***Official NBA 2024-25 Season Thread***

Celtics are so so so good. I do think Luka is the best player in the league but imo this is a Kyrie series. If he can be the second best player in the series - I think Mavs win it.

Celts are gonna blitz Luka over and over and Kyrie will have to have a monster series. PJ Washington and other Mavs 3pt shooters will need to hit their open 3s consistently.

If Porzingis is having a bad series - I feel Mavs can slow down the Celts offense. He's my x factor for Celts. If he plays above average - Celtics will be able to spread the floor without giving up size.

i think BOS in 6 but really would love a gm 7 in this series

Originally posted by 4ML:

It's a game now

Originally posted by GoreGoreGore:

Originally posted by 4ML:

It's a game now

…and over just as quickly lol

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by blizzuntz:

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by blizzuntz:

JJ Barea was sooooo tough

Wonder what the new generation 20 yrs from now will say when they see this & what they will say about who Lebron played against. #LeBots 🤡 pic.twitter.com/JfHghbCsNP

— Stanley Of Course (@SeecretWeapon) May 21, 2024

lol

lol hopefully that new generation will understand what zone defense is and hopefully this will still be there on the internet:

———————
Jordan said this in the offseason to try to stop the illegal defense rule from being implemented. His plea failed. After a loss to the Charlette Hornets that season, Jordan said, "I never liked zones, I felt like that's a lazy way to play defense and with them, you can eliminate a lot of the stars making things happen."

"If teams were able to play zone defenses, Jordan said, he never would have had career he did."

Jordan was not the only star player who felt this way.

"If you guys could change one rule in the League, what would it be?"

Kevin Garnett: "No zone."
Tim Duncan: "Yeah, the zone."
Tracy McGrady: "That s**t is stupid."

——————

Also - I do think Lebron had a terrible series…there is no denying that. But, same Dallas team swept defending champs Lakers and Kobe earlier in the playoffs. Kobe and LeBron had the same Game Score against Mavs.

It's a major blemish IMO. He is not helping by blaming the role players recently . Own that s**t. It's things like that don't show up on the stat sheets that take him out of their GOAT convo.

"I played like s--t," James said of his performance in the 2011 Finals on his Mind the Game podcast with JJ Redick. "... I told myself the way I played, unacceptable."

And he should have left it at that . Don't slam on the role players for their contributions, when it was his lack of contributions in the finals . Just poor situational awareness on some of the things he says sometimes

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by GoreGoreGore:

Originally posted by 4ML:

It's a game now

…and over just as quickly lol

I curse teams

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
And he should have left it at that . Don't slam on the role players for their contributions, when it was his lack of contributions in the finals . Just poor situational awareness on some of the things he says sometimes

Fwiw - jordan has done the same.

Originally posted by GoreGoreGore:

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by GoreGoreGore:

Originally posted by 4ML:

It's a game now

…and over just as quickly lol

I curse teams

Plz Curse the right team man

big Celtics fan said to me that Celtics perimeter defense and offense will be too much for Mavs on both ends of the floor .

It's gonna be really hard for the Mavs. Kyrie/Luka are great, but when you have White, Brown, Tatum, Jrue, playing defense on them, they just can't be that amazing. Mavs don't have dependable bigs that can get some easy buckets or space the floor consistently either. Celtics have that as well with Horford/Porz.

Like I said, I would be shocked if this even gets to 7.

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
And he should have left it at that . Don't slam on the role players for their contributions, when it was his lack of contributions in the finals . Just poor situational awareness on some of the things he says sometimes

Fwiw - jordan has done the same.

He never blamed role players while having one of his worst series ever in a finals .

Originally posted by blizzuntz:

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
And he should have left it at that . Don't slam on the role players for their contributions, when it was his lack of contributions in the finals . Just poor situational awareness on some of the things he says sometimes

Fwiw - jordan has done the same.

He never blamed role players while having one of his worst series ever in a finals .

Take this obsessive Bron takes to that thread at least ffs

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
And he should have left it at that . Don't slam on the role players for their contributions, when it was his lack of contributions in the finals . Just poor situational awareness on some of the things he says sometimes

Fwiw - jordan has done the same.

Originally posted by GoreGoreGore:
It's gonna be really hard for the Mavs. Kyrie/Luka are great, but when you have White, Brown, Tatum, Jrue, playing defense on them, they just can't be that amazing. Mavs don't have dependable bigs that can get some easy buckets or space the floor consistently either. Celtics have that as well with Horford/Porz.

Like I said, I would be shocked if this even gets to 7.

My goodness, Brown was in a zone. I've never seen him play that way before. Tatum didn't have a good offensive showing and six turnovers but he played well in other aspects, so that's a plus. Mavericks were extra physical with Porzingis, especially Lively, it was a bit nerve-wracking, but Porzingis escaped undeterred. Having underrated Luke Kornet back to support, though he only played in garbage time, is comforting. C's lived true to their motto and attempted 42 threes (made 38%). They'll keep going down this path until the Mavs figure out a way to stop it. I just hope we don't see an 0 for 27 moment :)