No post? (feels like it's been WEEKS since a damn game happened)

I truly don't know who's going to pull this one off. My head says Celtics, my heart says Mavs. Either way it's fuck the Celtics so...I'm begrudgingly rooting for Dallas.

Always fun to see how these narratives swing.

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

This team is incredibly well-balanced and dominated their conference. Why make drastic changes just to say you did something? If Tatum and Brown were in their 30’s and this felt like their last run, sure, blow up the team and start again, but it only feels like they’ve been here forever because the team has gone deep in the playoffs for most of their tenure.

I've been thinking it was Boston's year for the past 3 seasons. A friend said that if they don't get it this year, their window is closed.

But I'm with you. Brown & Tatum are young. Holiday has a few good years left. I wouldn't be surprised if Horford retired but he was still a solid contributor.

This squad may be around for a long time.

>
> I've been thinking it was Boston's year for the past 3
>seasons. A friend said that if they don't get it this year,
>their window is closed.
>

Let’s say they lose this series… who is in a better position to win the East next season than them? Even if the Bucks, Sixers, etc. are all healthy and make some roster adjustments, the Celtics are still the favorites. Why make a bunch of changes? They had the best record in the league by 7 games. Obviously, they should win this series, and if they don’t they deserve criticism, but there’s no glaring issue with the roster. 64 win teams don’t grow on trees.

I'm convinced of it.

Roster-wise, there’s nothing preventing us from getting over the hump, so the only change that would even have to be considered is the coach.

The only real options are (1) change coaches, or (2) run it back. *Maybe* during the season you can deal the White/Horford expirings for a piece? But that's a huge stretch imo. Especially given that 4 different players are making ostensibly 30+ mil next season.

Brown's contract is massive, and they don't want to lose Tatum for any reason. Jrue's deal is signed through age 36, so that feels like a tough deal to trade in the immediate short term. Maybe you deal Zingis... but the injury risk is real, plus there's the baked-in "if Zingis doesn't get hurt/isn't rusty in the Finals" excuse baked into whatever happens. And the bench is already thin, so do you really want to do a 2-for-1 type trade?

I think the only viable option is a coaching change, but even then, I kinda think they just run it back.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>
>I think the only viable option is a coaching change, but even
>then, I kinda think they just run it back.

If they get absolutely embarrassed in 4 or 5 games, they’ll consider a coaching change. But if they lose a competitive series I don’t see them seriously considering any changes.

and a "KD"-like situation happens that allows you to add, I dunno, Devin Booker or some shit...

or maybe you get an even better reserve player, THIS Celtics team is the best assembled in the 2 Jays era.

Yes, I'm mad. Let's move on.

Jays | Cavs | Eagles | Sabres | Tarheels

PSN: Dr_Claw_77 | XBL: Dr Claw 077 | FB: drclaw077 | T: @drclaw77 | http://thepeoplesvault.wordpress.com

There’s too many examples where the team instantly regrets trading all their depth to make a trifecta like that work.

Like, if a team with several allstar/all NBA guys, several all defense guys, a deep bench, vets, etc can't get it done - you sorta just have to tip your cap at that point.

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

From what I saw from a recent youtube video from Bobby Marks, that second apron really restricts what moves teams and perform in terms of trades.

If they are at the second apron, I dunno what big moves they can make to be honest.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

<--- Big Baller World Order

If I had to pinpoint this memory, it'd be August 9th vs the Bucks.


I'd spent the summer justifying fine dining food as deliverable from the cavernous confines of a restaurant meant to seat 200 or so a night that suddenly claimed five or six occupants a day. For most of that summer, the fruits of our spring desperation bore...fruit, I guess.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKyEmkGtU1Y


(Spoiler or time saving alert...Doncic barely factors into these highlights baring his name and statline until nearly 4 minutes in...with about 10 minutes remaining in the 4th and just over 5 remaining in the reel.)


A friend and I had decided to go to an old neighborhood hang of ours, the first time he'd been out period since lockdown and I'd been able to take my eyes off of spreadsheets to hang out with some other dude, not just the people I was holed up with everyday trying to fend off unemployment (which, it should be said, this friend received plenty of and greatly enjoyed).


