NBA: 2024-2025 Season

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The 1st play in games were last night. The 7th rank Orlando Magic beat NY Knicks nemesis Trae Young and the No.8 Atlanta Hawks 120-95. The late game was The No.7 Golden State Warriors beat the No.8 Memphis Grizzlies 121-116
Tonight @Omnis No. 10 Miami Heat travel to the No. 9 Chicago Heat and @McLaren's No. 10 Dallas Mavericks travel to the No.9 Sacremento Kings.
Good luck tonight to all of the teams
 
So last night @Omnis Heat won 109-90 and @McLaren's Mavs won 120-106. So the Magic are the 7th seed in the East and the Warriors are the 7th in the West. Tomorrow the Hawks and Heat play for the 8th seed and the Grizzlies play the Mavs for the 8th seed.
 
I'm glad I'm not a Mavericks fan. @McLaren did you see the Nico side eye? :lol:

Meanwhile, Spo got them boys fired up.
 
Omnis
I'm glad I'm not a Mavericks fan. @McLaren did you see the Nico side eye? :lol:

Meanwhile, Spo got them boys fired up.
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I didn't, but I'm assuming it wasn't good based on the stats.

"Defense wins championships" as they let their entire starting 5 shoot over 50% except Ja who would've made it a 20-point loss.

Edit* Reading through Reddit now, it was a 20 point lead at 1 point and AD looks to have suffered an injury?
Come On Lol GIF by EsZ Giphy World
 
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In fairness, he put up 40 points. Nico needs to get straight fired though :lol: 👀👀
 
Omnis


In fairness, he put up 40 points. Nico needs to get straight fired though :lol: 👀👀
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Didn't learn their lesson on his debut. Rushed him back when he was reportedly not 100% & asking him to play more than anyone else on the court, including after he apparently started showing signs of an injury before the half.

Dumont doesn't know jack crap about basketball & he pushed for that "closed" press conference when Nico didn't, so maybe there's tension that could inflate even more after this loss. Damage is already done, though.
 
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Okay after last night's games. @Omnis Miami Heather the chance to knock off the No.1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers as the 8th seed after defeating the Hawks 123- 114. Who needs playoff Jimmy?
While the Memphis Grizzles defeated @McLaren's Mavericks 120-106. The Grizzlies will face the No 1 seed in the West the OKC Thunder.
Today's slate is four games #3 vs #6s & #4 vs. #5
In the East we have
#6 @Joey D's Detroit Pistons vs. #3 New York Knicks
#5 Milwaukee Bucks vs. #4 Indiana Pacers
In the West we have
#6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. #3 Los Angeles Lakers
#5 Lost Angeles Clippers vs. #4 Denver Nuggets
This years playoffs should be fun. There are quite a few storylines this year more so than usual. I hope everyone enjoys the games and I wish everyone who celebrates Easter a to have a happy Easter
 
So the 1st weekend of the NBA playoffs is done and it was very interesting
In the East
#1 Cavs beat @Omnis #8 Heat 121-100
#2 Celtics beat the Orlando Magic 103-86
#3 Knicks beat @Joey D's #6 Detroit Pistons 123-112
#4 Pacers beat #5 Bucks 117-98
I was only able to watch the Knicks game and I have say Detroit has a very good squad. They had a lead over my Knicks with CAde Cunningham have a bad shooting night. He dished out 10 assists. They had the lead going into the 4th qtr but they made a couple of mental errors to start the 4th qtr which were a bad omen. The Knicks had 21-0 run in the 4th qtr to comeback and win this game. Moving forward there may a couple of injuries. Jalen Brunson seems to not be fully recovered and Isiah Stewart left the game so we have to see how that plays out.

For the West here are the scores:
#1Thunder beat the Grizzlies 131-80!
#7 Warriors beat the Rockets 95-85
#6Timberwolves beat the #3 Lakers 117-95
#4 Nuggets beat the #5 Clippers in OT 112-110

A couple of observations from this weekend. The Grizzlies need to fire everyone GM and staff, coaching staff, cleaning crew and most definitely the players especially Ja Morant. If he were a rapper they would call him a studio gangster. I really hate to see him waste his career because he wants to be a gangster who doesn't care about anything. 51 points is ridiculous.
We have 2 series where you have established teams vs newcomers. Warriors vs Rockets & Knicks vs. Pistons. So far in both series the established teams prevailed, will that continue? That remains to be seen.
Today's games are
The Pistons vs. The Knicks at MSG
Clippers vs Nuggets at the Ball Arena in Denver
 
God the Pistons blowing their lead the other night was tragic. Hopefully, they can pull it together tonight. I'm not expecting great things out of Detroit, but considering last season they were a dumpster fire, I'll take even making it to the playoffs this year as a win.
 
