Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 882. (Read 919130 times)

All the players that you mention belongs to the team that recently suffer struggling. Probably they are more motivated to play since most team already played 25% of there game on the regular season and this is the best time to farm wins to have a better position rather than boost effort on final games especially Lebron that missed the playoffs last year due to incomplete team mates.

Luka is always that kind of explosive so I’m not really surprised. Lebron stepping again is what makes me wonder on what triggers him to do that extra effort once again.

There must be something going around the NBA right now. All the big stars seem to be putting up monster numbers. Giannis’ performance last big hit being the latest as he scored 55 and set a new career high. He barely missed a triple double by 3 assists. LeBron, Giannis, Luka, & Donovan Mitchell all putting up historic numbers in amazing performances this week. You love to see it.

I miss the 80s/90s era with defense and hard fought games.  Imagine Jordan playing in this era where a simple hand check is a foul.  That's why all these guys are scoring 50, 60, 70 points.  The level of play isn't better it's just the lack of defense that's prevalent.  The NBA, and all major sports for that matter change rules to encourage scoring which enhances the entertainment for the average fan.  Me personally it feels more and more like an all star game than anything, which isn't a good thing.

A loss is a loss and they really need to fix their rotations because if they continue to play like that, it could be the same reason they are out of the NBA playoffs this season. The other teams below seem to win sometimes and improving slightly and obviously, if they continue with their losing streaks, they will be close to being a candidate to get Victor Wembanyama  

It seems like their lack of star players is starting to show the results and this is what gonna happen if the players cannot constantly execute a great play to win some important games throughout the season the results are soon hitting the bottom.

This is what I'm saying at the start of the season. Teams that are at the top spot right now will not stay on that spot and vice-versa and that's what's happening right now, and I guess many knew it already.

Like you said, the top spot Jazz at the start of the season is now on a freefall and the Kings who is at the bottom at the start is slowly getting into the top. The best example of this scenario right now is the Nets. Just look at them at the start of the season. They started 2-5 and after that, they fired Coach Nash and Coach Vaughn took the coaching position and since then, they are performing really well and currently they are on a winning streak. Coach Vaugh even got the coach of the month award for December which is very nice and that might boost his morale to coach his Nets team even better.

Teams will not stay on the top and vice versa and we near at the half of the season so let's expect more changes with regards to the standings. Teams on the bottom still has a chance to reach at least the top 8 or the play-in position and those at the top might still fall and worse, they might be out of the top 8.

It will be a struggle, that will be certain. But they still have one of the elite players in the league with CJ McCollum who had been playing great offense and Jonas Valančiūnas. And they don't have a bad bench team with Alvarado, Trey Murphy, and Jaxson Hayes.

He will be crucial if he misses the playoffs. That means Gordon, Murray, and Porter Jr. will need to step up their game in a level they never had done.
Jokic is the heart of their team, it's hard to imagine a Nuggets team without him.

They are just not lucky, sometimes a team have that kind of bad losing streak. However, if you look closely on the previous games of the Jazz, their losses are very close, so that means they are still very competitive, they just fall short in the last quarter, maybe lack of good execution, that's something they need to improve.

Although its really possible for those record to be break but there are certain things need to check so that official can clearly say that the person who do that insane record are cleared and he just do that without taking any performance enhancer. Its somehow unfair to many players who didn't take any substance so everything should be check to make sure that they are not doing unfair things. But in case of Mitchel its not surprising at all since somehow he is explosive player.

If he was found out using an enhancement drug which is illegal, then probably he was already suspended, just like what happen to  Ayton (https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/10/24/deandre-ayton-suspended-25-games-for-drug-policy-violation/)... Mitchell is actually a superstar, he can drop that points especially if his shooting percentage is very efficient.

I simply don't know if Jazz are awful or if Kings are good this season.... because Jazz had a phenomenal start of season by going in 1st place and having a massive winning streak and since then , they are in free falling that seems it won't stop soon. Then , we have Kings who have been at the bottom of NBA for quite some years now but since they got Sabonis , the entire team kinda changed and I don't see them missing the play-offs anymore and this can be a massive boost in moral for this team but also for the city and fans.

Personally, I do not think that the players should be held accountable for taking some performance, enhancing materials, just because they dropped an insane performance in a match. I am also positive that he did not take anything like that.

I know for a lot of people, it is going to be hard to believe that he was actually “in the zone“. But that can happen and that has happened previously. However, I also think that the authority is very much in their right to check if he is actually taking any substance or not. If the player is not taking anything, which I believe he did not, everything should be fine.

That percentage is really impressive and the way the really help the team to win the game, it's not just the offensive attacks but also
the hassle that really bring greatness in him.