Here's where I'll say I don't think that highlight package even begins to illuminate how transcendent Luka was. But I kind of love that it doesn't. Anthony and I sat alone in a bar that had rarely flirted with space and we watched Luka put on this show, laughing maniacally as he demanded a win in the face of a loss.


(In this case, the reel does its job. The Bucks look destined to win.)


I'm not the sort of person that celebrates perpetual failure, and I've put players before jerseys as far back as the mid-2000s. They might be bland, but I like the guys in the Celtics jerseys, and I think it's absurd to diminish how consistently successful they've been no matter how their conference or the injuries within it have played out over the years. There's a significant part of me that truly believes the Celtics are as good as the numbers say they are and this title is theirs to take.


As poorly as that highlight package communicates a 36/14/19 performance, it can still remind me of the time I was most tempted to feel hopeless, yet for some dumbass reason a schlubby Slovenian reminded me of the power of art, and/or that classics can choose benign origins.


All of which to say, I think it'd be nice if we could recognize that what Jayson and Jaylen have done is quite singular...but I'll never write some romantic half-page about how happy they made me on a random summer night, pandemic or not. My gut tells me, especially if Porzingis is healthy, Celtics in 6...


My heart tells me Mavs in 4, or however long it takes.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

>No post? (feels like it's been WEEKS since a damn game
>happened)
>

Anyways… Celts in 6

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

>No post? (feels like it's been WEEKS since a damn game
>happened)
>
>I truly don't know who's going to pull this one off. My head
>says Celtics, my heart says Mavs. Either way it's fuck the
>Celtics so...I'm begrudgingly rooting for Dallas.
>
>Always fun to see how these narratives swing.
>
>

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

only because...he had a terrible series against OKC. PJ Washington turning into Game 6 Klay Thompson is what did us in. That said...he was absolutely brilliant in the WCF, so I dunno, man. I know if he and Luka don't combine for 75-80 a game, they got no shot.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

as i said before, Boston just has too many defenders with size to throw at Luka and Kyrie. i mean, shoot, there was a FEW times last night where Al Horford's old ass had Kyrie pressed. shit, Sam Hauser played effective defense most of the game.

i won't be shocked if Boston sweeps, but they'll probably do a Boston and lose by 15+ randomly one game.

put me down for Boston in 5 too.

if he's limited or out, Dallas takes it.

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

Whata time to be alive.

http://i.imgur.com/vPqCzVU.jpg

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

I've been enjoying this, haven't seen a lot of these since aired.


https://youtu.be/MEpXO5lFvj0?si=4O4F1KP4SDiuvSWF

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

and believe they will make the Cs work harder than any other team they have faced thus far because Kyrie and Luka exist and they have quality defense and bigs.

BUT

if they have Dat Zingis back, I'm taking Boston in 7.
Because every rotational player on the Celtics can make 3s. Everyone. With Zingis in the starting lineup again, that makes Horford the main backup and shifts some players out of the rotation.

Jaylen Brown has been the best player for Boston in these playoffs. Resist NyQuil. Mozzarella needs to do so as well, and they will win.

Yes, I'm mad. Let's move on.

Jays | Cavs | Eagles | Sabres | Tarheels

PSN: Dr_Claw_77 | XBL: Dr Claw 077 | FB: drclaw077 | T: @drclaw77 | http://thepeoplesvault.wordpress.com

Both relatively young as well.

Not too shabby.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

turned on ESPN (for the first time since the previous years finals) for the pregame show where i kind of expected them to be talking about the matchups or at least the teams involved in the finals. first thing i see is woj talking about a potential lakers head coach hire. perfect 😙🤌

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

even for one month it's not worth it. hopefully this series is at least competitive so i don't end up paying $18 per game for a 4-0 sweep

I don’t keep it year round. Only signed up for the playoffs/finals. It’s expensive as hell and I watch less live TV these days but IMO it’s the best service…you just have to have a need for it.

