2019 NBA Playoffs Thread

[Seadragon76]

Nice to see Portland NOT blowing a 3rd quarter lead, by the way... good on them to make it to the 4th quarter to blow it.

 

Ninja Edit: Bravo, Portland... you guys should be up 3-1 on the defending champs. Instead, you got swept out of town. This is what happens when you take your foot off the pedal against a good team.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I'll never be a basketball coach at any level, but what was that? A million years to draw a play, and that's what you come up with? Off balance, bad angle?

 

What a sad end to a thrilling season for the Blazers.

 

[AustinFromBoston]

Warriors going to their 5th Straight Finals, got damn. Even Kobe's Lakers weren't that absurdly dominate. Now watch them tie or Break Lebron & Celtics records just because. 

 

Hopefully The Bucks can finally end this empire. 

[FiddySicks]

Welp, the Warriors have nine straight days off until the Finals start. Everyone should be fully rested by then.

 

The Warriors have been to FIVE straight NBA Finals. That still doesn't sound real. 

[dfwabel]

20 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

I'll never be a basketball coach at any level, but what was that? A million years to draw a play, and that's what you come up with? Off balance, bad angle?

 

What a sad end to a thrilling season for the Blazers.

 

 

Stotts has just one year left on his contract and was denied an extension prior to Paul Allen's death. 

And they've go no cap space.

[DaRadniz29]

It feels like I've said this at once a season now, but I'm bored so I'll say it again: I get why people dislike the Warriors, but as someone who grew up in the Bay Area going to Warriors games in the 90s, seeing the likes of Run TMC and company in person , attending the youth skills camp, getting autographs, and seeing them play hard but only make the playoffs I think three times in my youth, it feels good that the Warriors are good again, and headed back to the Finals, but if someone in the 90s told me, the Warriors would go to five straight NBA Finals, in the future, I would have said that doesn't seem likely.

 

 

[Rockstar Matt]

I may be a bit biased here, but watching the Warriors these last 5 games have been a real treat, when looking at it objectively.

 

Their back to playing their unique style of basketball, Curry looks like himself again and it’s just fun to watch in general. They look like that 73-win team again. Like they’re enjoying themselves. 

 

KD ruins all of that. 

[Sport]

4 hours ago, Rockstar Matt said:

I may be a bit biased here, but watching the Warriors these last 5 games have been a real treat, when looking at it objectively.

 

Their back to playing their unique style of basketball, Curry looks like himself again and it’s just fun to watch in general. They look like that 73-win team again. Like they’re enjoying themselves. 

 

KD ruins all of that. 

 

He's a cheat code for a team that doesn't need a cheat code, which makes it feel like cheating. I can't even think of any other examples in sports where one of the 3 best players in a sport just shamelessly joined an already great team. Maybe the 01-02 Red Wings when they added 3 hall-of-famers through free agency. 

 

I think KD is why Warriors fans have such a hard time getting over 2016 in the face of the other 3 championships and the 4th they'll get this year. They finally get theirs in 2015, which is great for a fanbase who'd been through so much crap. People forget how bad and irrelevant this franchise was not even that long ago. The Warriors are like if the Lions suddenly became the next great NFL dynasty. Then the next year they break the wins record and were cruising to BEST TEAM EVER territory and they lose all of that when they :censored: their shorts in the finals to the Cavs. The year after that KD shows up, which never allows that 2016 group the chance to redeem themselves for the debacle in the 2016 finals. Yes, they win the championship again over the Cavs and then again over the Cavs the following year, but it's with KD so it feels cheaper, less special, less earned. if you ask Warriors fans and they were 100% honest I think they'd tell you the same thing. That's how I would feel, at least. 

[FiddySicks]

17 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

 

He's a cheat code for a team that doesn't need a cheat code, which makes it feel like cheating. I can't even think of any other examples in sports where one of the 3 best players in a sport just shamelessly joined an already great team. Maybe the 01-02 Red Wings when they added 3 hall-of-famers through free agency. 

 

I think KD is why Warriors fans have such a hard time getting over 2016 in the face of the other 3 championships and the 4th they'll get this year. They finally get theirs in 2015, which is great for a fanbase who'd been through so much crap. People forget how bad and irrelevant this franchise was not even that long ago. The Warriors are like if the Lions suddenly became the next great NFL dynasty. Then the next year they break the wins record and were cruising to BEST TEAM EVER territory and they lose all of that when they :censored: their shorts in the finals to the Cavs. The year after that KD shows up, which never allows that 2016 group the chance to redeem themselves for the debacle in the 2016 finals. Yes, they win the championship again over the Cavs and then again over the Cavs the following year, but it's with KD so it feels cheaper, less special, less earned. if you ask Warriors fans and they were 100% honest I think they'd tell you the same thing. That's how I would feel, at least. 

 

Ehh, not really. 2016 was an exhausting run, and losing in game 7 of a series up 3-1 was a pretty serious blow. I know that was probably one of the worst times I've ever felt as a spots fan. If anything, getting KD made it easier to get over, because you knew that the potential dynasty wasn't going to fall apart. Those kind of losses sometimes can effect a team and cause a bit of a hangover. The loss felt like it completely took the wind out of the sails, where bringing in KD pumped it right back up. You have to remember that at the time KD wasn't just considered an amazing player, he was also liked. He also fit a serious need the team had in terms of needing to improve that wing position. It was just as much of a shock to Warriors fans as it was everyone else that he signed here. I thought there was absolutely no chance. It wasn't until, well, this series that I finally truly and honestly realized just how overkill that signing was (Because, again, an upgrade to that position was a "need" for the Warriors). 