I can say that a lots of situations where teams who got a decent lead in the last few minutes of the game can't be feel comfortable
and stop being aggressive to keep doing the play.

Before Mitchell, Luka also deliver that magical play to push the game into overtime against NYK.

I just finished reading about it here.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-says-he-was-drug-tested-after-dropping-71-points-against-bulls/
I think they didn't let the results leak out but I doubt it will be positive. Obviously, because Mitchell had the guts to tweet about it.
We call this being "in the zone" and it was known to happen to players if it's their night. They do "heat checks" if they feel it. Kobe felt it, Booker did, and Melo in New York and even Jeremy Lin, fans do love it when it happens.
Donovan Mitchell felt the zone in that last quarter of the game against the Bulls and then more in overtime.
This should not be questioned anymore as the defense is also becoming weaker and weaker, especially against a Bulls team, and shooters are given more priority for their space to shoot.

I also don't suspect that he has taking any enhancing drugs for that matter. We have seen him scoring even when he was still in Utah, maybe he just woke up on the right side of the bed and just decided to take over that game and win it for them.

And now it's Giannis turn to have a 50 point game performance, Klay had one as well. And so as we have discussed, this season is going to be a special one with this kind of scoring and specially if Lebron will break Jabbar's record it will be the ultimate scoring record.

Whether random or his performance triggered a drug test doesn't matter. All players agree to tests at any time and if he is clean, he has nothing to worry about. Personally, I think he's clean but better safe than sorry when it comes to a billion-dollar sport like the NBA.

Well, maybe he is just basing his understanding on the current standings, and right now the Golden State Warriors was on rank 9 in the West, and yes it is not a bad position to be in now that the season is just starting, for me the Warriors are doing great right now with the tandem of Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson they are reining supreme with those deep 3 shots, but the 1 thing that I am disturbed about the way the Golden State Warrior is playing away, surely they are playing great at home, and it was a remarkable play for Klay Thompson against the Hawks when the game goes beyond an OT, it was surely remarkable to watch, Klay is doing offense and defense at the same time, I think for this play he will likely be the one in charge with the away games,


But what if Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram are both injured Williamson has a hamstring and may come back on January 29, and Brandon Ingram injured his Toe and may return on January 11 this is a big loss of players for the New Orleans Pelicans right now without these two players I think they will surely struggle a lot,

With Nuggets if the joker can not play that will be a problem for the Nuggets, but for now, they are still playing with him, and has good health right now,

While Ja "Almost" Morant I think the Grizzlies will play properly even without him I think Dillon "Dynasty" Brooks and Desmond Bane can make a good combination without Morant,

Steroids.  Not that I think he is on them but being artificially stronger than opposing guards is a huge advantage.  Being able to muscle through the lane, shoot through contact etc.  They randomly check every team/player, it just so happens that dude went nuts the night they got checked.  Could be a mere coincidence, I haven't read up whether it was a random or non random check.

Yes, it will be a hard task for McCollum to lead the team and bring a W without the help of Zion. Brandon Ingram's return is still unknown as there's no timetable laid about him and Zion might be the first one who will recover first before him. But I guess the Pelicans can still handle their situation impressively even without their 2 stars, it's just a few weeks though, they won't be falling that steep as Zion and him managed to get the team at the top before the injury happened.


I don't know what is the basis why they needed to drug test Donovan Mitchell, is it just because he managed to put a 70 points in a game? That's unreasonable. Luka Magic put up 60+ but they were silent. I guess 70+ is where they drew the line to get a player tested for drugs. Just kidding! Mitchell is a great player, NBA should test someone if that's an ordinary player who suddenly achieved a 50+ career high.

And so the trend continues with high caliber NBA players pushing their limit, Giannis against the Wizards, 55 points, 10 boards, 7 assists. I know, this is payback time for Giannis as some of the bettors are made against him not playing the last time because of the late news about his injuries and so majority of us lost our parlay and singles bet.

As for the Mitchell drug tested, I think it's fair, I didn't click on the link but what is the NBA looking for as a sort of performance enhancing drugs in basketball?

In terms of career high double-double, no doubt that Donovan Mitchell owned that record now. 70 points with 10 assists in a single is not an easy job to pull off because the league now is getting more intense and crazier. But him for MVP, he definitely got a chance, but he still needed to at least join the Top 10 before we could start discussing it.

Just now, Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped 55 points with 10 rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks defeats the Washington Wizards. And for the Celtics, they were defeated by the undermanned OKC with a 33 points deficit. The Celtics started 2023 with a loss against the Nuggets and now they are defeated again, don't know what happened to them but it really looks like they were played by the OKC.