Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 196. (Read 914449 times)

Celtics players are more high quality contender compare to current Cavs roster that's why somehow its expected that they lose but still its good to see those young guys reaching this far and can able to provide some good performance against Celtics but they just came up short and defeated by great plays executed by Celtics.

Also what happen to OKC and Mavs is quiet unexpected. A lot of people got surprise on how the defense of OKC make Doncic and Irving struggle. They didn't perform so well in game one and the one who lift hem is their role players so I guess that's the reason why they got defeated by fast moving phase by OKC. Its really terrific since whatever Dallas do there's an answer coming from OKC and Luka seems not in really good shape today so maybe next time they should comeback more stronger and correct each mistakes they made on game one.

OKC just showed the entire NBA fans why they were No. 1 seed of their conference, it was no fluke! Yeah, I didn't anticipate such a terrific offense from Oklahoma City Thunder, and they also limited Doncic efficiency and Dallas to a joint lowest point scored for this playoffs. Luka hasn't at any point been 100% fit, and I really do hope he hasn't aggravated his injury because for Dallas to stand a chance here Luka Doncic is a must have for this series.

If the series between the Nuggets and Timberwolves ended up in 1-1 in the first 2 games, I would say that this kind of prediction is kind of early, but with how the Nuggets got dominated by them, I would predict that they might win it all in the West. I don't also see the Thunder beating them just because the defense of the Wolves are so suffocating that you will lose your rhythm all throughout the game like what happened with Murray in Game 2, and to his frustration, he even threw his heat pad during the game.

The only way for this not to happen or at least I change my prediction is when the Nuggets will steal Games 3 & 4 on the road which for me, has a low chance but who knows. As for the Celtics, they will win it all that's for sure.

I want to say that the fatigue is also a factor on this game, but no. I would say that the Celtics are a better team than the Cavaliers. Like what I said, relying solely on Mitchell on offense is a no-no in this current era. Mitchell isn't Lebron who can carry his whole team in the NBA Finals during his prime. Right now, the Cavaliers need a 2nd and 3rd scorer that will help him. Currently, there isn't any player that can help him on offense.

As for the Dallas-OKC Game 1, Doncic appears to get injured on his feet because at the start of the game, he's a bit limping already. He played all throughout the game though, but he played his worst game in this playoffs stats-wise. I'm not a Mavericks fan, but this is a bit afraid, and I hope that Doncic will be ok to play in Game 2.

As everyone expected the Boston Celtics got a dominant win over the Cavaliers. They're just too much better of a team. I was a bit surprised to see Dallas get beaten by so much by the Thunder. I’ve underestimated the Thunder along with everyone else all year, but I thought this would be as far as they go. If they get to round 3 I might have to start paying attention.

It was an easy game for the Celtics. They're really good at the playoffs as long as it's not going to be Heat.

Let's see what will happen next. To be honest, despite that Cavs lost on this game still Donovan Mitchell has always been consistent. I guess that we're going to see something out of his consistency. Maybe the crowd was also a thing to them just like what happened with the Orlando's game 6 but then when they go home and took the advantage with their court, they've finished the series. Whilst for the Timberwolves and Nuggets, it is going to take a few more days before they match again, that's a lot of rest days for both teams.

This is likely possible but remember we still have a WCF and ECF, so it's too early to tihnk of that. I agree that they are the best team in their respective conference, but you know, surprises along the way is possible just like the Wolves surprised the Nuggets giving them 0-2 disadvantage.

Game 1 for the Celtics vs Cavaliers is over, it was a dominant performance by the home team beating the cavaliers by 25 points. Well, that's not new to them as they really suck on the road so maybe they'll also loss in game 2 but they should win game 3 and 4.

It looks like we're heading towards the Timberwolves - Celtics final. Beating the Nuggets in both games in Denver was a bold move, Edwards and Towns showed how much appetite they have. They have a DPOY like Gobert and a veteran like Conley. They will have an advantage over the young Thunder team. In the East, the Celtics are far ahead of the other teams. They should get past the Cavs and Knicks without much difficulty. We will see a very interesting final this year.

I agree, Thunder is a young team to be honest but Mavs roster is more experienced but we'll still see later. The game is on right now with Celtics and the Cavaliers.

And with some awarding news recently, Ruby Gobert gets the defensive player of the year title.

Wolves' Rudy Gobert named 2023-24 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year

Second round thoughts:

-Timberwolves might be the best team left in the playoffs
-Knicks keep getting pushed aside as an after thought amd their games have been down to the wire every one
-celtics and cavs will be boring
-Thunder and mavs is the biggest unknown series.

My guess

Mavs vs Wolves
Knicks vs Celtics in the conference finals.

Thunders are quietly working on their own journey,  they are now on the 2nd round playing against the Mavs though I'm not a OKC fan but with their capabilities it will be a tough match for the Mavs,  SGA and those other young cores of OKC will give a hard time for Luka and Kyrie they are capable to put that tight defense and with the height and speed advantages I guess it will really be an exciting series for these two competing teams.

