NBA (2019-2020)

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bryanb
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by bryanb »

YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder will be taking on the New Orleans Pelicans in an epic Flack-Bryan B. SHOWDOWN tomorrow in Oklahoma City! I'm not expecting this to go well at all. Then again, the two teams do have the same record at the moment. Maybe they both have a chance?

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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I saw the score of the Houston/Wizards game and thought for sure that must have been after 2-3 overtimes. Nope! In the NBA a win is a win, but it's tough to say you executed well when you gave up 158 points to the Wizards.

Looking forward to the Lakers game tonight. They were being touted as a golden team in the west and I just haven't seen it yet.
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bryanb
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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The Thunder thundered to victory against the hapless Pelicans in the first ever Flack-Bryan B. derby. Not completely unexpected. I didn't see the game, but I felt sick to my stomach when I saw the box score and noticed Brandon Ingram didn't get many minutes. Sure enough, he left the game early with a head injury, but it hopefully wasn't a concussion. I'm not going to accept a 1-81 season win loss record until the bitter, bitter end.

Who is everyone else's NBA team? I just want to know when a big JC matchup is happening. I'll be particularly interested in any time my team beats your team even though that's probably not going to happen this season.

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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

The Rockets/Nets game was one of the most visually interesting games I have ever watched. The Nets' court is light brown and gray; combined with the Nets' gray uniforms and black seats, at times it was almost like watching a game on a black and white television. The red on Houston's uniforms really popped. The whole game looked strange. In other strange news, the Nets beat the Rockets. I experience deja vu every time I watch the Rockets play. Harden scored 36 and Westbrook got another triple-double and they still lost.

The Thunder's win over the Pelicans was surprising, since Steven Adams was out. I think it would have been a different game (and likely a different outcome) if Ingram had stayed in. I always enjoy watching JJ reddick, so that was fun.

I watched the Lakers/Mavericks game expecting fireworks and was not disappointed. It's the dawn of a new age in Dallas with Doncic and Portzingis, and they were on fire all night. And then in the west you have James and Davis. I really thought the Mavs were going to pull off a victory, but when any team LeBron James is down by three and gets to in bound/run a play with six seconds left, anything can happen... and did. As someone who watched them both in their primes I will always consider Jordan the GOAT, but James did a good job throwing his hat/weave in the ring during overtime in that game. Wow.

Draymond Green tore a ligament in his finger and will miss several games. With Curry's broken wrist (out for 3 months), that means the Warriors now have no returning starters. Oof. The three time champs are 1-5 so far this year.

I haven't watched too many eastern games yet but the 76ers are 5-0 and the Celtics are 4-1.
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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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YOUR OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER did battle last night with Lebron's Lakers. The Lakers won, which was expected, but the game was closer than I expected (107-112). The 2nd-4th quarters were a wash score-wise, with the Lakers putting up five more points in the first quarter and winning by five. As good as the Thunder looked last night, their defense could not keep up with the Lakers' fast breaks.

The best NBA video you're going to see this week is Carmelo Anthony attempting to dunk during his first comeback game and getting denied by a 19 year old. Oof. It wasn't a vicious block or anything, but that's what happens when you go to the rim against someone half your age. I mean, in the NBA. If you're sixteen years old you can probably school most eight year old kids.

If you haven't seen Luka Doncic play, man, that kid is something. Here are highlights from his 42 point game against the Spurs.

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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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There are so many great players in the league right now. Giannis Antetokounmpo (yes I cut/pasted that) dropped 50 points against the Jazz. We're one month into the season and I'm already looking forward to the playoffs!

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bryanb
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I haven't been following the NBA too closely over the past couple of weeks. Less important things got in the way as they are wont to do. However, I did watch the Tuesday game between Dallas and New Orleans. If you didn't catch the game, it's probably for the best as it was a little ugly at times. Not ugly in terms of behavior so much as ugly in terms of missed shots and turnovers. I was a bit surprised at the strategy employed by Alvin Gentry (Nawlins coach) because the Pelicans started out really attacking the paint despite the hulking presence of Porzingis for Dallas. The Latvian big man blocked something like four shots in the first quarter alone...but he also got into foul trouble and wasn't a factor for most of the game so maybe it wasn't such a bad strategy after all. Doncic kept Dallas in the game by scoring at will and rebounding like crazy (18 rebounds...and he's the point guard). In the second half, the New Orleans scoring machine really came to a grinding halt. The Pelicans aren't exactly a defensive powerhouse so if they're not scoring they're not winning. They didn't win. The shooting was downright atrocious at times. Lonzo Ball went 2-12, and 10 of those shots were three point attempts. Of course, he shot lights out in the Pelicans next game vs the Suns. The Lonzo giveth and the Lonzo taketh away.

