General NBA thread

[Henry]

Bucks beat the Bulls 105-92 tonight, clinching the#1 seed and homecourt throughout the playoffs.  Go Bucks!

Well, the good news is that the Bulls still get a play-in spot, although their path to the playoffs will be tough as they have the 10-seed in the East.

Wish they never made it and got eliminated lol, this team is a mess

Perish the thought, they got the win in Toronto; now the harder game in Miami is coming up.

[Roadgeekteen]

Bucks beat the Bulls 105-92 tonight, clinching the#1 seed and homecourt throughout the playoffs.  Go Bucks!

Well, the good news is that the Bulls still get a play-in spot, although their path to the playoffs will be tough as they have the 10-seed in the East.

Wish they never made it and got eliminated lol, this team is a mess

Perish the thought, they got the win in Toronto; now the harder game in Miami is coming up.

Demar's daughter the MVP

[Henry]

The playoff field is getting two firsts, with all four California teams in it, and all three Texas teams out of it. Which makes this season historic and surreal.

[bing101]

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/i-80-playoff-showdown-between-warriors-kings-tests-allegiance-solano-county-residents/
The I-80 series and Solano County is in the middle of this one given that both Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors have Solano County.

But other counties in NorCal you know where the alliances are.

[Ted$8roadFan]

The playoff field is getting two firsts, with all four California teams in it, and all three Texas teams out of it. Which makes this season historic and surreal.

Not to mention both New York teams are in the playoffs, which is also amazing given their histories.

[KCRoadFan]

What an exciting win for the Kings over the Warriors to begin their series - 126-123!

[ET21]

Bucks beat the Bulls 105-92 tonight, clinching the#1 seed and homecourt throughout the playoffs.  Go Bucks!

Well, the good news is that the Bulls still get a play-in spot, although their path to the playoffs will be tough as they have the 10-seed in the East.

Wish they never made it and got eliminated lol, this team is a mess

Perish the thought, they got the win in Toronto; now the harder game in Miami is coming up.

Ty Miami for ending the Bulls, though I do agree, DeMar's daughter true MVP.

[jgb191]

Although none of the Texas teams are in the playoffs, this is the year I am really interested in watching it.....no one is favored to win the championship this year.

It was refreshing to see Sacramento re-awakened after 16 years.  I was cheering hard for the Kings to win it all in 2002, but turned out that the Lakers weren't going to be denied their 3-peat.  That LA/Sacramento series in 2002 -- the real NBA Finals in my opinion -- was the greatest playoff series in NBA history I thought, and Game Seven (that went overtime) was one of the best games in all of sports history.

As far as Game Two last night, I expected nothing less from the referees regarding the stomping incident.  Sabonis was appropriately administered a technical foul and rightly so, but Draymond also deserved the flagrant and ejection.  But I think it ends there; there should be no suspensions going forward. 

I looked this up:  Both home courts are only about 70 miles apart; that's the closest playoff-matchup distance-wise in the first round.  You can hear the noise from the Kings fans all the way from Oakland!

[Henry]

According to ESPN, the top three championship picks are the Bucks, Celtics and Suns. But with the field as packed as it is (the last non-lockout/COVID season without a 60-win team was 2000-01), there is no clear favorite this time around, so as they say, anything goes.

[Henry]

The Bucks are out, so the Celtics are emerging as the prohibitive favorites to win the East. So this sets up a redux of the late 90s/early 2000s battles between the Knicks and Heat, the two teams I loved to hate as a Bulls fan (along with the Pistons, who infamously walked off the court after losing the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals).

[tdindy88]

Since this is a roads forum, I Just noticed that all the four Eastern Conference teams remaining are all along I-95. ESPN must be having a wet dream over these playoffs.

And the Western Conference has the Bay Area and LA (both along US 101) in one semi with Denver and Phoenix in the latter (the only two markets that aren't super-big)

[bing101]

Since this is a roads forum, I Just noticed that all the four Eastern Conference teams remaining are all along I-95. ESPN must be having a wet dream over these playoffs.

And the Western Conference has the Bay Area and LA (both along US 101) in one semi with Denver and Phoenix in the latter (the only two markets that aren't super-big)

Congrats to the Warriors again now that they have to face Los Angeles Lakers

I was expecting a rivalry that has not been seen since the 2000's back when Sacramento Kings was in Natomas and their rivalry against the Kobe Bryant era Lakers.

But then again Different era different players.

[jgb191]

The NBA got its wish of a LA vs SF playoff series; we haven't seen that in a while.  Two major California markets a ratings dream.

