Someone in the east needs to beat the freaking celtics. They're looking like a lock for the finals.
NBA 2022-2023
- Thread starter charlton66
- Start date
Ah yes, James Harden and Doc Rivers, renowned playoff performers
A great win indeed! The town is buzzing, but wary of the cornered wolf that is the defending world champion.
Doc and Harden have a poor history in the playoffs and Embiid has trouble getting through without injury.
Celtics for me too.
I read the article about Draymond stomping Sabonis and I still wasn't ready for the video. That's not a natural movement 
Nah, Bucks are a tier above Philly and Boston still. If they get out of a tough series against the Sixers, they still need to overcome the Bucks (if all goes according to plan).
But it would indeed suck if the Celtics got their 18th before we do.
EDIT: can't remember anymore whether you're a Lakers or Warriors fan tbh
*before the Lakers do, anyway.Nah, Bucks are a tier above Philly and Boston still. If they get out of a tough series against the Sixers, they still need to overcome the Bucks (if all goes according to plan).
But it would indeed suck if the Celtics got their 18th before we do.
EDIT: can't remember anymore whether you're a Lakers or Warriors fan tbh
I bet my house you are a Inter fan as well.
Nah, Bucks are a tier above Philly and Boston still. If they get out of a tough series against the Sixers, they still need to overcome the Bucks (if all goes according to plan).
But it would indeed suck if the Celtics got their 18th before we do.
EDIT: can't remember anymore whether you're a Lakers or Warriors fan tbh
To be fair the Celtics have shit on the Bucks all year. There's a lot of evidence that Bud's defensive approach simply doesn't work against Boston.
Nah, Bucks are a tier above Philly and Boston still. If they get out of a tough series against the Sixers, they still need to overcome the Bucks (if all goes according to plan).
But it would indeed suck if the Celtics got their 18th before we do.
EDIT: can't remember anymore whether you're a Lakers or Warriors fan tbh
Bucks need to beat Heat first and it won’t be a walk.
Anybody who has Harden over Brown at this point is on crack.
I'm a biased Celtics fan but I'm not even sure I'd take Harden over Derrick White at this point.
With respect bro, please stop this tomfoolery
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I am a biased Celtics fan as well but 76ers stars’ + coaching peak is higher than ours… even if, admittedly, their base floor is much lower!
Nah, Harden is still a very good player. It’s just that Boston are a much better drilled as a team, have playoffs pedigree and success and a much, much deeper bench. They are not so much a group of amazing individuals as they are a genuinely terrific team.
The way he leapt off and clicked his heels like Rumplestilskin genuinely made me laugh out loud.I read the article about Draymond stomping Sabonis and I still wasn't ready for the video. That's not a natural movement
It was beyond stupid of him though. It’s the second time he’s been grabbed on the floor this series, I don’t know why he doesn’t throw himself on the ground and scream and draw attention to Sabonis.
and, not to be really sinister, but being realistic about who it is and what he was doing, if you want to leave one in on the guy grabbing you, it’s really stupid to go full Keane on Southgate. There are more natural “accidental” ways to land on him.
Higher eFG% while also being a lock for all defense - you're probably right that it's a bridge too far but I don't think there's a huge gap.
ESPN is really next level dog shit.
what did they do this time?
Draymond is a lil bitch
Shams reporting it’s unlikely Green will be suspended for Game 3.
Of course he won’t be. They can’t risk Warriors going 3-0 behind and Warriors v Lakers will get far better ratings than Kings v Lakers.
He's been suspended for game 3.
No seriously, even though I was leaning towards a suspension not being necessary, can't fault this decision from the NBA at all.
Also, I think the NBA doesn't care that much about series outcomes at this point. Could just as well be Kings v Grizzlies at this point than Warriors v Lakers. I get that Curry v LeBron might be their preference yeah but they won't be actively steering it towards that is how I feel.
This might also have influenced their decision. Would look a lot more dodgy and feel more like an injustice if they did nothing, Green played, and Sabonis was out for Game 3.
Yeah I am sure Sabonis will miss game 3. Draymond deserved what he got with his history but I don’t understand how the NBA can actually make decisions based on this history. NBA should come up with straight up penalties for fouls decided by on court refs. This system is terrible and allows for agendas to come in.
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Why? He finished the game - it's possible that the discomfort only started afterwards, but a lot is possible with painkillers or an injection for such injuries. By my (limited) knowledge, this kind of thing is more like a pain tolerance issue than a risk for a more serious injury if he plays.
Sabonis listed as questionable. My bet is that he plays in game 3.
I was being sarcastic. He is of course going to play
Ah okay, missed that
I'd actually be curious to check when the Kings provided the update. Wouldn't surprise me if they did it right after the Shams update that the expectation was that the NBA wouldn't suspend Green, and that they kinda reversed their initial thought based on the Kings report to avoid any controversy.
To me it’s ridiculous that the official NBA ruling can cite Draymond’s history as one of the reasons. No professional league should be making decisions that way
I don’t think it’s that outrageous. Perhaps it shouldn’t really be cited as a reason in the official statement but of course they are going to take it into consideration when assessing the event.
I definitely think the decision was impacted by Kings statement on Sabonis’ health, which was a very clever move by Kings front office.
Disagree, recidivism should most definitely be taking into account. If a player has a history of dirty fouls, you need to be able to punish him harder and harder if he shows that he doesn't learn from it.
If anything it's amazing that it's ONLY a 1-game ban if they took his history into account. Should expect more like a 5-game ban if that's the case.
Also it is going to impact how the intent behind the foul is assessed. He would have been given the benefit of doubt if this was his first, and could have explained it with losing his balance, but no way is anyone willing to believe that in case of Draymond who has done dirty things about a hundred times.
Of course they should. His history directly undermines his (ludicrous) attempt at defending himself. Stiffer penalties for repeat offenders is a staple of just about every league at any level.
It works both ways though because Draymond will obviously always be judged differently to other players. I think you have to decide on a penalty and give that irrespective of whether it’s Draymond or Steph
Again giving a stiffer penalty to someone is fine with predefined rules . Casemiro gets a second red so penalty is 4 games rather than 3 which everyone knew beforehand. Retrospective decisions based on history doesn’t work because it just feeds to bias. If the NBA deems that the stamp is a one game ban then it should be the same for Draymond Green,Steph Curry or Damontas Sabonis
The Australian Football League takes past history into account for these kind of issues. I think it makes sense. Similar to real life where a first time offender is judged differently from a repeat one.
Do you really think that there being some tiny amount of ambiguity over whether stomping on someone would result in a suspension affected Draymond's behaviour in the slightest?
I am saying that Draymond deserved his ban but the league shouldn’t be making random judgements based on who was involved.