Dallas has been a bit strange to watch this year. They have one of the hottest young players in Luca Doncic who has been lighting up box scores all season, but I think at this point in his career Doncic is more of an individual performer than a leader of a team. He's played very well in every single game I've seen the Mavs play this year, but his team often seems to lack intensity and fire, especially in key moments. This was an ideal game for Dallas because they didn't have to stay focused for the whole game...the Pelicans' offensive collapse made it an easy, straightforward game. The Dallas bench got a lot of minutes and looked very solid, especially Seth Curry who scored 19.

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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder has had an interesting week.

During last week's game against Minnesota, the Thunder were down by one with 1.1 seconds left when they were forced to foul which sent the Timberwolves' Towns to the line. Towns made the first shot (121-119) and then they buzzed Jordan Bell to come in. Bell stepped on the court with his jersey untucked, which the Thunder's Chris Paul pointed out to referees is "technically" a delay of game penalty. I say "technically" because it happens every single game and I have never seen it called before, ever, ever. But Paul grabbed a ref who was forced to call it, and since Minnesota already had one delay of game penalty, the second one led to a technical foul. The Thunder shot the technical, making it 121-120. Towns made his second shot (122-120), and then the Thunder threw a hail Mary pass which led to a layup and tied the game, 122 all. The Thunder went on to win in overtime, which wouldn't have happened without this truly bizarre call.

So all's good, right? Wrong. In Monday's game against Portland, OKC was called not once, but twice for delay of game penalties. The first one was so weird that nobody saw why they called it. The second one was called against (guess who) Chris Paul, for touching the court while still wearing his sweat bottoms -- again, something that literally happens every single game. It was one of the most blatant examples of referees getting even with a player and making a point I have ever seen. After the game, Paul laughed and said, "they got me back," which will probably get him fined. It sucks that in the NBA you can get fined for telling the truth.
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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I also watched the Rockets vs. Cleveland game, which was kooky. The headline in Houston will be that Harden dropped 55 points and 10 3 pointers, which is nuts. (Westbrook scored another 25, I think.) The headline in Cleveland will be that they had a 24 point run that began in the 3rd and went through the 4th. Usually teams that go on a 24-0 run late in the game win, but not when you're up against a guy who keeps dropping 50 points a game.

Harden and Westbrook, both former Thunder players, seem to have taken at least one thing from the Thunder down to Houston -- our propensity to coast and blow leads late in the game. 24 point run? By Cleveland?
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I wanted to say how much I truly enjoy these NBA posts, even though I don't have much to say because life has conspired to not allow me much time to view basketball. But I pretty much get all my NBA happenings from you, Flack, and I do appreciate these updates.

I saw that the Clippers beat the Lakers yesterday. Did the Lakers get any better after their ehh start? Is it still true that the Bucks are favorites in the east? I love Milwaukee, the city, and hope the Bucks make it to the finals this year.
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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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The Lakers are currently ranked #1 in the west, so things are going okay for them at the moment. That being said, the season is 1/3 over. Will the Lakers make the playoffs? Yes. Will they win the western conference? Not a chance.

The big upset yesterday was Golden State beating Houston. The Rockets are fourth in the west, and Golden State currently has the worst record in the west at 8-24 (the Hawks are the only worse team in the league). And it didn't seem to be a case of stars not playing on Christmas so... ?

