Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 655. (Read 914881 times)

And it's only Booker and Durant who is carrying the team right now, Ayton for me is a non-factor in this series. Something is off with DA here, not sure what is that but perhaps he is too intimidated facing Jokic.

While the Nuggets have a secret weapon in this game, which is Bruce Brown who scored 25 points.

And Jokic, having a triple double, so it's 3-2 now and the Suns on the brink of elimination.

I thought Boston was gonna win this one at home, but they're inefficient tonight shooting only 39% in the field. You can't expect a team to win while shooting as awful as the Celtics tonight.
This could've been a replay of the 2020 playoff picture in both conference finals. Nuggets, Lakers, and Heat are only 1 win away to the conference finals. The Celtics could complete the match up replay if they can bounce back and win the series against the Sixers. But it looks to me like the Sixers are gonna win this series. Heat vs Sixers is gonna be a good match up anyway.

Same situation with the Miami Heat, the team fought their way to clinch a play-in spot and who could've thought that with Butler's persistence and a little bit of help from the remaining roster, they are upsetting the favorites all the way up until now that they are going against the New York Knicks. Both play-in team in respective conference is still alive and have a 3-1 advantage over their opposing teams which are currently favorites. Now, that is really unexpected.

Home team still perfect in the Suns/Nuggets series. Phoenix just looked like shit tonight. Made a nice run to only be down by 3 at halftime. Really want to see the Suns win it all, but Denver has the home court advantage and apparently that's been huge for the series.

Tatum with 3/11, Horford who has been their reliable 3-pt shooter had 0/7. If you are shooting 39.8% from the field, don't expect for the team to win unless their opposing team is shooting awfully as well, but the Sixers had 40/79 for 50.6%. How can you win if you shoot less than 40% from the field.

I remember when Stephen A. said a few days ago that he will not give the Sixers a chance to win against the Celtics. Now the Sixers are one win away from going to the Conference Finals, and Game 6 will be played on their home which increase their chances of winning. Embiid and Maxey lead the team with 33 & 30 while Harden had only 17 points, but has 10 assists to steal one win on the road "AGAIN".

I can't help myself, but to laugh when the camera pointed to the fans of the Celtics. You can see in their faces the disappointment on what they are seeing. It's almost the same when Trae Young shoot that dagger three to extend the series in Game 5 in the first round. The question now is, can the Philly close this series in Game 6? Or we will see Coach Doc Rivers choking again. :X Hope not.

I also watched the game but now that there are only 3min to play and Philly up 20 it's fair to say, what an adjustment by Philadelphia.
They can now close the series out at home, this didn't seem likely considering they missed Embiid  for 1 game also.

Winning 2 games in Boston, which was 32:9 at home, really shows they are ready for a real run. Having the number 1 and 2 seed out of the way and facing Miami in a possible conference final matchup seems possible for them to finally return to the NBA finals.

Though we all know, anything can happen. They have to close it out at home now. Nobody wants a game 7 in Boston again.

Same here, I thought that the Sixers are going to win in this game so I bet on them. I stop watching the game though, Sixers is really playing very good offense right now and the Celtics having a hard time to score.

It's only Tatum that are doing the damage, while Jaylen Brown was non existent because of foul trouble.

Good adjustment by the Sixers in this game and Embiid is playing why he is the MVP of this league. Boston thought that going small was the key to winning here, but it was wrong adjustment as Sixers and Embiid took advantage of it from the first 2 quarters and then keep that momentum in the 3rd and increasing their lead.

Looks like I was dead wrong about this Boston Celtics vs Philadelphia 76Ers game. I thought the Celtics would handle them easily on their home court but this game has been ugly. Boston can’t hit the side of a barn with their shots. No way you can win a game in today’s NBA when you’re shooting ~30% from the field and 25% from three point range…

Somehow, I have this recollection of Jeremy Lin. Explosive sometimes. That's it. No consistency. He suddenly lacks confidence. Well, that's for the Warriors to decide on their next season but it's not over yet. 3-1 is not in in the history books where teams cannot come back from, Lebron did it against the Warriors back in Cleveland Cavaliers, I think Steph could do it too as long as help will come.

In Game 3 of the last quarter and the garbage time that's when he shined the most and I do believe Coach Ham saw it. This is why bench players should not waste those times given during garbage time because that is when coaches will see if they can insert you back into rotation again.
Walker did that, he didn't waste time even though it was a blown-out game, he showed how skillful he is and it was fruitful. Now he is on the trend.

Miami Heat is also making noise. 8th seed team in the East that upsets that 1st seed Milwaukee Bucks and is now in the process of also upsetting the 5th seed New York Knicks. Guess what, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers are both teams who finished at the below standings this season and are now close to possibly meeting up again in the NBA Finals.

Although 1 more win is needed for these teams to enter the Conference Finals, I don't see the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors will bounce back from a 3-1 deficit. It's possible but the chances are slim to defeat Lakers and Heat 3 times in a row.

If Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers will pass the Conference Finals, they will face top-tier teams again and if an upset happened again, what a historical performance for these two teams if they will meet at the NBA Finals, a rematch for the 2020 Finals.