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

>I don’t keep it year round. Only signed up for the
>playoffs/finals. It’s expensive as hell and I watch less
>live TV these days but IMO it’s the best service…you just
>have to have a need for it.

and i get most of them through league pass. this year the bleacher report add-on for max was nice because i got all the TNT games live and would watch the espn/abc games when they hit the league pass archive ~3 hours after conclusion. only missed a handful of live games i wanted to watch

i would use sling but sling is dookie butter. had it for most of the 2022-23 season and half the time i couldn't even connect to the channel (or the service!) for one ridiculous reason or another, always on sling's end. extremely frustrating. terrible product

i hope the new rights deal helps centralize engagement for broadcast games. i'm not confident it will. however i'm perfectly content to watch everything on league pass and catch the national broadcasts on archive if it means i don't have to toss $ down the well for a few months every year

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

this shit could get ugly. Of course, the Celtics are contractually obligated to lose one game by 20+ points.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

I didn't really see Dallas hanging with Boston. That looks more clear now.

They got too many bodies with size that can move to throw at Luka and Kyrie and I said that from jump.

<--- Big Baller World Order

___________________

Mar-A-Lago delenda est

lol.

3 more!

should be a huge favor for Porzingis compared to the day and rest the prior playoff series oddly had this year.

I am interesting in how he'll look in game two since he did play a ton of minutes in that first half for someone that didn't play a lick of basketball for about a month.

I have to admit I was surprised how spry he looked on the defensive end last night.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

he wasn't on any kind of minutes restriction last night and reportedly looked great in practice leading up to it (thus, no restriction).

I had SERIOUS reservations about that trade...mostly because I just really like Marcus Smart. That said, it was absolutely the right thing to do. I have to say, I didn't realize Staps was such a willing rim protector. I figured he COULD, to some extent...but, he legit looked like he relished it this year.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

random, behind the back bounce passes that weren’t even necessary.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

>.
The refs set a problematic tone letting Boston get away with mugging the Mavs while calling a LOT of early fouls on Dallas, but Luka did not read this game right. MJ mastered the art of knowing when to take over v. get everyone else involved. Luka was cooking early but tried to get too many folks involved. If he went "fuck it I'll do it" they'd have had a better shot to win, cause clearly no one else was hitting on nothing.

>No post? (feels like it's been WEEKS since a damn game
>happened)
>
>I truly don't know who's going to pull this one off. My head
>says Celtics, my heart says Mavs. Either way it's fuck the
>Celtics so...I'm begrudgingly rooting for Dallas.
>
>Always fun to see how these narratives swing.
>
>

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

I was wrong, I thought it was Tatum but Brown has clearly shown he is the glue to this Celtics team.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

Look at the production this postseason:

Tatum: 398 points, 165 rebounds, 100 assists, 43 turnovers
Brown: 393 points, 100 rebounds, 46 assists, 45 turnovers

Tatum was also obviously more productive during the regular season. Only difference in the postseason is Tatum's 3-point shooting has slumped from nearly 38% this regular season to 29% this postseason, and Brown's 3-point shooting has more or less stayed the same (35.4% regular season, 35.6% postseason). Brown's also, from the eye test, been better about finishing at the rim than Tatum has, though I don't have those percentages handy (I also wouldn't be surprised if Brown is just usually been at finishing at the rim than Tatum has).

But Tatum is running the offense. I think he's the glue that helps make everyone else better, even on nights when his shooting isn't going. More than anything else, I think all of this is clear that the annual offseason panic of "can Tatum and Brown make it all the way playing together? should the Celtics split them up?" is always silly, lol.

(I also think, in a very interesting turn of events, there's a decent chance Jrue could end up winning Finals MVP. Through two games, he's averaging, 19, 9.5, and 4 while boasting easily the best shooting on the team and committing a grand total of *zero turnovers,* lol. He's on one right now.)

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>(I also think, in a very interesting turn of events, there's a
>decent chance Jrue could end up winning Finals MVP. Through
>two games, he's averaging, 19, 9.5, and 4 while boasting
>easily the best shooting on the team and committing a grand
>total of *zero turnovers,* lol. He's on one right now.)

Jrue wasn't.

___________________

Mar-A-Lago delenda est

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1800595116639588557

Celtics' Kristaps Porzingis suffered a torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon.

----------------------

day-to-day or on his deathbed, depending on which twitter drs/accounts you follow. i only trust dr raj brar personally

really changes boston's ability to switch on D and hurts their 5 out spacing quite a bit. still not seeing a super clear path to victory for the mavs but maybe they can take game 3, if boston continues to miss 3s at a high clip?

edit: apparently he's going to try to play game 3. hope it doesn't backfire on them

on both ends of the court, I'm concerned he'll end up hurting himself even more due to being so compromised and/or off balance because this malady.

