Non-Celtics Playoffs 2024

I'm with you Rosalie.  I cannot emphasize the importance of how we come out tonight.  With the West going apeshit for Edwards, the Nuggets being completely dismantled and falling apart before our eyes, NY going bananas thinking Christ has come around for a 2nd time...and we haven't even seen G1 from DAL vs. OKC!

Here's what going to happen.  While MIN thinks they are on top of the world, what they don't realize is they have already gone past the top and are heading down the slippery slope of the other side of the mountain.  At least as far as this year's playoffs are concerned.  EVERY team, except one historically, that looks like MIN and has a standout young player like MIN does runs head first slam right into Sir Isaac Newton's 3rd Law of Motion, for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Corollary?  The bigger you are or think you are, the harder you fall.  They never see it coming.  They have no idea.  It may not happen in this series.  DEN may not be able to get their heads out of their asses, but they are sure acting like a paper champion so far.  We'll see what they do in MIN.  But MIN will be defeated.  If we have to do it we will.  We won't be punked by this group of upstarts.  

The one new young player and team that never experienced Newton's 3rd Law in the NBA?  We love to hate him and them!  Magic Johnson and the 1980 Lakers.  They came out hot and stayed hot through the 80's with Magic winning an NBA title as a rookie, much to our chagrin.  But I digress.

NY is a little annoying, but doing it the right way and on the rise but we are far better.  If we both make it to the next round, we will win.  Again, they are the Knicks and will continue to be the Knicks until something changes.  You don't wipe away a lifetime of horrendous play with a sparse few years sprinkled in with Patrick Ewing in the 90's and get to the top of the heap.  

Going forward this is all about tone.  We have a great opportunity to start setting ourselves apart from the other 7 remaining teams.  We come out flat and flirt with losing either of these two games or better yet any of the next 4?  There is no time for that.  Period.  Not showing up, not playing stellar defense (as we see there is someone just a little better at that than we are out West) laying an egg, taking a night off?  I don't have time for that.  Neither do the Celtics.

Hallelujah!  Holy Crap!!  Where's the Tylenol?!!

db

Yesterday's results and Today's games:

https://www.espn.com/nba/schedule



It was great to see that the Royal PITA lost.  

Also, OKC got 7 minutes of nothing from Gordon Hayward.  Does he really have nothing left?

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401657231

Tonight:

Indy wants some payback, will they put in the effort?  I watched the end of their last game.  Nesmith always seems angry, does that translate to a better game than when he was here?

https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401657421/pacers-knicks

OKC is just a much better team than the Mavs at both ends of the court.

NYK took a big hit.  Mitchell Robinson, (aka Robert Williams )  is done for the season.  Brunson has been simply amazing with 4 straight 40 or more points in a game.  If I was a knicks fan, I would be concerned about his overall usage rate.  He is averaging almost 29 FGA per game and the next closet player is Hart at 13.1  Teams have to figure out how to defend Brunson without fouling him.  That is one clear pathway to beating them and the other truly amazing stat is Josh Hart's rebounding (12.4 per game with a whopping 3.7 on the offensive glass)

Indy probably has no chance to win this series.  Defense really does make a difference and Indy is very deficient in that area.

With the dominating T'Wolves  wins over the Nuggets, all the pundits are declaring that Minny is the best team in the NBA.  It is not easy to win on the road and what Minny has done to the Nuggets is very impressive.  Teams struggle to repeat because there will be off season changes to their roster.  can you imagine if Denver gets swept.

The hits keep coming to NYK.  OG and now Brunson.  We'll see.  Brunson is an old soul playing in the wrong era.  He would have thrived in the 80's.  Of course Reggie made a Willis Reed reference last night.  Brunson would play with a wheelchair if the league would allow it.  Injury, Schminjury.  He ain't missing Jack @&%$#!!  He would have been a great Celtic and may be at some point.