Denver Nuggets - Phoenix Suns

this is yet another game similar to the lakers game, and a very unpredictable game, the Nuggets simply wasted a great opportunity to be in a big advantage, but I don't know what the hell happened to them, in the first game they managed to get an easy victory, they were 18 points difference, so it was much easier to think that their performance in the second game at home would also be a good performance, which in practice also happened, they won by a difference of 10 points in the second game, but when you thought that third game they would try harder and get a third victory, behold, the heartbreak appears, the guys lost, and when once again it was thought that they could recover and win in the fourth game, the guys lost again, to which I it seems they have difficulties in winning away from home, so a victory today would confirm that

Boston Celtics -  Philadelphia 76ers

in this game the story is very different, despite being tied in my opinion the Celtics have a good chance of winning today, I say that because in the first game the Celtics lost by a small difference of points, but in the second game the Celtics won by a big difference in points, in the third game celtic won again by a big difference in points, in the fourth game the Celtics only lost by a difference of 1 point, that is in the defeats of the Celtics the game was balanced, which shows that if the Celtics have good defense left this and the other game with victory

Damn, Loonie Walker IV! Almost outscored the whole Warriors team alive in the 4th Quarter of the Game 4 series.
(4th Quarter: Walker = 15 points | Warriors = 17 points)

Take note, Walker is not even utilized much by the Lakers this entire playoff series and just always warming the bench most of the time, and yet still found his rhythm and shooting stroke here in Game 4 even though he was just started his momentum at the final phase of the game. All those 15 points he made that game were all in 4th quarter. He's almost even forgotten as part of the Lakers roster lol and I'm sure because of his recent performance, Coach Ham might consider him giving consistent playing time or maybe, a starter.

The number 14 seed in the West who rallied with tough challenges late in the season just to get a chance to play for the play-in tournament and able to finish at 7th Seed is now close to Western Conference Finals. Who wouldn't taught that the Lakers can make it this far as before, almost the entire NBA community, and even Lakers fan already accepts that the Lakers are done this season and won't make it to the playoffs.

The way he's playing is not what the team expecting him to be.

With the amount of payment he's receiving after that contract extension, something that really annoyed the fans right now, I just smile when I read your comments as you really observing this guy, and like you, if Poole is playing with LeBron and he's doing that stuff we will see the frustrations out from LeBron unlike with Curry we don't see anything. He's just out there to play and trying to win a game for his team and for the fans.

That's the value that some of the bench players should give when they're in crucial games like what we've seen. Props to Lonnie for having that blast of a game and he really did well on it and now, for the next games for sure, there will be more and added playing time for him. I agree that it's almost finished for the Lakers and they only need 1 game to win this series. Whilst for GSW, they need to win all of their remaining games straight, 4 games and that's hard knowing that they're against Lakers that have beaten them already.

He did contribute 2 turnover that added to the 16 overall of the team. It could've been just okay if he scored some points but that's the problem, he didn't. He just gets out there do his handles, lose the ball, and run again like he wanted to blame someone for his own mistake.
They should be glad Steph Curry is a leader that is not like Lebron James who will show how frustrated he is on his teammates in live television most of the time. Because if I am the captain of that team, I might do the same as Lebron and they will absolutely feel it.

Later, Denver Nuggets will win. Guaranteed! I love Charles Barkley.

Lakers definitely playing at another level since they made that trade. Lonnie has been around all season but even he got better and provided something this game, Warriors couldn't expect something like that, some random player suddenly making that much noise and points. I think this isn't 2016 and the series is already over, sure maybe Warriors may get one more win, I am not against that, it may go to 6th game and Lakers could win 4-2, but that is about it, I am not really seeing them getting a win out of this series, they are gone.

Lakers will be the winner and they will wait for their own opponents. I think they will play Nuggets by the looks of it, and that should not be that bad, I think Lakers may actually go head to head with Nuggets as well, could be very tough one, not easy for either team.

I'm not expecting that to happen. They have a good lead, but they didn't protect it well.

Then there's someone who steps up in Lakers squad who really played well and helps the team to win/snatch this game away from
the Warriors, it's more on team effort and not just relying on your superstars to lift the whole team the game.

Warrior needs to adjust, as they are really having a problem with how Davis is protecting the interior and that sticky kind of defense from all the players of Lakers. They are really doing it the right way to prevent the Warriors shots to land in.

No doubt, the front office are surely pointing fingers now because Jordan is not that consistent anymore and even in the crunch time, his presence and performance is not that reliable at all compared last playoffs where he was indeed helpful to the team. Last night, Jordan Poole failed to contribute even 1 point towards the team and surely nobody is appreciating him for that

Jordan Poole, recently:
Game 4: 0-4 FG ; 0-2 3PT
Game 3: 2-9 FG ; 0-4 3PT
Game 2: 3-6 FG ; 0-2 3PT

That was his recent playoffs stats after receiving a contract extension worth $128 Million (4 years).

Honestly, I'm impressed with the Lakers' performance in this game, and I can't even remember when they performed as well as a team last time. I mean, many Lakers players contributed to the win this time, not just LeBron and Davis.
In fact, now the Lakers are one step away from the Western Conference Finals, as there is only a 4.7% chance that the Warriors will be able to make a comeback. So I'd call the Lakers the potential Western Conference champions, and that might be a really good result for Ham, as he's still a rookie coach.

James Harden is one hardworking player, able to capitalize in any given situation which is why he is also great at handling the ball and making plays for the Team, I just think James Harden and Joel Embiid alone can not be done it they really need the support of their teams I think De'Anthony Melton, Shake Milton, and Tobias Harris needs to fire up because they are badly needed to boost the offense of 76ers more,


The Warriors are on the brink of elimination and 1 more game and they are tossed if the Lakers continue that effective defense on the Warriors they will definitely win this for me it is really hard to get back up again in this kind of situation for the Warriors they got an experience of getting back up again in this kind of situation but the Defense of the Lakers is really superb that the Warriors doesn't have an answer to it, for me I think I will stay away in betting for the meantime because it is harder to predict from here on,