Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 418. (Read 920391 times)

Same here. Who the hell cares about the Lakers' 3-0 when they're in the 7th place and struggling in the Western Conference.

I already read it before but didn't understand its essence so I ended up not caring about it as well. I just read it again now and learned that the finals are already happening before the year ends. So it really unnecessary IMO. It's like a short tournament with the same teams where the final games are happening in Las Vegas a neutral venue. There's also a trophy and an MVP. Sounds like this tournament ends up in a failure and won't happen again next season.

It'll be better if the NBA creates a Champions League at the end of the season and invites the champions and top teams from the other leagues in the US, Europe, and other regions. This will help promote basketball worldwide but it might threaten the NBA's monopoly of getting the best players once rich sports groups like the Saudis, Europeans, China, etc. start spending a lot of money to boost their teams.

Yes, Steve Ballmer was focused during that intense game, and we all know as owner I would say he is one of the most animated as he likes to watch the game live and standing up and cheering for his team. Drought is over courtesy of that signature move of Harden, a three plus a foul.


And I think maybe we will all agree that it's was just a lucky break for them, Rockets has 2 error in the last minutes and then Sengun missing one free throw. But a win is a win and we should give credit to James Harden for now, as he deliver the first win to the Clippers when he join the club.

Finally.
I am not really focused on the game but it was playing live on my streaming service while I was doing something else. I had a glimpse of Steve Ballmer standing up and there I knew that the Clippers were winning. I checked the scorebox and it was 104-100 with seconds remaining I said to myself, finally the drought is over. Harden also had a good standing ovation. Man, I've seen the signature move of him again, I've been waiting to witness that one more time.

But so many things must be fixed. They must watch the tape again because their first half is really bad. Turnovers were pouring like crazy.
This is a good win for them though that might increase their confidence. Houston Rockets is a team that has been winning games, defeating them is something that ain't easy to do. WB might have also agreed that it should be Harden who would be taking over in the 4th quarter.
The final minutes were damn crazy.

What do you think about Clarkson's outstanding performance? The dude scored an impressive 37 points against the Suns, probably marking his season high.

He was absolutely on fire not just in this game, but also in the ones before it.

He had some solid shooting, going 14-26, with 5 of those shots coming from beyond the arc. What's even more impressive is that he didn't have a single turnover.

Seems like the Jazz got a good deal with his current salary. Clarkson's proving he's worth more than what he's currently earning.

Agree with that instead we want to focus on the game we get distracted on the court color that's why I get annoyed on their current set up.

Also we don't know yet if there action is successful since this is just their first win. If they can able to win on their next game with this current adjustment then maybe what they did is really effective. But let see what happen next since if they lost again for sure many would provably say that they are just lucky at that time that's why Clippers win. Harden should adopt to what adjustment made also their other star so that they can get a long together and get a perfect combination on their current roster.

Nothing fancy about the in-season tournament court, it's to bright that even you're watching in your smart phone you can't follow where the ball is every single time, especially with that red color. It would be better if the just painted a color on the center part and retain both sides with the classic hardwood color.

Anyways, the Clippers just had broken the Harden curse that he himself lead his team to a W with that clutch 4 point play. I thought the Westbrook decision to move to 2nd unit works this time? Well, I'm still looking forward for this team to gel together because they are pretty scary if they do.

Finally, their streak is over, and it goes for both teams, as the Rockets were also on a winning streak at that time. It was almost another loss for the Clippers since they were trailing in the 4th quarter. Luckily, PG's 3-point shooting was excellent, and they managed to rally and beat the Rockets. I'm not convinced yet that they've found their rhythm, but that win is probably a good start. Let's see from here if they'll continue winning or if they'll start another batch of losing streaks.

Westbrook starting at second unit and then joining the main team is not a bad idea to be fair. It allows Harden to be the ball carrier, allows Kawhi to focus on defense which he does so well which we have seen again, even at a close game they did alright in the end thanks to his amazing defense, and allows PG to be "look" like third option, but be the main "passed to" guy at offense anytime. I think them three would be awesome, and not like Westbrook is terrible for this team, when he is with second unit, he is better than everyone else and that allows them to dominate the second unit minutes, when other starters join, he gets to play with them like nothing happened just a minute ago, and just drive inside like crazy, and pass to many shooters they have on the team.

I reckon you should take a peek at the rules yourself. Here's the link: https://www.nba.com/news/in-season-tournament-101

Honestly, I didn't dig deep into this in-season tournament stuff. Wasn't too keen on it, you know? I'm all about enjoying the action and expecting the same old format, like the playoffs leading to the championship.


Whatever they were thinking when they came up with this tournament, I don't think it's winning over the fans. We're used to the old format as it's easy to understand and that gets us excited. Like in the Jazz vs. Suns game, one of the announcers mentioned the Lakers being 3-0 during the in-season tournament, but honestly, I couldn't care less, LOL.

Yeah, I guess WB saw something that might help them win at least, and that's what really happens here, although I would say that if not for Harden making a three or Kawhi making a pass, it could be watching OT game. I thought that Kawhi is going to shoot it, but he was defended and so he pass it to the next guy which is Harden. And we all know that Harden can make 3 and get a contact. And it was mentioned that he leads the league with 4 point play and that's why happen here. At least for Clippers fans, it's good that they finally get a W but it was not that easy against a very improved Houston Rockets team.