DEN had better wake up.  They have had some time to think about it and get their heads out of their asses.  At this stage every team has a glaring weakness or two.  DEN is no exception and I'm glad they are being exposed.  Just like when we got down 0-3 last year, we showed the world what we had.  But we played with our food too much, took too much rope and didn't account for an injury.  Just like in 2010 and Perk going down.  Wouldacouldashoulda.  Hence my emphasis on us not playing around with ANYTHING.  We'll know what DEN is made of about two minutes into their G3 Friday.

A quick comment about SAS.  He actually reminds me of my mom, God rest her soul.  She was a classical piano teacher for her profession.  Taught kids, mainly in middle school and high school.  Her students achieved greatness and all come out with a great appreciation for not only classical music but all music.  I even played myself for about 10 years.  She was infectious with her enthusiasm.  She could get you to climb Mt. Everest if she had to.  She would put pieces in front of you that you would originally think you had no business playing.  She was one of the rare few of us in life that loved what she did for a living.  She lived it, too.  

SAS to me is the same in those respects.  He loves what he does for a living and gets paid for it.  He loves basketball and the Knicks.  Now he's a little bit more outspoken but that's ok and he needs to reign in his enthusiasm just a bit, but I understand his excitement.  But he just jumped off the wrong ship.  Yes, there is some great basketball being played out West and all over with these 4 series.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  You want to see the best playing the best.  Nobody wants to see what transpired last year with the Lakers and the Heat.  Nobody.  But the doors weirdly and oddly opened up and those two crappy teams walked right through.  You can't be mad at them.  They just took advantage.  We can't be mad at MIA.  Jimmy Butler found out what happens when you think you are better than you really are...surprisingly what I have been saying about "Playoff MIA" all along.  You're just not that good, MIA.  Your coach is.  But your team just isn't that good.  It happens but not often.  All those teams that lost to LAL and MIA had it coming including us.

We've beaten this dead horse a thousand times by saying TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!  That's why I don't even want to see a Gentleman's Sweep here with us vs. CLE.  To me one loss (or more) here will show weakness to the remaining teams.  I want this team to exact their revenge on whomever is in our path to Banner 18.  The Celtics are acting like it and fulfilling that from what I am seeing.  There was the MIA slip up in R1G2 but that turned out to be an anomaly.  Any team can get hot for a game, but not 4 games.  That's what make the series idea so ingenious.  Beat me 4 times.  It's also what makes the NCAA Tournament so exciting.

What folks don't realize is if MIN and OKC sweep their respective series and both come into the WCF undefeated, as good as they are looking, one of them is losing 4 games next round.  That's a fact.  By the same token, CLE deserves no mercy.  It's nothing personal.  They are just an obstacle that is in our way that must be overcome with devastating force and annihilation.  They just unfortunately walked into the wrong bar and picked the wrong fight at the wrong time.  And they need to be reminded of that with every play, every second of every game this series.    

db

Yesterday's results and Today's games:

https://www.espn.com/nba/schedule

https://us.yahoo.com/sports/carlisle-says-small-market-teams-042919193.html



Carlisle: 'Small-market teams deserve a fair shot.' Pacers send calls for NBA review, AP source says


BRIAN MAHONEY

Updated Thu, May 9, 2024 at 8:49 AM PDT·3 min read



NEW YORK (AP) — The Indiana Pacers have, as coach Rick Carlisle said they would, sent 78 plays they believe were officiated incorrectly from the first two games of their series against the New York Knicks to the NBA office for review, a person with knowledge of the action said Thursday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because neither the Pacers nor the league had publicly confirmed the plays were actually sent.

“I’m always talking to our guys about not making it about the officials,” Carlisle said after Game 2 on Wednesday, a 130-121 win for New York that gave the Knicks a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. “We deserve a fair shot. There’s not a consistent balance and that’s disappointing. Give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with. But their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized, time after time.”

Carlisle said the Pacers identified 29 plays from Game 1 that they had issue with, but that he decided against sending those clips to the league office because he believed “we’d get a more balanced whistle” in Game 2.

“It didn’t feel that way,” Carlisle said.

