Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 236. (Read 923222 times)

I do agree, the second unit did it for the Pacers to get a good lead and McConnell is somewhat elated with his role and very animated as him and Brunson started to trash talk meaning the game very interesting.

But in the 4th quarter he did take him out and so the coach made another bad call here as he could let McConnell stay for a few minutes more and see how it goes for him. And you can see the frustrations in his face when he is in the bench and maybe thinking why the Carlisle take him out when he is doing good offensively and defensively.

I think Rick Carlisle will going to have the same mistake he made when he was still coaching the Dallas Mavericks giving Jalen Brunson a very limited minutes hindering Jalen's full potential. Now, look at how Jalen were performing against his former coach and all throughout this whole playoffs run.
McConnell already made his impact to the team, yet it looks like It wasn't enough for Rick again. I remember Matthew Dellavedova with the Cavs before who made a good defensive impact, though he's guarding unstoppable PGs like Steph Curry, but he sure gave them a hard time when he was defending. I think McConnell will be the Pacers' X-factor.

Speaking of McConnell , I think it was a bad decision by the coach to not let him play in the 4th. He had a good game defending Brunson and he is making shots  that's why the Pacers were able to come back when the Knicks had their rally. I think it's safe to say that Brunson is unstoppable, but the Pacers have to put players that are really contributing to the game in both offensive and defensive end, and McConnell is one of them.

Game 3 will be at Indiana, it's a must win for the home team or else their series chance is at risk.

They don't have Randle, Robinson and OG in Game 3, but they still have Achiuwa, Hartenstein and McBride to at least help the team.
Hartenstein played his best game in this playoffs because he almost got a triple-double with 14-12-8. I mean who will thought that he will get 8 assists. It's like when McConnell carried the Pacers in their game against the Bucks where he's the main guy on their team at that moment.

Coach Thibs has 2 options coming into Game 3. He will put Hartenstein in the center which will be the case for most of the game, or he will play small ball with Achiuwa and Mcbride. I like how the Knicks are playing, but I don't like how Coach Thibs use his players. Just look at this. In the whole playoffs, Josh Hart only rested for 3 minutes and played the rest of the games. Both him and DiVincenzo played for more than 40+ minutes in the first 2 games against the Pacers. This kind of play isn't good for the player in the long run. Playing the whole game? I mean you have many players in your roster, and you don't have the balls to let them in just to give him a rest.

Anyway, I just hope that Coach Thibs will use his other players now that OG is out because of an injury. He mostly is using an 8-man rotation, and with OG out, he will be forced to use his other players in the next 2 games probably. Overall, 2 wins for the Knicks, 2 more to go.

That's going to be big in the game 3 as they lost a lot of bigs, they don't have Randle, Robinson, and now OG. I should take the opportunity to back the Pacers in winning the series as they have a great odds now, and I like that they are back at home in game 3 as I believe tehy played really well in at home. And that game aslo, I thought Brunson got really injured, it would have big for the Knicks if he was, but good thing he came back and Knicks were able to surive.

LOL. He’s going to have to do more to reach star status.

Congrats to Jokic winning another MVP. Almost seems dumb at this point they keep giving them to him. I think Doncic did enough to earn an MVP this season and Shaq said to Jokic that he thought SGA was more deserving of the MVP…

People need to put respect on JB's name. 

It would be bad for the fanbase if they have to suspend key players at crucial games. The NBA management would be getting lots of hate because they handicapped a team by suspending a player that is primarily a huge contributor or has a huge impact at the teams performance.

Wow! The Villanova trio did again. 74 combined points for Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Jalen Brunson. These dudes ain't big guys and yet they look like giants when they play the game. Chemistry is a difficult thing to defeat. They are enjoying the game playing with each other and they are unselfish.

The Pacers had a good lead of 12 points until the Knicks took over and made a 14-4 run and then took the lead. Offensive rebounds have a lot to do with this. Damn, the Pacers should teach Turner and Siakam to do some box out.