I am curious about this NBA In-Season Tournament. Is this something significant? Are there 2 championships each year in the NBA right now? I don't get the essence of it since all the participating teams are just the same teams so what makes this necessary when the playoffs are already exciting to watch?

Seems like the NBA is trying to do the same in European soccer leagues where the teams are playing not just in a single league but in some other tournaments and the most coveted Champions League. The big difference however is the European teams are playing teams from other leagues in the other tournaments they are joining or qualifying for.

^^ The Los Angeles Clippers won, all because of Westbrook giving up the starting role. But if James Harden were absent, this would have been a more dominating win just like before. Ty Lue's offensive game plan was to play Paul George for a lot of minutes, let him force a lot of shots—dribble, dribble, and shoot. 40 mins for PG 13 vs Rockets. That's messing up the gameplays.

Respect and salute to Westbrook 🫡, who requested to be on the bench.

I guess the confidence in the Clippers roster with Harden is now starting to come back after that and-one three-point shot that made them end their losing streak. On the other hand, the Rockets ended their winning streak at 6 which is a pretty good thing already knowing how they played last season.

TBH, I don't want to highlight James Harden's three-point shot. What I want to highlight is the adjustment made by Russell Westbrook. I mean just imagine him going to the coaching staff saying that he will come off the bench. Well, he has experienced it already when the Clippers gave him another chance, and if this is the way for them to be better in their future games, he will gladly stay and play off the bench. I believe that the adjustment made them better at least just on that game.

Your highlight of the night was Westbrook trying to posterize Brooks. Mine is when 2 Rockets players posterized Daniel Theis on his debut game . It's like "Welcome to your new team. Here's a posterized dunk for you." Feel sorry for him.

Glad they won since its so bad for them to stretch up there losing streak since for sure this will create a lot of trouble on their roster. What I really like about what's happening there is Westbrook is now willing to cooperate with his teammate and he really show that he want to win that's why he suggest then agree to play at the bench since they really need that. Hopefully can also accept that if he will be called to play at the bench if there's roster adjustment will happen depends on their opponent roster since if they are willing to cooperate what's best for their team then for sure they can easily climb up to the top knowing how high caliber they are and they only need a good chemistry to work together.

Clippers should supposed to be in higher place since they have 4 players that can score 20+ to 30+ pts in a game but they just need to have chemistry together.

As for me, the color of the court looks too bright, and I personally don't like it because it distracts from the performance of the teams. I don't know if the players are comfortable playing on such a court and if it somehow affects their performance in general, but I think the fans, especially in the upper rows, are unlikely to appreciate this coloring of the court.

It was a while ending, I thought that the Clippers is going to lose this one again as the Rockets build a 5 point lead with 2 minutes to go. But the Clippers was able to pull some stops and then they have 2 miscues from the young Jalen Green.

And then Harden, who make a 3 plus a foul when the score is tied at 100 each. So I guess this is redeem time for him, as he was able to make a 4 point play to give them that lead for good and then VanFleet misses a 3. At least they have broken the curse already, but still though, we need to look for more games to see if this Clippers team has want it takes to become a solid contender in the West.

I’m glad the Clippers finally won a game with James Harden on the roster. I was beginning to get embarrassed for them. The highlight of the night for me was definitely watching Russell Westbrook try to posterize Dillon Brooks. All Brooks could do was foul and hope he doesn’t end up on a poster. Even though Russ missed the dunk, I’m guessing it is still going to make an amazing poster. 

Rockets won 6 in a row and Clippers lost 6 in a row. Most people expect Rockets to win but I thought the exact opposite. This must be the game that both streaks are over. Rockets were close to win the game but Harden said the last word. He played like his Rockets days against Rockets ironically.
This Clippers should be in higher places, since that bad streak is over I believe they'll climb up fast. They promise so much with that roster. Harden is back to normal, Westbrook accepted his bench role, with Kawhi and George they should be in top 5 in the West.

Watching this In-season tournament deal right now...just feel really odd.  Watching my Chicago Bulls facing off against the Orlando Magic.  The court is painted all red which is actually kind of cool. 

Might be one of the final games we see DeRozan, Vuc, Lavine and potentially others, so I'm going to try and enjoy it..but it is truly time to move on and they all could make for VERY nice fill in pieces elsewhere. Anti-up boys and girls, give my bulls some young talent! 

If the Lakers will pursue to make a trade with the Lakers, the best 2 players that they can get are Caruso and Lavine.

I don't know how they will make it without Davis being included in the trade package. Trading some role players plus some draft picks maybe, or include a 3rd team with the trade maybe. One thing's for sure though and that's LaVine is on the trading list already, and both already agreed on it. Getting LaVine on the team will boost them offensively because as of this moment, there is no player who's consistent offensively aside from Lebron. It's like him carrying the whole team "AGAIN" and he's f-ing tired of it already. If he will be using his Le-GM skills, he will do everything to get Caruso, and maybe LaVine.

As for the big changes, it already happened during the off-season, and at the start of the season, and that's the Dame and Harden trade. The next one will be at mid-season where we will see teams trading the players who aren't fit for their team. Speaking of not fit for their team, I remember a user here who is arguing that Jordan Poole will become an all-star, and might be a scoring champ. He's -16 on offense when he's on the court, and -15.5 in defense with a total combined of -31.5 (just saw it on YouTube). He can't handle the hype, he's trash, and he's all trash talk. He's becoming the next Dillon Brooks now.