Joey D
God the Pistons blowing their lead the other night was tragic. Hopefully, they can pull it together tonight. I'm not expecting great things out of Detroit, but considering last season they were a dumpster fire, I'll take even making it to the playoffs this year as a win.
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Well my Knicks returned the favor by playing a bad game. They have not looked good most of this series. I think Thibs has reached the end of his shelf life. He seems to me to be a coach that can only take you so far. He is not good at in-game adjustments and he steadfastly refuses to play KAT & Robinson together. Good win by Detroit they did what they needed to do.
In other news the Clippers also tied their series with the Nuggets at a game a piece. There was a vintage Kawhi Leonard performance where he poured in 39 pts. A healthy Kawhi will be a problem for Denver. If he stays healthy that is.
Tonight it's 3 games with Bucks at Pacers, Grizzlies at OKC & Timberwolves at the LA Lakers enjoy tonight's games
 
So the Grizzlies continue to get blown out and OKC continues look very dangerous last night with a 118-98 win. While it wasn't 51 pts getting beat by a combined 70 pts in the 1st 2 games of a series is not a good look. That's makes Game 3 crucial to Memphis. So far they have shown that they are waaaaaay below the Thunder so I am not expecting much
Dame Lillard returned for the Bucks and scored 13 pts in 37 minutes while the NBA's most overrated player as voted on by the players themselves Tyrese Haliburton's Pacers went up 2-0 as well on the Bucks with a 123-115 win.
Finally the Lakers tied up their series with the Timberwolves. Led by Luka's 31 pts they won 94-85. Luka and the entire LAkers team played good defense. Yes the same Luka who was traded because defense wns championships was playing some d last night. It wasn't ALL NBA defense but it was defense nonetheless.
Tonight's games are:
Orlando Magic at the Boston Celtics
GSW at the Houston Rockets
Miami Heat at Cleveland Cavaliers
Enjoy tonight's games
 
I enjoy seeing the Lakers bow out in the first round.
 
Brunson is so cold. His shoes got the traction tho.

 
Sorry I haven't been keeping updates coming but things have gotten busy with my children anyway this has been an eventful week.
Luka was called out for being out of shape by his coach after the Lakers got beat the Timberwolves. While I agree that Luka needs to get in shape he wasn't the one who decided to continue to play small ball and allow Rudy Gobert to look like Shaq. They got brutalized on the boards but Redick refused to adjust. To me I thought he was channeling his inner Tom Thibodeau :lol: and refusing to make adjustments. Lakers are not configured to maximize Luka and LeBron. Not sure what they can do but they are the Lakers and the league will find a way to help them out.
The league's most overrated and front running player Tyrese Haliburton's dad got banned from Pacers games after he got in Giannis's face after a great comeback win led by his son. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree 🤔
So the Knicks thanks to Brunson's dagger beat the Pistons 116 -113 to close out their series and get to the opportunity to play the Celtics. SO the 2nd rd is set in the East while we wait for the winners of the LAC vs DEN & GSW vs HOU
So the 2nd rd looks like this:
#1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #4 Indiana Pacers
#2 Boston Celtics vs. # 3 New York Knicks
In the West it looks like this
#1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. LAC/DEN winner
#6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. GSW/Hou winner
 
Houston was stacking bricks all game. Those guys couldn’t get a contested basket or an And1 to save their lives. I feel bad for Amen because he was the only one balling.

Steph Curry might be the most prolific player of the LeBron era after all is said and done.
 
Okay so we are a couple games deep into the 2nd rd and until OKC won last night no home team had won. So we have the Indiana Pacers up 2-0 on Cleveland and my NY Knicks up 2-0! on the defending champ Boston Celtics. Denver & OKC are 1-1 and GSW are up 1-0 on the Timberwolves. I think Minnesota might win tonight as Steph Curry is out with hamstring issues.
I think Cleveland is in trouble as they may be missing 3 starters going to Indiana. The most surprising series has been the Knicks/Boston series. Boston has been up by 20pts 2 games in a row and lost! They swept the Knicks and blew them out 3 times in the regular season. The only difference was Mitchell Robinson was injured. He has made a big difference for them. While Boston has not played well neither have the Knicks. The reason the Knicks are because Boston's best players have come up small in the 4th. Also Josh Hart has been hitting open shots. If he can continue to make them pay the Knicks have a chance. The media has been making excuses for Boston and we'll see what happens when they play at the world's most famous arena on Saturday
 
