NBA Playoffs 2012 Thread Round II

[Beastly]

wwoooow i hate the lakers

Gallinari is fu--king stupid, Flopping on the clutch possessions. Come on mayne.

[ranger]

wwoooow i hate the lakers

Gallinari is fu--king stupid, Flopping on the clutch possessions. Come on mayne.

He's European, what do you expect

*Sigh, I guess my dream of LA and OKC both getting knocked out isn't panning out.

OP is updated to reflect current playoff trees after the Dallas sweep. 

I don't really know what to think of Dallas, paying for Tyson wouldn't necessarily make them contenders, since Dirk really had an off game this entire season, and kidd is steadily declining each day.  It might of been a smart move to giveup defending the title to get Deron/Dwight, seeing how all their key players are fading away (Dirk, Kidd, Terry are all over 33 years old I believe).

[M.Holmes]

It might of been a smart move to giveup defending the title to get Deron/Dwight, seeing how all their key players are fading away (Dirk, Kidd, Terry are all over 33 years old I believe).

Pretty much. Dallas put up a good fight but they couldn't keep up with the young turks of OKC who mostly are in their prime (what a beast game 4 from Harden).

Spurs are looking to be in top-form, so they'll probably waltz through round 2 as well. It's going to be a great semi-final if OKC can make it through the Lakers.

[ranger]

keikaku doori...everything's going according to plan.  Grizz are going to lose...OKC and Lakers going to duke it out and beat each other..while San Antonio sweeps the Clipps and then takes out OKC/LA..mwahahaha.

[M.Holmes]

The Truth dropped the ball last night and the Lakers got owned at home - we may have a comeback on our hands

[ranger]

This is the funniest thing ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvZt5d8R ... re=related

AND GO CLIP SHOW BEAT DA GRIZZ

[Jd-]

keikaku* doori...everything's going according to plan.

*Keikaku means plan.

[Beastly]

The Truth dropped the ball last night and the Lakers got owned at home - we may have a comeback on our hands

He's playing injured, same with Ray Ray and Avery Bradley.

keikaku doori...everything's going according to plan.  Grizz are going to lose...OKC and Lakers going to duke it out and beat each other..while San Antonio sweeps the Clipps and then takes out OKC/LA..mwahahaha.

Del Negro/Popovich is a big mismatch. But Clipps will win at least once but Grizz might comeback...

[ranger]

Ranger's...Neat-o..Stat of the night!
sponsored by....Akonyl's mom

The Spurs have been 28-3 in their past 31 games, and winning the season series against every remaining team in the West, with at least one humiliating win against every one of them, and going. They're 22-3 in their past 25 road games. Two of the losses came when they sat their starters.

[M.Holmes]

The Truth dropped the ball last night and the Lakers got owned at home - we may have a comeback on our hands

He's playing injured, same with Ray Ray and Avery Bradley.

Seems like 60-70% (95% if you're in Chicago) of the players this year have some sort of injury. I'm not a Boston fan per se but I hope they win because the Hawks are horrendously boring to watch.

Watching Chicago's game 6 now - it's astonishing how bad they're playing now compared to how great they were in the regular season.

As for the Spurs, they're going to get thunderstruck in the conference finals!

[dilbertschalter]

Ranger's...Neat-o..Stat of the night!
sponsored by....Akonyl's mom

The Spurs have been 28-3 in their past 31 games, and winning the season series against every remaining team in the West, with at least one humiliating win against every one of them, and going. They're 22-3 in their past 25 road games. Two of the losses came when they sat their starters.

pride comes before a fall.

[ranger]

GO NUGGETS, MY UPSET SERIES

[ranger]

The Truth dropped the ball last night and the Lakers got owned at home - we may have a comeback on our hands

He's playing injured, same with Ray Ray and Avery Bradley.

Seems like 60-70% (95% if you're in Chicago) of the players this year have some sort of injury. I'm not a Boston fan per se but I hope they win because the Hawks are horrendously boring to watch.

Watching Chicago's game 6 now - it's astonishing how bad they're playing now compared to how great they were in the regular season.

As for the Spurs, they're going to get thunderstruck in the conference finals!

Did you seriously think Chai town would go far w.o Rose? Or Joakim?  Even though they were playing really well w.o him in the regular season, you can't expect a team that's best 2 players are Boozer and Luol Deng, along with like Asik, and CJ Watson stop a Doug Collin's led 76ers.