Worries for the Knicks: OG Anunoby. Left the game in the 4th quarter with a hamstring injury. He never went back. Will it take long before it heals or can he come back on Game 3? That will be a big loss for the Knicks considering most of the first quarter points today came from OG.

And unless the player really push the button of the NBA, they won't simply put heavy penalties for the superstars in the league. Murray doesn't have history of being dirty though and perhaps that is also taken into account.

But I do agree, it players how has precedent already like Draymond Green, not just hefty fines, he could even be suspended even if it is playoff time. So we can say that NBA are someone favoring certain players and it's very obvious in the case of Jamal Murray here.

I guess the player history has a whole lot to do with how the fines and/or suspension are ditched out, If it were to be Draymond Green who did that yesterday, I'm sure at least a game suspension would have been included, Jamal Murray isn't known to be such a person with violent character and isn't much of a repetitive offender in this case, hence the need for just a fine alone was probably the best way to show leniency, but I can guarantee that and future antic like this would attract a more stiff penalty, just like the case of Pat Beverley I made mention of earlier, I just read a report from Shams Charania who said according to his source, the Indianapolis Police are currently reviewing the case of Pat Bev, and regardless of the legal outcome, I'm quite sure there will be a hefty penalty for Bev from the league's office, Suspension most likely without pay and heavy fine too, at the very least.

That makes sense.

For the other known players that have done crazy things too, they're just fined. They've probably got metrics on who's going to be suspended and who's going to be just fined.

Anyway, that really made Murray pissed when he's guarded and doubled by the Timberwolves. They know how weak he is mentally and sure Finch will do the same tactic on their next meeting.

The Thunders have won on their first game against the Mavs. I want the Mavs to move on but the Thunders are showing interestly enough for one to think of them and become a new fan.

They've got a good chemistry but it's still early to tell about this series for them. Let's wait for 2-3 more games but as interest as it is, we all want to see this series go up to the last to enjoy it.

A suspension may have been handed down if it was some role player who did that. Maybe part of the decision to just fine him is that nobody actually got hurt. If the NBA could not suspend the like of Draymond for kicking balls then they cannot suspend Murray for throwing things on the floor.

The fine that was given to Jamal Murray is $100k for that heat pack thrown on the floor. IMHO, they should have suspended him for the remaining games.

That shows how much they respect each other teams and whatever the reason he's got for doing that, for sure that it's because he's truly pissed with the Wolves defense.

With that, it's going to serve as a lesson not just for him but also for the other teams to remain themselves composure and professional even if the game isn't favoring them.

I still think that it's going to be a toss up if these two teams meet in the conference Finals. Thunders may be the younger teams but they haven't shown any fear so far. I think this will be a battle of Wolves' choking defense vs. Thunders distributed offense. Most guess would probably go for defense over offense but what I'm thinking is that it's tough to keep that up in a series against a young team.

Yeah, they'd adjust for sure quickly but the Nuggets have to do that if there's no way anymore for them or they have to do everything they can and use everyone they can that can contribute to get that at least 1 win.

The new Cavs today is still a young team and that's why they seem to destroy them easy. But let's see how they're going to adjust to their game 2 and see what they can do next. Boston is a known choker in every playoff that they play in.

Interesting news I missed yesterday. Trae Young is no longer being represented by Clutch Sports. That seemingly means that a move to the Lakers this summer to pair him with LeBron isn’t happening. My guess is the Lakers will go after Klay Thompson or Buddy Hield as their shooter, but the odds are long for both. This should be another blow to Lakers nation…

A great motivation as it is, I like that level of competition star vs another star which will determine who's better among the two if the team won the series,  just a personal opinion though, but yes Mavs needs to win a game from opponents home court and try to protect their home and lead the series for a much better spot, though same deal with OKC they need to protect the home court advantage to put pressure for Mavs when they travel and played outside their court.

The Pacers and Knicks game today doesn’t excite me too much. Without a proper superstar it’s almost like watching a college game to me… Plus, I don’t really like either team’s roster now, or their franchise historically. So I’ll probably take a day off from the NBA playoffs to chase some other hobbies. I’m secretly hoping for the Pacers to win though.