2019 NBA Playoffs Poll

[33anda3rd]

Pure magic. A 'this is why I do sports' moment from a Blazer legend (already).

Very happy for you that you got that moment.

[InvincibleCakeEater]

[33anda3rd]

Nikola Jokic might have the best collection of basketball tools I've ever seen. If he were athletic he'd be Giannis+++. He'd be Giannis with better handles, exponentially better passing, and an actual mid- and long-range shot.

[Socnorb11]

Let's wait til the dust settles and we've had 6-7 games of Houston-GS and we've had BOS-MIL and we've had SAS-POR and we've had POR-GS/HOU and then let's check in on TV ratings.

SAS-POR?

Ye of little faith. (I admit, I was concerned when the Nuggs went down 2-1).

First playoff series win in 10 years, and youngest team to win a playoff series. Good times in Denver.

[33anda3rd]

You guys who hate the Dubs and Durant for going to the Dubs. Are you:

A. Dubs
B. The villainous Rockets with the flopping crybaby Harden
C. Just like eh whatever on this series

???????

[Socnorb11]

Man............. I just can't get on board. I'm happy that one of them will go home unhappy.

[MAGA]

GSW is bad for NBA and Moreyball is trash (though the logical strategic conclusion in a sport with a 3 point line).

So what Socnorb said

[33anda3rd]

If there was any reward in Game 1 it was the aftermath with Harden, the kind of flopper that makes people hate soccer, who took 14 foul shots, pleading for foul calls and his coach upset that the 14 wasn't a 26. If there's anything ugly and gross about the Rockets it's that the gameplan is "get Harden to the foul line as much as possible." It's like if a NFL set out to just move the ball by drawing the other team offsides all day then won 21-14 by kicking 7 field goals from 20 yards out.

Draymond had a candidate for Line Of The Year after hearing about Harden's complaining: "I've been fouled by James on a Jame three-pointer before."

This guy gets it:

Yeah, some of Klay's close-outs in the first were fouls. But also jumping this far forward while the defender stays in the same space is on Harden.

[redbirdjazzz]

If there was any reward in Game 1 it was the aftermath with Harden, the kind of flopper that makes people hate soccer, who took 14 foul shots, pleading for foul calls and his coach upset that the 14 wasn't a 26. If there's anything ugly and gross about the Rockets it's that the gameplan is "get Harden to the foul line as much as possible." It's like if a NFL set out to just move the ball by drawing the other team offsides all day then won 21-14 by kicking 7 field goals from 20 yards out.

Draymond had a candidate for Line Of The Year after hearing about Harden's complaining: "I've been fouled by James on a Jame three-pointer before."

This guy gets it:

Yeah, some of Klay's close-outs in the first were fouls. But also jumping this far forward while the defender stays in the same space is on Harden.

Did they give up on the Reggie Miller rule that was supposed to stop that stuff?

[33anda3rd]

Did they give up on the Reggie Miller rule that was supposed to stop that stuff?

I mean, metaphysically and practically a foul does not occur until the referee blows his whistle. The rulebook even allows for this, basically saying that the ref deems contact to be foul-worthy or not. The Reggie Miller Rule came long after Reggie, named for him because he started the action of kicking your legs into a defender to get an easy foul but coming long after him because there was this growing trend that continues to today where winning basketball = manipulating refs. This is the single worst thing for the league. More than Durant to the Warriors and other superstar movement, more than the trend of players looking at their phones instead of bonding with their teammates on planes and in locker rooms.

It's a real pot-tay-toe po-tah-toe thing. The players start it. The refs let them get away with it. The players then, like Pavlovian dogs, are trained to expect it. The refs now don't always call it, but more often than not they give it to the shooter, back to that metaphysics/practicality thing of a foul: it will always be more subjective than practical. So the players continue to expect it.

Harden doesn't care if he makes the three in the tweeted photo above, he just wants the call so he can go to the line. We could probably make a feature-length film out of clips of him flailing and falling and Hollywooding the crap out of plays in which there's literally zero contact because that's his most effective skill, ref manipulation, even deadlier than his floater or his step-back. And that's bad, ugly basketball and a big part of why I hope the Dubs beat them again, and beat them in which the only injury impacting the series is Boogie so the Rox don't have that crutch to complain about, and beat them in a series in which Kevin Durant continues to show that since Finals 2017 at least and arguably longer he has been the best player in the league.

Which, re KD: he's the best player in the league. He's cruised through three regular seasons then just said "sorry, not taking names" in the playoffs now for three straight. It's not Giannis, Giannis cannot take a game over like KD has done the last couple weeks every single night. It's not Harden, Harden can't play D half as well or shoot with nearly the accuracy. KD is the best living basketball player and watching him snuff out Harden's punk ass would be a great pleasure.