1st pick in the draft at 1.8% chance for the first time ever after a bad trade that's still got the fan base upset?
No Way Eye Roll GIF by ESPN
 
I couldn't believe Dallas got the 1st pick after trading Luka. Let's think about this Cooper Flagg is already a better defender than Luka and he is the type player Nico covets. That makes the 2nd year in a row that a play-in team gets the 1st pick. I know they are trying to prevent tanking but if the worst teams never get the No.1 pick especially in a draft like this what are they supposed to?
Anyway it looks like the defending champs are done. Jason Tatum tried to get a loose ball towards the end of the 4th qtr and he immediately grabbed his leg in pain. He stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes and he had to helped off the court. He was having a terrific game with 42 points. The Celtics were down 7 at the time and they would go on to lose to my Knicks. So now they are down 3-1 potentially without Jason Tatum.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors find themselves in a similar situation. The Warriors are without their best player Steph Curry and Cavs will be without Donovan Mitchell. The only series that has been close this round is the Den/OKC series which is tied 2 games a piece.
 
Been a Knicks fan for 30+ years, I'm definitely a happy man see them make it through to conference finals !
They've played well and not so well at the same time, so I have no idea how they'll go against Indiana ?
Seeing them over come 20+ point deficits to a good team like Boston gives me a bit of confidence, but all I can do is cross my fingers and keep the faith ... Go Knicks !
 
Only time I backed the Knicks was when they had a shot after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in ‘94. The whole Tri-State area was believing the Knicks could make it happen. Been a Boston fan from birth and even I had the belief the Knicks could do it. If the Knicks can keep that heart, versus the Pacers, the way they played Boston, we might see another possibility from the ‘94 Finals.

Watched a bit of the Celtic-Knicks semi-final game Sunday night and my has basketball changed. Just throw the ball to a big man and shoot from half court. Might as well be playing Netball.
 
I haven't (closely) followed the NBA since the 90's (and into the early 2000's) ... And yeah the game has changed, these days all the big men seem capable of playing every position. It's quite impressive just how versatile they are/have to be now !!

Watched a replay of game one last night, the Knicks kinda did a Boston and gave up a pretty decent lead in the last few minutes.
I'm a bit gutted, but it was still a good game to watch ! That shooting from Indiana at the end of regulation time was simply incredible ... unfortunately :).

...I don't know if everyone gets the same coverage, but having Reggie Miller commentating seems like a bit of an insult to Knicks fans, I still curse him for dismantling the Knicks on many occasions back in the days.
 
Well the conference finals have started and the OKC Thunder & Indiana PA era are 1. The Pacers came back down 14 with 2:45 left in the 4th behind Aaron Nesmith 6 3s during that span. The Knicks were overconfident and took their foot off that gas. Hopefully they remember what happens last night and play a full 48 minutes instead of 46.5. OKC/ Minnesota is on tonight and we'll see if the Wolves tie the series. Ant man is going to have play much better. Right SGA is getting all of the calls so it makes it that much harder. Former Knicks Julius Randle has been a beast this playoffs. He needs to continue to do what he has been doing if they are going to beat OKC
 
Well both series are at 2-1 with both teams that were down won game 3. The T-Wolves blew out OKC and my cardiac NY Knicks came back after being down 20 (again) with 20! 4th qtr from Bodega KAT to get a win they so desperately needed. OKC/Minnesota game 5 is tonight I believe and Knicks/Pacers are Tuesday. I hope both series go 6 or 7.
To me this has been one of the better conference finals in awhile. And not just because my is in the ECF. I feel like you have the 4 best teams in the league duking it out and it's those little moments each game that determines the winners. As a fan that is what you want to see close games down to the wire
 
Definitely enjoying the conference finals, some pretty intense basketball going on !
Not enjoying the results so much though :(... My traditional favorite Knicks will have to pull a few miracles now !
...And I'm not that fussed about the Western Finals with my other traditional favorite Denver already knocked out, but I would usually lean towards Minnesota (due to the legend Kevin Garnett), but they also need a few miracles now too !
 