When he initially hurt himself in Game Two, he hesitated from putting weight on the ankle when gathering himself.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

As it stands, this is the most boring Finals in some time. The Celtics are far too good and far too deep and the Mavs haven't had a stretch of more than 2-3 minutes at a time where they seem to be the better team. The KP injury might make for some more intrigue but...this is boring.

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

His impact at the rim, both as a shot blocker and as a deterrent to force pull-ups, can't really be overstated. I think if he can't play, it's a series.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

this injury is moreso a pain management type injury (though there is risk that playing could injure other things). if it's JUST that? i'm guessing he plays.

https://x.com/TimBontemps/status/1801022256627224723?t=z8UkCcf6NnBLc8ymluWAgw&s=19

https://x.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1801038194068033631?t=dUeDZ2QZBAyFeecCcvxk-w&s=19

We'll see...

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

djoker is the greatest, sure etc..but ive always thought the greatest tennis playing ive ever seen is in the game right after nadal's serve gets broken in a grandslam match, and rafa had to absolutely get a game back--he turned it up to a level that any opponent could rarely match

and between the 2021 finals and this one now..Jrue reminds me of that on defense in crunch time. like dude chills during regular season and then casually "so i saw the 4 of you fiddling with that 'close game'-jar all season, not being able to open--give me.. *quick twist/pop/cements the win*"

and middleton/portis must be incredulous watching this & knowing they gave it away...while coach bud laughs his ass off..

i was viewing celts thru my heatfan-hater goggles admittedly, but damn that roster is a motherfucker

nfl, mlb. defensive intensity and fatigue are huge factors in nba playoffs. steph curry? rarely tired. big reason jokic and ANT aren't playing right now is they ran out of gas, couldn't carry the load.

in the past, playoff d intensity rattled the Celtics. tatum, imo, stays rattled. in the past jaylen's bad dribbling was exposed by the more intense D. not so much this year. too many shooters.

fatigue factor...doesn't bode well for Luka in this series. but kyrie seems to play halfspeed half the time. can he play at 110 the rest of the way? dunno. Mavs have looked outmatched, 2 guys taking turns playing iso ball with varying success vs a much more balanced, well-oiled sabermetrics machine.

having that guy that can turn up 3 notches on d is huge.

regular season is too long imo. if he was playing at this level all year, he probably wouldn't be...playing at this level rn.

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

------------------------------

17x NBA Champions

.

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

consummate whiner, and he's out there letting everyone blow by.

like, yes, some guys are not good defenders, but they are out there trying their ass off.

shit, you're getting outplayed on the defensive side of the ball by Sam Hauser and Xavier Tillman. you SHOULD be embarrassed.

barring a miracle, this is a title for the Celtics...and if the way it went and how you played doesn't motivate you to actually get in shape for once in your career and play defense? literally nothing will.

>consummate whiner, and he's out there letting everyone blow
>like, yes, some guys are not good defenders, but they are out
>there trying their ass off.
>
>shit, you're getting outplayed on the defensive side of the
>ball by Sam Hauser and Xavier Tillman. you SHOULD be
>embarrassed.
>
>barring a miracle, this is a title for the Celtics...and if
>the way it went and how you played doesn't motivate you to
>actually get in shape for once in your career and play
>defense? literally nothing will.

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

Perk as well.

: )

.

in fact, i saw someone edited the audio over the Ether beat, hahaha.

he kinda been on one since he out scooped Woj on Harden leaving Philly. He says shit with his FULL chest now, lol.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

after a slight breeze, then literally sitting on the ground complaining to the officials while his team gets scorched for a 3 because they're playing 4 on 5... perfect representation of this game.

Luka is so good as a player, but he's such a giant piss baby. One of the small handful of players that could have me rooting for the Celtics.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

likes this dude.

I can't recall someone who whined this much. Especially for someone who tends to get the majority of the calls and is constantly bailed out by the refs.


He's a flabby, whiney, ball-carrying, lazy, low ball-IQ ass bitch.


If the NBA is so desperate for a great white hope, they should stick with Joker.