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Official NBA 2012-13 Season Thread
- Thread starter Byrne
- Start date
*Crying in fetal position*
Mah bois, the Clips...can we be done with Del Negro now...
It's just not your year ck. Just admit it.
I'm temporarily happy that both my teams (okc and ny) won the series today,but they both have shown signs they won't survive the playoffs. Oh well
Who would've thought fisher still matters. Another gutsy performance from him.
With denver and dallas out, i'll be left with okc, ny, and nets to watch.
I'm temporarily happy that both my teams (okc and ny) won the series today,but they both have shown signs they won't survive the playoffs. Oh well
Who would've thought fisher still matters. Another gutsy performance from him.
With denver and dallas out, i'll be left with okc, ny, and nets to watch.
I am sort of happy the Clippers got knocked out in the first round. The Clippers fans I know were being unbearably obnoxious, as if they had the finals trophy already.
So is this the end end of the KG Celtics? Don't see how they can improve given the money they have tied up without trading Rondo, which would be a dumb move imo. Rondo is a really good playoff player and there's no sense in sacrificing someone in their prime for guys that are on their way out like KG & Pierce. I still think they should have considered trading Pierce to Memphis for Rudy Gay earlier in the season. Gay could improve his shooting and Pierce would have been great with the Grizzlies.
So I got the Grizzlies, Knicks, and Warriors to root for at least. Nothing against the Spurs, Heat, or Thunder; just think those teams are more interesting/likable than they are.
So is this the end end of the KG Celtics? Don't see how they can improve given the money they have tied up without trading Rondo, which would be a dumb move imo. Rondo is a really good playoff player and there's no sense in sacrificing someone in their prime for guys that are on their way out like KG & Pierce. I still think they should have considered trading Pierce to Memphis for Rudy Gay earlier in the season. Gay could improve his shooting and Pierce would have been great with the Grizzlies.
So I got the Grizzlies, Knicks, and Warriors to root for at least. Nothing against the Spurs, Heat, or Thunder; just think those teams are more interesting/likable than they are.
i dont think so. Okc matches up defensively against memphis. Grizz has no 3 point shooting which is the main weakness of okc defensively.
Durant is still the best player in this series. Okc in 7
That's Fisher for ya. He has no relevance in the regular season, but come playoff time he does some great stuff.
Why is it not my year? I said the most likely teams to make the finals in order were Thunder>Spurs>Clippers>Grizzlies and on the other side that the only team that should have a chance at beating the Heat would be the Pacers (and that the only two teams that could beat the Heat in the West are the Clippers+Grizzlies). So far nothing has gone wrong for me but the Clippers. I even said that the Warriors were a slight favorite over the Nuggets, if only because the Rockets+Nuggets were the two most likely teams in the NBA to lose in the playoffs at large (and because the Warriors+Nuggets were identical which makes the series a complete coin flip, the only difference was the Warriors had 5% more star power).
I just wanted 2-3 more game 7s and obviously a Clippers win.
The thing I do in the NBA is talk and talk and talk, I do not do many picks. That is because I am still no good at gambling on the NBA in general. To compare, I was 6-2 ATS in just the NFL playoffs with real money and had Atlanta -2.5 against the Seahawks, who managed to win by 2 after leading by 20 >:(
Because...I bragged about Dallas so much more than 10 games into the season. Oh wait never at any point ever.
Of all the NBA teams I said mattered, the only time one exited the playoffs was when it faced one of the other teams I said mattered. The two teams I said mattered the least because of pace are out of the playoffs because no team can win playing the 1st or 2nd fastest pace (they will lose 99.6% before the finals, so basically pray for the CH baby). Yes I use statistics, I use statistics to be fucking right, although honestly this season it was not hard without them because the bad teams were so outmatched.
