Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 249. (Read 914668 times)

To complete the list of those guys who made the Mavericks' defense tough, I'm also gonna give credit to P.J. Washington for showing impressive defense. He's the one who contained both Sacramento Kings key scorers Domantos Sabonis, mostly on low post, and De’Aaron Fox on the perimeter. The same performance was also shown by him in the previous game against the Utah Jazz.

I like what he said a few days ago that the Mavericks already have 2 of the best scorers in the league and what they need to do is to accompany these guys with their good defense. Impressive chemistry even though he's just played only 5 games with the team.

That's how teamwork is supposed to be. Hope they will maintain that good phase for a long.

Nah, they just beat them a couple of nights ago with Bol Bol dominating Wemby...

I read an interesting quote from LeBron James today talking about what it's like to play basketball professionally at his age...

"I was explaining to my other that she asked me how am I feelin' when I came home after the game. I said, 'Babe, just imagine buying a 2003 Escalade, and it's 2024, and you never changed the tires.'"
- LeBron James

I've never heard someone articulate it like that before, but it seems relatable.  As you age you think you can still do the things of a young man, and sometimes you can.  However, there's always risk of a blowout when you're running on worn tires.  

Looking back, I thought this game would be a blowout win for the Bucks, as they led the Lakers 6–23 in the first quarter. Without Lebron and the Bucks is healthy, and with that kind of lead early in the game? Everyone thought it would be a win for the Bucks, but the Lakers climbed up late in the game. With a couple of clutch shots from Reaves and good defensive play from Davis, the Bucks had their chances to seal the game but couldn't get it done. The turning point of this game was when Giannis missed his free throws, and after that, the Lakers never looked back and won the game.

It is a good team effort; everyone has their own contributions to make to win this game, and with the next 5 games of the Lakers are the Grizzlies, Pacers, Nets, Raptors, and Nets. I can see them winning this all; that's five more wins to add to their current record. 

In the last 2 years, the Celtics have been one step away from getting that title, but come up losing in the end.

In 2022, they've reached the NBA Finals, but lost miserably to the Warriors in 6 games. Last season, they're only one win away from facing the Nuggets in the NBA Finals, but just because of an injury early in the game, that changed everything and lost in Game 7 by a huge margin. I just hope that this year will be the year for them. The expectations are way beyond for this team, and I hope that they will really reach the NBA Finals. They might be a dominant team in the regular season, but like I always said, one injury from an all-star can change everything, and it happened to them last year. Just look at the Bucks last season. They're the best example of "being a dominant team in the regular season" but got eliminated in the first round by the Heat.

Correct me, but I think that the Suns are 0-3 against them this regular season.
What I remember is that, their 2nd game is also a close one as well, and it's the same as this one. With this loss by the Phoenix, they're again on the play-in tournament spot (8th and tied with the Kings).

You know what's worse? Their remaining 10 games are against teams that are fighting for a spot. No eliminated teams. Just playoff teams. 2x against Minnesota, New Orleans, Clippers, and the rest are against Denver, Cleveland, Sacramento and Oklahoma City. TBH, I have a bad feeling about this, and they might even drop down to the 9th spot knowing that the Lakers are on a winning streak again. 

I didn't watch the full game, but when I tune it, it was down on the second OT and Lakers taking advantage of that Giannis missed, (good foul). There's no Dame time as he missed the three and then fouled out of the game. Beasley try it a 3 to make it close. But the Lakers are having a blast already in the bench, who was lead by Lebron as their number 1 cheer leader.


I think the Dallas team gain momentum with that Kyrie winning shots against the Nuggets. Yeah, it seems that they have found the guy to man their middle. As we have seen in the last couple of season they are looking for a big guys like CWood but it was a failed experiment. Gafford though is very difficult, as he is good to block shots and that alley oop as well.