The Bucks are still #1 in the east and six wins ahead of the Celtics.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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On Thursday, YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder faced Houston in OKC. It was the first time Thunder fans got to see Russell Westbrook play in Oklahoma City in a Houston jersey. He got a huge standing ovation both before and after the game, but the happy reunion did not mean OKC would go easy on their old teammate. On the contrary, at one point in the third, OKC was up by THIRTY over Houston! The Thunder made a statement and I had a lot to say about it, but tonight we lost to the Lakers who played without LeBron or Anthony Davis so seriously fuck this team.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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On Wednesday I turned on TNT and caught the beginning of the Bucks/GSW game. Right before tip off, one of the commentators summed it up: "get ready for this exciting game between the top team in the east vs. the last team in the west." I watched the first quarter. It looks like the Bucks won by about 10, which I'm guessing means they pulled their starters out for the second half. Just a guess.
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bryanb
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I caught two entertaining NBA games last week. Flack already mentioned the OKC-Houston game which was a truly impressive win for the Thunder. Chris Paul scored at will and provided great, intelligent veteran leadership. Danilo Gallinari shot lights out. Steven Adams hustled and was a force to be reckoned with on both sides of the floor. Dennis Schroder coming off the bench was a serious scoring threat and provided great energy. Most importantly, OKC shut down James Harden or at least let him shut himself down. Harden can shoot poorly but still get a lot of points from the line (and he's a consistently excellent free throw shooter) if defenders bail him out, but the Thunder did a tremendous job of guarding Harden without fouling. They didn't let him do whatever he wanted, but they gave him just enough space to hang himself. He still got 17 points and played somewhat better after a horrible first quarter, but it wasn't enough. Russell Westbrook not only had to deal with an emotional homecoming back to Oklahoma City (where as Flack mentioned he was cheered raucously...classy fans) but he also had to almost single-handedly keep Houston's offense going. He played exceptionally well under the circumstances and ended up with 34 points, the most of any player on either team.

I also watched the Friday Pelicans and Knicks game. This was the first Knicks game I've seen this year and it's not a team I've followed very closely in recent years. I was pretty sure Charles Oakley was retired and Carmelo had left, but beyond that the Knicks roster was a mystery to me. The first quarter was an excellent study in contrast. New Orleans was as always running and gunning and shooting almost every open 3 that presented itself. The Knicks on the other hand were scoring everything in the paint -- I don't think they took a single three through the whole first quarter. What made it so entertaining was that both teams were executing extremely well...the Pelicans were hitting most of their 3s and the Knicks were scoring on almost every possession. After the first quarter, the Pelicans found their inside game courtesy of Brandon Ingram (excellent inside and outside scoring this game) and Jaxson Hayes (7-8 shooting, 18 points) who is a tremendous young talent and the Knicks started shooting 3s which they mostly missed though Reggie Bullock did hit a couple. One thing I'll say about the Knicks is that they showed great hustle throughout the game. They didn't give up on plays and got a lot of steals (5 from Elfrid Payton alone). Veteran Taj Gibson looked like a bonafide top center out there -- he shot 8 for 8 and actually tried to play some defense in contrast to pretty much every other player on the floor. Hayes-Gibson was one of the more interesting match-ups on the floor in the later stages of the game (Derrick Favors was actually the starting center for New Orleans but left the game after being hurt). The young guy did pretty darn well against the grizzled veteran. In the end, the Knicks couldn't quite keep up with the Pelicans' offense, but both teams equipped themselves pretty well in this one, especially considering both teams were missing important players due to injury.

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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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Given the fact the Thunder had Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka at the same time.. even got Paul George after losing 3 of the aforementioned to keep them somewhat relevant... and accomplished jack shit besides becoming the Utah Jazz Central, the NBA is probably just going to admit the massive failure and send them back to Seattle where they belong. Half the guys who hoodwinked Starbucks boy are dead anyway now.
the last group complained, quite tellingly They said, "Why don't you have a spoon that just says 'Earth?' It would save time

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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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Knuckles the CLown wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:31 pm Given the fact the Thunder had Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka at the same time.. even got Paul George after losing 3 of the aforementioned to keep them somewhat relevant... and accomplished jack shit besides becoming the Utah Jazz Central, the NBA is probably just going to admit the massive failure and send them back to Seattle where they belong. Half the guys who hoodwinked Starbucks boy are dead anyway now.
That's not entirely true. We also had Adams and Carmelo Anthony.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I caught the Mavericks/Pelicans game last night, where Luka Doncic went head-to-head against 19-year-old wonder-dunker, Zion Williamson. Williamson reminds me of Shaq in a way, just a big oversized guy who takes it to the rim every chance he gets, but Doncic is so amazing to watch and it was fascinating to watch the Mavs sidestep the Pelicans and dominate from inside and outside the paint. Williamson is amazing, but he's also 19 and came off as a one trick pony as he tried to dunk over and over to the point that every time he came near the paint the Dallas defense just collapsed on him. Mavs won in overtime by four, and it was one heck of a game.
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bryanb
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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Flack wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:41 am I caught the Mavericks/Pelicans game last night, where Luka Doncic went head-to-head against 19-year-old wonder-dunker, Zion Williamson. Williamson reminds me of Shaq in a way, just a big oversized guy who takes it to the rim every chance he gets, but Doncic is so amazing to watch and it was fascinating to watch the Mavs sidestep the Pelicans and dominate from inside and outside the paint. Williamson is amazing, but he's also 19 and came off as a one trick pony as he tried to dunk over and over to the point that every time he came near the paint the Dallas defense just collapsed on him. Mavs won in overtime by four, and it was one heck of a game.
Yeah, it was a great game. I felt like this was the first game I've seen where Zion couldn't dominate the paint at will and score with pure physicality. The twin towers of Porzingis and Kleber were blocking, pushing, and cramming on every play inside. I did get the feeling the refs were letting some rough play go uncalled, but someone as big and strong as Zion often isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt plus Dallas had the home court edge. It's also true sometimes that Zion is going to end up on the floor without needing any help because he's still learning to control his body -- he's definitely more of a freight train than a ballet dancer out there. Zion desperately needs a mid-range jumper to give himself another scoring option, but the good news is that New Orleans has a great shooting coach and Zion has a lot of sharp-shooting teammates to learn from. I expect a year or two from now Zion won't need to go to the basket on every play, and he's going to be a lot more dangerous against a team like the Mavs when that happens.

