2023 NBA playoffs will be starting soon.

Skip & Shannon discussing G3

the words aren't in sync with the mouths, so it may behoove you to avert your eyes and just listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7-PpVq6o_k

No way Philly wins both game 3 and 4. More than likely it's 3-1 back in Boston.

Yup,i am to. I just hope that the Rob & Grant Williams injuries aren't going to have them missing games.

I just want to know when did James Harden go from looking like Michael Jordan in game 1 to Ben Simmons in game 3? If he has another game or two like this and they lose the series those fans will eat him alive although at that point he might just be heading back to Houston.

edit: Just saw a few tweets saying that Timelord could have returned into this game while Grant did. Maybe not such a big issue then.

didn't see Philly-Boston last night, but I perused the box score

losing at home when Embiid had a good game does not bode well for my av bet

C's had well-balanced output with 6 guys scoring at least 13

Harden was terrible

After last nights loss, Embiid now has a w/l record of 1-10 in games he's played against the Celtics in the playoffs. He'll usually gets his points but Boston will send so many defenders at him throughout the game that he gets worn down much earlier than expected. By the late 4th he's pretty much gassed and thats how it was before this knee injury.

There's a thought going around that with Harden dealing with an achilles injury heading into these playoffs, all of the days off that Philly had before this series started was more beneficial to Harden than it was Embiid. He was able to come out and dominate in game 1 then when it was back to every other day he hasn't played as well.

ALso for those that haven't seen it yet, Grant Williams literally (but accidently) got curb-stomped by Embiid on this play. He deserves a ton of credit for going back into the game after tofinish it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZXIr6jo7-s

@erikthredd said:
ALso for those that haven't seen it yet, Grant Williams literally (but accidently) got curb-stomped by Embiid on this play. He deserves a ton of credit for going back into the game after to finish it out.

Damn, that had to hurt a bit

I really enjoyed that first quarter Miami NY.

@Steven59 said:
Maybe Stephan A Smith will keep his big mouth shut before the remaining games - In the Pregame show he opened his yap again stating the Knicks will win this one -

Homie has been waiting forever for the Knicks to put together a contender. I watched an ESPN First Take clip earlier talking about the Bucks firing their head coach and how their could be major changes to that team in the next year or two. Stephan A was going on about Giannis not picking up his player option in 2025 and heading to the Knicks because they'd create about 60M in cap space.
1) by then Giannis might be making close to 60M himself and 2) he'd have to want to go to NY with the only guarantee that they'd get him is in a trade. Giving up all of that matching salary plus what would likely be the most expensive trade package in history in young players & picks, they'd basically be gutting their roster/future to start from scratch with a 30yr old Giannis.

I'd bet Giannis stays in Milwaukee,even through a sem-rebuild, rather than go to NY and have all NY's failures/expectations dumped on his shoulders. He could get away with his failure speech in Milwaukee but in NY that's an entirely different animal.

The outcome from this next game 4 for LA-GS should be pivotal on how that series will finish,imo. If they're going to keep blowing each other out every other game,like the first 3 finished,its probably going to 7 games.
If the Lakers take this next one at home I really think GS won't come back from down 3-1, although that would be pretty epic after Lebron's Cavs had done the same to the Warriors in the Finals.
If AD & Dangelo Russell come out aggressive like they did last night leaving Lebron mostly as a facilitator thats where the Lakers have been at their best.

For today's Celtics/Sixers game 4, I just want to see the C's coming out aggressive as well. Make Embiid & Harden work on both ends and wear them down both mentally & physically. I expect more of a team effort from Philly today but Harden has looked like he's half checked out on this series so hopefully Jaylen Brown keeps up the pressure.

@perkdog said:
My finals prediction-

MIAMI VS DENVER

😎

@perkdog said:
My finals prediction-

MIAMI VS DENVER

adam silver just slipped into a coma

Tatum & Horford - ZERO field goals so far. (8mins, 2nd)

It's the Harden/Embid show in Philly through 3 quarters........

WOW! Smart didn't get the winning shot off in time..............

