2018 NBA Game Thread

HomeRunBaker

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Wizards leading the Cavs with 8 min to go in the half......58-32!

Craziest part is that the Cavs are down 26 mid-2nd while shooting 58% from the field!! (14-24)
 

Deathofthebambino

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Apr 12, 2005
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KAT averaged 32 points, 20 rebounds in the 1st 2 games since they got rid of Butler.

He's got 20 and 10, at halftime, against the Pelicans, and the TWolves have a 13 point lead. He's 8/10 shooting, after going 9/11 in the last game. He's starting to roll again.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Wow, Pistons came back from being down big to take the lead against Toronto on the road in the 4th.

edit: Well not the big. 11 points.
 

mikeot

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Sweet revenge for Coach Casey with Piston buzzer beater win to hand Raptors their second loss in a row.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Giannis just traveled hard with no call right after Gasol got called for the same thing. NBA things that make you go "hmm".

Conley is a beast
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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And the Grizzlies beat the Bucks in Milwaukee to give them their first home loss. Perhaps we were too quick to crown the top teams in the East...
 

Deathofthebambino

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3 minutes to go and he has only gotten to 22 and 11
Yup, Thibs went into his shoot everything from the perimeter and forget KAT is on the team, offense. KAT has only taken 5 shots in the 2nd half with 3 minutes to go. He just missed a put back, but then made a sick block on the other end on AD, which led to a beautiful pass by him to Wiggins who jammed it home. Fun game.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Magic come back from a 16 pt 4Q deficit through a 21-0 run and beat PHI. PHI's second unit is a work in progress. ORL brought Isaac and Bamba and Simmons and Terrance Ross off the bench, which is pretty impressive from a talent perspective.
 

DJnVa

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Go look at how many points the Jazz scored in the second half tonight.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Lebron buries 2 deep 3's in the last 30 seconds and the Lakers come back from 13 down, to go into the half with a 4 point lead against the Blazers. Lebron is 4/4 from deep, has 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists so far. Ho hum...He's filthy.
 

the moops

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What absolute terrible defense by ORL on that make (non-make) with 6 seconds to go by Reddick. A two man game with Redick and Simmons, and you double the one guy who can't make a shot outside of 10 feet and leave the best 3 pt shooter in the game wide open?
 

oumbi

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Lakers up by only four after shooting over 50% from three. James is 4 for 4.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Magic come back from a 16 pt 4Q deficit through a 21-0 run and beat PHI. PHI's second unit is a work in progress. ORL brought Isaac and Bamba and Simmons and Terrance Ross off the bench, which is pretty impressive from a talent perspective.
I wouldn't even call it a work in progress. I will call it something that will begin being addressed sooner rather than waiting until the trade deadline with Carmelo is the first piece. Like last year when they added a couple rotation players I'm guessing they acquire nearly an entire 2nd unit by the deadline.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Lebron buries 2 deep 3's in the last 30 seconds and the Lakers come back from 13 down, to go into the half with a 4 point lead against the Blazers. Lebron is 4/4 from deep, has 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists so far. Ho hum...He's filthy.
LeBron has gone from being the greatest player on the planet every single night to an older player who knows how to manage his energy levels while still being the greatest player on the planet whenever he chooses. What he's doing to the Blazers should be illegal.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Lebron finishes with 44 points, 10 boards, 9 assists, 3 blocks, on 13/19 shooting, and Lakers beat the Blazers and put up 126 points in the process.
 

jon abbey

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Also he passed Wilt Chamberlain for 5th on the alltime scoring list, you'd think that carrying the otherwise horrendous Cavs to the Finals last year would be enough to give him a bye for a month or two from his detractors, but maybe tonight will give him a few weeks at least.
 

jon abbey

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The West behind GS is so fascinating, PHO seems to be the only team with no chance for the playoffs. MIN could blossom with Covington/Saric, DAL doesn't seem like they can quite be ruled out yet, insane depth for a conference, maybe even unprecedented. Obviously there are almost 70 games to go but right now 9-12 is San Antonio, Utah, New Orleans and Houston, then Minnesota/Dallas are 13/14 and Phoenix is the only team below that.