Big win for the Lakers in double overtime. Milwaukee Bucks made a lot of mistakes, they are too leaning on three-point shots while they have the best attacker in Giannis. Beasley was not shy to keep on shooting threes even if they didn't really need it. This is where the Lakers took advantage of the opportunity to make it to the front and win the 2nd overtime.
That was a big upset considering the spread was -10.5. And without a doubt, Lebron was happy that his team won despite his resting from an injury.

How about the Dallas Mavericks? Damn, they played really well tonight. Luka Doncic spent a lot of his minutes in the first half and helped get a good lead for his team despite his injury. Then, in the second half, Kyrie went nuts, scored, and punished the Kings for not defending him. He ended with 24 points and most of it came from the 2nd half.
The Mavs are not weak on the inside anymore with Gafford and Lively defending the rim. Mavs is strong.

Even if they passed OKC which I doubt, They will still face Mavs, Clips, Wolves and Warriors itself which is very hard to maintain their streak since they only get that winning streak from a weak teams. Their last match compared to the Warriors will give them a disadvantage assuming that all the strong teams that I mention will play the same.

All the teams are very eager to maintain their spot. I don’t believe on winning streak momentum if the spot to the playoffs is on the line.

I want Warriors to get the play-in spot because they have a chance to advance due to their experience unlike Rockets.

Yep, the performance of the Lakers players was impressive in this game. Moreover, the outcome of this game showed that the Lakers can be a competitive team even without LeBron. Excluding injuries, the only problem for the Lakers is that players like Reaves and Russell aren't always stable in terms of such performances.

I agree to that, most of the time coach really have that influence to bring out the best from each players, good system and good blending of players that will play alongside with each other, trust most of the time developed with confidence playing with the squad where you are sharing the court without hesitations.

And yes, Green coming out with his skills and full potentials he's really showing big improvement, if they can't make it this season maybe the following if they still have that same core and coach, they can bring something great for another attempts to reached the next round.


Both teams are doing what they needed to accomplished hanging for that chance to have that last post for the play-in, both got the pressure to keep doing what's good and what's needed to adjust with their games to win.

They are racing to be in the play-in while the Lakers won even without Lebron.

Warriors and Rockets are not far from each other, so I would not be surprise if the Rockets will make it. Both teams will have a game tomorrow, back to back for the Warriors while the Rockets are fresh facing a team that played back to back which is the OKC. Not sure if the Rockets will win but if the trend will continue, the edge should  be on them.

Sometimes it takes a good coach to unleash the talent of a player, he would not be a top pick if he is not special. Thanks to coach Ime Udoka for bringing this kid's talent out and now we can see his confidence in leading the team. He is not selfish, they as a team move the ball very well and as a result, everyone is getting a great look, especially Green who had an imprssive 3 point shooting recently.

By the way, Warriors beat the Heat and now they are one game above to the Rockets. So the Rockets here has to continue winning and home that the Warriors will continue to struggle.

I thought Jalen Green is just another failure as a top pick. He has decent numbers in the past few years but his low FG percentage was an issue because these days a lot star players have higher percentages.

But in the last games, where Houston is able to rally 9 straight wins, Green is lifting the team. Green is still young and hopefully he gets better. He will definitely gets a max contract especially if the trend continues. There is also a chance for the team to play in the playoffs. Sengun might be able to return if the team qualifies in the playoffs.

That game was really intended for the Lakers to win after a huge come back in the 4th quarter to take their first lead of the game and sent the game to OT.
They step up another notch on the defensive end to put a pressure on the Bucks offense.
The most notable plays in this game is when Reaves hits the dagger 3 in the 2nd OT to put the Lakers in a comfortable lead down the stretch and then Giannis missing both free throws to cut the lead to one.
The Bucks could've won it actually, if Beasley hits one or a couple of those wide open 3s in the 2OT.
Well, that was really a good game. It could've have also ended in a different way if LeBron played, so can't complain about it.

Lakers battle back from 19 points and without Lebron James to win the game, 128-124.

