this is a basketball thread

Holy shit

Had no idea that Krause was that old. Wow.

We're assuming that Thibodeau murdered him, right?

Those were some Fight Night: Round 2 for Playstation type haymakers getting thrown last night. Goddamn.

Matt Barnes plays so many goddamn minutes for this team with Kevin Durant out and I hate it. He played all of crunch time against the Rockets yesterday and is starting again tonight. He fouls like crazy. I would rather lose with McCaw in the lineup.

Pacers are boring as hell and disappointing AF and will probably lose Paul George after next season but at least we have LANCE BORN READY STEPHENSON signed under contract for 2 years. WOOOOO LARRY, YOU DA MAN!

i hate basketball.

I would've liked to see more competitive Pacers games this year to see the development of Miles Turner. He's an exciting player, but the Pacers rarely play marquee games anymore. The two games against the Warriors this year were two of the biggest blowouts I've seen.

I suspect Paul will leave too and I feel bad for Pacers fans. He seems like the kind of guy that is so wildly competitive and loves the spotlight that it's hard to imagine he sticks around for the rebuilding process in Indiana.

miles is great, and should continue to be great.
PG seems to have stretches where his attention wanes, and complains about not getting foul calls constantly while not working aggressively on offense in order to get those foul calls. he's terrific and fun to watch when he's on, but i'm slowly coming to terms with a future that probably doesn't involve him. he needs an opponent who brings out the best in him and always seems to play to the level of his opposition. someone of his caliber should be able to play at that level night in/night out.

See you in April, LeBron.

Does that result actually change the outcome of the season for either team? Bulls still stink and the Cavs are still at worst going to the Conference Finals.

There's simply no question that Nikola Mirotic will average six 3-pointers a game in a first round series against the Cavs, it must be

Y'all heard about Rose? Thibodeau strikes again.

The NCAA tournament is a great showcase for bad basketball and that final did not change my opinion.

Yeah, that was garbage.

the speed of play is slow as fucking molasses

I hate triple doubles so much. They're an embarrassment to basketball.

I only like triple doubles without any assists.

assists >> rebounds as a counting stat for me. assists mean a bucket was made somewhere. rebounds are nice for the team game, but don't tell you what happened after the rebound was secured.

i've just had enough with the prestige heaped upon an arbitrary cut off for accumulating counting stats, whether it's Russell Westbrook over a season or Draymond Green chasing them late in blowouts. it's such a bullshit distraction from things that actually matter like wins, efficiency, and making your teammates better. sometimes a triple double is a reasonable approximation of those things, but other times it's not. as soon as you start thinking about getting one it starts to become a hindrance.

i've been on this anti-trip dub hype for a few years now, but it's reached fever pitch insanity this season. talking about them bothers me immensely, perhaps to an irrational degree.

playoff Paul George and lunatic Lance Stephenson v LeBron and the champs oughta be fun to watch, even if they end up simply being a swatted gnat footnote by the end of the playoffs. saturday on ABC!

The Bulls will lose no more than three games during these playoffs. And if they luck into playing the Cavs, I assume they won't lose more'n one.

Ҩ wrote:

i don't feel uncomfortable about being right

ClosetOfExhaustion wrote:playoff Paul George and lunatic Lance Stephenson v LeBron and the champs oughta be fun to watch, even if they end up simply being a swatted gnat footnote by the end of the playoffs.  saturday on ABC!

i think people are overstating how quickly Cleveland will "turn on" their playoff basketball, but i don't expect the Pacers to execute well enough for it to matter that the Cavs aren't close to their best

the start of this game is certainly entertaining

Sorry Chrono. I wasn't responding to you with that. Those are 'Bulls are in the playoffs, here we go' wanks. I'll be clearer in the future.

I just assumed because of the neg on the post. It's cool either way!

My Cavs hatred is immense, so it was disappointing they pulled it out today. They deserve to lose with how shit they are most of the time. I would be ecstatic if they didn't make the finals.

I love watching Giannis play. He has the look of a killer in his eyes.