So the Knicks staved off elimination for one more game. They actually controlled the tempo from start to finish and are sending the game back to Indiana. I hope they can continue to play defense like they did in Game 5 and feed Towns. The Pacers have no one who can guard him. If they have a game 7 in the Garden all bets are off. We’ll see what happens. Out west OKC dispatched the T-wolves leaving them with some serious questions for the upcoming season and foreseeable future. Randle, Reid and one other player who I can’t remember will be free agents. Do they go all in? Do they try to trade for Giannis? What will they do about Conley & Gobert who are both in their 30s. Again we’ll see
 
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So my Knicks lost game 6 and now the Finals are set. #1 (West) OKC vs. #4 (East) Indiana. No#1 def vs No#1 offense. The Knicks have some choices to make. They need to improve the bench and Thibs needs to make some adjustments to his style. The drop coverage doesn't work with KAT. So he needs to make some defensive adjustments and he also needs to change up his offense or at least diversify it. He definitely needs to learn to play different lineups through out the season and play the bench. Josh Hart needs to take a 6th man role and they need to start McBride that will keep teams from putting their center on Hart and daring him to shoot open shots.
This should be an interesting Finals. Indy likes to run and has a deep bench. OKC an run as well and their bench is just as deep if not deeper. Overall OKC has a better team and Indy won't be able to attack the PG and hide Haliburton. I can assume they will try to put Nesmith on SGA and that's not going to work. Not saying that Indiana can't win this series but on paper OKC should win. We'll have to see. The Fianls start on Thursday
 
Earlier today the Knicks fire coach Thibodeau after 5 seasons. I'm surprised but not surprised. IMO I believe he met with the GM and owner and they asked him to make some changes which he didn't want to do so they let him go. Let me say this Thibs has been a very good coach for the Knicks. But his refusal to make adjustments like bringing Josh Hart the bench because opposing teams started putting their center on Hart. The centers would then sag off of him. Hart was not a good enough shooter to make defenses pay on a consistent basis. Starting McBride over him would have alleviated a lot of those issues.
He refused to play the bench and play the young guys to prepare them for the playoffs. Some of it is on the players but a lot was his coaching.
Indiana hunted Brunson /KAT in the pick and roll and since Thibs insisted on drop coverage there were a lot of open 3s. His insistence on the drop coverage to keep folks out of the paint worked so well teams a bunch of 3s against the Knicks.
When you have 2 minus defenders on the floor you must hace a better offense than what the Knicks had
So what do they do know? They need another big and a ball handling wing who can shoot. See what they have in Kolek and the other rookies they have. Not sure who the next coach is going to be but they need an offensive minded coach to beat take advantage of the offensive talent in the team
 
This Knicks situation has been very funny. The national media has been trying to imply that James Dolan was behind this firing. And the Knicks made a big mistake. You can tell that they haven't been watching the Knicks. Besides not using the bench he was supposed to be a defensive guru. It's funny how they mention having two defensively challenged people meant that he was given a flawed team with no bench. When Denver won their championship no said a peep about Jokic & Murray who last time I checked are not good defenders. Before he was fired the same complaints that fans were making about Thibs the talking heads were saying pretty much the same thing. TBH he is stubborn and refused to change his way of doing things. His defensive philosophy was rooted in the nineties. I will say he did make some adjustments but not enough. He didn't try different lineups through out the season and only made a lineup change when his team was down 0-2. He refused to bench Josh Hart. Don't get me wrong I love Josh hart but with him in the starting lineup it allows teams to clog the lane. With Towns & Brunson they need to be surrounded by shooters to keep defenses honest.
Hopefully the next coach will actually develop the bench and play some of the young guys and be a good in game tactician with a modern offense
 
So game 1 of the NBA finals was last night and the Indiana Pacers came back from 15 down to beat the OKC Thunder 111-110. Tyrese Haliburton hit the game winning shot with 0.3 seconds left. The Pacers had 19 or 20 turnovers by half time but were still able to pull out the win. OKC changed their starting lineup for some odd reason and while SGA scored 38 pts on 30 shots his running mates Chet Holmgren & Jalen Williams didn't help out. They play again on Saturday I believe. If Williams & Holmgren no show again OKC will lose
 
OKC tied the series up last night with a 123-107. OKC got contributions from Holmgren & Williams. SGA "only" scored 34 points but he didn't need 30 shots to do it. Indy closed the gap somewhat in the 4tth but it wasn't enough. Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 pts on 7-13 shooting but he had 5 pts after 3 qtrs and 5 turnovers. No Pacers scored over 20 points. The series now moves to Indy so we'll see if Haliburton can show up. The series continues on Wednesday
 

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