Yep - Harden had a great game - 42 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and only 1 turn over

i think even the biggest detractors of the nba would have enjoyed that game

there needs to be a picture of James Harden next to the word 'enigma' in the dictionary

superman in game 1, forgets how to play basketball in 2 & 3, all of a sudden remembers again in game 4

and say what you want about him, but it doesn't get much better than this

@galaxy27 said:
i think even the biggest detractors of the nba would have enjoyed that game

there needs to be a picture of James Harden next to the word 'enigma' in the dictionary

superman in game 1, forgets how to play basketball in 2 & 3, all of a sudden remembers again in game 4

and say what you want about him, but it doesn't get much better than this

https://twitter.com/ClutchPointsApp/status/1655338282794852352?s=20

Oh my fellow Celtics fans aren't happy right now. In the very short time since this game ended i've read...
That Tatum & Brown still can't play together,
That Boston should trade Jaylen Brown. Marcus Smart as well.
Coach Mazzulla needs to be fired for not calling a TO on that last play.

I swear Boston has the most bipolar fans in the NBA.

Great story about Harden and that kid. As fans we tend to tear these players down every chance we get for whatever reason but there are some many stories like this that never get the attention that they deserve.

@galaxy27 said:
btw on that last play i think Jaylen Brown made a mistake by doubling too deep on Embiid. with a two-point lead and with Tatum on him, you've gotta give that up and stay at home on Harden (who was camped out behind the arc). worst case scenario, you're tied with the final shot in OT. double too hard and all of a sudden the worst case scenario turns into a 3-ball from the beard

I'm not blaming Brown there. Had he stuck with Harden,Embiid could have easily put it up himself with a much higher percentage shot and with multiple players swarming around him, an And one was also possible. Horford played great defense on him during that 4th/OT but Joel is still a good 4-5 inches taller than Al and numerous times shot it right over him.

.02

Had we had an extra .02 on that Smart shot, right now I'd be scouring the internet looking for a gif of Al Horford dancing after that big dunk he had in the 4th so my boy Show could eventually give it you in a few days as your avatar.
It seems the series outcome will take longer than expected lol. 😎

@Steven59 said:
Harden signs his shoes - (Nice guy!)

Those are game used by Sparkles,Harden's favorite player from his local gentlemen's club. 😉

@Steven59 said:
Does anybody really care about the Nuggets/Sun series?

I'm tuning into this game just now. Looks like the Suns are putting up a pretty good fight to even that series up. I just saw that Jokic has 42,i'm guessing he's doing all of the heavy lifting in this game but Denver usually plays better when he's spreading the ball around.

@galaxy27 said:
respect for Brown -- he owned up to his mistake after the game. i've read a couple of articles that heavily criticized him, but i wouldn't go that far. he's not the reason they lost that game, and it's highly ignorant to think otherwise. i just think it was a lack of situational awareness at a critical juncture. when you're up 2 in the waning seconds, you simply cannot leave a guy who is having an out-of-body experience with an open look at a 3.

to his credit, he realizes that too

I rewatched the ending again, Tatum was actually in that area between the rim and that corner with Brown,Horford,Embiid & Harden. Brown did back down to far but it is what it is at this point. It was Brown's defense on Harden over the previous two games that put Boston in that position to possibly go up 3-1 with a win today. Their former & current MVPs played like MVPs.

These next 2-3 games are definitely going to be exciting,imo.

@erikthredd said:

These next 2-3 games are definitely going to be exciting,imo.

it's 2-2 but it very easily could have been a sweep. i feel very fortunate (with my all-too-important av bet!) to be all square thru 4. Boston has been the better team, but now it's best-of-3 and anything can happen.

game 5 is going to be incredibly interesting

After watching that Jokic/Suns owner altercation from a few more angles I don't think Jokic was the instigator here. He didn't actually go into the stands,just up to the first row,and the Suns owner put his hands on Nikola before he got pushed back. Joker just wanted the ball and had the Suns owner just gave it to him none of this would have happened.

I'd expect Jokic to get a huge fine but to see a team's best player get suspended due to an incident with the opposing team's owner during a playoff series would be bad optics for the NBA. Many might view it as favoritism by the league.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJcBUz9kl1A