It’s not uncommon for teams to send plays to the league for review or explanation, even though the outcome of games won’t change. Carlisle said he’s aware that what the Pacers sent to the NBA will be sent to the Knicks as well.

Among the issues Carlisle discussed openly after Game 2: what he said was an uncalled shove by New York’s Josh Hart into the back of Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton, who has been playing through a back injury, along with a double-dribble call against Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein with 1:19 left that was changed to an inadvertent whistle. New York kept possession on that play and held the ball for 38 more seconds, thanks in part to two offensive rebounds. Jalen Brunson scored with 41.9 seconds left to push New York’s lead to eight, and Carlisle was ejected moments later for arguing.

On the Haliburton play, Carlisle said: “It’s all over Twitter right now because a few people have showed it to me and (referee) JB DeRosa is looking right at it. You can see he has vision of the play and he shoves Tyrese into the corner and there is no whistle. Right in the back. That was shocking and there were many others.”

All that came after officiating was a major topic after Game 1 as well. Officials acknowledged an incorrectly called kicked ball violation late in Game 1 — referees erroneously called it against the Pacers, who by rule couldn’t challenge the play in what was a tie game, and New York took the lead for good 12 seconds later — but the Pacers believed there were plenty other instances of wrong whistles.

After Game 2, Haliburton said the Pacers needed to blame themselves, not the officials.

“At the end of the day we got outplayed. We were right there in the game,” Haliburton said. “But I like consistency, yeah. But let’s not pretend, like, that’s the only reason we lost. We just didn’t play good enough. But at the end of the day it’s 2-0.”

The league is based in New York, which is also the country’s largest media market, according to Nielsen. Among current NBA cities, Indianapolis plays in the league’s 23rd-largest market. The series shifts there for Game 3 on Friday.

“Small-market deserve an equal shot,” Carlisle said after Game 2. “They deserve a fair shot, no matter where they’re playing.”


Bob


.

I have said it before and will say it again, the league is dying for New York to be in the finals, period. The advertising, the advertising, the showing of teams play on ESPN, it is so obvious. But, to the credit of NY, they are playing hard and are winning. This referee business is just a side show, it will not change. Indy has to play harder, but I really wonder if they even have a shot

A while back Bob had re-posted some Odds on possible Champs this year. OKC wasn’t on the list. The TimberPups weren’t there either. (NBA Title Contenders 2024 - Wild-A** Guess Edition” ). Bob‘s point was, roughly, don’t buy Into all that early hype. Later - like, now - to skip on both OKC and the T-wolves is hard to believe.

Anyway, I’ve been out here in denver for years now. Seen a lot of Nuggets games. Super fun team to watch, lot of talent, work hard - play hard.
So then MINN absolutely destroys the NugNuts - twice  - at home.

To me, the story here isn’t “The Rise Of the Ant-Man”  That’s already happened anyway. These two games are all about Minnesota’s defense. Led the league in the regular season, so it’s not out of the blue.

But it didn’t look like This ! The teams split their regular season series. Now the Wolvees are just throttling Denver. What it looks like to me is, like, overnight: they all have sticky Spider-Man hands swiping the ball; everyone is as quick as the Flash; they’re flying like maybe they sprouted Smaug’s Thunder-wings (sorry, I‘ll stop).

Seriously- they are Tight, they’re Communicating on D, they “mean it”. Plus Ant suddenly decided that he LOVES playing defense. At least for now, as long as it’s aginst Jamal Murray.

I’ve watched a Lot of Nuggets games. (I’ll take what i can get, and i got lucky) and I’ve never seen the Jokier ready to pass the boll, look around and - just stand there and look almost bewildered. MINN is high-energy committed. They’re pushing into space so hard they’re closer than the jerseys they guys are wearing. They’re shutting down the passing lanes. They’re so tight that Jokic couldn’t get a clean hand-of to Jamal. You already know that Joker sees everything, ahead of time. But in those two games he was a the elbow, ready to pass to … nobody was open. For, what 10 seconds? And he seemed to have nowhere to go either. He looked confused - almost bewildered. He had a look I’ve never seen before.
I;ve never seen Anybody speed him up before either.  Have you?  