I'm not an NBA coach for good reason, but if I was advising Alvin Gentry I think I would have recommended that the Pelicans use a man-to-man defensive scheme against Dallas. I can totally understand why you'd want two defenders on Doncic, but the Mavs also have great perimeter shooters you don't want to forget about. Seth Curry shot 6 three pointers last night, and he was wide open for several of those. Tim Hardaway Jr and Delon Wright were given too many easy looks as well. The Pelicans' best defender is Jrue Holiday, and he did a great job on Doncic last night. I'd say the best bet defensively would be to trust Jrue (who is honestly becoming one of my favorite NBA players due to his offensive swagger and consistent hard work on both ends of the court) and make sure every Mav has a guard on them. To a certain extent, Doncic due to his skill and Porzingis due to his height are going to be unstoppable for a smaller and generally non-defensively minded team like the Pelicans. You can play them hard, but you won't be able shut them down if they're playing well. Limiting the number of points the Mavs' supporting cast is able to score is an important key to victory.

At least the Pelicans were able to give Dallas a run for the money in the three point shooting department. Lonzo Ball made 7(!) from behind the arc last night...that guy's development is starting to amaze me, and I'm gaining a grudging respect for him despite my distaste for the Ball family's publicity seeking ways. Surely we all have family members who embarrass or anger us from time to time. Cousins named Willy, for instance. The cousins not named Willy aren't all exactly winners either. I might not be a particular fan of the Ball clan as a whole, but Lonzo's pretty much OK, especially when he's playing basketball.

When Porzingis and Doncic are playing up to their potential, the Mavs are very tough to stop. While Doncic always seems to be amazing, I haven't seen Porzingis look as dangerous this season as he did last night. He was a blocking, three-point shooting, and inside scoring triple threat all game long. In an earlier DAL-NOP matchup this season, Porzingis seemed to really struggle when Nicolo Melli was guarding him despite the height difference. That definitely didn't happen last night, and I felt like Porzingis was particularly offensively-minded whenever Melli was on the floor so I guess he definitely remembered the previous game. Melli struggled with his shot last night (ending 1-9), and I have to admit I partially blamed him for the Pelicans not being able to maintain a lead. He redeemed himself by shooting a dramatic three with Porzingis bearing down at him at the end of regulation. What a shot, what a moment. If only the OT had been as exciting. Still, if Melli had just made one more three pointer earlier in the game or if another foul or two had been called and Zion had been able to shoot a few more free throws, this game could easily have been a Pelicans win despite the excellent play of Doncic and Porzingis. I'm not as confident as the pundits that the Pelicans will be able to make the playoffs despite an easy upcoming schedule, but I'm definitely hopeful.

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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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NBA Suspends Season Until Further Notice Following Wednesday's Games

The NBA is suspending play until further notice following the conclusion of Wednesday's games as the league announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminarily tested positive for coronavirus. The player is Jazz center Rudy Gobert, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.

Per the NBA, the test result was reported shortly before tip-off of Wednesday's game between the Jazz and Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The affected player was not in the arena. After taking part in normal warmups, players from both the Jazz and Thunder walked off the court just before tip-off, beginning what was a more than 30-minute delay. The game was eventually called off.
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RealNC
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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I watched 28 Days Later. I know where this is going.

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