In order my rankings for making finals/relevant NBA teams were
Heat #1 Thunder #2 Spurs #3 Clippers #4 Grizzlies #5 Pacers #6 Knicks a ridiculously distant barely relevant #7
In order my rankings for winning a finals/extremely relevant NBA teams
Heat #1 Clippers #2 Pacers #3 Grizzlies #4 Spurs #5 Knicks #6 Thunder #7 (Spurs and Grizzlies would both be historically anomalous in ways that are hard to compare...and really the Knicks play literally opposed to their strengths, if they win I will be completely fucking stunned)
I mean you can falsely fixate on what I say all you like and misconstrue it. The fact of the matter is that this year was extremely simple to analyze with or without statistics, and the only way I can be exactly "wrong" is if the Warriors, Nets, or Bulls win a title, all highly improbable. If the Heat, Pacers, or sort of Grizzlies (it would fit perfectly well with both the maxims that a team almost always has to win with D first + that D wins almost all championships, it would just be stunning for a team to play the slowest pace and pull it off, only Pistons ever played that slow and even made a finals, but they took it to the brink when they did) win a title then this year will be the same as 85% of years. If the Spurs win the title, it will be the most anomalous title win in the last 30 years, but still fairly expectable - the Spurs are a "better" team than the Pacers or Knicks, or probably even Grizzlies, but like the Thunder they play such a massively inferior playstyle that all their experience and efficiency cannot usually compensate for it at some point in the playoffs. It is a shame about Westbrook, nothing would have proved statistics more right than the Heat beating them again in the finals.
(and the Warriors, or Nets winning it is so unlikely to happen that I welcome any signature or avatar bets, how does a full year sound? the Bulls winning would actually be statistically incredibly ordinary, it is incredibly unlikely and would be stunning given the no-Rose season though)
Of all the NBA teams I said mattered, the only time one exited the playoffs was when it faced one of the other teams I said mattered. The two teams I said mattered the least because of pace are out of the playoffs because no team can win playing the 1st or 2nd fastest pace (they will lose 99.6% before the finals, so basically pray for the CH baby). Yes I use statistics, I use statistics to be fucking right, although honestly this season it was not hard without them because the bad teams were so outmatched.
In order my rankings for making finals/relevant NBA teams were
Heat #1 Thunder #2 Spurs #3 Clippers #4 Grizzlies #5 Pacers #6 Knicks a ridiculously distant barely relevant #7
In order my rankings for winning a finals/extremely relevant NBA teams
Heat #1 Clippers #2 Pacers #3 Grizzlies #4 Spurs #5 Knicks #6 Thunder #7 (Spurs and Grizzlies would both be historically anomalous in ways that are hard to compare...and really the Knicks play literally opposed to their strengths, if they win I will be completely fucking stunned)
I mean you can falsely fixate on what I say all you like and misconstrue it. The fact of the matter is that this year was extremely simple to analyze with or without statistics, and the only way I can be exactly "wrong" is if the Warriors, Nets, or Bulls win a title, all highly improbable. If the Heat, Pacers, or sort of Grizzlies (it would fit perfectly well with both the maxims that a team almost always has to win with D first + that D wins almost all championships, it would just be stunning for a team to play the slowest pace and pull it off, only Pistons ever played that slow and even made a finals, but they took it to the brink when they did) win a title then this year will be the same as 85% of years. If the Spurs win the title, it will be the most anomalous title win in the last 30 years, but still fairly expectable - the Spurs are a "better" team than the Pacers or Knicks, or probably even Grizzlies, but like the Thunder they play such a massively inferior playstyle that all their experience and efficiency cannot usually compensate for it at some point in the playoffs. It is a shame about Westbrook, nothing would have proved statistics more right than the Heat beating them again in the finals.
(and the Warriors, or Nets winning it is so unlikely to happen that I welcome any signature or avatar bets, how does a full year sound? the Bulls winning would actually be statistically incredibly ordinary, it is incredibly unlikely and would be stunning given the no-Rose season though)
that's crazy talk
no one can shut down KD, but tayshaun prince is a good defender who will make things very hard on him. tony allen can absolutely shut down kevin martin (when prince is on KD). kendrick perkins has become more and more useless every year and marc gasol will dominate him. ibaka is a good defender, but he's not strong enough to deal with either z-bo or gasol. mike conley is also super underrated. actually the entire memphis team is super underrated and I think they have a surprisingly decent chance at making it to the finals.