From what I’ve seen, Joker has always moved at his own pace. He moves when he wants to. No matter what. And he Never speeds up
Until this series, when MIN has speeded him up.  

I agree with what db said about our players and their skills and all. i think that This Year we have the best, the most complete and most complementary team in the league. These guys and they way they play, together - yeah - among the best we’ve ever had.

A Finals match-up between Boston and Denver seemed like it could happen. Maybe even probably happen. To me that would be a dream match-up. Not just b/c I’m here. More b/c both teams are really committed to playing The Right Way. Plus, between them there’s a bunch of A+ players, and some “role players” that are playing way over expectations. It would have been one of the best Finals Series ever.

Maybe it still will be. But I’m not betting on it. The T-Wolves defense has been absolutely terrifying.

Do you think I’m over-stating that?  

Mikl

Shocker! Luka playing in G3 despite injury!!

db

Right now OKC winning they may regret playing him if all of a sudden he pulls up limping. 11 -0 run for OKC right now

All 8 remaining teams in 2 games to 1 battles.

bigpygme wrote:A while back Bob had re-posted some Odds on possible Champs this year. OKC wasn’t on the list. The TimberPups weren’t there either. (NBA Title Contenders 2024 - Wild-A** Guess Edition” ). Bob‘s point was, roughly, don’t buy Into all that early hype. Later - like, now - to skip on both OKC and the T-wolves is hard to believe.

Anyway, I’ve been out here in denver for years now. Seen a lot of Nuggets games. Super fun team to watch, lot of talent, work hard - play hard.
So then MINN absolutely destroys the NugNuts - twice  - at home.

To me, the story here isn’t “The Rise Of the Ant-Man”  That’s already happened anyway. These two games are all about Minnesota’s defense. Led the league in the regular season, so it’s not out of the blue.

But it didn’t look like This ! The teams split their regular season series. Now the Wolvees are just throttling Denver.  What it looks like to me is, like, overnight: they all have sticky Spider-Man hands swiping the ball; everyone is as quick as the Flash; they’re flying like maybe they sprouted Smaug’s Thunder-wings (sorry, I‘ll stop).

Seriously- they are Tight, they’re Communicating on D, they “mean it”. Plus Ant suddenly decided that he LOVES playing defense. At least for now, as long as it’s aginst Jamal Murray.

I’ve watched a Lot of Nuggets games. (I’ll take what i can get, and i got lucky) and I’ve never seen the Jokier ready to pass the boll, look around and - just stand there and look almost bewildered. MINN is high-energy committed. They’re pushing into space so hard they’re closer than the jerseys they guys are wearing. They’re shutting down the passing lanes. They’re so tight that Jokic couldn’t get a clean hand-of to Jamal. You already know that Joker sees everything, ahead of time. But in those two games he was a the elbow, ready to pass to … nobody was open. For, what 10 seconds? And he seemed to have nowhere to go either. He looked confused - almost bewildered. He had a look I’ve never seen before.
I;ve never seen Anybody speed him up before either.  Have you?  

From what I’ve seen, Joker has always moved at his own pace. He moves when he wants to. No matter what. And he Never speeds up
Until this series, when MIN has speeded him up.  

I agree with what db said about our players and their skills and all. i think that This Year we have the best, the most complete and most complementary team in the league. These guys and they way they play, together - yeah - among the best we’ve ever had.

A Finals match-up between Boston and Denver seemed like it could happen. Maybe even probably happen. To me that would be a dream match-up. Not just b/c I’m here. More b/c both teams are really committed to playing The Right Way. Plus, between them there’s a bunch of A+ players, and some “role players” that are playing way over expectations.  It would have been one of the best Finals Series ever.

Maybe it still will be. But I’m not betting on it. The T-Wolves defense has been absolutely terrifying.

Do you think I’m over-stating that?  

Mikl

That first game between the Nuggets and T'Wolves really set the stage for their series. I do not know if I have ever seen a more ferocious defense played over an extended period of a game.