 

If anything, I'll look back at the KD Warriors with a TON of gratitude. None of it really feels empty to me because it took what could've been a title or two (Which is nice, don't get me wrong) and transformed the Warriors into one of the NBA's staple franchises. I can't really overstate just how important that part of this current run is. The Warriors are at the forefront of the league in ways that the Bulls have been since Jordan and the Lakers have pretty much always been. That's the most unbelievable part of all of this to me. And I honestly don't think that quite happens with as much ferocity if KD doesn't come aboard. KD pretty much kickstarted the whole thing from being a fun run of success they were having to building an empire, so to speak.

 

Now, of course, you have to operate on the assumption that they wouldn't have been to five straight NBA Finals without him, which I do. I firmly believe there is ZERO chance that happens had they not brought in KD. 

[Sport]

1 hour ago, Bucfan56 said:

 

Ehh, not really. 2016 was an exhausting run, and losing in game 7 of a series up 3-1 was a pretty serious blow. I know that was probably one of the worst times I've ever felt as a spots fan. If anything, getting KD made it easier to get over, because you knew that the potential dynasty wasn't going to fall apart. Those kind of losses sometimes can effect a team and cause a bit of a hangover. The loss felt like it completely took the wind out of the sails, where bringing in KD pumped it right back up. You have to remember that at the time KD wasn't just considered an amazing player, he was also liked. He also fit a serious need the team had in terms of needing to improve that wing position. It was just as much of a shock to Warriors fans as it was everyone else that he signed here. I thought there was absolutely no chance. It wasn't until, well, this series that I finally truly and honestly realized just how overkill that signing was (Because, again, an upgrade to that position was a "need" for the Warriors). 

 

If anything, I'll look back at the KD Warriors with a TON of gratitude. None of it really feels empty to me because it took what could've been a title or two (Which is nice, don't get me wrong) and transformed the Warriors into one of the NBA's staple franchises. I can't really overstate just how important that part of this current run is. The Warriors are at the forefront of the league in ways that the Bulls have been since Jordan and the Lakers have pretty much always been. That's the most unbelievable part of all of this to me. And I honestly don't think that quite happens with as much ferocity if KD doesn't come aboard. KD pretty much kickstarted the whole thing from being a fun run of success they were having to building an empire, so to speak.

 

Now, of course, you have to operate on the assumption that they wouldn't have been to five straight NBA Finals without him, which I do. I firmly believe there is ZERO chance that happens had they not brought in KD. 

 

you would understand better than me, I suppose. My sticking point is I just can't move past KD going to the team that won 73 games. It'll never sit right with me. 

 

I feel like if he doesn't go there, if he goes Eastern conference instead, they probably still win in 2017, though the Rockets probably beat them last year without him. I don't follow basketball that closely so correct me if I'm way off here. 

[Digby]

I think this sort of butterfly effect game is too hard to play. 

 

Maybe a hypothetical KD move elsewhere would have attracted LeBron or Kyrie or somebody and created a different annoying superteam. Maybe it would have prevented the so called “decline” of Steph and Klay (lol) and the Dubs would’ve won all this regardless. Who knows!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

While I think it's mostly a function of him having so many teams, I don't expect to see LeBron James on this list in 20 years:

 

[OaklandIsBack]

6 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

I think KD is why Warriors fans have such a hard time getting over 2016

KD is the reason I am over 2016

[FiddySicks]

1 hour ago, OaklandIsBack said:

KD is the reason I am over 2016

 

Yeah, exactly. Losing in 2016 was a terrible feeling, but getting KD like two weeks later was a damn solid consolation prize. I thought I was gonna feel that loss for YEARS. Instead, the bad part of that pretty much disintegrated on July 4th. 

[DEAD!]

Would (collective) we be this angry had they not won the last two titles?  Yeah, they were a 73-win team in 2016, but they still felt the need to improve because they did not win it all. Standing pat isn't enough. If it meant getting Durant, then so be it. 

[DnBronc]

16 hours ago, Rockstar Matt said:

I may be a bit biased here, but watching the Warriors these last 5 games have been a real treat, when looking at it objectively.

 

Their back to playing their unique style of basketball, Curry looks like himself again and it’s just fun to watch in general. They look like that 73-win team again. Like they’re enjoying themselves. 

 

KD ruins all of that. 

 

KD is a punk for going to Golden State. He didn't earn his rings. That's the only problem that I have with the Warriors. I like Portland, and it sucks to lose, but they aren't good enough yet to win a title. Nobody expected them to get that far.

[PrimalCookie]

19 hours ago, DaRadniz29 said:

It feels like I've said this at once a season now, but I'm bored so I'll say it again: I get why people dislike the Warriors, but as someone who grew up in the Bay Area going to Warriors games in the 90s, seeing the likes of Run TMC and company in person , attending the youth skills camp, getting autographs, and seeing them play hard but only make the playoffs I think three times in my youth, it feels good that the Warriors are good again, and headed back to the Finals, but if someone in the 90s told me, the Warriors would go to five straight NBA Finals, in the future, I would have said that doesn't seem likely.

 

 

I totally get that. If someone told me that in 2022, the Magic are champions, and in 2027 they’ve made every Finals since then (winning 4), I would probably hit you for unreasonably bringing my hopes up.

 

While I’m definitely not a fan of Golden State, I really respect the fans that actually were there during the awful 90s and 2000s teams, and am glad for them. All of the bandwagons, no thanks.

[Magnus]

10 point lead at halftime for Toronto in a critical Game 4. #eatthebucks (Raptors eat meat, so that's not a typo.)

[Magnus]

Sorry about the double post, but I have to.

Time for some venison at Jurassic Park. These Bucks are done tonight. #eatthebucks #nba

[Wings]

This thing is going 7 as the Warriors rest.