NBA Thread

GoldenAura

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Incredible accomplishment to get to the finals! Hopefully they can stay competitive against OKC and not get steamrolled.
 

Irishokie

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That Indiana crowd wearing the same shirts looks like a brainwashed cult.

Battle of the coordinated cultish shirts! Thunder v Pacers. I worry about Pascal and Turner since athletic bigs that can shoot from three give us problems and y’all have two of them. Should be a great series. OKC would’ve swept NY. Awesome that it’s two small market teams. Thunder Up! Go Irish! OKC in 5
 

FightingIrishLover7

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God bless TNT NBA. That shit was my whole childhood.

If ESPN fucks this up so help me.

Also - fuck yes 'cers!
 

Irish#1

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I’m looking forward to see if the Pacers offense can counter OKC’s defense.
 

ACamp1900

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First nba game I watched in like 12 years,… THaliburton is impressive,… those one handed floaters in the fourth,… every time he attempted one I thought, ‘no way’ and each fell
 

Irish#1

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You know they will. It’d be nice if someone would pick up the NBA on TNT crew. They’re the best.
Post game they said Ernie and company were moving to ABC along with the production crew. I don’t think the play by play guys are moving. At least it didn’t appear that way with the way they said goodbye to each other.
 

ab2cmiller

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I love the Pacers and Haliburton, but I still thought this was funny. I was glad that Siakam won it. Sometimes it feels like he's underappreciated.

Hopefully it makes Haliburton play with a little edge in the Finals.

 

Jiggafini19Deux

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I like watching Siakam play. Great success story and a model for athletes. Dude was so very raw when he first came in and is now one of the most versatile players in the NBA.
 

ab2cmiller

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The Thunder-Pacers series will be the first Finals in which neither team was paying the luxury tax.
The luxury tax was instituted in 2002. Since then, every NBA Finals has reportedly featured at least one luxury-tax team, though no taxes were paid in 2002 and 2005 due to a lack of basketball-related income. Of the 44 teams to reach the Finals, 26 have been taxpayers.
 

Irish#1

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I love the Pacers and Haliburton, but I still thought this was funny. I was glad that Siakam won it. Sometimes it feels like he's underappreciated.

Hopefully it makes Haliburton play with a little edge in the Finals.


MVP could have went either way IMO. Doesn't bother me that Siakam won it. While both had some huge games, I think he got it because of his consistency.
 

Irish#1

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Old Man Mike

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An opinion from an old basketball watcher: I believe that the game just changed significantly.

We used to play basketball with a sort-of "hands-off" policy. That is now completely gone.

The "Old Way" to play emphasized clever ways to mask physical contact (in the paint rebounding or taking charges which used to be obvious), and now the cleverness is still demanded, but in entirely different ways.

New basketball, at least in the NBA, is frankly more like the football I played in so-called "touch" football in college intramural. We allegedly were not allowed to do certain things, but that was a joke, right up to drawing blood. Blood drawing did not necessarily mean a foul. Back to basketball, the game now is just put your head down and blast in there, usually getting to the foul line ... or it's banging the body --- MAJOR Banging --- of any guy trying to more slowly back you down. Cleverness still counts, but it must be cleverness of a cruder kind --- a "younger dynamic, violent kind."

I believe that the game has just begun to sit the older guys on the bench, and into retirement, earlier. You MUST be a Driver-Banger and a semi-crazed Wolfpack attacker, and the age line when that begins to fade just came earlier. We've seen what wins games. And it's swarming semi-violence plus great distance shooting, but Werewolf defense. ... and you need to be able to put two bigs on the floor at all times (the second of whom "hides" behind the prime defender and swats the shot away --- OKC is the prime example of that.)

"Offensive players only" become a killer liability in the playoffs. See Doncic. See even Brunson ... or Towns. Only Jokic's incredible skills allow him to become a positive in this new ball. But you almost can't count him as one of your defensive bigs, and certainly not a swarmer. It's why him having Gordon is not enough.

Who's winning? YOUTH. Crazy full court effort at all minutes. Old Men: I've loved watching your polished amazing skills. That game has gone away with the physicality and body stressing and blasting. I'm not sure that I really like the change, .... but I've played another game for many decades.
 

MacIrish75

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Nothing would compare to an ND natty, but this Pacers postseason is just a little bit more fun than the 05 White Sox run because I get to enjoy it with my own son.

Insane. Just absolutely insane. Hali AGAIN.
 

ACamp1900

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I don’t know if I’ve seen a team in a final round of a North American championship get shit on more during a game only to win it,… early in the fourth you’d have thought the pacers killed harambe with all the heat they were getting. Like they straight up ruined everyone’s Easter just by being here,…
 
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MacIrish75

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I don’t know if I’ve seen a team in a final round of a North American championship get shit on more during a game only to win it,… early in the fourth you’d have thought the pacers killed harambe with all the heat they were getting. Like they straight up ruined everyone’s Easter just by being here,…
#RIPHarambe
 

rikkitikki08

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Carlisle put on a clinic in that fourth quarter, he went small so the thunder matched it and that changed the game. A lot of people were counting this team out and I knew coaching was going to be a huge factor. Carlisle has been in these moments before
 
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