Minny up 2-1 on Denver.

Dallas up 2-1 on OKC.

NY up 2-1 on Indy.


NY is so banged up they are very short-handed.  Brunson won't be enough if they face us, and that is especially true if Porzingis is back (and we advance, which I'm assuming).

Denver plays in Minny tonight.  Let's root for a Denver win, I think, so we can slow the Ant Man's rampage a bit.  Still hoping for Minny to beat Denver for the series, we have enough defenders to throw at Anthony Edwards, but let's slow them down.

OKC @ Dallas is tomorrow.  Definitely rooting for Luka for this one.  I want OKC out as quickly as possible.


Bob


.

In the West, the underdogs (lower seeds) have the 2 wins, in the East, the higher seeds have the 2 wins.

https://www.nba.com/playoffs/2024

I'm with you Bob. I do not want our team having to play at altitude, regardless of their attitude.

Indy beat (or should I say annihilated) NY today. Kind of hope NY rallies in NY, Indy starting to feel too good right now.

I am with you Bob, the sooner OKC gets beat the better. And Denver? Yes, i will root for them tonight, but would like Minny to beat them I think???

Why does anybody want any series, except for the Celtics, to not be extended?

What am I missing here?

And Happy Mother's Day to Rosalie and all the other wonderful mothers.

Good news, both series were knotted up, 2-2.

The Knicks are struggling with injuries and may not survive many more games. Indy may win just because of that.

Denver took back home court after losing the first two games at home and looking bad in the process.

For tonight, we hope to win and go up 3-1. Also hoping OKC can win on the road.

Well, MIN got their one shot to take DEN out and it's now over.  Good luck having a snowball's chance in DEN for G5.  Talk about poking the bear.  

Here's what I don't get.  In watching all the yakity-yak on TNT, they are all going through each series and making comments.  This was last night, BTW.  Here is DEN who has played 4 games in this series, got shellacked the first two games in their backyard, then comes to MIN and shellacks MIN.  But for DEN it's all high praise and this is how the champs should be playing, blah, blah, blah.  

Then Charles comes to the Celtics and says..."We still don't know which Celtic team is going to show up!!"  WTF??!!!  How about saying the same dang thing and tone about DEN?!!

I can't wait for Steven A. today.  He's going to try to jump back on the Celtic train after changing his mind and jumping to MIN saying now they are going to win it all.  And his Knicks as well.  Looking like cloudy skies in NYC, orange and blue skies have left the building.  But should we be surprised?  I say come on, man!!  It's New York!!

db

Rudy Gobert being exposed as DPoY during regular season, but defensive liability in playoffs. Cannot handle Joker and cannot get out fast enough on perimeter.

Funny.

They win the first two without Rudy and he comes back and they lose two. I think the Wolves play faster without Rudy on the floor. He had 5 TOV and I counted at least 3 of them in the 4th going down the stretch.

The #1 observation that is coming out of the playoffs is that no team is actually better than the Celtics.

dboss wrote:Funny.

They win the first two without Rudy and he comes back and they lose two.  I think the Wolves play faster without Rudy on the floor.  He had 5 TOV and I counted at least 3 of them in the 4th going down the stretch.

The #1 observation that is coming out of the playoffs is that no team is actually better than the Celtics.  

I think Gobert played in the 1st game

Yeah I have found myself yelling at the screen a couple of with Gobert. "Are you going to play any defense there, Chief?!" Or my personal favorite, "Aren't you defensive player of the year?! Jeez! Act like it!!"

db

So we got 3 sets of teams heading in a critical game 5.

I really cannot predict what will happen but the home team in game 5 should have an advantage.  Therefore I would take Knicks over Pacers and Nuggets over Timberwolves.

Tomorrow I expect OKC to win their game 5.  The Mavs blew an opportunity to go up 3-1 and they will not get another one like that. Luka was horrible and Kyrie was horrible.  When your 2 best players crap out, there is nothing left to do but initiate a courtesy flush!

Hope Knicks/Pacers go 7 games.