NBA: 2013-2014 Season - DONE Spurs Win

[JohnBM01]

Stan Van Gundy was introduced as Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations of the Detroit Pistons. Any chance he turns around the boys from MoTown and make this team [at least] a contender?


Elsewhere... the Thunder and Pacers have a chance to close out their respective series tonight. Will both close out, will one of them close out, or will neither close out? OKC/LAC winner gets San Antonio in the WCF; IND/WSH winner gets Miami in the ECF.

Good luck to all teams.

 

[Aesthetics]

Shame the Wizards have to go. I feel they would've been a better match against Miami. Nene and Gortat would've had fun with Miami.

 

[jwest]

lets go...who you guys got?

 

[McLaren]

I want the Clippers to win, but I won't be surprised if this is a ref job at the end; let the golden child head closer to the Finals or draw the viewers out to Game 7 & then let him go on.

 

[sumbrownkid]

Shame the Wizards have to go. I feel they would've been a better match against Miami. Nene and Gortat would've had fun with Miami.

Yeah but then they'll be eaten alive by the Ogre that is Lebron James. At least the Pacers match up with the Heat better and took them to 7 games last year.

 

[Aesthetics]

But this year's Pacers are sadly no where near how they were last year.. hopefully they wake up just in time. They were one bad defensive set (when they didn't put in Roy Hibbert) away from winning. Unfortunatly, Roy's gone missing and isn't really how he was last year. I don't know how David West Luis Scola, and Ian Mahimi will fare picking up Hibbert's slack.

 

[McLaren]

Clippers' season is now over. Still refs playing favoritism, but the Clips & Collison missing too many shots after that first half. Westbrook falls, foul. Durant's feet aren't set as Griffin begins his shot, foul. Westbrook unable to control himself driving to the basket as always, foul. Collison already in the air as Paul drives under, offensive foul (even though 90% of players always draw a foul off the guy in the air). Didn't call a foul, let's make it up with a tick tack foul.

You can literally call it before it happens now.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I personally would get rid of fouls in the air, especially when the offensive player jumps into the defensive player to draw fouls.

 

[Blitz24]

Next they will call players for fouls because they were ABOUT to foul them, if not for the official blowing the whistle and preventing it.

 

[JohnBM01]

On a different note, the Charlotte Bobcats will officially be the Charlotte Hornets this Tuesday. It will all be nostalgia for those who remember the Charlotte Hornets of old. Keep buying that Bobcat stuff! There's still time!

Oh, and get ready for the IND/MIA series for the Eastern Conference Finals this Sunday, and also prepare for the OKC/SA series for the Western Conference Finals starting Monday. Who wins the respective series? And for extra credit, how many games?

 

[JohnBM01]

THIS JUST IN...

Serge Ibaka is done for the playoffs with his injury from OKC's last game. Happy trails... OKC will have to do without Ibaka when they clash with the Spurs.

 

[Paulie]

There are some well placed characters on this video, I laughed.

 

[a6m5]

I'd watch it, except I'm not familiar with the show at all. You guys are complaining about the refereeing, I haven't watched a game(maybe quick peeks) since the first round. If they want officiating to have say in the outcome, you can leave me out of it. Touch fouls one way, no blood-no foul the other way. Stern has never left(or maybe mob never left).

@Brett - What are OKC's chances now?

 

[sumbrownkid]

I'd watch it, except I'm not familiar with the show at all. You guys are complaining about the refereeing, I haven't watched a game(maybe quick peeks) since the first round. If they want officiating to have say in the outcome, you can leave me out of it. Touch fouls one way, no blood-no foul the other way. Stern has never left(or maybe mob never left).

@Brett - What are OKC's chances now?

I'm taking San Antonio in 6 or 7.

 

[a6m5]

I'm taking San Antonio in 6 or 7.

I hope Tony's hamstring holds up OK. OKC losing Ibaka gives San Antonio a huge advantage.

My prediction before the Playoffs started was OKC over San Antonio, but IMO, this gives San Antonio the edge.

 

[JohnBM01]

Elsewhere, it is being said that former Golden State coach Mark Jackson will return to being an ESPN analyst. He signed a multi-year deal to return to ESPN, and he'll work through the Eastern Conference Finals matches and this season's NBA Finals.

 

[Brett]

@Brett - What are OKC's chances now?

It is certainly going to be more difficult without Serge Ibaka. With no disrespect to Ibaka, he is more replaceable than either Durant or Westbrook. However, at this point in the season, he is not going to be very easy to replace.