Kendrick Perkins preemptively murdered any real shot the Thunder had at a title (it was shocking at the time to me that it did not murder any chance they had to beat the Spurs, but Durant etc...) last year, and I agree that he has only gotten worse since then. The Rockets are a shitty team with no defense, and they still defended Durant well with no Westbrook to worry about. The Grizzlies SHOULD do even better.
Mike Conley was racking up crazy amounts of free throws for the Grizzlies all series. He beat his season high in an elimination game, and before that he posted his 3rd and 4th best FTA games all season. Since dumping Gay, the Grizzlies have not had that extra spark on offense (which is kind of fine, kind of not...Gay has been a bad shot chucker for the last year, which improves/hurts your team at the same time).
Mike Conley was racking up crazy amounts of free throws for the Grizzlies all series. He beat his season high in an elimination game, and before that he posted his 3rd and 4th best FTA games all season. Since dumping Gay, the Grizzlies have not had that extra spark on offense (which is kind of fine, kind of not...Gay has been a bad shot chucker for the last year, which improves/hurts your team at the same time).
Well,acl stopped me from playing...
If thunder fails, then i'm also going with memphis for the title because they have every tool to beat miami (best perimeter defense, elite big guys). They just have to survive spurs (more likely).
Woah Noah. Too bad it's the nets, which means i only get to watch knicks live when i get back home in brooklyn
If thunder fails, then i'm also going with memphis for the title because they have every tool to beat miami (best perimeter defense, elite big guys). They just have to survive spurs (more likely).
Woah Noah. Too bad it's the nets, which means i only get to watch knicks live when i get back home in brooklyn
I feel like Brandon Roy is kind of the best example of what we should be feeling about Derrick Rose? The amount of time he came back too soon is unworldly (1 month) and we lost a top 12 NBA player or whatever (I have too bad of a bad memory to peg him more precisely than this) when he was just 26 years old. I think he kind of figured that Mavericks style run to the finals, for some reason he thought his team had it in them when they clearly did not. He ruined his career, probably SPECIFICALLY IN THOSE PLAYOFFS. So I am mostly poking fun, I think Rose should stay out for the good of the NBA...losing a Brandon Roy level guy is a terrible loss to the league. Personally I think Derrick Rose is not quite on that level, but obviously he is a lot better than a Shaun Livingston level too.
Rose has been out so long that I think something is genuinely fucked up for him, and he should let it be fixed and not ruin his career. The NBA will be way better off for it.
The TNT NBA post game show is pretty awesome.
Second Round!
Spurs vs Warriors
Match-ups:
> Curry vs Parker - 2 guards who can't guard each other. I don't expect Parker defending Curry (Green will have the unenviable job), but Curry has no choice but to defend Parker because Warriors have nobody to do that for him. Remember how he got toasted by Lawson in the first round? Goodluck with a better baller known as Parker. Outside from scoring outbursts from Curry, I think Parker will have this match-up, provided also that Parker can keep himself healthy. Experience-wise, Parker.
> Wings (Green/Khawi/Manu vs Klay/Barnes/Jack) – The Warriors trio had a good first round, but they will be tested by the combination of experience, better defense and shooting of Spurs wings. I’m really surprised by the Manu comeback and I can see him outplaying Jack especially when things are tight.
