Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 345. (Read 914452 times)

Unfortunately, the same for me, I confess that I was surprised with the defeat of Sacramento
Sabonis and Fox had an excellent performance, in fact they carried the team on their shoulders, on the other hand, the Blazers had an interesting performance because most of the players, including the reserves, scored relatively well in that game.

I believe that a crucial point that also favored the Kings' defeat was the 3-point shots, they only had 23.8%, while the Blazzers had 40.00%, which in my point of view was a high percentage of success.

Biggest upset today!

Kings fall to the struggling Trail Blazers. Final score 113-130, it was a blowout win by the Trail Blazers, and I'm one of the victims who bet on the Kings thinking they'll get the win and cover the high spread.

Looks like the Kings are tired of playing on the road, LOL... Losing to the Blazers is embarassing, especially that they are building their team to be a playoff team.

They loss a winnable game. This Memphis can't loss man, because once again, they win the game in a thriller OT.

Ja Morant and company were playing great basketball, everyone was contributing with their suffocating defense, and their win streak continue.
Just a one point win but that was all garbage time, Memphis already build a good lead in the OT ensuring them a big win.

Luka's playing like the Suns is his home. Trash talked to the fans, made some plays, and now he has a record of scoring 50 points in a Christmas game. The last one who did that? Michael Jordan decades ago. He's very comfortable playing in the Suns' arena because of the rivalry between him, and his son, Devin Booker.

As for the Suns, there has been a report from Woj saying that Durant is already frustrated with the team because of how they're performing this season. I mean many are expecting them to be better ever since they got Bradley Beal, and many also expected them to be a top contender, but looking at the standings, they're not even in the play-in spot. They're currently at the 11th spot and have a record of 14-15. Durant is frustrated because of Beal's injury as well. Durant has a few years left, and if he feels that the Suns will not be a title contender this season, I'm afraid that he will request a trade again which might happen just by looking at how they're playing this season.

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This might be my last time speaking out of the Pistons anymore because even their fans booed them after breaking the record and getting their 27th consecutive loss. The longest single-season streak in NBA history. In their first losses, I laughed at them, but in their last few losses, I'm a bit disappointed, and at the same time sad because of what's happening with the team.

Cade Cunningham's career is being wasted on this wasted team. He's getting all-star stats, but his team losses still. I hope he requests a trade and go to another team.

Pelicans vs Memphis, I think this two have been building up rivalry, when Ja returns back to play as they have beaten them with Ja's buzzer beater.

But it's time for Pelican to bring back the favor, they are leading by double digits advantage at their homecourt. But when Ja is still in the floor, we don't know if he will suddenly explode anytime to close the score again. So let's see if he still has some left in the tank in the 4th quarter.

This season the San Antonio Spurs are playing very badly. Until now the Spurs are ranked at the bottom of the caretaker in the Western Conference.
And today the Spurs will play meet the Sacramento Kings, ranked 4th in the Western Conference.
I think with a game that is still bad the Spurs will experience defeat when competing against the Sacramento Kings today.

Or maybe there's no rivalry at all as Luka is just eating the Suns even with KD around, drops another bomber on Booker's face. The thing though is that Booker is no longer guarding Luka unlike before and that task belongs now to Grayson Allen.

But still though, every time Luka faces the Suns, he bring his A-game to just rub it in on Booker. For the Lakers, it might be a curse to win the inaugural IST tournament, because after that, they have difficulty winning games.

I think it’s a motivation issue for the Lakers. You don’t just go undefeated in the in-season tournament and then forget how to win a game. They’ve got some other things going on.

Luka proved again he’s Devon Booker’s nightmare. Dropping 50 on Christmas in a win over the Suns is embarrassing. Booker better get this rivalry figured out or it’s going to start eating away at his legacy.

The Lakers' results have actually gotten worse lately, but I wouldn't call them a weak team. I think they are still competitive, and let me remind you that they reached the Western Conference Finals last season. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the Lakers can repeat this deep run in the next playoffs, although it will definitely be a tough task for them.

They sacrifice a lot for Kyrie, at least they would let him stay for this season and see how they'll play together in the playoffs. The Suns were lucky last season that the Mavericks didn't make it, because if they did, they might be in trouble again as the Suns might have develop a little fear of facing Luka who cause them a heartache in a game 7 loss.

This will never get old.

#4 MAVERICKS at #1 SUNS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | May 15, 2022

It was really a good performance by Luka and the Mavericks and that's one of their best game this season, with this scenario and the result of the game, the Phoenix should wish they don't cross with the Mavericks in the NBA playoffs because if they ever play against each other, the same scenario will happen and they will instantly gonna get their ticket to be out on the league. They should not trade Kyrie because they helped them a lot in their recent games and made them get the number 5 spot in the Western Conference today, if they wished it to stay like that, they should preserve him.