Spurs gonna get thunder struck? I can't wait until that matchup..because OKC bandwagoners and BSPN are going to eat their words.  I've preached this all year, OKC is an overrated team.  They are a jumpshooting team.  They have terrrible stretches, especially with Westbrook trying to shoot out of his misery.  They also have a lack of depth, and they are actually a poor defensive team.  Ibaka gets so many blocks because their perimeter D is so bad!  Why else didn't you think he won DPOTY? He's no anchor like Tyson. 

[M.Holmes]

Did you seriously think Chai town would go far w.o Rose? Or Joakim?  Even though they were playing really well w.o him in the regular season, you can't expect a team that's best 2 players are Boozer and Luol Deng, along with like Asik, and CJ Watson stop a Doug Collin's led 76ers.

Spurs gonna get thunder struck? I can't wait until that matchup..because OKC bandwagoners and BSPN are going to eat their words.  I've preached this all year, OKC is an overrated team.  They are a jumpshooting team.  They have terrrible stretches, especially with Westbrook trying to shoot out of his misery.  They also have a lack of depth, and they are actually a poor defensive team.  Ibaka gets so many blocks because their perimeter D is so bad!  Why else didn't you think he won DPOTY? He's no anchor like Tyson. 

I knew they wouldn't go all the way but they definitely had good chances at making it to the second. Just look at last night - barring a bad decision by CJ Watson and Asik dropping the ball, they would have beat Philly on their turf and had game 7 back in Chicago.

The current OKC is a relatively young team who needs to refine some aspects of their game (which makes their accomplishments even more impressive) and they should lose to the more experienced and seasoned Spurs, but that's the beauty of the playoffs - almost any team has a shot at winning. Just look at SA vs MEM last year.

[ranger]

Just look at SA vs MEM last year.

That's not some miracle upset, there are big, huge, key factors into why that series turned out the way it did.  One, Memphis PURPOSELY tanked to face San Antonio.  During the regular season, San Antonio lost the series to Memphis.

Secondly, Manu Ginobili broke his elbow the last game of the regular season, didn't play game 1 of the series - and came back with a cast not at 100%.  Also, San Antonio last season just went in a rut during March and April, with the grind and tear through the regular season, and they just weren't clicking.  They were losing games left and right.  

Thirdly, the western conference isn't about upsets, because all 1-8 are very good teams.  it's all about matchups.  San Antonio has a lack in size obviously. In the 10-11 season, the Spurs frontcourt had Tim Duncan, having one of the worst seasons in his career, undersized Dejuan Blair, and Matt Bonner.  Tiago Splitter was still trying to earn Popovich's trust, and only got minutes late in the series.  Zach Randolph was playing out of his damn mind, hitting even 3's.  Marc Gasol also had a breakout season, and there was no way Timmy could take on both of them at age 35.

People always bring up Spurs and Memphis from last year, but people really don't seem to realize, that both teams are completely different now.  For this lockout season, San Antonio has managed minutes beautifully and created huge depth that they didn't have.  People have argued, that this is the most talented Spurs team since 2005.  The emergence of Danny Green, Gary Neal solidfying himself as a clutch shooter, the additions of Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw, along with the development of Tiago Splitter and the surprise acquisition of Patty Mills makes this team far better than their '10-'11 counterpart.

Not to mention Tony Parker is playing out of his damn mind with MVP like numbers ever since his play with the French National team during the summer.  He is truly a different player than he has been in the past, this is his prime.

Memphis on the otherhand, lost key players during their playoff run.  Defensive stopper Shane Battier went to the Heat, Grevies Vasquez went to the Hornets, Darrell McArthur is out for the playoffs, and Zach Randolph is a shade of his former self, coming off from a big knee injury.  Plus, if you tack on the fact that they are now playing with Rudy Gay, the down-low banging Grizzlies offensive game has changed.  The distibution of touches and shots in the offense has altered the team.

In this regular season, San Antonio has swept the Memphis Grizzlies, 3-0.

So like I said, it wasn't by some miracle or a huge upset that the Grizz one, because you can hardly call the Grizz a true 8th seed, when they WANTED to play San Antonio from the get go.  It's not like the Dallas and Golden State matchup in '07.


Regarding Chicago, you can't just really ignore those down the line possessions, especially in the playoffs.  There was no way Chicago was going to win the series with Joakim and Rose out, even if Watson didn't make that bonehead play, I'm pretty confident that that the 76ers would of still cleaned shop in  game 7.