> Bogut vs Duncan – Curry vs Parker is the highlight reel but I think this is the important match-up. Bogut is finally healthy despite the painful face he’d shown in the 1st round (don’t be fooled). Duncan is rested. If Warriors has any chance to win this series, this is because of Bogut winning this match-up. If he don’t, I call this another sweep for the Spurs
> Other big guys (Splitter/Diaw/Bonner vs Lee/Ezeli/Landry) – Lee is an all-star, but he’s hurt so I don’t know what to make of him. In any case, I think Warriors will be the same with or without him. If Warriors won’t have Lee, they’ll exploit Splitter/Diaw/Bonner the way they exploited Faried in 1st round by putting Barnes on them playing small ball. [
Playstyle:
I can see Warriors playing more small ball (esp. if Lee is still hobbled by injury), just like what Thunder did to Spurs last year. With the loss of Jackson, I think Spurs will have trouble adjusting to this since I don’t see Pop putting Leonard on 4 deep in the playoffs. The small ball combo of Parker-Green-Ginobili-Leonard-Duncan is only the 16th most used line-up by the Spurs this season; all previous 15 line-ups feature 2 big men. If small ball won’t work, Warriors’ll always have Landry to give minutes, but they won’t have any advantage playing him.
But still, Warriors don’t have the defense to match-up with the Spurs offensively. In this series, Spurs offense might just be enough to get them through. We’ll see lots of Parker blowing by Curry and initiating the patented Spurs ball movement. Predictable, but enough for this series.
Prediction: Curry will get hot for 2 games with consistent help from Bogut. But Spurs offense will be too much. Inexperience of the Warriors will show in a couple of close games. Klay/Barnes will have their rookie shock. Remember those basic turnovers in Game 6 vs Nuggs but still won? They won't win against the Spurs like that. Spurs win this in 5. (I like the future of the Warriors though)
Spurs vs Warriors
Match-ups:
> Curry vs Parker - 2 guards who can't guard each other. I don't expect Parker defending Curry (Green will have the unenviable job), but Curry has no choice but to defend Parker because Warriors have nobody to do that for him. Remember how he got toasted by Lawson in the first round? Goodluck with a better baller known as Parker. Outside from scoring outbursts from Curry, I think Parker will have this match-up, provided also that Parker can keep himself healthy. Experience-wise, Parker.
> Wings (Green/Khawi/Manu vs Klay/Barnes/Jack) – The Warriors trio had a good first round, but they will be tested by the combination of experience, better defense and shooting of Spurs wings. I’m really surprised by the Manu comeback and I can see him outplaying Jack especially when things are tight.
> Bogut vs Duncan – Curry vs Parker is the highlight reel but I think this is the important match-up. Bogut is finally healthy despite the painful face he’d shown in the 1st round (don’t be fooled). Duncan is rested. If Warriors has any chance to win this series, this is because of Bogut winning this match-up. If he don’t, I call this another sweep for the Spurs
> Other big guys (Splitter/Diaw/Bonner vs Lee/Ezeli/Landry) – Lee is an all-star, but he’s hurt so I don’t know what to make of him. In any case, I think Warriors will be the same with or without him. If Warriors won’t have Lee, they’ll exploit Splitter/Diaw/Bonner the way they exploited Faried in 1st round by putting Barnes on them playing small ball. [
Playstyle:
I can see Warriors playing more small ball (esp. if Lee is still hobbled by injury), just like what Thunder did to Spurs last year. With the loss of Jackson, I think Spurs will have trouble adjusting to this since I don’t see Pop putting Leonard on 4 deep in the playoffs. The small ball combo of Parker-Green-Ginobili-Leonard-Duncan is only the 16th most used line-up by the Spurs this season; all previous 15 line-ups feature 2 big men. If small ball won’t work, Warriors’ll always have Landry to give minutes, but they won’t have any advantage playing him.
But still, Warriors don’t have the defense to match-up with the Spurs offensively. In this series, Spurs offense might just be enough to get them through. We’ll see lots of Parker blowing by Curry and initiating the patented Spurs ball movement. Predictable, but enough for this series.
Prediction: Curry will get hot for 2 games with consistent help from Bogut. But Spurs offense will be too much. Inexperience of the Warriors will show in a couple of close games. Klay/Barnes will have their rookie shock. Remember those basic turnovers in Game 6 vs Nuggs but still won? They won't win against the Spurs like that. Spurs win this in 5. (I like the future of the Warriors though)
Is it just me, or is the OKC crowd quieter this year
And lol Perkins is a point center... Too beast