Nurkic will be back soon as he seemed to be not injured. As per the latest update from this reliable site.
https://www.foxsports.com/nba/jusuf-nurkic-player


Just like the excuse of Wiggins when he wasn't playing with the team, so it's still a good news that Nurkic is not injured but we can only be hopeful that he will be back soon since the Suns are on a losing streak, currently 2 wins only on their last 10 games.

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@inthelongrun, what betting site are you using?

Wow! I did not even know Luka is already inside the top 5 when it comes to the ongoing MVP race. The odds here say Luka is at #4 after Embiid, Jokic and SGA. 


Phoenix Suns are in serious trouble even when they had Nurkic playing. Ever since they had their winning streak broken, they already lost 9 of their last 12 games. This is not expected from a star-studded team. Bradley Beal's return is probably the game-changer this team is waiting for. In most of the games Booker and KD are playing their usual ways but they're still losing, coming up short. The management better do something while there is still enough time before the trade deadline. They can also consider firing Frank Vogel and look for other options.

Lakers really looked weak, I mean at times they got close enough and all, but from the start they were weak, it started out like 20-3 or something, and then there was a moment in 40's where it was like 46-45 or something which means it got closer but then once again it got further away with time.

I have to say it is not really all that confusing because Lakers did not build a good team at all. Just because you have Lebron and AD doesn't mean that you can get any random 10 more people and hope for a title, you need to build a decent team. They won the title a few years ago, and look how many players are left from that team, aside from the big two, not that many players are left from that team which shows the main problem for them. They really needed to build a team that would help their good players but they decided not to go with that. I still think that they could go to playoffs, I mean it is not that far away from them, but it is not going to be easy at all.

What I know is that Luka is making his teammates better, so I trust him on that. In fact, in this game although he score 50 points but he also have his teammates involve since there are players who scored at least 20 points.

1- Lively II 20 points
2- Jones Jr. 23 points
3- Hardaway Jr. 18 points (short by 2 points)



undated on December 22, 2023, Luka is only at the top 5
https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-dec-22-2023-edition

Suns are in trouble now, they badly miss Nurkic to man the paint.

It will be good though if Luka will have someone to consistently helping him in scoring though, because for sure, it will be hard press for him to go day in day out with that kind of performance. That's why in their lost, you can see that Luka has a big game, but then again, he didn't get the support that he did get here. But still a win is a win and I heard that as per MVP is, Joel is 1, Jokic 2, and the Luka 3. As for the Phoenix Suns, I think it will be very difficult for them to make the playoffs even if Bradley Beal becomes healthy. Something is lacking in the team right now, Durant is not his usual self with this Phoenix team, not sure, but it looks like he just going to the motions of playing basketball and not looking to win or his competitiveness is not there with Phoenix.

Luka alone had outscored these two superstars of the Phoenix Suns, that's why they really hate Luka so much.

I'm impressed by how Luka made the Mavericks a really good thing, I think at this point we can already conclude that Luka doesn't need a superstar to play along with him, he just need more role players that are ready to play their roles and accept that Luka is their leader. With that said, I hope the Mavericks will realize early and will think of trading Kyrie.

Same bro. That's my first emotion. Torn between two lovers.
But, I have to rely on stats and the weakness of the Warriors, and that is inside protection. Jokic could easily get an easy two-point while Steph will have a hard time when it's Caldwell Pope who will defend him although it's not sure yet if he will play. But, if ever he will Curry is doomed to make threes as I know Coach Malone to identify the threat and that's Steph.
Sum it up, this will be a battle of coaches' wit. I know Coach Kerr. He will always have something up in his sleeve to counterattack. Still, they must answer at the offense that Jokic will bring and that guy has been proven as one of the centers that is difficult to stop once he gains a good position.
I want to see Kuminga steeping up his game in this crucial fight to keep the winning streak. He has the speed and agility and if Gordon will not be available he will be left often most of the time.

I confess that I was very surprised by Luka's performance in this game.
I believe Durant and Booker played below their potential, while Luka scored 50 points (Durant, Booker and Gordon combined for 50 points) 
I was convinced that it would be a much more balanced game and would never have expected Luka to perform like that yesterday, by the way, Kyrie Irving didn't play, imagine if he had played!? I believe the Mavs would win the game easily.

Dallas next game will be against the Cavs, I imagine it will also be an interesting game to watch, because lately the Cavaliers are proving that they are improving every year, even with LJ's absence.

That only to give the backers a little home but the Mavericks have their own strong run as well.

3rd quarter belonged to the Suns, but the 4th quarter was for the Dallas Mavericks, and as a result Dallas won by 14 points, with 128-114 as the final score

Luka had 50 points and 15 assists, was probably his best performance this season so far. While on the Suns, Durant and Booker struggled to find their offense scoring below their average.

Durant 16 points
Booker 20 points