The East on the other hand I think has a huge dropoff after the obvious top 5, they might have the next four behind GS (depending how much HOU can regroup) and then almost none of the 11 or 12 after that besides Indiana.
 

jon abbey

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So LeBron looks like he will pass Jordan for 4th in a couple of months and Kobe for 3rd sometime next season. Karl Malone and Kareem are 3500 and 4700 points ahead of 3rd respectively and will be much tougher to get to: if he can keep up his 27 PPG average, it will take him until sometime in the 2022-2023 season to pass Kareem for 1st. Everyone thought that Kareem put that record forever out of reach when he retired, but LeBron maybe has a shot if he can stay healthy and superhuman.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/pts_career.html
 

HomeRunBaker

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So LeBron looks like he will pass Jordan for 4th in a couple of months and Kobe for 3rd sometime next season. Karl Malone and Kareem are 3500 and 4700 points ahead of 3rd respectively and will be much tougher to get to: if he can keep up his 27 PPG average, it will take him until sometime in the 2022-2023 season to pass Kareem for 1st. Everyone thought that Kareem put that record forever out of reach when he retired, but LeBron maybe has a shot if he can stay healthy and superhuman.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/pts_career.html
Barring injury here is a snapshot of LeBron's All-Time final rankings.

Points - 1st
Rebounds - Top 30
Assists - Top 4
Steals - Top 10

VORP - 1st
WinShares - 1st
Box +/- 1st

Etc, etc, etc GOAT
 

benhogan

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The West behind GS is so fascinating, PHO seems to be the only team with no chance for the playoffs. MIN could blossom with Covington/Saric, DAL doesn't seem like they can quite be ruled out yet, insane depth for a conference, maybe even unprecedented. Obviously there are almost 70 games to go but right now 9-12 is San Antonio, Utah, New Orleans and Houston, then Minnesota/Dallas are 13/14 and Phoenix is the only team below that.

The East on the other hand I think has a huge dropoff after the obvious top 5, they might have the next four behind GS (depending how much HOU can regroup) and then almost none of the 11 or 12 after that besides Indiana.
5 of the top 8 in the West did not make the playoffs last season.

It's going to be a dogfight on a nightly basis, League Pass getting fully utilized :popcorn:

The LeLakers playing in the Western Conference Championship isn't that far-fetched.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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His per36 #'s on the year are 28.4 PTS (best of his career), 8.1 TRB (3rd best), 7.4 AST (4th best) and TS% of .613 (5th best)
Yeah, he’s still LeBron. Just to compare to his current year numbers to his career averages:

Career: 27.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 7.2 apg, 19.6 fg attempts

Season to date: 27.6 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 7.2 apg, 19.2 fg attempts

It’s almost freaky. Only notable difference is a couple more 3 point attempts per game (5.9 this year, 4.1 career) on a few fewer minutes a night (35.1 this year, 38.7 career). He’s a robot.
 

ifmanis5

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Buy those Melo Rockets jerseys fast.

Adrian Wojnarowski‏Verified account @wojespn 4m4 minutes ago
For now, Anthony will remain on the Rockets roster, but will not rejoin the team, sources said. Anthony’s wisest course of action could be exercising patience and allowing changes in league rosters – through trades, injuries, team needs --- to create more playing options for him.

Adrian Wojnarowski‏Verified account @wojespn
Carmelo Anthony’s brief stop with the Houston Rockets is over, league sources tell ESPN. Anthony will part ways with team, although there are no immediate plans to place 10-time All-Star on waivers. Team announcement is expected before Rockets play Golden State tonight.
 

BigSoxFan

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Why wouldn’t they waive him? Nobody is going to trade anything for him. Keep him on roster in case he is needed for salary filler in a separate trade?
 

cheech13

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Just a hunch here, but since he's a minimum salary guy anyone could pluck him off waivers, right? So maybe Melo and his agent will work on finding a new destination that he can get to via trade from Houston. It's not that the Rockets will get anything back of consequence, but it's a good gesture for a guy that took a buyout to get to your team and was completely buried 10 games in.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Just a hunch here, but since he's a minimum salary guy anyone could pluck him off waivers, right? So maybe Melo and his agent will work on finding a new destination that he can get to via trade from Houston. It's not that the Rockets will get anything back of consequence, but it's a good gesture for a guy that took a buyout to get to your team and was completely buried 10 games in.
Yeah there is no downside to it while allowing Carmelo to identify his next landing spot. I'm guessing they are on the phone with Philly tonight. Even if they get the Celtics pick from Philly that is better than letting him go for nothing.
 

Big John

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I don't think Melo fetches anything vaguely resembling a first round pick at this point. A more realistic haul would be one of the four Philly second rounders in 2021.
 

HomeRunBaker

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I don't think Melo fetches anything vaguely resembling a first round pick at this point. A more realistic haul would be one of the four Philly second rounders in 2021.
Philly will almost certainly have our 2nd round pick this coming summer which is what was my reference above. If they don't go this route of receiving an asset then don't expect anything to happen until after Dec 15th when Houston can add up to $3.1m to dump the pro-rated portion of Melo's $2.4m contract. This would save them $1m in salary plus $2m in tax savings. Someone like the Charlotte (or the Lakers or Cavs), for example, who have an open roster slot and are under the tax line could financially benefit from partnering with Houston in the paper transaction.