A battle of good game plays and chemistry that needed to blended out and execute well, let see if who among the two competing team will adjust and win this series.

Now other teams already have an idea on how to stop Jamal's consecutive buzzer beaters and him as a scoring guy of the Denver Nuggets.

This is the first time that I've seen someone does that over a playoffs game. Is that how desperate he is? Now, the hate is all over him and fans would say that, "that's why he don't win an MVP award".

No doubt that Timberwolves is the best team now having with the best defenders.
On some other NBA matters, congratulations to Victor Wembanyama for winning the ROOKIE OF THE YEAR award.

I know this is probably just a coincidence but I noticed that the Wolves scored exactly 106 points in games 1 and 2. The Nuggets also failed to score at least a hundred on both occasions. Maybe this could give insight to those betting on specials.

This may be a good thing to try at this point but the Wolves defense would probably adjust quickly.

We've missed Cavs seeing in the playoffs. Oops, this is for those that are quite young at heart already when James was still with them.

In a few, we're going to see their match against Celtics and let's see who's going to make their debut win together with the other match of Mavs and Thunder.

Interesting, Thunders made it but it seems that the attention of the fans aren't with them on this playoffs.

The advantage is on the Timberwolves because it is going to be their home court next, right? And while beating Nuggets on their home court advantage, that's hard to see them come back but let's see and you're right that it's not over yet and there are a lot of things that can still happen.
And if they face Dallas or Thunders, they can beat them IMO.

I think that the Nuggets need to use other of their big man like Jordan and other of their benches so that the Wolves will have hard time thinking who's going to be their main scorer and it's not always Jokic and Jamal.

The Timberwolves definitely had them frustrated. Jamal Murray might even receive a suspension or a fine for his behavior in throwing the heat pack on the floor. He deserves it. Giving off Klay Thompson watching the dynasty fade away vibes. Denver is a great team, they just unfortunately got matched with the best team in basketball early in the playoffs.

What happened today in the match between Minnesota and Denver is an important thing. Denver managed to win back Minnesota's huge push. Personally, I believe that the winner of this year is played out in this pair. I thought before the start of this series that Denver would take this series, but what happened today made me change my mind. Now I am inclined to believe that Minnesota will not let go of victory. Still, 2-0 will be quite difficult to win back. Plus, Karl-Anthony Towns and Edwards are hungry for playoff victories. There hasn't been such a holiday in Minnesota for many years. The winner of this pair will play against Boston in the final, I think so.

Jokic is the real problem not Murray, Murray just manage to get a space on Lakers match because Jokic can easily break through his guard to make a move so that Lakers defenders will react to open up Murray.

Timberwolves defense has a rotation focus with Jokic that’s why he is too busy to create space for Murray. Jokic already said in an interview that he needs a clone of himself just to defeat that current defense against by Wolves. Current Nuggets with much weaker bench players is totally outplayed on this series. MPJ and KCP needs to step up more so that Wolves will stop pressuring their defense to Jokic and Murray.

It's the defense as what others have seen, they have limited Murray in game 2 and you can see his frustration at the end of the game. In the Lakers series, he is also been checked however, in the fourth quarter, he will take over the game. But not in this series, the Wolves know that Murray is the key in their wins against the Lakers, back to back winning shot, and so they locked him up the whole four quarters, unlike the Lakers wherein they will play good defense but can't sustain it.

Yes, they will have to return the favor, but it's going to be very hard as the Wolves now have the momentum going in their homecourt. It could be another close game, but if ANT continue to explode and impress their fans, I doubt that the Nuggets can steal even 1 game.

If that feels like something, let me tell you the story that I have built a 99 overall Lebron in an NBA live game, yes NBA live and not NBA 2k because at the time Live was better and the leader of basketball games, that is what I honestly did because Lebron wasn't even in the game but he was hyped by everyone, so I just put a 99 overall Lebron in the game myself by creating something like that.

I have to say that a lot of the coaches that we have today, not all head coaches but a lot of coaches, like assistants, and some of the even head coaches, are people who I watched playing basketball, imagine that for a second. I mean that alone is something that makes me feel so old, Kidd alone should be weird, I have seen the very first game Kidd played, and now he has been a coach for so long.

I thought that the Nuggets are going to be back in game two and win because it's hard to be 0-2 deficit and go back to the Wolves den, so to speak in the next game. It's their defense that really set the tone, even in game 1 they have put a great effort to handle Murray. ANT is doing both defense and offense in game 2 and no one can stop him not even the Nuggets best defender, Aaron Gordon. It's too early to say, but it looks like the Nuggets are going to be eliminated by Wolves here unless Jokic and Murray play great in the next game as the Wolves homecourt. Yes, the hype of ANT comparison against Jordan is real, he exposed KD in their first round, and now taking over the Nuggets in their series and trying to advance to the Western conference finals.