Austin Reaves 3's make that good separation, and Giannis missing 2 free throws in the last 20 seconds of the game. While the Lakers was perfect 4-4 with D'Lo and AD hitting those free throws. And the minutes that AD logs 52 minutes of the game and still healthy,  . Reaves clock in at 48 minutes and D'Lo 50 minutes great win by the Lakers to hold at 9th spot.

The Warriors though take a big win today against the Heat. Absent is Jimmy Butler and so it's good that the Warriors didn't collapse in the 4th quarter but build a solid lead. Klay found his offensive rhythm in this game and at least they bounce back. But still they are not yet safe from the Rockets as Houston has the momentum going in their last games. Another tough road game for them, against the Orlando Magic. And looking at the odds, they are the underdogs, unless the Magic will want to rest their players and not risk any injuries for their young core.

Edit: Bucks vs Lakers into 2OT

That's probably certain at this point.  I think when they made an offer to try and trade for LeBron James from the Los Angeles Lakers at the trade deadline, that was a pretty good signal they're ready to blow things up.  I think they're going to try their best to get Giannis or Lebron to pair with Steph and may be looking to get rid of Klay Thompson who hasn't been performing well this year (except in a couple games here and there).  I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see another major superstar join the Warriors, but it would have to be someone who wants to pair with Steph.  Otherwise I think everyone sees the Warriors as a dying team.

There is no doubt that he will get the max, because his max is not that max at all. There are differences between the max people talks about, someone like Dame or Tatum etc getting the max would be a lot, someone like Lberon or Curry getting a max would be even more, of course when players get their contract it's for many years, so by the time it ends, they get even more but meanwhile they can be passed.

But, someone like Jalen Green getting a max is a lot smaller compared to max of these other names. Rockets can afford to have one max player, and Jalen deserves that spot, I still think that it's not easy to keep him there because Rockets do not look that great, Jalen may grow there but could leave for another team to chase a title.

I can see them winning it all this year, even before the season starts. What they did in the off-season was really great. Acquiring Holiday, which is an upgrade to Marcus Smart, and getting Kristaps from the Wizards without giving up much of their assets is really a great off-season move from the Celtics. They really did a great job to fill those missing pieces after getting beaten by the Heat in the in the last playoffs. With a great roster this season, there should be no reason to lose, and if they end up not getting the chip, I really don't know. I guess they deserve the hate they should be getting every season. 

We all know that the Celtics have a history of choking in the playoffs, so let's see if they will continue to choke. The very far they reached in the playoffs was way back when they faced the Warriors in the finals. The champion of that final should have been them, but they got cooked by the vintage performances of the Warriors and Steph. Looking back at those finals and comparing the roster to the present Boston, today's Boston is much more stacked, so the Celtics should be winning the finals this year.
 

Yep, I think the Warriors' roster could change a lot after the offseason.
By the way, if we compare the current win percentage, the difference between the Rockets and the Warriors is only 0.007%. In fact, the Rockets now have a good chance to overtake the Warriors in the standings, even though the Rockets will have some tough opponents in their upcoming games.

It seems like the chemistry had been the issue. And Harden is also not shooting too much. He is a volume shooter and he must remember that. Today he only shot 3/7 field goals and 0/1 in the three-point line. That's not the Beard that I knew. Add to that, for the past 5 games he ain't scoring above 20 points in 35+ minutes of playtime.

The starting spread was -12.5 if I remember it correctly. Damn, those who trusted the Spurs to win this game bagged a lot of money today. I didn't expect this either. I missed the game but looking at the stat sheet, it's the turnover numbers that made the Suns lose that game or maybe it's the defense of the Spurs as they got 10 steals.
Having no point guard is really a big issue for them. They signed up IT but they are just benching him. It's a waste of opportunity for that guy. They should test him.
Heck! Even the crowd of San Antonio Spurs was chanting "We want I.T.!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNNB7ZnWtk0

Let the guy play!