Steven Adams and Nick Collison are going to have to step up to the plate. If Steven Adams can play like he did in Game 6 against the Clippers, then that will help tremendously. Nick Collison has a super high basketball IQ and is fantastic in the two man game. It was an absolute joy to watch Collison and James Harden work the two man game. The pair made it incredibly difficult for the defense to have any kind of answer. Collison is still able to work the two man game with either of Durant, Westbrook, or Reggie Jackson.

Speaking of Reggie Jackson, he is going to have to show up every night. He has been a Spur killer this year. In four games, he averaged 21.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.3 steals.

Fortunately for the Thunder, OKC is one team that can be a bad match up for the Spurs. The Thunder swept the Spurs in the regular season this year. The Spurs do not really have the perimeter guys to check Durant, Westbrook, and Reggie Jackson and thus cannot easily force the Thunder into situations which favor the Spurs on defense. The loss of Serge's defensive abilities is definitely going to be felt. However, I still think the series is going to six or seven games and the Thunder will have the chance to win the series. The margin for mistakes on defense has just shrunk tremendously.

 

[JohnBM01]

As a friend, Brett, I hope your boys can do their best taking down San Antonio. Hope your boys do your best against the black and silver boys. It sure won't be easy (even if S. Ibaka remained healthy).

 

[sumbrownkid]

But this year's Pacers are sadly no where near how they were last year.. hopefully they wake up just in time. They were one bad defensive set (when they didn't put in Roy Hibbert) away from winning. Unfortunatly, Roy's gone missing and isn't really how he was last year. I don't know how David West Luis Scola, and Ian Mahimi will fare picking up Hibbert's slack.

Well it looks like the Pacers woke up for this one game at least and stay awake for the rest of the series. It's paramount that they win game 2.

 

[JohnBM01]

The quest for the Western Conference championship begins tonight as the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs will square off against each other. The battleground for games 1 and 2 are here in Texas and in San Antonio. We'll have to see who will come out of these two matches before the series shifts over to Oklahoma City. Some people even feel this series will go the seven-game distance. I'm not buying that, but it would be interesting if it did go the distance.

Good luck to both OKC and SA.

 

[McLaren]

SA keeps playing like this, it's a sweep.

Actually, take that back. SA keeps playing like this & OKC keeps making the same mistakes, it's a sweep. Brooks had a good lineup in the 3rd & then he switches it up. OKC's bench needs to step up tremendously. Westbrook/Durant will not beat the Spurs by themselves unless there's some serious outside involvement & KD starts averaging the same FTA/game as Wade in 2006. The bench on SA is far too deep & experienced for OKC's to not do better whether the 2 starters are in or not.

 

[Paulie]

I kind of want the Spurs to win this year, give Mills and Baynes a championship ring before Duncan retires and they lose a golden opportunity.

 

[JohnBM01]

Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals is tonight. It's Miami at Indiana with IND leading this series 1-0. Miami will try and draw even tonight in Indianapolis. In my view, I don't really think it's panic time if Miami drops this one.

Good luck to both Miami and Indiana tonight.


[UPDATES] I forgot to mention in this post about the Charlotte Bobcats officially now known as the Charlotte Hornets. And (thanks to DCybertron), I more importantly forgot to mention tonight being day of the NBA Draft Lottery.

 

[Aesthetics]

Today is also the draft lottery, who do you want to see win?
All I know is.. If suns aren't 14, that means they automatically rise to the top 3. That also means Minnesota will fall to 14, giving us their pick.. And that would make 4 first round picks in a ridiculously deep draft.

Also, I don't want the lakers to get in the top 3. If they do I'm calling it rigged.

 

[Aesthetics]

The Cavs have the # 1 pick. Again. 3 times in the last 4 years. And they still haven't had a good season.

 

[kjb]

That's poor management of a team. We'll if they can do better this time with a new gm.

 

[Paulie]

The Cavs have the # 1 pick. Again. 3 times in the last 4 years. And they still haven't had a good season.

They had like a 1.6% chance of winning.....oh well.

 

[sumbrownkid]

The basketball gods can give Cleveland unlimited picks and they would still find a way to screw it up.

In other news, Pacers find a way to choke another game. Great job Vogel. I know Thibs has his issues with overplaying his players but he had to because our bench sucks. In the playoffs when your bench is seriously scrubbing it up your starters can't worry about playing too many minutes.

 

[Blitz24]

How about the lottery gets eliminated and the NBA can be normal like every other league?

 

[McLaren]

That would only encourage the worst teams to continue tanking if they followed other leagues in that the worst team usually gets 1st pick. The NBA has the shortest draft out of all the leagues, once a year, 2 rounds compared to the NFL or NHL which hold 7-rounds. The NBA teams have slim pickings compared to everyone else.