads during the season and the post-season and tell me there wasn't a lot of trashing of LeBron and the Cavs and if people weren't talking about starting over from scratch by tanking.

I don't make crap up like those guys do and I'm surprised you agree w/them.

I don't like or not like posts with some "clique" mentality. I read your post and thought is was a bit absurd, I read his and it was exactly what I was thinking. I'm not going back to read anything, don't care enough. If you want to pick a post or two where someone said "get rid of LeBron and tank", I wouldn't be surprised that they existed, just don't see how that would qualify as "most people".

I'm part of the "Dawgtalkers group", unfortunately that has turned into reading post after post in an online pissing contest lately (see Duke Johnson). I get that there is no football, so I'm holding out hope that it will all get better when the pigskin starts flying again. Until then, I find myself losing interest in even coming here.

Fine.

Glad to see Portland winning tonight. I'm in first place in a big tournament.

I don't like the guy, but Draymond Green is a really good player that is underrated by most. The guy is the heart and soul of GS. He's a very passionate and intelligent player that makes everyone else better.

looks like a sweep

Bucks Warriors showdown coming ( I hope it'll be competitive)

You jynxed it!

Just kidding...but with the Browns I never accept a win until the final whistle. Been disappointed far too many times when they had a game won, but found a way to lose.

Game 3 was essentially more of the same in Game 2. Great game plan, Meyers Leonard was a beast (first time ever!), but they just couldn't sustain it. The 3rd quarter in both Games 2 and 3 were killers for Portland. I don't see the Blazers winning this series at all. My guess is it could go to 5, but I suspect the Blazers may be beaten up too badly both emotionally and physically and it could be a sweep.

No half time lead is big enough that the Warriors will ever be out of the game. After watching them play the Cavs, OKC and Rockets over the years, I've given up any hope that a half time lead means anything other than Klay and Steph draining 3-8 threes to start the 2nd half while Draymond gets enough stops to get them back in the game, if not the outright lead after 4 minutes of the third quarter.

Sorry bro.

j/c:

Good job by Toronto tonight/fun to watch!

Where's the "ducks behind the couch" emoji when you need it?

The Warriors kind of broke the NBA when they signed Durant. They've lost Curry in the playoffs before and have been fine. No Durant, just ripped off 4 in a row deep in the Western Conference playoffs.

How many teams in the past could lose a superstar and still be the best team in the league?

This to me is the reason why we don't have multiple rings in the Land. You could argue 2015 was winnable since we were without Kyrie and Kevin. Had they been healthy, we probably win 2015. Yes, that changes everything about 2016, but if you allow it all the play out the same, we came back to beat a more focused Warriors team the following year (again, huge non-logical assumption on my part).

However, once they added KD, they broke the league. There's no roster move to counter that. The league simply has to wait until that team dissolves or hope they implode due to egos.

The Cavs were built to win 2-4 titles but ran up against one the better teams of all time, across all professional sports history. Bad luck I suppose. I think we all hope KD leaves to get some balance back. I'm enjoying this Bucks and Raptors series because I assume it's the last bit of good basketball we have left this year.

Also, I think Denver would have matched up better with the Warriors. They choked away that game 7. Had they won, I think we get a 6-game series from the Nuggets. Oh well.

Bucks/Raptors might get to 7 games now, but it's such a stark difference for home court teams ... and I don't think Giannis plays that poorly on O again

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I'd be willing to toss out the 6th foul ejection. I wanted to see Giannis factor into the ending in the 2nd OT, but no, he has to watch the rest of the game from the bench.

The NBA is a star-driven league, leave the stars on the court.

Again, I know I'm dumb but can't we change the rule that after 6 fouls a technical foul is called but the player stays in the game. Or give them 7 fouls. I got so sick of this same thing happen while watching college basketball. I'd turn off games when a key player would get a 2nd foul early in the game. Sweet, one of the main reasons why I tuned in just got sent to the bench for the rest of the first half. Lame.

Meh.

I had more problem with the call itself lol ... Siaka (SP) lowered his shoulder into his chest. While Giannis wasn't set, it's still a PCF.

I could tell the ref knew he was on the spot with his brief hesitancy to make the call ... it decided the game basically

I bring this up again, because Magic was on First Take this morning and identified Pelinka as the guy who back-stabbed him. He had a ton of things to say that are sure to put the spotlight on the Lakers, especially because they are having a PC today where they will officially announce Vogel as the HC.

There are going to be a ton of very invasive questions being asked.

Yep. And a ton of politically correct non-answers. Should be entertaining lol.

The Lakers are such a mess. Magic Johnson was a big part of that mess.

I think the Lakers biggest problem is that there are too many voices who have the owner's ear.

We used to talk about how the Browns once had too many chefs in the kitchen at one point in time. That leads to organizational dysfunction.

Clear roles should be in place and people need to stay in those roles. I think Jeanie is perhaps a bit too nice.

There are definitely too many people in Jeanie’s head. And she is horrible at weeding out the bad voices. What she needs to do is hire a person with real credibility and then let that person loose on the organization, hire and fire whoever they want.

Agreed.

I just want to know who was in charge of the roster that, even with LeBron James, finished 11 games back of the 8th seed.

They were the three seed before LeBron got hurt.

Also, there is strong evidence that Magic wanted all the crappy veterans.