Imagine if that happened in 2002 Western Conference Championship the Bay Area team instead of Sacramento.....imagine the ratings bonanza and even more money generated.

Someone told me that if you look a bunch of role players and put them in two of the largest cities, their matchup would still generate more money than a star-studded playoff-series between two mid-size cities.  So it guess it's not the players but the city sizes that determine ratings/money.  Imagine if the Blazers defied conventional logic at the time and drafted Michael Jordan in 1984.

[JayhawkCO]

Nuggs gonna take this all down.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Sixers take Game 1 from the Celtics.

https://twitter.com/billsimmons/status/1653214106105843713?s=61&t=YaXnONshRab24nce-Nwmvw

[Ted$8roadFan]

Joel Embiid is the 2022-23 NBA MVP.

[Henry]

The NBA got its wish of a LA vs SF playoff series; we haven't seen that in a while.  Two major California markets a ratings dream.

The last time the Warriors and Lakers met in the playoffs was 1991. While it may not be nearly as intense as Dodgers vs. Giants, it's really coming close to it, especially with abundant star power on both sides (Splash Brothers vs. King James and The Brow). In fact, don't be surprised if it comes down to a Game 7 again, as it did in the Warriors-Kings series.

[jgb191]

As much as I would love for the Lakers/Warriors series to go the full seven games, for one reason I hope it doesn't make it to a Game Seven.  I want the teams to either disprove the conspiracy that the NBA league office sets up a Game Seven, or if indeed the NBA executives have ordered Game Seven to be played, then I hope the better team defies that order and ends it as soon as they are capable of doing so.

Also I hate the notion of a "gentlemen's sweep" that the winning team is up 3-0 and decides to hand Game Four to the losing team before knocking them out in Game Five; I don't know if this really does happen.  But if your opponent is playing in elimination game, then sweep them if capable.  The last thing you want is to risk injury in that extra game which didn't need to by played and give your opponent any hope.  The 2003 Dallas Mavericks came to mind: in the 2003 First Round, the Mavs won the first three games vs the Portland TrailBlazers, and decided to make the Portland fans happy by giving them Game Four so the Mavs could end the series at home.  Well the Mavs did close out the series at home....in a hotly-contested Game Seven; Dallas was incredibly lucky to escape the first round from Portland.

[Big John]

Bucks fire HC Gud

[skluth]

Bucks fire HC Gud

Coach Bud. I think most Bucks fans are rejoicing. He's not very good at adjustments and he's not the most engaging personality either. He coached a championship which was mostly Giannis, Kris, and Lopez willing them to the title despite Budenholzer.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Being bounced from the first round of the playoffs as a #1 seed by the #8 seed while your expectations are a championship or bust......oh, wait. 

[jgb191]

It was a major coaching mismatch, which I believe was the biggest factor in the series.  Erik Spoelstra completely outcoached Mike Bud.  Also many people underestimate the Heat for some reason; they're way better than they get credit for.  Also if the Heat had the seventh best record in the East, then why were they placed at #8 seed?

This reminds me again of the Dallas Mavericks in 2007, the #1 seeded Mavs fell to the #8 GS Warriors, where the coaching decided the series (the players on both sides looked evenly matched).  Former Mavs coach and then the Warriors coach Don Nelson knew everything about Mavs tendencies and weaknesses and outcoached his successor Avery Johnson.  It was a coaching mismatch of epic proportions that culminated in seemingly considered one of the biggest upsets in playoff history at the time.

[Henry]

It was a major coaching mismatch, which I believe was the biggest factor in the series.  Erik Spoelstra completely outcoached Mike Bud.  Also many people underestimate the Heat for some reason; they're way better than they get credit for.  Also if the Heat had the seventh best record in the East, then why were they placed at #8 seed?

They lost the first play-in game to the Hawks, who had three fewer wins in the regular season. The winner of that matchup would be guaranteed the 7-seed, while the loser would get one more chance in the play-in tournament, and the Heat took advantage of their second chance by beating the Bulls and getting the last seed. So seeding no longer is a given when you have the seventh through tenth best teams in each conference jockeying for the last two spots in the playoffs these days.

[jgb191]

So that means the #8 seeded team might not even have the eighth-best record in the league?  This adds to my disagreement with the play-in.

[jp the roadgeek]

So that means the #8 seeded team might not even have the eighth-best record in the league?  This adds to my disagreement with the play-in.

Plus a conference 1 seed doesn't guarantee you home court in The Finals against a lower seed from the other conference.  Even though Denver is the 1 seed in the west, they would not have home court against Boston or Philly because both had a better record than the Nuggets.